A New Lens on Rurality: Centering Assets, Agency, and Place

Grinshtain, Yael, Ovenden-Hope, Tanya and Downey, Jayne (2026) A New Lens on Rurality: Centering Assets, Agency, and Place. Education Sciences, 16 (8). p. 1244. ISSN 2227-7102

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Abstract

Educational research has long been influenced by narratives that frame rural, peripheral, remote, and geographically isolated communities through the lens of disadvantage (Corbett, 2020; Roberts & Cuervo, 2015). Across many countries, rural education has been discussed primarily in relation to teacher shortages, limited educational opportunities, geographic isolation, declining populations, economic constraints, and restricted access to services (Azano & Stewart, 2015; OECD, 2021; Roberts, 2014). While such challenges undoubtedly shape the educational realities of many communities, these perspectives often risk reducing rural places to what they lack, obscuring the strengths, resources, relationships, and forms of knowledge that also characterize them (Green & Corbett, 2013; White & Corbett, 2014). These strengths, or what we refer to throughout this Editorial as community assets, include the social, cultural, environmental, institutional, geographical, historical and relational resources embedded within places that can support learning, educational leadership, community well-being, and local development. Furthermore, the concept of agency, as conceptualized by Bandura (2001), is the capacity to act intentionally and influence the course of events that impact people’s lives. In peripheral, coastal and rural communities, agency is expressed when residents and researchers work collectively to recognize local strengths and inequities, develop contextually responsive solutions, and shape practices that advance community goals. Through such individual and collective action, agency becomes a source of power that builds community capacity and supports efforts to reduce inequities and respond to changing circumstances (White & Downey, 2021).

Item Type:	Article
Depositing User:	Ms Raisa Burton
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2026 12:01
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2026 12:01
URI:	https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18141
Related URLs:	https://www.mdp ... -7102/16/8/1244 (Publisher URL)

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