Small Towns & Big City Lights: An Examination of Rural and Urban Teaching

Do rural and urban teaching differ? Are the issues and concerns rural teachers face the same as ones faced by urban teachers? These questions, among others, are explored in a graduate class email project between teacher education students at the University of the Cumberlands, a small, liberal arts university in rural Appalachia and their counterparts at Fordham University, a large, urban one in New York. The teachers involved in the project make interesting discoveries and gain a deeper insight into their own practices and education in general. Throughout the semester-long email project, the teachers explore the future of education and their place in it. In particular, they examine issues they face with their own students and teaching in general. They worry that outcome-based education is leaving the students who populate their classrooms out of the equation and that students will not learn to be self-sufficient, intelligent citizens who fit into society. During discussions concerning innovative teaching strategies, testing mandates, adherence to standards, technology in educational practices, and discipline the teachers discover that while they may teach in completely different physical and cultural locations, they do share similar teaching methodologies and concerns. Ultimately, the two groups learn that the “challenges facing American educators are common ones that cut across cultural and geographical lines.