The Key to Keeping Teachers in Rural Settings
Arriving at a country posting is a challenging if you are a city person. It’s strange, new, very quiet and a bit lonely and for those reasons country teaching has a high rate of attrition.
A new study has found that building connections to country can help retain teachers rural and regional areas in jobs. Community connections provide fulfilment for country teachers, teachers need targeted training for remote and regional postings and a more racially literate approach in Indigenous communities.
Teacher John who is based in a remote WA town, where 50 per cent of its population were Indigenous, talks about the benefits he gained from becoming actively involved in the community.
“So pretty much this is home. I’ve joined all the sporting committees over the years, I’ve been on council, I’m a volunteer [paramedic] so I’m entrenched in the community now,” he said.
The Edith Cowan University study, 'Finding Their Place: How Teachers can Become Part of Their Rural Communities', examines the benefits of supporting teachers to develop ‘place consciousness and racial literacy’ when working in rural and regional communities.
Although one-third of teachers in Australia work in regional and remote schools, there is currently no requirement for Initial Teacher Education programs to address the unique skillset needed for regional and rural teaching.
Lead author of the study, Dr Mary-anne Macdonald from ‘Kurongkurl Katitjin’ Edith Cowan University’s Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research said better systems needed to be introduced to equip teachers for these experiences.
“The onus is on systems (government policy, Initial Teacher Education, graduate induction, and rural teacher support programs) to increase teachers’ capacity to value and enjoy rural life so they can contribute effectively,” she said.
"Successful rural teachers value the social capital in their communities and connect to the community social space. They use their understanding of place to contextualise learning."
Dr Macdonald said most teachers who left an urban life to work in remote schools had left behind their support network.
“The tyranny of distance is often perceived as the greatest challenge for teacher retention in regional and remote schools in Australia," she said.
“Perhaps more accurately, it is the tyranny of placelessness.
"Teachers who feel they belong, will be more likely to stay. They achieve a sense of fulfilment, and commitment to their role as rural educators. And we know this leads to better outcomes for students.
“The difficulty of attracting and retaining high quality teachers in rural, remote and regional schools is recognised as a significant contributing factor to differences in student performance between metropolitan and non-metropolitan schools in Australia."
Dr Macdonald and her colleagues conducted focus groups and interviews with 21 teachers in a remote WA town for their study.
The teachers were from both government and non-government schools, and one was a pre-service teacher.
The teachers who had established a sense of belonging in their remote location and demonstrated place-connectedness provided feedback about their experiences with developing a rural consciousness and integrating into their community social space.
Only three participants had more than 10 years’ experience, with one of these having taught for over 20 years.
Co-author of the study, Edith Cowan University's Dr Christina Gray, said respondents in the study who had previous experience in regional or small communities demonstrated understanding and appreciation of the social capital present within such spaces.
“These teachers demonstrated a level of place-consciousness that was at least place-willing, if not more,” she said.
They respected and responded to the Indigenous community.
“A common thread amongst participants who demonstrated place-connectedness was their initiative in developing respectful relationships inside and outside of the schoolground,” Dr Gray said.
“They understood that in a town of mixed racial demographics, local Indigenous ecological, historical and social knowledges hold relevance to all students."
Image by Rachel Clare