Teaching Critically Where Rural and Nonrural Cultures Intersect

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by much of the United States, local school districts are encouraged to develop CCSS-aligned curricula that are culturally relevant for an area's students. However, addressing cultural relevancy within communities where rural and urban cultures intersect requires a conceptualization of a rurban space that lies between rural and urban places and processes. The results of document analysis, surveys, interviews, and generational narratives conducted in a rurban county in a southeastern U.S. state indicate a need for a critical rurban pedagogy that merges a critical pedagogy of place with local values and the complexities of rurban culture to serve as a foundation from which to build culturally relevant curricula.