Perceptions of Educational Opportunities in Small Schools in Rural Australia and Canada
Abstract Australia and Canada are large countries with small populations relative to their size, in which a not inconsiderable number of citizens live beyond major centres of population. In both resource-based economies, the provision of quality education in rural schools is an important part of the national social and economic infrastructure. This article draws attention to post-compulsory educational opportunities, firstly as an issue for rural students in Australia, and, based on Australian research, its relevance for Canadian young people. Secondly, attention is directed to the realities of rural schools for urban university students and ways that the schools and a university teacher education program can be linked through past and current students of the faculty. Rural students considering urban education and urban teachers considering rural schools are both engaged in building new realities based on perceptions of non-local worlds.
Conflicting messages: sustainability and education for rural-regional sustainability
This article brings together the fields of rural education research and other rural social sciences and humanities to advance the notion of rural-regional sustainability. Literature suggests rural schooling may at times work against the interests of rural communities because of the different knowledge and value systems in operation. Through survey analysis of community understandings of sustainability in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, and a content analysis of sustainability in the curriculum documents of educational justifications servicing the same bio-region, the article outlines how conflicting meanings are often in use. These meanings, it is suggested, can work against the sustainable futures of rural communities and potentially put the missions of schools and communities in conflict. Recognizing that sustainability is a broad term used in often competing ways, the article suggests the idea of rural-regional sustainability is a positive, future-orientated term that can connect schools and communities working together to sustain rural regions.
Recent Developments in Rural and Distance Education in New Zealand and their Implications
New Zealand is one of the most geographically isolated countries in the world and has one of the smallest populations of any of the western democracies, much of it scattered over a variety of remote locations. In this isolated country, rural, and more recently, distance education have made important contributions to the development of the national way of life. Although rural and distance education do not serve the same functions in New Zealand society, each provides a service to people who, for a variety of reasons, mostly relating to the location of their homes, cannot attend schools in major centres on a daily basis. In the recent past, small schools, most of which are located in rural areas, have been reviewed in New Zealand as has one of the country’s most prominent distance education institutions, the Correspondence School. Accordingly, the 1991 Report of the Economic and Educational Viability of Small Schools Review and the recent Review of the Correspondence School form the basis of this survey of recent developments in rural and distance education in New Zealand...