Using data gathered from students attending Southeast Community and Technical College in Harlan County, Kentucky, this article discusses how a commitment to place informs and shapes rural students’ decisions around post-secondary education, career, and residence. Though some students connected advanced education with rural outmigration, other students discussed their post-secondary training in relation to local contexts, connecting their education to improved quality of life, both for their families and their rural communities. Their narratives regarding the purpose and application of higher education in Central Appalachia add to the continuing discussion of rural students’ rationales to stay or leave their home communities, and by what means they achieve these ends. While some students applied their advanced degrees towards transfer out of the area, others used their degrees towards local transformative ends. By highlighting Labaree’s (1997) conception of the citizenry ends of education, this study complicates Corbett (2007) and other studies that attach advanced degree attainment with rural outmigration.
Responses
Lynette, I couldn't help but think about this article on investing in rural communities that I read as a part of a committee I am serving on to help improve our three small communities. Rebecca Ryan's research caught my eye. I have included the link for the whole article.
Quality of life investments matter. Rebecca Ryan set out to understand the younger generations with 20,000 interviews, summarized in her book, Live First, Work Second. They are more likely to decide first where they want to live, and then how they will make their living.
http://www.cfra.org/newsletter/2012/03/local-community-investment-key-rural-communities
Mary Meyer PLWP TL