“Culture Grows between Our Toes”: Beginning to Understand the Benefits and Challenges of being a Secondary English Language Arts Educator in Rural Spaces

This qualitative study sought to answer the question, “What are the benefits and challenges of being a rural English Language Arts educator in grades 6-12?” Data collected through a questionnaire completed by nine teachers from five different states yielded four categories of benefits and challenges: geographical, social, professional, and financial. The data indicated that finances cause both personal and professional challenges in rural areas, with a lack of funding for schools being particularly challenging. In addition, respondents reported high levels of community involvement as a benefit to being in a rural school district. While the data is limited due to the small group of participants, it and the literature have implications for teacher recruitment to and retention in rural areas. Aside from the results indicating that finances need to be addressed, there are also implications for teacher preparation programs, such as needing to provide rural field experiences for preservice teachers, and for creators of professional development, such as needing to provide more accessible professional development and more spaces dedicated solely to rural English Language Arts educators. One challenge this study presents for future research is to create strategies for recruiting study participants from rural areas, specifically focused on building trust between researchers and teachers in these spaces.