“Successful Remote Schools: What are they?”

In the context of Australian schools, educational ‘success’ is a much sought after prize. However, in the dominant discourse, laments of failure in remote schools are explained away as a result of disadvantage, dysfunction, poverty and gaps that need closing. Magic bullets and quick fixes are often suggested as the solutions for an intractable problem. But let’s take a step back for a moment. Just what is success? And what does it look like in the minds of remote education stakeholders? This lecture responds to these basic questions in the light of findings from the Cooperative Research Centre’s Remote Education Systems project, which has engaged over 1000 remote education stakeholders over the last four years. Success in the eyes of remote education stakeholders - and more particularly, remote Aboriginal community members - is about parent and community involvement in schools. It’s about community engagement. And while academic outcomes are important for remote stakeholders, to a large extent this just means being able to read, write and count. The lecture concludes with some suggestions, based on the research data, about how schools and systems can best respond to community perceptions of success

Generalising from Qualitative Research (GQR): A New Old Approach

In this paper, the authors debunk a long-held myth that generalisation is primarily the domain of quantitative research. Based on a review of modern and historical approaches to generalisation, they argue that generalisation from qualitative research (GQR) can be achieved, not through a process of self-justification, but through defensible and rigorous research design and methods. The authors go on to consider examples from their own qualitative research work spanning the last 20 years. From these examples they offer mechanisms that qualitative researchers can employ to generalise from their findings. They suggest that generalisation is achieved through a process of generalisation cycles (GCs) which produce normative truth statements (NTSs), which in turn can be contested or confirmed with theory and empirical evidence

What are the enablers of economic participation in remote and very remote Australia, and how can we identify them?

Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts by https://www.cdu.edu.au/northern-institute/lcj is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.In this paper we discuss some of the key learnings from the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC REP), Remote Education Systems, Pathways to Employment and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product research projects. While we do not deny the importance of global markets for remote Australians, we see value in opportunity structures that move beyond the confines of traditional economic and human capital theories. It is through acknowledging and building on local residents' social, identity, cultural and natural capital strengths that, we argue, has a greater potential for supporting increased economic engagement and sustainable participation. Framing our learnings through a theoretical lens of different forms of capital we argue a shift in discourse from one of 'disadvantage' to one of remote advantage would be more supportive of education, employment and enterprise outcomes for local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander residents. While such a shift will not contribute significantly to the Gross National Product we argue that it would have important tangible and economic benefits for local people and the nation

Designed Generalization from Qualitative Research

In our earlier work on generalizing from qualitative research (GQR) we identified our two-decade struggle to have qualitative research outcomes formally “listened to” by policy personnel and bureaucratic systems in general, with mixed success. The policy sector often seems reluctant to acknowledge that qualitative research findings can be generalized, so impacts tend to be informal or simply ignored. The “official” methodological literature on generalizing from qualitative research is epitomized by Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) still oft quoted, “The only generalization is: there is no generalization” (p. 110). We now understand there are many alternative possibilities for generalizing. In this paper we hope to provide a platform for discussion on GQR. We suggest Normative Truth Statements (NTS) as a foundation. NTSs, used in our proposed generalizability cycle, are a potential key to ensuring designated qualitative research methodology provides a capacity for generalization—and therefore be considered as a valid form of evidence in policy decisions. In other words, we need a platform to articulate how to design qualitative research to maximize the type and scope of generalizability outcomes, referred to here as Designed Generalization from Qualitative Research (DGQR). Five steps of DGQR, using progressive NTSs in the generalizability cycle, are proposed as a way forward in understanding how generalizing from qualitative research may be made more transparent, accountable, and useful. The five steps are illustrated by reference to two example studies

Emissions targets of New Zealand's agricultural export competitors – a literature review

This literature review forms the initial assessment of a trade modelling exercise to examine changes in New Zealand and global livestock emissions, given the implementation of carbon pricing in New Zealand. The modelling will also examine the effects of international action on agricultural emissions reductions from New Zealand’s main export competitors