The issues shared by professionals living and working in rural communities in British Columbia

摘要

This presentation is a summary of a study looking at the issues faced by teachers, nurs es, social workers and police officers in 8 rurally different communities in British Columbia. A triangulation study, it features a review of the literature to identify issues shared across the disciplines, a Delphi probe to verify the issues, the creation of a rurality index in the selection of research sites, and an analysis of interviews revealing a lack of agreement between the experts' views of the issues and that of the practition ers living and working in rural communities. This dissonance results in an identifica tion of two views of rurality; a rural-as-deficient approach that dominates the literature and an approach that sees rurality as something that is different. Findings include the identification of 20 issues shared by rural professionals in British Columbia and a list of 18 inferences about the relationships between the issues and the professionals, between the professionals and their communities, and between the rurality of the com munities and the issues; with implications for rural policy-makers, pro-service teacher-educators, and potential rural teachers.