This study explored the question “What roles does rurality play in the professional lives of teachers in northern Wisconsin?” Using narrative analysis of four participants’ interviews about their lives working in rural schools, this paper compares participants’ stories with dominant narratives about rural schools and communities. Common depictions of rural people, places, and work often oversimplify the complex relationships among school, community, staff, and students. This study found that participants a.) feel a sense of belonging in rural places despite the challenges of living and working there, b.) create and maintain a strong professional family in order to mitigate rural school recruitment and retention difficulties, and c.) experience school and community partnerships that are both supportive and challenging. This study calls for a more critical and complex representation of rural people and places, especially schools, in order to work against the dominant narratives about rurality that exist in popular imagination.

Field experience seminars, discussion-based courses paired with school-based practicum experiences, provide a space for teacher candidates to discuss the theories they study in their university classes and the practices they observe and implement in their school placements. This article describes an action research study that examines teaching techniques that promote discussion in English education seminar courses. The purpose of this research was to collaboratively develop teaching approaches that would help teacher candidates bridge ideas about theory and practice in their development as aspiring teachers. The conversations that challenged the teacher candidates to think critically and theoretically about their classrooms were transformative moments in our seminar classes.

Place-conscious education advocates for pedagogy that is shaped by the context in which education occurs. By carefully attending to students' backgrounds, cultural histories, and lived experiences within a particular place, teachers are better able to design curricula that support students in developing understanding of their cultural identities and the connections between their lives and the world beyond their classrooms. In this chapter, the author reflects on her journey toward becoming and being a place-conscious teacher in rural education settings.

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