Country Education Partnership
RURAL AND REMOTE EDUCATION INTO THE FUTURE
AUSTRALIA
‘ There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about ‘
Margaret Wheatley
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND REVIEWS
HREOC REPORT - 2001
•  Workforce Support and Development: inclusive of recruitment and retention of quality educators and education leaders; the development effective incentive approaches to support retention; the provision of ongoing professional development; and an overall plan for the promotion of opportunities within rural and remote communities.
•  Relevant Curriculum: inclusive of focusing partnerships between education organisations and
across a range of education settings.
•  Information and Communication Technology: that provides an improved infrastructure for using digital and online learning.
•  Multiple Modes of Delivery: through the utilisation of clustering; development of local “centres of excellence; and the use of blended learning approaches to support learning
•  Effective Community Relationship and Partnerships: that support education organization in providing learning in response to local needs; encouraging partnership between education and the broader community; sharing of best practice.
•  Resourcing that is reflective of the needs and challenges within rural and remote education communities
PREVIOUS LABOR GOVERNMENTS PAPER
•  Education Leadership with a clear focus on developing strategies that include recruitment and
retention; development of specific rural education leadership professional learning approach; support
for principals to obtain the broad range of skills required to be en education leaders within a rural
context. •  Quality Workforce that explores creative approaches to recruit and retain quality educators inclusive
of incentives; provides high quality professional development and is accessible and rural friendly;
supporting the involvement of new graduates; greater involvement of pre service teachers in rural
education communities.
•  21st Century Curriculum Delivery that ensures the broadest curriculum options especially at a
secondary level; the development of blended learning networks; and encouraging rural schools to
work collaboratively.
•  Partnerships between education organisations, business and the community are core; the
development of a whole of community locally determined approach to partnerships; and linking all
levels of learning and development. PREVIOUS COALITION GOVERNMENTS PAPER
•  Develop effective strategies for communities, families, service leaders and educators to
support learners’ aspirations;
•  Provide better targeted needs based funding arrangements, and ensure effective use of
assets and resources across the early years, schools and further education sectors;
•  Develop and implement effective education workforce strategies that focuses on
recruitment and retention of educators and education leaders;
•  Support communities and providers to collaborate and make effective local decisions to
deliver a broad range of learning opportunities through a 0-18 years learning approach
and supported by communication technology approaches;
•  Facilitate connections between industry and education and training through a whole of
community approach;
•  Bring a rural and regional perspective to system-wide reform agendas
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0-19 Years
65 Years and Over
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VICTORIAN RURAL/REMOTE SCHOOLS
STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
Rural Communities are great to learn in:
•  We have strong relationships with our teachers due to our small classes.
•  Teachers are able to provide the things we like and need because they know us on a personal basis and can personalise our programs.
•  Community support is great and relationships are valued.
•  Some of us have access to opportunities and scholarships that are rural specific.
•  We tend to be more resilient due to our community involvement and because
we have to get on with everyone. •  We have stronger ties within our communities.
•  Leadership roles are more accessible – we are seen as adults within our community at a younger age.
•  We learn to mix with people from a range of age groups – we have to communicate with adults, businesses, young people, etc.
But, we still have some challenges
•
We find it harder to get good quality teachers to stay in our communities.
•
We find it hard to access the facilities and resources that metropolitan and regional schools have.
•
There is a danger we become “too comfortable” within our communities – therefore aspirations and inspiration may become low and limited.
•
It is very expensive to move for university and further studies or work.
•
We get little exposure to other cultures.
•
We are known to everyone in our community so it is hard to break from stereotypes and “to hide if we are different”.
•
Distance Education is outdated, but sometimes is the only option.
•
The gap in student learning outcomes compared to their regional and urban •
Early years vulnerability, and student engagement in the middle years;
•
Completing school with much lower uptake of higher education courses;
•
limited access to a breadth of learning options and programs, support services, public services.
REGIONAL VS RURAL???
Does it now require us to rethink how we go about supporting the provision of education
within rural and remote communities???
Do we need a new paradigm???
RURAL EDUCATION INTO THE FUTURE???
•
The development and support of collaborative, whole of community,
approaches to support the development and provision of education
from 0 to 18+ years;
•
Ensuring that rural and remote communities have access to high quality
educators;
•
Development of a strategy to ensure that high quality education
leadership is provided within rural communities;
•
Strategies to inspire young people within rural communities;
•
Access to a breadth of high quality learning opportunities that are
underpinned by quality, and youth friendly, communication technology;
RURAL EDUCATION INTO THE FUTURE???
….. there was a “pipeline approach” to the recruitment and retention of quality educators that includes stronger links between teacher education
universities and rural and remote school clusters; specific support
for new graduates; and ongoing professional learning for staff;
……creative incentives are developed to recruit and retain quality educators within rural and remote communities;
…….we shared educators across rural and remote collaborative
alliances;
….we developed an extensive promotion strategy to encourage
educators to take up educator roles within rural and remote communities.
RURAL EDUCATION INTO THE FUTURE???
……developed education programs and initiatives through collaborative alliances and incentivized the sharing of staff, resources, etc.
…….implemented a blended learning approach to support the learning of all rural and remote young people that was seen as a core delivery approach;
……developed a virtual learning state-wide centre that provided high quality online resources for both students and staff free of charge?
WHAT IF….
PARTNERSHIPS WORKING – THE WHY?
•  Education is not synonymous with schooling and deals with a much broader
area of development, opportunity and wellbeing
•  Education is a life time process and is provided by the entire community
•  There are many groups and individuals with the potential to get involved and every community has an abundance of untapped educational resources •  Education is a communities most valuable resource regardless of other economic and social factors •  Involvement of the community is a community right that results in better decisions and outcomes •  Services should be delivered as close a possible to where people live
•  Schooling is a necessary but insufficient component of education From: Creating powerful learning relationships : Otero, Csoti and Rothstadt
SOME LEARNINGS FROM RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE PAST
•  Stronger collaboration between schools and their communities enhance learning
opportunities and outcomes
•  Cluster wide professional learning teams build capacity of educators and
promote the development and provision of joint learning initiatives.
•  Resources allocated to clusters/networks/alliances generate greater level of
professional dialogue, innovative thinking and peer support and
reflection.
•  Collaborative approaches promote and encourage creative thinking
Some of the Outcomes??
•  Rural education was seen as a leader – often producing high level results •  Greater “ownership” of education by the local community
•  Ability to be flexible to accommodate local needs and desires.
“Isolation is the enemy of improvement”
‘THE REASON THAT ASTRONOMERS AROUND THE WORLD COOPERATE SO WELL TOGETHER IS THAT YOU CANNOT STAND IN ONE PLACE AND SEE THE ENTIRE SKY. WE CAN APPLY THIS SAME PRINCIPLE TO COMMUNITIES, ORGANISATIONS AND DEPARTMENTS’ (Unknown)
THE NEW NUMBER 1
“Teacher Collective Efficacy”
John Hattie
COLLABORATIVE AUTONOMY
“… education organisations working together with common aims under a common banner they all believe in whilst retaining their uniqueness. Research suggests that sustainable school improvement comes from support and challenge from other education organisations and other partners. Accelerated progress for students comes through a mixture of support on a personal scale, great teaching, a sense of success and aspiration within the alliance, and the ability to shape a ‘personal’ program that suits abilities and talents of all learners.” NATHALIA LEARNING COMMUNITY
•  Rural Community in the North Central area of Victoria
•  Area population of approximately 3,500 people – significant indigenous areas) Barmah •  Student population of approximately 1,000
•  Five schools – one catholic primary, one catholic secondary, two public primary (one very small), one public secondary
•  Joint development and provision of VCE and Early Years •  History of being innovative and creative approaches to learning
•  Improved learning outcomes.
•  Extensive relationships across organisations including learning walks, professional development, support for new graduates, etc.
MURCHISON COMMUNITY
•  Cluster of primary, DHS and community schools within
the Murchison region of WA
•  Development of a Network Strategic Plan – initially
focused on professional support and learning
•  Executive Principal role
•  AITSL Project to enhance teacher professional learning
•  Use of a blended learning approach (face to face
meeting, online forums, and web based resources) to link staff and provide professional development and support.
KEY LEARNINGS
•  Moral Responsibility for every child within my community
- not just those in my school.
•  Acts of Kindness
•  Action Research centred
•  Collaboration is a journey and “the work” – it is a continuum
•  Small areas of focus – one or two focus areas
•  Moving our thinking from “Project Collaboration” to
“Collaborative autonomy”.
COLLABORATIVE CONTINUUM
Networking
Co-ordinating
Co-operating
Collaboration
The further we move towards collaboration, the greater the impact on learning outcomes
and staff development.