Redefining the Rural: Investigating Rural Writers' Literacies and Technology Use

Abstract

In this dissertation project, I focus on the ways scholars and teachers approach rural literacies in the field of rhetoric and composition, with a focus on engaging writing students in a rural literacies curriculum in composition courses. For this project, I conducted a multi-methodological teacher research study at a rural-area, Hispanic-serving community college. This study followed writing students through first-year English composition and technical writing classes and examined how these students practiced rural literacies or became explicit about literacy in class. Through presentation and analysis of data, I show how students may have had implicit ideas about rural or literacy concepts prior to our classes, but how each course developed a progression toward making literacy more explicit. Furthermore, I argue that modern technology and globalization have contributed to a shift in definitions and perceptions of rural life and rural literacies. Following my presentation and analysis of study data, I (re)define rural and rural literacies using my study and experiences with rural-area students as a basis for definition and, ultimately, I offer dimensions to rural literacy. In short, rural literacies are everyday literacies developed and practiced in rural areas and potentially relevant in urban areas. The close connection of rural and urban in our everyday lives, in combination with our everyday use of technology, brings new observations and understandings of rural and rural literacies. Based on the findings of this study, I argue that the combination of existing notions of rural literacies with modern technologies in a highly connected global society blurs the boundaries of rural and urban to create a new generation of rural literacies and students practicing rural literacies. Additionally, in this dissertation, I revise the rural literacies-based composition curriculum used in this study, and I identify best practices for teaching, particularly those for writing teachers who work with rural-area students. These best practices focus on what writing teachers can learn from studying writing students’ rural literacies and technology use to more fully and relevantly engage students’ existing knowledge in classroom practice.