The impetus for the study reported in this paper was Queensland's poor performance on 2008's NAPLAN testing, the Queensland Education Performance Review (Department of Education and Training, [DET]2009b) that followed and the subsequent adoption of pre-registration tests for aspiring Primary and Early Childhood teachers (Queensland College of…

This paper reports on outcomes of Phases One and Two of the ALTC Competitive Research and Development Project "Developing Strategies at the Pre-Service Level to Address Critical Teacher Attraction and Retention Issues in Australian Rural, Regional and Remote Schools". This project funded over two years aims to strengthen the capacity and…

The study described in this paper Creating an effective practicum model for rural and regional preservice teachers is designed to address the ongoing difficulties experienced by schools and universities as they seek to provide high quality preservice teacher education for individuals in rural areas. Lecturers from the regional campuses of two…

In response to the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) Board's introduction in 2010 of the new Research Project subject, the University of South Australia's Centre for Participation and Community Engagement took the opportunity to engage further with school students by organising the Research Ready Program. The adoption of the program…

The Bradley report (2008) recommended that there be an increase in the percentage of young Australian's completing a university degree, with a subsequent target set by the Australian Federal Government to 40% of 25-34 years olds holding a first degree by 2025. As students who transition to university following completion of high school in…

For more than a decade, it has become more of a challenge to both attract and retain quality pre-service teachers to both rural and remote locations within Australia. Many pre-service teachers are reluctant to leave a preferred metropolitan location to undertake a rural or remote professional experience and often have negative views concerning…

Using recent discussions of Isaiah Berlin's two concepts of freedom as a starting point, this paper poses and attempts to answer the question, to what extent are those living in rural and remote communities "free" to pursue their dreams of higher education? What would count as adequate educational opportunity for those embracing regional and rural…

Monash University (Gippsland campus) is situated in Churchill, Latrobe Valley, located in central Gippsland, eastern Victoria. A large percentage of the Gippsland region comprises of a socio-economically disadvantaged population (Figure 1). In Semester One, 2011 as part of the Bachelor of Primary Education course at Monash, it was decided that a…

This paper describes the research process undertaken in a pilot study conducted at the University of South Australia's Centre for Regional Engagement (CRE), and reports the feedback collected in relation to this process and the project overall. Academic staff and students from CRE's two sites located in the rural and regional cities of Whyalla and…