Raising issues of rurality in English teacher education

Abstract

Despite the fact that each of us taught in English education programs in four other states—all of which have visible rural demographics—it took moving to Montana for us to fully recognize the need for our increased attention to specific issues of rurality when working with pre-service English teachers. In Montana, issues of rurality are unavoidable. As the fourth largest state in terms of area (behind Alaska, Texas, and California, respectively), Montana ranks as the state with the third lowest population density in the United States (behind Alaska and Wyoming). Moreover, unlike many other states that are often thought of as rural (e.g., Nebraska, Kansas), no major urban centers exist throughout the entire state; even today, Montana is often referred to as a “frontier” state...