Abstract

In Learning to Leave, Michael Corbett (2007) documents the ironies and contradictions of formal education and rurality, demonstrating how education is implicated in the depopulation and decline of rural areas, a consequence of increasing urbanity, in turn fuelled by global forces naturalized through narratives of progress within modernity. His arguments imply a central point I wish to make in this commentary: education, and in particular what is called rural education, is premised on loss. This loss is often not fully articulated, but it is deep and abiding. It is registered in efforts to stop the flow of peoples and resources, to resist consolidation and closure of schools, and to attract and retain educators. I want to argue however that such loss can also be productive in that it unsettles. And within such unsettling lie opportunities to generate new knowledge.

How to Cite:

Kelly, U. A., (2009) “Learning to Lose: Rurality, Transience, and Belonging (A Companion to Michael Corbett)”, Journal of Research in Rural Education 24(11), 1–4.

Rights: Copyright