Providing rural educators with professional development

Rural educators living in far-off places do not seem to acquire the same academic skills or find equal opportunities for professional development in the same way as those teachers residing in highly urbanized regions. Rural educators are bound to be excluded from a discourse community.
Some research sponsored wholly or in part by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) was carried out to highlight the difference between rural and city teachers and schools in the USA. Regrettably, educators residing far away from educationally developed areas find themselves isolated and debarred from belonging to a discourse community. Professional development, as a consequence of receiving further academic education, to improve their quality of instruction is regarded as an unattainable dream or goal. This hindrance with which rural teachers are faced can be reflected in rural classrooms and consequently in students’ performance.
Howley, Aimee and Howley, Craig (2005) stated:
Policymakers and educators see professional development as a way to improve the quality of instruction in the classrooms across the nation (. . .) it would seem that the right kinds of professional development would improve instruction, and that better instruction would result in higher student achievement (para. 2).
High-ranking members belonging to a community discourse decide what policies are to be implemented and adopted by other low-ranking members of the same community. If rural teachers had better access to professional development, the instruction supplied in their classrooms would reflect on higher student achievement or performance.
Some of Swales’ basic criteria (1990) for a discourse community are clearly evident in Howley’s research paper:
Lave & Wenger, (1991); Wenger, (1998), as cited in Howley & Howley, (2005) stated that “learning must be situated” (para. 6).
According to Senge (1994), as cited in Howley & Howley (2005), “learning requires open and sustained dialogue members of the organization” (para. 6).
Choo (1998), as cited in Howley & Howley (2005) asserted that “learning depends upon the propensity to reflect on data about organizational performance” (para. 6)
Howley & Howley (2005) claim that educators who engage working in larger communities work in a collaborative fashion and share their work more widely.
Early efforts of this type-with names such as "peer coaching" and "collegial supervision” organized small groups of teachers to observe one another's instructional performance and provide feedback (Showers & Joyce, 1996, as cited in Howley & Howley, 2005, para. 8).
Bambino (2002), as cited in Howley & Howley (2005) stated that “teachers volunteer to join "critical friends groups," where they often use students' work to prompt discussions of teaching; sometimes these groups also collaborate to solve instructional problems (para. 9).
Intercommunication among teachers working together is a major factor so that information can be exchanged. “In many places, the small size of schools and districts promotes cooperation among teachers, enabling them to improve instruction in ways that develop naturally within the context of their daily practice” (Howley, A. & Howley, C.B, 2004; Howley, C.B. & Howley, A.A., 2004, as cited in Howley & Howley, 2005, para. 15)
Another distinctive feature within a discourse community is to have a group leader with a high level of expertise. The leader must be in constant communication with the other members of the community. According to Lattuca (2005), as cited in Howley & Howley (2005), “. . . leaders might seek to establish cross-disciplinary learning communities within a school, an approach of recognized difficulty in higher education” (para. 20).
Sherer, Shea & Kristensen (2003), as cited in Howley & Howley (2005) claimed that “[s]ome experimental programs in higher education, however, suggest that a more promising approach for K-12 educators might involve the establishment of virtual learning communities that foster collegial dialog among subject-matter specialists across the distances that physically separate them” (para. 20).
Howley (2005) referred to “[g]rounded in management approaches such as Total Quality Management, . . .” The author meant that by being grounded, that is to say, by being fully immersed in the topic and academic knowledge, some strategies can be developed to help rural educators into the process of gaining academic development.
Extensive reading and writing inevitably results in a more solid cognitive development in teachers. The opportunity to develop their interests and skills in academic contexts will unavoidably reflect on their instruction and accordingly their students’ performance will be improved.


Reference
Howley, A., & Howley, C. (2005). High-quality teaching: Providing for rural teachers' professional development.