Rural Education and Queer Identities

Clint Whitten is Postdoctoral Associate in Youth Engagement at Virginia Tech, USA.Amy Price Azano is Professor of Rural Education and Adolescent Literacy and directs the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech, USA.

Rural Education and Queer Identities is a poignant anthology. It brings a queer sensibility to rural belonging, spotlighting schools’ role in queer worldmaking. Editors Clint Whitten and Amy Price Azano curate narratives that challenge stereotypes and advocate for inclusivity. This book offers a call to action for visibility and acceptance for queer identities in every educational landscape, making it a must-read that will inspire and ignite the pressing conversations every school should be having.Mary L. Gray, MacArthur FellowOut in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural AmericaI can’t think of a better, more important contribution to enhancing quality education in the nation than this on-the-ground exploration of being queer in rural America. Rural Education and Queer Identities shows, with equal parts heart and heft, that being queer and working with queer youth in the heartland is not what the stereotypes suggest. At a time when LGBTQ rights are being threatened, Confederate flags announce themselves with “I Ain’t Coming Down” banners, and school boards and libraries have turned into front lines in the culture wars, this is a necessary, urgent book.Beth Macy, Dopesick Rural Education and Queer Identities is a powerful and long overdue exploration of the diverse experiences of LGBTQIA2S+ students and teachers in rural school systems. From an island in rural Michigan to a small town in Alaska, from the deep South to rural Scotland, from the mountain West to central Appalachia these authors invite us into their lives, their educational experiences, and their teaching careers. They urge us to question our assumptions about rural communities and to full-heartedly support rural LGBTQIA2S+ youth and educators who are on the front lines of conservative political attacks against queer and trans people today. I wish I’d had this book to draw on when I taught in rural public schools in my home state of West Virginia years ago. I know it would have provided support and accompaniment I desperately needed. I can’t wait to send a copy to all the rural queer and trans teachers I know.Rae Garringer, Founder and Director of Country QueersRural Education and Queer Identities is a critical, moving collection of research and narratives that center the intersection of queer identities and rurality. This book is a groundbreaking text that provides considerations and insights into how to advance equity and justice in rural education for LGBTQ+ educators and students. During a time of continued and increasing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and policies, this book provides hope for creating more liberating, transformative spaces for learning.Darris R. Means, Professor of Educational Leadership

• Foreword Introduction: A Pedagogy of Pride in Rural Schools SECTION 1: Rural Taproots 1. Except for Just One Thing 2. Tale of Two Matthews: The Laramie Project 25 Years Later 3. From Kansas Cattle Ranch to Yale University to the Daily Yonder 4. LGBTQ+ K-12 Students’ Experiences and Wellbeing in Rural Schools 5. Returning Home: Strength and Resilience in Rural Queerness 6. The Insurrection Beard SECTION 2: Rural Root Systems Rooted in Classrooms 7. Queerness is My Teacherness 8. “Part of me feels bad that you felt like you had to ask…”: Support LGBTQ+ Students by Supporting LGBTQ+ Teachers 9. Sparking Change in Rural Places 10. Agents of Affirmation: The Importance of Rural Queer Educators 11. Queer Timing and Community: Being a Queer Educator in Three Rural Settings Summer 12. Redefining Home and Purpose in the Country 13. Cornbread and Community: Queer-Affirming Learning in a Rural Southern High School Rooted in Leadership and Advocacy 14. How Rural School Leaders Create a Culture of Care for Queer Students 15. There’s Nothing Here But Sports and Jesus”: Navigating Queer Adolescence in the Texas Panhandle 16. Duthchas and a Queer Journey on a Scottish Isle 17. Rural Queer Dream-Spaces in Higher Education 18. World’s Best Dad(dy): Microvalidations in the Rural Educational Space 19. “It is easier to be Black than gay”: The experiences of Black Rural Queer Educational Leaders Rooted in Community 20. Rural Alaskan Queer Safe Spaces: A Mini-Ethnographic Case Study in Transformative Queer Anthropology 21. Building Coalitions and Local Networks for Queer and Trans Educational Advocacy in a Small Southern Town 22. Finding Queer Joy in Mississippi: 2021 Oxford Pride in the Grove 23. Resilience and Resourcefulness: Informal Education Strategies in Rural Queer Contexts 24. Sustaining Rural Queer Joy with Camp Magic SECTION 3: Rural Aerial Roots Rooted in Nature and the Body 25. Wild Life 26. Exploring Queer Joy in Nature: Tales from the Rural Mountain West 27. Pride of Rural Virginia 28. These Anarchic Bodies 29. Sex Ed in Rural Schools: A focus on public health and community viability 30. Sex Ed, or Better Off the Class to Dread 31. For. Rest.: (un)Learning Lessons from my Forestry Curriculum Rooted in Discovery and Selfhood 32. Keep Us Safe: Rendering Intersectional LGBTQ+ Student Experiences Visible at a Rural Public University 33. Transin’ Our Raisin’: The Necessity of Transversive Rural Education 34. Two Steppin’ Between Insider and Outsider Status: A Poetic Exploration 35. Seeing the Constellations in the Stars 36. From Service to the Circus: Finding Validation to Live 37. Rural Trans Livelihood in West Virginia 38.The Cows at Sunset Have a Prismatic Aura 39. Cockless Rooster: Finding Self and Safety at a Rural School 40. GirlBoy 41. Are You Still There, Robert Indiana?