With more than nine million students in the United States attending schools in rural areas (United States Department of Education, 2015), rural students represent nearly one quarter of all students in our nation’s K-12... [ view full abstract ]
With more than nine million students in the United States attending schools in rural areas (United States Department of Education, 2015), rural students represent nearly one quarter of all students in our nation’s K-12 educational system (Schafft and Biddle, 2014). Aligned with the current emphasis on college and career readiness (Education Commission of the States, 2014), education researchers have conducted a myriad of studies in the area of postsecondary preparation, college enrollment, and college persistence. Within this body of literature, the needs and assets of urban and suburban students are well-documented, but there is a dearth of research that explores the needs and assets of their rural peers (Sipple and Brent, 2015). Researchers have either forgotten rural students in this conversation or, more problematically, assumed that their research with urban and suburban students applies to rural students, as well. This inattention to rural students is particularly problematic in an era when higher education is increasingly treated with skepticism and disdain since rural students, especially those from conservative communities, may face unique pressures to choose work or military service over college.
This paper uses data from a qualitative study in which the researcher uses one-on-one semi-structured interviews with current high school seniors from three high schools in the state of Ohio to explore how these students decided to enroll in higher education, enter the workforce, or enlist in the military after high school graduation. Interview questions focused on three areas of influence for students’ postsecondary choices: family, school, and community. Focusing on these three areas, the research explored assets for and barriers to each student’s chosen postsecondary decision as well as alternatives they are not pursuing.
Qualitative interview data is analyzed through the transcription and coding of participant interviews using a grounded theory approach and open coding and axial coding of transcripts to identify common themes throughout the interviews and thus, works backward from the data to develop a theory of the processes of postsecondary decision-making for these rural students. Examining factors related to family, school, and community, one area the researcher explores is the degree to which the current conservative skepticism toward higher education influences these students’ decisions to pursue college, career, or military. This paper would be of interest to rural sociologists who explore family and community influences and rural educators at the K-12 and higher education levels who have interests in postsecondary decision-making as well as issues of inequality and access to college preparation and college degree attainment.
