These combined manuscripts explore the intersections of rural education, community influences, and diverse identities by challenging rural monoliths and deficits while working to address opportunity gaps for rural youth and educators. Theories throughout this work include critical pedagogies of place (Bass and Azano, 2024; Greenwood, 2003), critical theories disrupting power (Freire, 1970), a pedagogy of love (Darder, 2017), and poetic explorations for a sense of belonging and a celebration of place (bell hooks, 2008; 2012) allowing for my own poetic voice to "cry out" (hooks, 2012, p. 12). The critical engagement with place norms and influences on identity development is further rooted in Queer studies, binding these manuscripts as a "tool of incessant unsettling" (Luciano and Chen, 2015, p. 192) by challenging the role of cis-heteronormativity (Berlant and Warner, 1995) in rural contexts. These combined manuscripts situate knowledge production and identity development in educational spaces in conversation with rural education, local and federal policies, issues of access, histories of erasure, and local and societal cis-heterosexual norms. Literature informing these manuscripts focused on rural schools and the unique challenges embedded in those communities, such as rural poverty (Lewis and Boswell, 2020; Tieken, 2022), geographical inequities (Lichter et al., 2012; Showalter et al., 2023), fewer resources for Queer youth (Kosciw et al., 2022; Movement Advancement Project, 2019; Ramos et al., 2014), and limited enrichment opportunities (Azano et al., 2020; Callahan and Azano, 2019; Rasheed, 2019), with a focus on how these challenges influence rural identities and widen opportunity gaps for rural learners. As a manuscript style dissertation, each manuscript centralizes parts of these theories and literatures. Manuscript 1 is a grounding theoretical piece that explores how Queer rural narratives are tangled in a spectrum of visibility. Manuscript 2 is a literature review that navigates how rural education and Queer identities have been discussed in research and reports. Manuscript 3 is a policy brief that presents a framework to critique federal and local anti-Queer policies and their influence on rural Queer youth and educators. Manuscript 4 is an empirical study exploring how rural youth explore their own sense of place and identity while attending a residential summer camp aimed to address an opportunity gap for rural gifted learners. While each manuscript stands alone, combined, they present themes about (a) the internalizations and externalizations of rural identity, (b) the value of diverse rural representation, and (c) the influence of policy and place norms in rural schools. These manuscripts suggest the need to uplift vulnerable and historically marginalized narratives in rural schools in order to challenge rural monolithic narratives, the possibilities of alternative learning spaces to address opportunity gaps for Queer and gifted youth, and the hope for more safe spaces that celebrate diverse rural identities and experiences to increase authentic learning opportunities to celebrate place and self together. / Doctor of Philosophy / This manuscript style dissertation explores rural education, community influences, and diverse, under-served rural populations. Each manuscript engages with issues of deficit narratives, addressing assumptions, and monolithic perspectives of rurality that widen opportunity gaps that allow for all rural youth to access authentic learning. The theoretical framings in the embedded manuscripts center a critical pedagogy of place (Greenwood, 2003), Queer studies (e.g., Berlant and Warner, 1995; Luciano and Chen, 2015,), critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970), and concepts of belonging (hooks, 2008, 2012). The four manuscripts address this central research topic by: (a) engaging with the role of visibility in rural spaces from Queer narratives; (b) exploring how research has discussed the intersections of rural education and Queerness in K-12 schools; (c) addressing anti-Queer policy implementation in rural schools; and (d) analyzing how rural, gifted learners explored their sense of place and identity at a summer enrichment experience designed to address an opportunity gap for rural, gifted learners. Overarching themes illuminate the importance in uplifting and celebrating diverse, rural experiences, especially Queer, to (re)root a sense of place value and authentic identity in a rural educational experience, which works to address educational opportunity gaps that uniquely influence rural youth while also challenging monolithic rural narratives.

This dissertation, Reading, Writing, Rhetoric: A Rhetorically Emplaced Study of an Appalachian Region, explores the themes of ideology, stereotypes, and rhetorical emplacement through a study of education in Southwest Virginia. In this project, I used two methods of data collection: historical research and interviewing. These two methodologies employed together construct a sweeping scope of Appalachian Virginia's experiences with rhetorical emplacement in relation to educational practices and ideologies by encountering some of the earliest stories told about the region and contemporary accounts of teachers who currently work in Appalachian Virginia. My main research questions ask how stories told about Appalachia have affected educational practices within the region, and to answer that question I sought out the history of the stories told about Appalachia through historical research, then, in order to attend to the present realities of the region, I interviewed high school English teachers who identify as Appalachian and work in Appalachian Virginia high schools. The historical and ethnographic methods I employed in this dissertation study allowed me to understand the circulation and variances of particular stories placed onto and developed within (Hsiung) the Appalachian region by first examining the historical interaction of the region with the stories about the region and then understanding how those narratives exist in the world today. By using grounded qualitative coding, I created codes from the historical data set—the codes were: isolation, language, education, expectations, culture, and literacy—and compared them to the interview transcripts, I conclude that while illiteracy has long been a stereotype of the region and one that Appalachians will likely combat for the foreseeable future, the teachers in my study build their pedagogies to support rhetorical thinking and rhetorical situation. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation, Reading, Writing, Rhetoric: A Rhetorically Emplaced Study of an Appalachian Region, explores themes of ideology, stereotypes, and place through a study of writing education in Southwest Virginia. In this project, I used two methods of data collection: historical research and interviewing. These two methods construct a sweeping scope of Appalachian Virginian's experiences with stereotypes that are tied to place by encountering some of the earliest stories told about the region and contemporary accounts of teachers who currently work in Appalachian Virginia. My main research questions ask how stories told about Appalachia have affected educational practices within the region, and to answer that question I sought out the history of the stories told about Appalachia through historical research, then, in order to attend to the present realities of the region, I interviewed high school English teachers who identify as Appalachian and work in Appalachian Virginia high schools. The historical and ethnographic methods I employed in this dissertation study allowed me to understand the circulation and variances of particular stories placed onto and developed within the Appalachian region by first examining the historical interaction of the region with the stories about the region and then understanding how those narratives exist in the world today. I conclude that while illiteracy has long been a stereotype of the region and one that Appalachians will likely combat for the foreseeable future, the teachers in my study shape their classrooms to support students in combatting stereotypes of Appalachia by employing critical thinking activities in their classrooms.

La recherche en titre réalisée au Québec, avait pour but de valider si une approche utilisant le lieu réel pour l’apprentissage des concepts de géographie, permettait à des élèves du secondaire éprouvant des difficultés d’apprentissage, le développement de compétences. L’approche d’éducation traditionnelle autochtone (Cajete, 1994), la Red Pedagogy (Grande, 2004). la pédagogie du lieu Place Baseci, (Gnicnewaid, 2003) de même que l’écoformation de Cottereau (1997). ont constitué les fondements théoriques qui ont étayé la proposition de développement de situations d’apprentissage utilisant le milieu de vie des élèves. Ces approches, presque ignorées des systèmes d’éducation formelle, installent l’objet d’apprentissage dans son contexte réel et non dans une intellectualisation de l’objet. Quittant le paradigme industriel d’éducation et privilégiant une approche dite par le réel, nous présentons ce que la recherche a permis (le développer en installant dans les scénarios d’apprentissage des manières informelles d’accéder aux savoirs formels par un autre médium que l’écrit. Les situations proposées ont été conçues et expérimentées selon deux modèles s soit à partir du manuel scolaire, soit à partir d’un modèle inspiré des principes pédagogiques sélectionnés. Les conclusions de l’ensemble de la démarche ont permis d’évaluer les impacts tant sur les enseignants que sur les élèves ainsi que les retombées pour le milieu et permettent de dégager les caractéristiques essentielles retenues de même que des éléments transférables issus des résultats de la recherche.

Working with an organization outside the public school system that was creating schoolyard gardens, I began to think about culture and cultivation inside and outside of schooling practices. The liveliness of the schoolyard gardens presented possibilities for enlivening educational discourses. With two participants I planted a container box schoolyard garden outside Lamoureux Hall, which houses the Faculty of Education. Utilizing aspects of place-based pedagogy, ecoliteracy, ecopedagogy and a metissage of a/r/tography, eco-art and writing as a method of inquiry, we tended the garden and dwelled upon ideas of nature, culture, and their intersection in a particular place. Our garden experiences left cyber footprints in virtual space as blog spots on a thesis blog site. The garden and the inquiry it generated outside,is brought back inside the education building as a Master's thesis. The garden grew in different and unpredictable ways due to intense construction on site, entwining the planter boxes with unseen variables.

Working with an organization outside the public school system that was creating schoolyard gardens, I began to think about culture and cultivation inside and outside of schooling practices. The liveliness of the schoolyard gardens presented possibilities for enlivening educational discourses. With two participants I planted a container box schoolyard garden outside Lamoureux Hall, which houses the Faculty of Education. Utilizing aspects of place-based pedagogy, ecoliteracy, ecopedagogy and a metissage of a/r/tography, eco-art and writing as a method of inquiry, we tended the garden and dwelled upon ideas of nature, culture, and their intersection in a particular place. Our garden experiences left cyber footprints in virtual space as blog spots on a thesis blog site. The garden and the inquiry it generated outside,is brought back inside the education building as a Master's thesis. The garden grew in different and unpredictable ways due to intense construction on site, entwining the planter boxes with unseen variables.

Working with an organization outside the public school system that was creating schoolyard gardens, I began to think about culture and cultivation inside and outside of schooling practices. The liveliness of the schoolyard gardens presented possibilities for enlivening educational discourses. With two participants I planted a container box schoolyard garden outside Lamoureux Hall, which houses the Faculty of Education. Utilizing aspects of place-based pedagogy, ecoliteracy, ecopedagogy and a metissage of a/r/tography, eco-art and writing as a method of inquiry, we tended the garden and dwelled upon ideas of nature, culture, and their intersection in a particular place. Our garden experiences left cyber footprints in virtual space as blog spots on a thesis blog site. The garden and the inquiry it generated outside,is brought back inside the education building as a Master's thesis. The garden grew in different and unpredictable ways due to intense construction on site, entwining the planter boxes with unseen variables.

Working with an organization outside the public school system that was creating schoolyard gardens, I began to think about culture and cultivation inside and outside of schooling practices. The liveliness of the schoolyard gardens presented possibilities for enlivening educational discourses. With two participants I planted a container box schoolyard garden outside Lamoureux Hall, which houses the Faculty of Education. Utilizing aspects of place-based pedagogy, ecoliteracy, ecopedagogy and a metissage of a/r/tography, eco-art and writing as a method of inquiry, we tended the garden and dwelled upon ideas of nature, culture, and their intersection in a particular place. Our garden experiences left cyber footprints in virtual space as blog spots on a thesis blog site. The garden and the inquiry it generated outside,is brought back inside the education building as a Master's thesis. The garden grew in different and unpredictable ways due to intense construction on site, entwining the planter boxes with unseen variables.