Remote Possibilities: Rural Children's Educational Aspirations

To better understand the influence of rural context on youth's life chances, this study takes up the question of rural children's educational aspirations. The experience of rural life may, as some claim, limit students' educational aspirations. Yet there are indications that rural communities simultaneously generate important social benefits that tend to be devalued by educators and researchers alike. Survey data from the 2002 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were analyzed to explore this debate. Findings indicate rural children are as likely to aspire to a high school or an undergraduate education as are nonrural youth. The significant difference in aspirations between rural and nonrural children is in terms of postgraduate education. Findings also suggest that rural youth come of age in familial contexts of attachment to place, with rural families being more likely than nonrural families to have turned down a job to remain in their communities. The findings here challenge assumptions that rural youth limit their aspirations because they suffer from uniquely rural handicaps. In place of deficit models of rural youth's aspirations, more sociological perspectives might allow for the distinctive way in which rurality engenders attachment to place.