*Global Public Seminars in CIE* Rurality in Globalised Higher Education: Comparative Perspectives from International Doctoral Research Theses
The influence of rural vs urban contexts on education is a strong research theme (van Maarseveen, 2021; Zhang, 2017) but there is less research around rurality as a complex geopolitical, geosocial and cultural issue (Czerniewicz and Brown 2014). Rurality is not only a physical, geographical description; it intersects with other key cultural and socio-economic factors including ethnicity, race and class (Liebowitz, 2017) and is a highly politicised concept. This public lecture presents alternative perspectives on rurality in globalised higher education by engaging with international doctoral research theses focusing on this field. Using secondary data analysis of theses held in the digital EThOS collection at the British Library, I argue that data gathered from international doctoral theses can constitute Southern knowledge or the ‘view-from-below’ (Connell 2007, 221) and can provide unique and emic insights into complex local contexts. The analysis of 30 international doctoral theses on rurality from three different continents underlined the influence of ideologies and political contexts in relation to access to higher education. Themes included minoritisation and deficit models applied to rural students in higher education; intersectional disadvantages in access to higher education; the impact of structures and institutions on reproducing disadvantage in higher education (Montgomery, 2020). The theses indicated that the roots and branches of inequalities are strong in the context of rurality and these intersect with class, ethnicity, gender and languages. Rural marginalisation is not a condition solely of ‘the South’, however, and contexts of rurality can magnify existing disadvantage wherever they may be.
Date: 7 December 2022, 15:00 (Wednesday, 9th week, Michaelmas 2022)
Venue: Online
Speaker: Professor Catherine Montgomery (Durham University)
Organising department: Department of Education
Organiser: Dr Maia Chankseliani (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: commununications@education.ox.ac.uk
Part of: GLOBAL PUBLIC SEMINARS IN COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcO2tqD8pG92w-ad_Mh3pSxcSW1i8XCFK
Booking email: commununications@education.ox.ac.uk
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editors: Carolyn Fray, Heather Sherkunov