ABSTRACT
Accents, regionalisms, colloquialisms, and dialects are good examples of how language and literacies are shaped by place and culture. But the influence of place and the ways the teachers come to know our world go far beyond word choice, intended meaning, and accents. This chapter addresses the complexities of literacies in terms of how rurality shapes literacy. Classrooms where literacy is thought of this way are inclusive spaces for literacy learning because out-of-school literacy learning is as valued and relevant as in-school literacy learning. Students’ membership in a rural community and their rural literacies inform their understanding of the world. This becomes important in the classroom across all grade levels and disciplines as students learn other secondary discourses. While rural literacies are required to prepare and empower children to make decisions about what they want to preserve about their community and what they want to change, rural literacies also require an opening up of children’s thinking beyond the local.
