In this paper, we address mathematics education in rural contexts from a critical pedagogical perspective. We imagine our audience to be mathematics educators and rural educators who may not have background knowledge of critical pedagogy. We also confess that we are mathematics educators first, with interests in critical pedagogy and rural education. Thus we do not position ourselves as experts and do not intend to proclaim what rural mathematics educators "should" do. To set up our discussion, in this section we characterize (in broad strokes) critical pedagogy, current reform in mathematics education, and issues in rural education.