Abstract
The staff of Australia’s rural schools include many early career teachers who are keen to begin their careers in geographically diverse communities. Despite often high levels of motivation to take up a rural position and many well-funded government incentives to do so, recruiting and retaining teachers remains a challenge across Australia. Against this backdrop this chapter explores the key question: How can we better prepare and support the next generation of teachers for our rural schools? The chapter firstly explores the perennial issues of rural staffing and then critically examines a range of incentives for both pre-service and in-service teachers to attract them to rural schools and communities. One of the reasons incentives appear to be failing could be that they do very little to transform the preparation and education of pre-service teachers to better work in and for rural schools and their communities. To date, teacher education providers and schools have put little effort into changing their preparation and induction models. The chapter concludes with possibilities for a ‘system’ change to address the rural staffing crisis and raises the need for a new transformative approach to link more meaningfully initial teacher education, professional experience in and with communities and in-service professional learning (including teachers and teacher educators).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alston, M. M., & Kent, J. (2003). Educational access for Australia’s rural young people: A case of social exclusion. Australian Journal of Education, 47(1), 5–17.
Atkin, C. (2003). Rural communities: Human and symbolic capital development, fields apart. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 33(4), 507–518.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2017). http://www.abs.gov.au/. Accessed 26 January 2017.
Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2011). Families in regional, rural and remote Australia: Factsheet. Commonwealth of Australia. http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/factssheets/2011/fs201103.html. Accessed 31 Jan 2017.
Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2016). What do we know about early career teacher attrition rates in Australia? Spotlight report. Melbourne: AITSL. http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/aitsl-research/spotlights/spotlight-on-attrition-august-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=6. Accessed 9 Apr 2017.
Boylan, C., & King, R. (1991). Educational reforms: Impact on rural teachers. Rural Society, 1(2), 10–14.
Brennan, M. (2005). Putting rurality on the educational agenda: Work towards a theoretical framework. Education in Rural Australia, 15(2), 11–20.
Capeness, R. (2015). Postscript: Towards a better understanding of rural education in Australia: Implications for policy and practice. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 25(3), 94–99.
Cuervo, H. (2012). Enlarging the social justice agenda in education: An analysis of rural teachers’ narratives beyond the distributive dimension. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40(2), 83–95.
Craven, G., Beswick, K., Fleming, J., Fletcher, T., Green, M., Jensen, B., & Rickards, F. (2014). Action now: Classroom ready teachers. Canberra: Department of Education and Training.
Darling-Hammond, L., Holtzman, D. J., Gatlin, S. J., & Heilig, J. V. (2005). Does teacher preparation matter? Evidence about teacher certification, Teach for America, and teacher effectiveness. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13, 42.
Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorising practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Green, B. (2015). Australian education and rural-regional sustainability. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 25(3), 36–49.
Green, B., & Letts, W. (2007). Space, equity and rural education: A trialectical account. In Kalervo, Gulson, & Symes (Eds.), Spatial thoeries of education policy and geography matters (pp. 57–76). New York/London: Routledge.
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619–654.
Halfacree, K. H. (1993). Locality and social representation: Space, discourse and alternative definitions of the rural. Journal of Rural Studies, 9(1), 23–37.
Halsey, J. R. (2006). Towards a spatial ‘self-help’ map for teaching and living in a rural context. International Education Journal, 7(4), 490–498.
Hickling-Hudson, A. R., & Ahlquist, R. (2004). Teachers as ‘two-year tourists’ in an Australian state school for Aboriginal children: Dilemmas of curriculum, agency and teacher preparation. Journal of Postcolonial Education, 3(1), 67–88.
Hobbs, L. (2013). Teaching ‘out-of-field’ as a boundary-crossing event: Factors shaping teacher identity. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 11(2), 271–297.
Hugo, G., Feist, H., & Tan, G. (2013). Internal migration and regional Australia (Policy Brief 1:4). Adelaide: Australian Population & Migration Research Centre, University of Adelaide.
Ife, J., & Tesoriero, F. (2006). Community development: Community based alternatives in an age of globalisation. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education.
Kenny, M., Harreveld, R. B., & Danaher, P. A. (2016). Dry stone walls, black stumps and the mobilisation of professional learning: Rural places and spaces and teachers’ self-study strategies in Ireland and Australia. In A. K. Schulte & B. Walker-Gibbs (Eds.), Self-studies in rural teacher education (pp. 179–202). Cham: Springer.
Kline, J., & Walker-Gibbs, B. (2015). Graduate teacher preparation for rural schools in Victoria and Queensland. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 68–88.
Mayer, D., Allard, A., Dixon, M., Doecke, B., Kostogriz, A., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., White, S., Kline, J., Hodder, P., & Moss, J. (2014, August 11). Studying the effectiveness of teacher education (SETE). Paper presented at Victorian Council of Deans of Education Conference, Melbourne.
Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Moss, J., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., & White, S. (2017). Studying the effectiveness of teacher education: Early career teachers in diverse settings. Singapore: Springer.
McKenzie, P., Weldon, P., Rowley, G., Murphy, M., & McMillan, J. (2014). Staff in Australian Schools 2013: Main report on the survey. Canberra: Department of Education.
Mills, C., & Gale, T. (2003). Transient teachers: Mixed messages of schooling in regional Australia. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 18(3), 145–151.
Moje, E. (2000). Cycles of Kinship, friendship, position and power: Examiing the community in community-based literacy research. Journal of Literacy Research, 32(1), 77–112.
Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.
New South Wales Department of Education. (2014). Rural and remote education: A blueprint for action. Sydney: Department of Education. https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/about-us/our-reforms/rural-and-remote-education/rr_progress_update.pdf. Accessed 31 Jan 2017.
New South Wales Department of Education. (n.d.). Testimonials. teach.NSW. https://www.teach.nsw.edu.au/getpaidtostudy/teach-rural-scholarships/testimonials. Accessed 16 Jan 2017.
O’Brien, P., Goodard, R., & Keeffe, M. (2008, November). Burnout confirmed as a viable explanation for beginning teacher attrition. Paper presented at Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Fremantle, Western Australia.
Page, J. (2006). Teaching in rural and remote schools: Implications for pre-service teacher preparation pedagogies of place, and their implication for pre-service teacher preparation. Education in Rural Australia, 16(1), 47–63.
Pratt, A. (1989). Rurality: Loose talk or social struggle? paper presented at the Rural Economy and Society Study Group Conference. University of Bristol.
Regional Universities Network. (2017). Regional Australia. http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/regional_australia.php. Accessed 18 Jan 2017.
Reid, J.-A., Green, B., Cooper, M., Hastings, W., Lock, G., & White, S. (2010). Regenerating rural social space? Teacher education for rural–regional sustainability. Australian Journal of Education, 54(3), 262–276.
Roberts, P. (2004). Staffing an empty schoolhouse: Attracting and retaining teachers in rural, remote and isolated communities. Surry Hills: NSW Teachers Federation.
Roberts, P., & Green, B. (2013). Researching rural places on social justice and rural education. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(10), 765–774.
Sharplin, E. (2002). Rural retreat or outback hell: Expectations of rural and remote teaching. Issues in Educational Research, 12(1), 49–63.
Sharplin, E., O’Neill, M., & Chapman, A. (2011). Coping strategies for adaptation to new teacher appointments: Intervention for retention. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(1), 136–146.
Simpson, T. (2007). ‘See you when you don’t come back …’ Young teachers in Western NSW: Report from the Enhancing Indigenous Education Program. Sydney: Charles Sturt University.
Skourdoumbis, A. (2012). Teach for Australia (TFA): Can it overcome educational disadvantage? Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 32(3), 305–315.
Soja, E. W. (1980). The socio-spatial dialectic. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 70(2), 207–225.
Somerville, M., & Rennie, J. (2012). Mobilising community? Place, identity formation and new teachers’ learning. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 33(2), 193–206.
Sullivan, A., & Johnson, B. (2012). Questionable practices? Relying on individual teacher resilience in remote schools. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 22(3), 101–116.
Teach for America. (2017). Greater New Orleans–Louisiana Delta. https://neworleans.teachforamerica.org/. Accessed 31 Jan 2017.
Thomson, P. (2002). Schooling the rustbelt kids: Making the difference in changing times. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Trinidad, S., Broadley, T., Terry, E., Boyd, D., Lock, G., Byrne, M., et al. (2012). Going bush: Preparing pre-service teachers to teach in regional Western Australia. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 22(1), 39–55.
Watt, H. M., & Richardson, P. W. (2008). Motivations, perceptions, and aspirations concerning teaching as a career for different types of beginning teachers. Learning and Instruction, 18(5), 408–428.
White, S. (2010, September). Creating and celebrating place and partnerships: A key to sustaining rural education communities. Paper presented at the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia Conference, Sippy Downs, Queensland.
White, S., & Kline, J. (2012). Developing a rural teacher education curriculum package. Rural Educator, 33(2), 36–43.
White, S., & Reid, J. (2008). Placing teachers? Sustaining rural schooling through place consciousness in teacher education. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 23(7), 1–11.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the support of Harrison White who was the research assistant for the policy and literature review that underpins this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
White, S. (2019). Recruiting, Retaining and Supporting Early Career Teachers for Rural Schools. In: Sullivan, A., Johnson, B., Simons, M. (eds) Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers. Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, vol 16. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8621-3_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8621-3_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-8620-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-8621-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)