Troubling contexts: toward a generative theory of rurality as education research

Abstract

Marsden (2006) suggests that rurality as a signifier is transformative, capable of changing behaviour and affecting the motivation of teachers, community workers, and learners. Research from the Rural Teacher Education Project in South Africa, which informs our argument in this article, demonstrates that the very generative and transformative nature of rurality serves both to inform but also to delimit the effectiveness of intervention programs designed, often with the best of intentions in mind, for education, health care, job creation, and poverty alleviation. This article asserts that a theory of rurality needs to take account of contemporary theories of globalization and society, drawing from the sociological as well as the postcolonial accounts of identity and environment. What emerges in this article is what we have termed a “generative theory of rurality,” in which the dynamic interaction between variables allows for both a descriptive and an analytical framework for data emanating from, and located within, research in rural areas.