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Supporting beginning rural teachers : Lessons from successful schools

- White, Simone, Lock, Graeme, Hastings, Wendy, Reid, Joanne, Green, Bill, Cooper, Maxine

  • Authors: White, Simone , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Reid, Joanne , Green, Bill , Cooper, Maxine
  • Date: 2009
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: Paper presented at ‘Teacher education crossing borders: Cultures, contexts, communities and curriculum’ the annual conference of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Albury, New South Wales : 28th June - 1st July 2009
  • Full Text:
  • Description: Across Australia and internationally, the vexed problem of staffing rural school remains a major issue affecting the educational outcomes of many rural students and their families. TERRAnova, (New Ground’ in Teacher Education for Rural and Regional Australia), is the name of a large Australian Research Council funded (2008-2010) project involving: a national study of pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes offered by both University and State government agencies, a longitudinal study of beginning teachers who take up rural appointments and a study of communities where teacher retention is high. In 2008 calls for nominations for rural schools with high rates of retaining beginning teachers were sought (over three years), and twenty-four of nearly fifty nominated schools were selected as case studies. Each case study has involved researchers from the TERRAnova team travelling and staying as close to the community nominated as possible. Numerous teaching staff, parents and community members were invited to be interviewed and their recordings were transcribed. Five of these case studies have now been completed, and this paper examines common themes derived from the strategies that support beginning teachers in these rural communities. Key factors emerging to date from the data relate to particular models of rural school leadership, ongoing teacher learning and mentoring, and school support and innovative community practices.
  • Description: 2003008006

Teacher education : Innovation, intervention and impact

- Brandenburg, Robyn, McDonough, Sharon, Burke, Jenene, White, Simone

  • Authors: Brandenburg, Robyn , McDonough, Sharon , Burke, Jenene , White, Simone
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Book
  • Relation: Teacher Education : Innovation, Intervention and Impact
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: This book, an inaugural publication from the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Teacher Education: Innovation, Intervention and Impact is both a product of, and seeks to contribute to, the changing global and political times in teacher education research. This book marks an historically significant shift in the collective work and outreach of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) as it endeavours to become an even more active contributor to a research-rich foundation for initial teacher education and to a research-informed teaching profession. The book showcases teacher education research and scholarship from a wide range of institutional collaborations across Australia. Studies highlight the multiple ways in which teacher education researchers are engaging with students, teachers, schools and communities to best prepare future teachers. It informs both teacher education policy and practice and is ‘a must read’ for those engaged in the education community. Above all it marks a shift for teacher educators to build a research rich teaching profession. © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016.

Teacher education for rural communities : A focus on ‘incentives’

- White, Simone, Green, Bill, Reid, Joanne, Lock, Graeme, Hastings, Wendy, Cooper, Maxine

  • Authors: White, Simone , Green, Bill , Reid, Joanne , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Conference paper
  • Relation: Paper presented at 2008 Australian Teacher Education Association National Conference: Teacher Educators at Work: What works and where is the evidence?, Novotel Twin Waters, Sunshine Coast, Queensland : 8th-11th July 2008 p. 381-390
  • Full Text:
  • Description: In Australia we face a national crisis in attracting and retaining teachers and other professionals with regard to rural areas. In response to this difficulty in ‘staffing the empty schoolhouse’ (Roberts 2004), the majority of state education departments have initiated some form of rural incentive scheme designed to attract teachers to rural schools. This paper argues that such schemes have little chance of success unless teachers taking up such incentives have actually been prepared for teaching in nonmetropolitan schools. Although many universities claim to prioritise rural and regional education and community development as part of their vision statements, in reality relatively few education providers reflect this rhetoric in their practice and only a handful have made direct links to such state-based schemes in pre-service teacher education, or initiated their own rural incentives. A preliminary study into pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes, as part of a three-year ARC Discovery Grant, indicates that, nationally, the majority of Faculties and Schools of Education have no easily accessible or advertised incentive programs to encourage students to undertake a rural practicum. Nor do many reflect rural education in their course-work. This paper will introduce the ‘TERRAnova’ project, and then discuss findings of the preliminary work to date that has focussed on identifying incentives and their significance. Drawing on evidence collected from websites from Australian Universities representing all pre-service teacher education programs in the nation, we argue that few Faculties and Schools appear to see it necessary or desirable to provide students with links to information about particular state-based rural funding opportunities. We show how some, either directly or indirectly, imply the importance of a rural practicum, and that a few teacher education programs provide written advice to students who are considering taking up a rural practicum. It is unclear, however, whether follow-up advice is provided, so that the impact and effectiveness of such advice on students’ experiences and willingness to take rural education seriously can be questioned. Our analysis so far indicates that it is the regional universities which are more likely to address rural education needs, and on this basis we question the metro-centricity of teacher education practice more broadly and suggest ways of expanding the options of teachers in their initial teaching appointments.
  • Description: 2003006408

Researching rural-regional (teacher) education in Australia

- Lock, Graeme, Reid, Joanne, Green, Bill, Hastings, Wendy, Cooper, Maxine, White, Simone

  • Authors: Lock, Graeme , Reid, Joanne , Green, Bill , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine , White, Simone
  • Date: 2009
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Education in Rural Australia Vol. 19, no. 2 (2009), p. 31-44
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: In 2007 a group of researchers from four Australian universities was awarded an ARC Discovery grant to undertake a longitudinal study into the nature of successful teacher education strategies aimed at making rural teaching an attractive long-term career option. This paper presents descriptive insights into how the research team, located in three Australian states (New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia) is able to maintain a sustained cohesive approach to achieving the project's aim. The initial section of the paper introduces each team member prior to discussing the importance of taking a national perspective on rural education. The second section considers the research design and shows how the main objective of the investigation will be achieved. Emerging trends from the quantitative and qualitative data collected in 2008 are revealed in the third section. The discussion in the fourth section centres on how the trends emerging from the collected data requires a reconceptualisation of preparing pre-service teachers for non-metropolitan placements. In doing so, the project's emerging conceptual framework, which emphasizes that preparation of teachers for rural and regional appointments needs to be considered beyond the terms and forms of traditional professional practice, is explored. [Author abstract, ed]
  • Description: 1301 Education Systems

Regenerating rural social space? Teacher education for rural-regional sustainability

- Reid, Joanne, Green, Bill, Cooper, Maxine, Hastings, Wendy, Lock, Graeme, White, Simone

  • Authors: Reid, Joanne , Green, Bill , Cooper, Maxine , Hastings, Wendy , Lock, Graeme , White, Simone
  • Date: 2010
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Journal of Education Vol. 54, no. 3 (2010), p. 262-276
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The complex interconnection among issues affecting rural-regional sustainability requires an equally complex program of research to ensure the attraction and retention of high-quality teachers for rural children. The educational effects of the construction of the rural within a deficit discourse are highlighted. A concept of rural social space is modelled, bringing together social, economic and environmental dimensions of (rural-regional) sustainability. This framework combines quantitative definitional processes with more situated definitions of rural space based on demographic and other social data, across both geographic and cultural formations. The implications of the model are examined in terms of its importance for teacher education.

Teacher education for rural communities: A focus on 'Incentives'

- White, Simone, Green, Bill, Reid, Joanne, Lock, Graeme, Hastings, Wendy, Cooper, Maxine

  • Authors: White, Simone , Green, Bill , Reid, Joanne , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: ATEA 2008:Teacher Educators at Work : What works and where is the evidence? Australian Teacher Education Association Conference
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: In Australia we face a national crisis in attracting and retaining teachers and other professionals with regard to rural areas. In response to this difficulty in ‘staffing the empty schoolhouse’ (Roberts 2004), the majority of state education departments have initiated some form of rural incentive scheme designed to attract teachers to rural schools. This paper argues that such schemes have little chance of success unless teachers taking up such incentives have actually been prepared for teaching in nonmetropolitan schools. Although many universities claim to prioritise rural and regional education and community development as part of their vision statements, in reality relatively few education providers reflect this rhetoric in their practice and only a handful have made direct links to such state-based schemes in pre-service teacher education, or initiated their own rural incentives. A preliminary study into pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes, as part of a three-year ARC Discovery Grant, indicates that, nationally, the majority of Faculties and Schools of Education have no easily accessible or advertised incentive programs to encourage students to undertake a rural practicum. Nor do many reflect rural education in their course-work. This paper will introduce the ‘TERRAnova’ project, and then discuss findings of the preliminary work to date that has focussed on identifying incentives and their significance. Drawing on evidence collected from websites from Australian Universities representing all pre-service teacher education programs in the nation, we argue that few Faculties and Schools appear to see it necessary or desirable to provide students with links to information about particular state-based rural funding opportunities. We show how some, either directly or indirectly, imply the importance of a rural practicum, and that a few teacher education programs provide written advice to students who are considering taking up a rural practicum. It is unclear, however, whether follow-up advice is provided, so that the impact and effectiveness of such advice on students’ experiences and willingness to take rural education seriously can be questioned. Our analysis so far indicates that it is the regional universities which are more likely to address rural education needs, and on this basis we question the metro-centricity of teacher education practice more broadly and suggest ways of expanding the options of teachers in their initial teaching appointments.

Investing in sustainable and resilient rural social space: Lessons for teacher education

- White, Simone, Lock, Graeme, Hastings, Wendy, Cooper, Maxine, Reid, Jo-Anne, Green, Bill

Teacher education research and the policy reform agenda

- Brandenburg, Robyn, McDonough, Sharon, Burke, Jenene, White, Simone

  • Authors: Brandenburg, Robyn , McDonough, Sharon , Burke, Jenene , White, Simone
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Teacher Education : Innovation, Intervention and Impact p.1-14
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Research into teacher education is an Australian government high priority and teacher educators are increasingly called to use research to demonstrate the effectiveness and the impact of their teaching, their programs and ultimately, the impact on student learning. While teacher education researchers endeavour to share their research, their work is often critiqued as being self-serving, small-scale and generally not responsive to government policy directions. This chapter specifically examines these three areas: the research policy context; an examination of the current critique of teacher education research and a critical analysis and discussion of the research conducted by teacher educators within this volume. As evidenced within the chapters, many teacher educators have located their research studies within the current Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG, Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers, 2014) reform agenda. What the studies also reveal is how reform agendas are taken up by different institutions and the importance of providing the rich contextual discussion of their findings. While the majority of the studies are small-scale, viewed collectively however, they have much to offer the broader education research community. More opportunities for connected small-scale studies that highlight both macro and micro levels of teacher education are recommended. © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016.
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