Whitten, Clint Davis2024-04-172024-04-172024-04-11vt_gsexam:39906https://hdl.handle.net/10919/118598These combined manuscripts explore the intersections of rural education, community influences, and diverse identities by challenging rural monoliths and deficits while working to address opportunity gaps for rural youth and educators. Theories throughout this work include critical pedagogies of place (Bass and Azano, 2024; Greenwood, 2003), critical theories disrupting power (Freire, 1970), a pedagogy of love (Darder, 2017), and poetic explorations for a sense of belonging and a celebration of place (bell hooks, 2008; 2012) allowing for my own poetic voice to "cry out" (hooks, 2012, p. 12). The critical engagement with place norms and influences on identity development is further rooted in Queer studies, binding these manuscripts as a "tool of incessant unsettling" (Luciano and Chen, 2015, p. 192) by challenging the role of cis-heteronormativity (Berlant and Warner, 1995) in rural contexts. These combined manuscripts situate knowledge production and identity development in educational spaces in conversation with rural education, local and federal policies, issues of access, histories of erasure, and local and societal cis-heterosexual norms. Literature informing these manuscripts focused on rural schools and the unique challenges embedded in those communities, such as rural poverty (Lewis and Boswell, 2020; Tieken, 2022), geographical inequities (Lichter et al., 2012; Showalter et al., 2023), fewer resources for Queer youth (Kosciw et al., 2022; Movement Advancement Project, 2019; Ramos et al., 2014), and limited enrichment opportunities (Azano et al., 2020; Callahan and Azano, 2019; Rasheed, 2019), with a focus on how these challenges influence rural identities and widen opportunity gaps for rural learners. As a manuscript style dissertation, each manuscript centralizes parts of these theories and literatures. Manuscript 1 is a grounding theoretical piece that explores how Queer rural narratives are tangled in a spectrum of visibility. Manuscript 2 is a literature review that navigates how rural education and Queer identities have been discussed in research and reports. Manuscript 3 is a policy brief that presents a framework to critique federal and local anti-Queer policies and their influence on rural Queer youth and educators. Manuscript 4 is an empirical study exploring how rural youth explore their own sense of place and identity while attending a residential summer camp aimed to address an opportunity gap for rural gifted learners. While each manuscript stands alone, combined, they present themes about (a) the internalizations and externalizations of rural identity, (b) the value of diverse rural representation, and (c) the influence of policy and place norms in rural schools. These manuscripts suggest the need to uplift vulnerable and historically marginalized narratives in rural schools in order to challenge rural monolithic narratives, the possibilities of alternative learning spaces to address opportunity gaps for Queer and gifted youth, and the hope for more safe spaces that celebrate diverse rural identities and experiences to increase authentic learning opportunities to celebrate place and self together.  ETDenIn CopyrightRural educationplace-based pedagogyQueeridentitycommunityDissertation