Editorial.
Lock, Graeme ; White, Simone ; Hastings, Wendy 等
Welcome to this 'bumper' issue of Education in Rural
Australia, in which we are pleased to present four keynote speeches from
the very successful 2010 conference, three articles on contemporary
issues in rural education, and reflective comments on a rural teaching
experience from a pre-service teacher.
Michael Barbour presents us with a discussion about K-12 online
learning in Canada and the United States. He outlines the history of the
growth of online learning, including benefits and challenges, before
suggesting that further research is required into the suitability of
online learning for rural students.
In the second paper, Scott Gorringe explores the Engoori framework
as a means of reconnecting people and reigniting community engagement
discussions. In particular he emphasises the need to overcome the
prevalent deficit discourse about Aboriginal people, before discussing
the aforementioned framework. Scott concludes that engaging Aboriginal
people in education will succeed when space is created for Indigenous
people: construed as minds, hearts and hands.
John Halsey, a long-time contributor to this journal, considers the
future of rural communities through generating understanding of space,
spatiality and history. He then takes us to the Mallee region of South
Australia, and the Karoonda Farm Fair in particular, when he discusses
the data obtained from a survey to which 379 people responded. These
data are used to show, together with ideas about space, spatiality nd
perspectives about history might be used to consider the issue of rural
sustainability and how this might be developed. John also gives
attention to White's (2010) concept of middle ground.
Our fourth article, from Simone White and her colleagues in the
TERRAnova project, discuss results from their research about how rural
schools have successfully attracted and retained teachers. After
discussing the study's context, method and conceptual framework,
Simone identifies the themes emerging from their data, including the
link between school leadership and community renewal, development of
university-school partnerships, and the desirability of recognising the
social and creative enterprise work undertaken by rural teachers and
school leaders.
In our fifth article, Nita Lester explores the importance of
teachers and principals building relationships with rural communities.
Nita's analysis of data collected through interviews, results in
the development of a theoretical model, which outlines a pathway to
success for teachers and principals in remote rural contexts. She
concludes with the observation that to develop relationships is crucial
in determining the success or otherwise of remote rural school leaders.
Brian Hemmings, Russell Kay and Ron Kerr extend our knowledge about
how social contingencies impact pre-service teacher rural experiences or
deter pre-service teachers from participating in such experiences.
Surveying 84 final year pre-service teachers in a regional Australian
university, Brian and his colleagues determine the existence of a number
of impact factors, prior to discussing the implications of these on
pre-service teacher educators and policy makers.
The next paper discusses an ALTC project involving the four public
Western Australian universities, in itself quite a unique event. Sue
Trinidad and her colleagues show how they are building on the work of
the TERRAnova ARC and RRRTEC ALTC projects to develop models for
non-metropolitan pre-service teacher practicums in contributing to the
sustainability of rural communities.
In our final article, we are pleased to present the reflections of
Josie Davidson, a pre-service teacher in 2010, on her internship in a
school located in a small rural town. Josie takes us through her
internship experience, describing the classes she taught, her
non-classroom roles and responsibilities, together with the highlights
of her practicum.
Graeme Lock
Simone White
Wendy Hastings
Maxine Cooper
Editors
