“Did you like living in a trailer? Why or why not?”: Discourse and the third space in a rural pen pal exchange

This study describes efforts in a U.S. teacher education program to raise the teacher candidates' awareness of how place impacts schooling. The preservice teachers and second graders exchanged pen pal letters based on books set in contemporary rural America. The teacher candidates enacted four major discourses in the correspondence: personal, rural, global and traditional. Without connections to the children personally, as fellow rural residents or as participants in a conversation about rural life, the preservice teachers were left only to communicate through traditional and globalized discourses.

Research highlights► The teachers enacted four major discourses in the correspondence: personal, rural, global, and traditional teacher. ►Without connections to the children personally, as fellow rural residents, or as participants in a conversation about rural life as constructed in the books, the preservice teachers were left only to communicate through traditional and globalized discourses. ►The teacher candidates generally did not enter into third space interactions with the children.