Beyond Technology‐First Narratives: Reframing Rural Educators as Information Professionals

National programs for educational technologies often emphasize online learning, built on claims of universal access and improvement. However, these narratives frequently overlook the complex educational contexts of marginalized rural communities, such as those in Nigeria. This paper reframes rural educators in Nigeria as information professionals who engage in community‐specific knowledge dissemination, advocacy, and literacy development. Drawing on critical rural theory, decolonial pedagogy, and information behavior models, this conceptual paper argues that rural educators enact the very functions ascribed to information professionals. As a work‐in‐progress paper, it calls for contextually relevant educational practices and outlines future directions for empirical study, policy, and LIS curriculum development.