An Exploration of the Influence of Rural Teachers' Curriculum Beliefs and Rural Contexts on Instructional Practices

Abstract

This holistic single-case study explored how rural teachers’ curriculum beliefs and rural contexts influence their instructional practices. Two teachers from a rural elementary school participated in the study. Data sources include survey, interview transcripts, and field notes. Thematic analysis, constant comparative method, and content analysis were used to analyze data in this study. The themes include adverse aspects of teaching in rural schools, Scholar Academic orientation in curriculum beliefs and instructional practices, and reliance on academic standards. The findings suggest inconsistencies between rural teachers’ curriculum beliefs and instructional practices. In addition, findings indicate that the teacher participants’ views of rural contexts tend to be deficit-oriented and that rural teachers’ instructional practices center on standardized curriculum and state academic standards. This study contributes to research in rural education by highlighting the complexity of curriculum beliefs and instructional practices of rural elementary teachers.