The potential and limits of online communities for rural teachers

There has been significant discussion in recent years about the use of online platforms to support communities of rural teachers. This presentation brings together the findings of a number of recent studies to discuss the potential and the limits of online communities for rural teachers. There is an emerging consensus that much can be gained through the creation of a functioning online community of rural teachers. In particular, the notion of supporting collegiality and access to experienced teachers has a well-developed theoretical basis and a proof of concept has been demonstrated a number of times on small scales (Kelly, Reushle, Chakrabarty, & Kinnane, 2014; McLean, Dixon, & Verenikina, 2014; Wenger, White, & Smith, 2009). However, rural teachers are engaging with the current generation of online communities in a way that falls short of this potential. Current communities are understood to be a range of large corporate providers (e.g. Facebook, EdModo), government sites (e.g. Scootle, The Learning Place), institutional platforms (of teacher education providers) and research-led platforms (e.g. BITTT (McLean et al., 2014)). Six ways in which rural teachers can support one another online can be understood as (following Clarke, Triggs, & Nielsen, 2014): (1) advocates of the practical; (2) conveners of relations; (3) agents of socialisation; (4) modelers of practice; (5) supporters of reflection, and; (6) providers of feedback. Preliminary evidence suggests that the current range of platforms only support 1-3 but not 4-6. The current range of platforms and communities available to rural teachers is problematised along a number of dimensions. Some platforms offer massive open communities with a great deal of knowledge, but lacking in privacy and trust. Others offer small, trusted spaces but lack the ability to scale easily or to re-use knowledge. The authors posit that it is possible to enable both, through platform design and community development. Finally, any online community for rural teachers exists within the context of current policy and of recent history. The presentation concludes by posing the question: What could be gained if rural teacher communities, policy and education were better integrated? It responds through a brief discussion of what is known about teacher attraction and retention and about the ways in which the needs of rural teachers might differ to other teachers

An Integrated Approach to Attracting and Retaining Teachers in Rural and Remote Parts of Australia

This paper presents an argument for an integrated approach to attracting and retaining rural and remote teachers. It describes existing government funded research and state government policies in this domain. It builds upon existing sociological models to propose a model of the factors influencing teacher decisions to teach in a rural location and to stay in a location. Based upon this model and the background literature the paper proposes that policy ought to be directed towards addressing both internal and external influences upon teacher behaviours in an integrated way

G'aim'ing to be a rural teacher?: Improving pre-service teacher's learning exoeriences in an online rural and remote teacher preparation course

Many Australian teachers will spend part of their careers working in small rural schools and communities, yet specific preparation for rural and remote teaching contexts during pre-service teacher education remains limited. While government reports recommend the use of innovative and engaging approaches to enhance pre-service teachers classroom readiness, the use of such approaches to the contextualised preparation of rural and remote teachers has not been specifically addressed. In a teacher education program, an innovative place-based pedagogy has been utilised to redesign an online rural education course. A gamified, case-based approach was applied to increase student engagement and motivation. Preservice teachers are immersed in an online, simulated rural context, where they navigate the experience of appointment to a rural school. This paper describes the rationale for the course redevelopment and outlines the design process. Student course feedback pre- and post-development was analysed to evaluate the outcomes achieved from the course redevelopment. The findings indicate that student engagement rose after the redevelopment, and critical reflection from the course team indicated that students were more effectively able to connect with course themes and project themselves into the position of a beginning teacher in a rural or remote location. While the development of the course is a work in progress, the initial gamification work has enabled preservice teachers to improve their classroom and community readiness for appointment to rural and remote schools, while exposing them to modelling of effective and contemporary use of technology and pedagogy which can be applied to their future classroom contexts