The paper explores the role of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) and the challenges it has faced as the primary voice for Australian rural educators. The paper charts the origins of SPERA, and the contributions of key people involved in its foundation. The paper then examines the advocacy and impact of SPERA…

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…

Impending changes in Australian education brings forth the expected transformation of teachers working in schools. Three key points for transforming Australian schools has been identified by Gillard (2008a) including the improvement of quality teaching, ensuring every child benefits and mandating transparency and accountability. A number of…

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…

This paper outlines a project to develop and track "design thinking" skills within groups of students in late primary and early secondary years of schooling in order to strengthen their creative skills and innovative mindsets. The outcome of the research will be the development of a model for the broad-based implementation of design thinking 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…

Early career teachers eager to find employment are often encouraged by employers to accept positions in remote locations which are traditionally difficult to staff. This paper reports research that examined a case study of a graduate teacher employed in a remote school. Drawing on resilience theory, we challenge the profession to consider whether…

Teaching in remote schools can prove to be a challenging experience. Twenty three teachers from remote schools, located in Western Australia, were interviewed about their teaching and living experiences in isolated communities. The interview questions were designed to elicit information regarding three areas: demographic information; reasons for…