Academic literature on the topic 'Rural schools Victoria'

Abstract Despite decades of often ambitious policies in Australia, languages education is still characterized by intermittent commitment to the teaching of languages, with inequitable access particularly entrenched in rural and regional contexts. While research has focused on the practical and material constraints impacting on policy implementation, little research has investigated the role of the discursive terrain in shaping expectations and limitations around what seems achievable in schools, particularly, from the school principal perspective. Beginning with an overview of policy interventions and an analysis of contemporary challenges, we use Q methodology to identify and analyze viewpoints at work in similarly-positioned rural and regional schools. In doing so, we seek to determine what seems possible or impossible across settings; the role of principals in enabling and constraining pathways for the provision of school language programs, and the need for macro-level language policy to be informed by constraints specific to rural and regional contexts.

The school has a number of roles in a rural community. This paper investigates just what those roles are in three rural high schools in the Wimmera District of Victoria. After summarising the roles provided by interviews in the three schools, four of the roles are examined in more detail. These are the community use of the school facilities, the expenditure of the staffs in the three communities, the involvement of the staff in community associations and organisations and the employment created by the three schools. The investigation shows that in those three communities, the schools are important. In addition, the paper refers to roles which are difficult to quantify such as tradition and community integrity. These roles are also of importance to the rural communities.

At Victoria University of Wellington several rural education research programs are in process, covering a diverse range of subjects ranging from short term projects to a ten year longitudinal study. Most of the projects relate to the application of new communication technologies in remote schools and the outcomes of educational policies for isolated learners.

This paper shows that bilingual education has a long tradition in Australia. In the 19th century, primary and secondary schools operating German-English, French-English or Gaelic-English programs, or ones with a Hebrew component, existed in different parts of Australia. The most common bilingual schools were Lutheran rural day schools but there were also many private schools. They believed in the universal value of bilingualism, and some attracted children from English-speaking backgrounds. Bilingual education was for language maintenance, ethno-religious continuity or second language acquisition. The languages were usually divided according to subject and time of day or teacher. The programs were strongest in Melbourne, Adelaide and rural South Australia and Victoria. In Queensland, attitudes and settlement patterns led to the earlier demise of bilingual education. The education acts led to a decline in bilingual education except in elitist girls or rural primary schools and an increase in part-time language programs. Bilingual education was stopped by wartime legislation. It is intended that bilingualism can flourish unless monolingualism is given special preference.

Purpose: The vision or mission statement of a school outlines the school’s purpose and defines the context, goals, and aspirations that govern the institution. Using vision and mission statements, the present descriptive research study investigated trends in Australian secondary schools’ priorities. Research Methods: A stratified sample of secondary school vision and mission statements across 308 schools from government, independent, and Catholic sectors in Victoria, Australia, was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Findings: Academic achievement was the most common theme, with school belonging and mental health promotion themes cited by over half of the schools. School belonging was emphasized more often by Catholic schools compared with independent and government schools, and by rural schools compared with urban schools. Implications: Australian schools are seemingly adopting a dual purpose: to be academic institutions and well-being enhancing institutions. Understanding the priorities of schools using vision and mission statements may guide researchers, administrators, and teachers about how to better meet the academic and psychological needs of the students. The priorities of schools also have implications for how research in this area is communicated to schools, and this study provides a method for capturing these priorities.

Under the Distance Education Plan of the NSW Department of School Education, the provision of a full secondary education to rural students has been enhanced through the use of technology based communication networks. In the Riverina region of New South Wales, a pilot project linking three Central Schools into a cluster commenced in 1990. This pilot project is known as the Telematics Access Program and is similar to other projects in operation in Victoria and Queensland. Each school is linked to the other schools in the cluster by teleconference, fax and electronic blackboard computer facilities. Through the schools in the cluster sharing teacher expertise and using the technology to link students and teachers, a comprehensive Years 11 and 12 curriculum has been offered to these students. Students can select from 17 subjects currently available.

Vocational choice has been a critical issue for rural Queensland families for many years although it remains a little documented aspect of the lives of secondary school students and their parents who live in the outback. While rural education has received official recognition as an area of disadvantage in the Australian education system for almost two decades (Schools Commission, 1975; Commission of Inquiry into Poverty in Australia, 1976) vocational choice in outback schools, which is central to the relationships between both school and work and school and tertiary education, has not been prominent in the research literature in spite of several recent reports (Boomer, 1988; Australian Education Council Review Committee, 1991; National Board of Employment, Education and Training, 1991). This research project has been designed to investigate the processes of post secondary school education and vocational choices for families in a representative community and to consider the implications of this issue for schools and policy makers. The research project was initiated by Dr David McSwan of James Cook University's Rural Education Research and Development Centre and Dr Ken Stevens of the Faculty of Education at Victoria University in Wellington in New Zealand. Specifically, the research will investigate how families with year ten, eleven and twelve students in a selected North Queensland community make choices about post secondary school education and careers.

This paper investigates the health and welfare needs of students (n = 15,806) and the current service model in Catholic schools in the Ballarat Diocese of Victoria, Australia. Catholic schools use a service model underpinned by an ethos of pastoral care; there is a strong tradition of self-reliance within the Catholic education system for meeting students' health and welfare needs. The central research questions are: What are the emerging health and welfare needs of students? How does pastoral care shape the service model to meet these needs? What model/s might better meet students? primary health care needs? The research methods involved analysis of (1) extant databases of expressed service needs including referrals (n = 1,248) to Student Services over the last 2.5 years, (2) trends in the additional funding support such as special needs funding for students and the Education Maintenance Allowance for families, and (3) semi-structured individual and group interviews with 98 Diocesan and school staff responsible for meeting students' health and welfare needs. Analysis of expressed service needs revealed a marked increase in service demand, and in the complexity and severity of students' needs. Thematic analysis of qualitative interview data revealed five pressing issues: the health and welfare needs of students; stressors in the school community; rural isolation; role boundaries and individualised interventions; and self-reliant networks of care. Explanations for many of these problems can be located in wider social and economic forces impacting upon the church and rural communities. It was concluded that the pastoral care model - as it is currently configured - is not equipped to meet the escalating primary health care needs of students in rural areas. This paper considers the implications for enhanced primary health care in both rural communities and in schools.

The purpose of this study was to obtain the opinions of principals and teachers on school entry age and determine if principals and teachers believe younger children are disadvantaged academically and/or socially compared with their older peers. Subjects were all primary principals and teachers currently teaching in 41 schools situated within a 30km radius of a rural city in South Eastern Victoria. The schools comprise State, Catholic and one Christian school, ranging from a one-teacher rural school with six pupils to a school with 23 teachers and 470 pupils. Data was obtained by distribution of two self-administered questionnaires - one for principals and one for teachers. Thirty-two principals and 112 teachers returned questionnaires. A majority of both principals and teachers believe children should be at least five years of age when they begin school. Younger children have more problems academically and socially and they tend to remain behind their older peers. It is suggested that children be evaluated for school readiness before being allowed to begin

Objective: This article offers a framework to guide schools in developing a compassionate culture. Using a social constructionist/critical perspective, five spheres of work are identified to help schools achieve this goal. Framing death, dying and bereavement from a health promoting perspective, they involve challenging current cultural perceptions, creating a culture of support, creating a grief-informed culture, establishing a culture of reflection and reflexivity, and developing a whole school plan. Setting: Eight rural primary school communities in central Victoria, Australia. Method: Constructivist grounded theory with interviews and analysis occurring concurrently, allowing categories to develop alongside new questions to explore participants’ thinking and priorities. Results: Participants’ insights, knowledge and priorities fostered understanding and led to the five strategies for change that underpin this framework. Conclusion: Study participants’ desire for a societal, cultural shift in how to understand death, dying and bereavement issues in school communities serves as an important foundation for change.

The research reported in this thesis investigated perceptions about the nature and purpose of religious education of parents and teachers in a study of one Catholic secondary school in regional Victoria, Australia. In the research project data were collected using questionnaires and interviews from parents and teachers of religious education associated with the particular secondary school. These data were analysed and interpreted against a spectrum of purposes for religious education that were drawn from the literature. The literature reviewed included documents relevant to religious education from the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and also from theorists in the field of religious education both from Australia and beyond. The theories about religious education generated by the literature review provided a framework within which to compare and contrast how the parents and the teachers understood religious education. While all of the religious education teachers took part in the research, the parents self-selected. This meant that those who responded were mostly Catholic from a school where there were 23% of families with no Catholic parent. A decision was made to focus this study on the new Catholic religious education guidelines, since this was seen to be essential because of the mandation by the bishop and Catholic Education Office of the Diocese of Ballarat. All parents were invited to respond, but mostly Catholic parent did. It was discovered that the parents and the teachers were in agreement in relation to most areas of religious education, especially in areas associated with values, morality, individual spirituality and what might be termed 'religious literacy'. Parents and teachers were shown to have different attitudes towards religious education in the senior school.;The data also highlighted the importance of the role of the teachers and school in providing religious education for families who have become distanced from traditional religious institutions. Many of the parents endorsed the school as the primary place for their children to receive information about religion, and chose to distance themselves from the religious education process in favour of allowing the 'experts' at the school to take on this role on behalf of the family. The thesis raised issues for the ways in which the school communicated with parents, both in terminology and technology. Overall, the findings affirmed the work of the teachers in religious education by parents who were 'time poor' and who wished to see the school take on the primary role of educating the children about religion, with expectations that the children would be fully exposed to the Catholic religious tradition in its teachings, ethics, liturgy and social justice practices.

Most women use family planning services during their reproductive lifetime, but many lack ready access to such services, particularly in a rural area. The aim of this study was to document and thus develop an understanding of the facilitators and barriers to accessing three types of family planning services (emergency contraception, termination of pregnancy, and options counselling) within a particular rural area of Victoria, Australia, and how these might affect women’s psychosocial health and their ability to make timely decisions about continuation of a pregnancy.

The objective of this study was to give voice to women experiencing psychiatric rehabilitation services in rural Victoria. A critical analysis of the literature revealed a landscape of marginalisation and alienation for women experiencing a mental illness in a rural area. This study used a phenomenological method to explore the meanings of women's experiences. The understanding of meaning was developed through a dual perspective with women experiencing rural psychiatric rehabilitation and workers who delivered these services. The research centred on the voices of the women but encouraged a personal and collective reflective approach with workers. As the researcher I also took a reflexive approach which highlighted the methodology as an evolving and ongoing process and demonstrated the integral nature of the researcher in the research process. A chapter on locating the researcher was included as part this reflective process. The analysis of the collective stories produced a rich diversity of material was drawn together thematically to include: • Reflections of struggle; • Long way from anywhere: • The rural dimension; • Construction of a caring relationship, and, • Interlinking care. Through this thesis I argue that women are marginalised and alienated by social cultural conditions of their lives which impacts on their mental illness and rural experiences. However, women are not a homogenous group and a diversity of experiences exists which demonstrates women's active capacity to mediate their environment. As active participants in their psychiatric rehabilitation care the women were able to shift their identity from one of powerlessness and lack of control towards regaining control and managing their illness and environment. The thesis is a story of transformation as the women progressively moved forward in their journey.

Statistics show that Australia has an ageing population which will experience radical changes over the next 50 years due to the progression into retirement of generations born in the ‘baby boom’ years (1945-1965). Statistics also show that the proportion of Australian people over 65 is increasing and, as the majority of deaths occur in this age group the demand for palliative care, or care of the dying, is also likely to increase. Many retiring baby boomers looking for a sea change, gravitate towards coastal and rural areas may well be contributing to Foskey’s (1998) notion of ‘Aged Care Ghettos’ where these areas may not have the desired infrastructure to deal with an increased demand for health services including palliative care services. An increasing focus on, and public interest in palliative care research will likely emerge in keeping with the changing needs of an ageing population. It will become particularly important that relevant research undertakings are initiated to establish a clearer understanding of the issues and problems surrounding palliative care. At the present time there exists a limited research base in relation to palliative care and related services in Australia. While there has been a concentration of palliative support services in urban settings this has not been the case in rural based settings. Palliative Care Australia (2000) reported that half of the people receiving palliative care in Victoria in 1997 died in rural and regional areas, which may be attributed to harsher living environments, poor access to health services, specialists, and health professionals, lower socio-economic status and employment levels, and exposure to occupational hazards. This thesis is concerned with examining palliative care services and related needs in a selected rural area within the Australian state of Victoria. The overall aim of this research was to investigate the availability of palliative care services, trends in ageing and to examine the relationship between the two. Methodology used in this research incorporated a sequential mixed methods approach of quantitative and then qualitative methodology to determine the relationship between the needs of an ageing population and rural palliative care service delivery in Australia. The data collection included demographic statistics from the Australian Bureau of Census and Statistics and Palliative Care Australia, and were used for descriptive purposes to inform and support this research. Other ordinal data were obtained using a questionnaire. These data were analysed in the context of the research. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews with focus groups. The Gippsland area provided an excellent area for this research and the findings of this research would appear to be consistent with the literature relating to access and equity issues faced in rural areas. Other rural areas may replicate the data gathering used in this research. A number of conclusions are able to be drawn from this research based on the review of literature and examination of the emerging issues, results and findings. Statistical projections into ageing indicate that the health of all Australians will have significant consequences for our society as we generally live longer and healthier lives. Health and ageing predictions and projections should prompt key stakeholders including baby boomers, the aged cohorts of the future, to plan and prepare, perhaps redefining ageing in the attempt. Findings further show that planning should include preparations for the expected rise of dementia related diseases and the implications of gender on health which will have ramifications for an ageing population, and in particular for women as carers in our society. As a result of this research recommendations are made for a model for the delivery of palliative care services in rural areas, which is specific to the needs of an ageing population. These recommendations are made in acknowledgement and with respect and consideration for the concerns of the rural community where feedback from focus group participants suggests that rather than another ‘model’, a hospice is what is needed to meet the current and future needs of rural communities. “Another ‘Model’ is the last thing we need, it’s not the how we are doing things, it’s the where – we desperately need a hospice down here” and, “It’s bricks and mortar we want down here, not more theories”. Evidence collected from this research also suggests that a ‘rural attitude’ to death and dying may prevail. In its simplest form, this attitude emerges in statements such as: ‘it’s the country you expect to get less’ and ‘we just look after our own when we can’. It is also apparent that while people in rural areas have the same medical and palliative care needs as those in metropolitan areas, this research shows that they are differentially disadvantaged when it comes to accessing palliative care services. This research has found that a negative relationship exists between ageing trends in a selected rural area of Australia chosen for this study and the availability of palliative care services.

Community interventions are a recent development in the field of prevention. This study sought to address the current gap in this area, between scientific knowledge and community practice, through an understanding of practitioners’ experiences of implementation. A case study was undertaken to explore the context and complexity of implementation processes. Data was collected concurrently with the implementation of a community intervention located in rural Victoria, Australia, which aimed to reduce early school leaving. Implementers’ perspectives on a guide to best practice, developed from the academic literature, were sought. Concepts from systems theory and ecological approaches were combined to create a framework suitable for the analysis of the data. The intervention was viewed as an open system. Its progression from being a subsystem of the funded organization to a subsystem of both the funded organization and the community was examined. Factors such as meeting community needs and community members as program staff were found to facilitate community acceptance. The interactions within and between the subsystems of the intervention and the community were also explored. School retention rates were suggestive of some level of impact on school leaving. Additional positive outcomes were the facilitation and/or strengthening of links between community subsystems, and a perceived change within the funded organization. This thesis goes some way towards bridging the gap between science and practice in this field. Findings contribute to the debate regarding flexibility versus fidelity and a greater understanding of the unique challenges faced by rural interventions.

This thesis examines the impacts of planning controls on agriculture and rural land use in the Shire of Bass. The systems approach to planning has been used to provide a context for examining the past and emerging policy base, both explicit and implicit, for the introduction and administration of planning controls in the Shire. The impact of land use controls on agriculture and rural land use were examined in physical, economic and social terms using a range of information including Council records, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census data and the results of a survey of farmers and small lot owners which was undertaken as part of this research.

In recent times, with regards to rural water supplies in Victoria and most other parts of Australia, emphasis is placed more on efficient use of existing water resources than on new resource developments. This is especially true for irrigation systems. This emphasis is mainly due to limited funds available for construction works, lack of suitable hydrologic sites, and the spirited and justifiable lobbying of enviromnental groups against construction of new projects. Hence to meet the increased water demands, efficient operation of existing irrigation systems is required. Recently with the high computational power of personal computers, irrigation scheduling based on an accounting of soil water budget components has become popular around the world. This research project focuses on such irrigation scheduling techniques, with the aim of improving the efficiency of water use, thus leading to conservation of water resources.

The book “Experiências Narradas: Relatos e vivências no espaço escolar” is the result of a collective formation process in the perspective of the Narrative Documentation of Pedagogical Experiences with a group of 16 Basic Education teachers, developed by the Research Group in Education, Narratives, and Teaching Experience in Secondary Education – Narratividades, of the Federal University of Vale do São Francisco – Univasf. With the narratives presented, it institutes teaching authorship and the dissemination of the experiential knowledge constituted in the daily life of urban and rural classrooms, of difference, and diversity. Each chapter is motivated by the following key question: How did I get here? Such a provocation seeks to interweave the several journeys made by each of these teachers, their challenges, victories, learnings, and inspirations. Bringing these teachers together in this publication aims to inspire many other professionals through important elements, actions, and life experiences as a permanent challenge in the professional field. Retrieving such elements, which result in several learnings within the formative process proposed, represents resistance and persistence in this union of pedagogical knowledge and teaching practices. The narratives recorded in this book invite and inspire through inexperienced experiences that give birth to the teacher-educator, the passion for teaching, the discovery of the new based on the already lived, but not perceived, the hopes implicit in life and in the classroom, the universe already discovered and yet to discover, the come into being in teaching; the presence of the school ground materialized in words that come together to speak about the knowledge constituted by the pedagogical experience in Basic Education.

Alively, Towheaded, Eight-Year-Old Boy shivered with dread and excitement on a cool morning in September 1900 in Ottertail County, Minnesota, as he headed for his first day of school. His older brother, Mads, and his older sister, Esther, had already attempted this venture, and neither had liked it at all. For many, not only the first day of school but latter days as well were a harrowing experience. Subsequently his six younger brothers and sisters would make the same journey, and most of them would not like it either. His father offered one piece of advice in Danish, the only language spoken in the family, “When the teacher looks at you, stand up and say, ‘My name is Victor Lincoln Albjerg.’” That was his preparation for schooling in America. His parents’ concession to his need for Americanization was his middle name; they offered few others. Victor Lincoln Albjerg was my father. Little Victor followed his father’s advice precisely, and when the teacher turned to him, he rose and replied as his father had instructed. Derisive laughter from his fellow students and a frown from the teacher greeted him. Confused and embarrassed, he sat immediately, and understood why Mads and Esther had sought to avoid school. Obviously the teacher had asked him something other than his name, but, since she spoke English and he spoke only Danish, he had no idea what she had said. The teacher, on the other hand, recognized that her preeminent task was to teach her pupils English, and to do so she forbade them from speaking their family language to each other in the school or schoolyard. The sharp rap of the birch rod met such infractions. Despite his inauspicious beginning, Victor prospered in the school, more than his father wished. Victor’s father believed in schooling only within “thrifty limits,” by which he meant a modicum of English and arithmetic and perhaps a bit else but not enough to give students an appetite for further book learning that might take them away from their local environment. As his father feared, Victor, unlike his brothers, did not want to return to the family farm. As he expressed it, “I wanted to be somebody—a rural schoolteacher.”

What can be learned through teaching and learning in crises, such as bushfires, floods, and the global COVID-19 disruption? How can insights gained be applied to prepare for inevitable future disruption to normal operation, especially in regions identified to be prone to natural hazards? In 2021, focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with academics, clinical tutors, and professional staff members to explore staff perceptions in a regional medical school in eastern Victoria, Australia, about their experiences of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategies are suggested to sustain teaching in times of crisis or natural disaster to future-proof against inevitable change including protocols, policy, staff checklists, and staff continuing professional development.

The Conclusion sums up ongoing anxieties about lower-class cultural difference in the wake of Donald Trump’s electoral victory, exploring the notion that the rural white working class inhabits an alternative culture hostile toward expert knowledge. The Conclusion develops this notion through a reading of Carolyn Chute’s The School on Heart’s Content Road and Treat Us like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves. In these fictions, Chute imagines an educational co-op that creates working-class experts, bypassing the division between professionals and lower-class clients that marked the Community Action Program. Chute embodies this notion of working-class expertise in the novels’ form; she presents them as alternative histories, accessible to nonexpert reading practices. However, the novels replicate the War on Poverty–era notion of class culture, which cannot be eradicated without exterminating the tribal consciousness of working-class Maine.