We Have Never Been Urban: Modernization, Small Schools, and Resilient Rurality in Atlantic Canada

Abstract

This article considers some educational implications of resilient rurality in Nova Scotia, a province in eastern Canada. By Statistics Canada definitions, the province contains more than double the national percentage of rural residents, a figure that has not changed very much since the 1950s when rural school consolidation and other "modernization" schemes began in earnest. This resilient rurality is typically constructed in a metrocentric deficit perspective as a marker of underdevelopment and inevitable population decline and decay. I argue that subsequent educational reform initiatives have generally supported the closure of rural schools and have not significantly considered their effectiveness and potential to support strength-based rural development policy and social justice. Keywords: rural education, history of education, development, Nova Scotia