PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHING IN TWO TYPES OF ISOLATED AUSTRALIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: AN ANALYSIS OF FOUR DIMENSIONS OF RURAL EDUCATION /'

Abstract

in the hinterland of two major c6astal cities. In this way A and B represent.two types of rural Australian schools in terms of their location in relation to urban areas.
A variety of studies havifdrawn attention to difficulties rural teachers face in Australia (Adsett, 1974;Australian Teachers' Federation, 1976;Commonwealth Schools Commission, 1988;Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission, 1988;Cusack, 1974;Green, 1967;McGaw, w;1975;Reid, 1969;Steven 1981;Storey, 1969;Tay10r, 1969;. The author's ethnographic work in school A, followed by research in school B in the late 1980's as part of a visit to Australia, suggest that perceptions of teaching in rural communities is influenced by the extent of the geographic isolation that is experienced.
Teaching in remote areas has never been as popular in Australia as employment in urban schools. Consequently, a characteristic of teachers in many rural schools has been their youthfulness and, associated with this, minimal professional experience.
Living conditions in many outback areas have been seen as less than desirable by many young teachers who are used to urban lifestyles (Schools Commission, 1975;Fitzgerald, 1976;Stevens, 1981) and this has contributed to their feelings of alienation from the communities they are expected to serve. Living conditions have in the past also contributed to the desire of many young teachers to leave rural schools as soon as possible (Tumey, 1980;Stevens, 1981) although this has sometimes been interpreted at local level as lack of professional commitment.
A feature of teaching in rural Queensland secondary schools has been lack of professional contact at an early (and therefore critical) stage of a teacher's career. Rural teachers do not usually have experienced colleagues to turn to locally with their professional problems and, as a result, many lack guidance in undertaking such basic tasks as choosing textbooks, coping with student assessment, teaching unfamiliar areas of the curriculum and managing unwilling students. Young and inexperienced rural teachers often develop very good understandings of the state education system which exiled them to remote parts of the country and leam how to persuade its officials to transfer them to urban classrooms at the earliest opportunity. (Recent economic conditions in Australia have, however, provided more stability in terms of staffing the country's rural schools.) Many teachers in rural Queensland secondary schools are young, unsettled, unsure of their professional directions, lacking in guidance, and, in many cases, resentful of what they perceive to be their exile from city life. These teachers are likely to be urban rather than rural-oriented as they consider their families, colleagues, employers (the State Education Department), and careers. The nature of the relationship between rural teachers and urban centres in schools A and B is described below using a modified version of an instrument developed by Campbell (1975). Teachers in rural schools A and B (N=24) were all from urban backgrounds. As urban teachers working in rural areas four distinct but interrelated relationships were perceived in their orientation to teaching: relationships with (a) rural students and their communities, (b) the Queensland Department of Education in Brisbane, (c) other members of the teaching profession throughout Australia, and (d) their own assessments of themselves as urban teachers in rural schools and their futures in the profession.
One: Relationships BetWeen Urban Teachers and Rural Students/Rural Communities Teachers were asked, by questionnaire, about the nature of their relationships with students and thetUral communities in which they lived. The following table shows the extent of the concern that was expressed in each school.

Key (a) Frequency
4 This is of very great concern to me 3 This is of moderate concern to me 2 This is of slight concern to me I This is of no concern to me Concern Frequency Concern 1 2 3 4 1 234 1 2 3 4 322 5 1 6 5 0 154 1 7 2 3 0 8 3 1 0 7 1 1 2 6 2 2 2 6 4 2 0 5 4 1 1 623 1 5 2 5 0 4 4 3 0 (b) Concern 4 I experience this all the time 3 I experience this sometimes 2 I experience this rarely I I never experience this These responses indicate that in the more remote school (School A) teachers found it difficult to separate their profession from their social lives although in each location, only a minority of teachers found this to be a matter of concern. Many of the teachers explained that they did not have social lives in the communities in which they lived as they either left town and went to a city in the weekends (most of these were in School B) or mixed largely with each other out of school hours.
More teachers in School A than in School B felt that they were unable to establish appropriate relationships with students suggesting that in addition to the remote location in which they lived, a greater measure of professional isolation was experienced. Several women teachers in School A expressed feelings of alienation about the life-styles they observed in the outback and in particular, concern about the subordination of members of their sex in virtually all aspects of life. A major barrier to establishing close relationships with people by young women teachers was their consciousness of their higher educations and the incongruity of this in the environments in which they found themselves. Few of the women residents in these communities had jobs and none had professions. Young, single, tertiary-educated women teachers found little companionship and often experienced loneliness and strong feelings of alienation from the communities in which they taught. Fewer teachers in the more remote school (School A) noted that they were not accorded appropriate status by the community. In School B, teachers were not the sole professionals in the community and many respondents felt that they were accorded a lower social status than was expected.   Teachers in Schools A and B expressed different attitudes towards their employer. In the more remote school there were stronger feelings about the insensitivity of the Department and its officers. Within the decentralised administrative structure of education in Australian states, School B was relatively close to the regional offices of the Department, whereas school A had few visil~ from either central or regional representatives and was geographically remote from both. It is not surprising therefore to find that teachers in School A felt less well informed about the scope of their responsibilities and indicated in the above responses, less understanding of how they were regarded as teachers by Departmental officers. Almost half the teachers in School A pointed out that this was a matter of concern of them.
A third of the teachers in School A indicated that they found difficulty in getting necessary information to do their jobs properly and stated that this was a matter of concern. This was not seen as a problem or a matter of concern in less remote School B. A range of questions aboufhow teachers in each rural school perceived themselves in relation to other teachers (most of whom teach in urban schools) provides insight into their day-to-day professional relationships.  Teachers in School B reported more new teaching demands on them than those in School A. This is a matter that requires further investigation but the closer contact with Departmental officers that has been that has been noted above together with the closer relationships with students experienced in school B should be considered in seeking an explanation. Teachers who are not well known in their communities are less likely to have increased demands made upon them. Teachers in the more remote school expressed less confidence in their abilities to handle their jobs which again can be related to the lower level of contact they had with the Queensland Department of Education. Almost half the teachers in School A were concerned about this.
Teachers in School A expressed stronger feelings of powerlessness in influencing their Principals than those in School B, and, although this was possibly related to the personalities of the head teachers in each school, it contributes to the overall picture of professional isolation experienced by teachers in the more remote school.
Education in Rural Australia, V 01 2 (2) ..... Page 19 A major difference between Schools A and B was that 75% of teacher~ in School A indicated low morale including not being liked by their colleagues; this can in part be explained by their responses to the last three questions in the above table. Most teachers in School A indicated that the quality of their teaching suffered because too much work was required, and, of particular significance, that they were required to do things against their better judgement. For most, this meant being unsure of what to do and having no experienced professional at hand to whom to turn for help. Easier access to both professional and lay assistance in School B removed a degree of professional anxiety.
Four: Professional Satisfaction and the Future Teachers in Schools A and B were asked to rate their responses to the following questions:     The above responses indicate that most teachers in both schools found teaching in a rural community satisfying although most of the dissatisfaction that was expressed came from teachers in School A. Most teachers saw their futures in the profession but none intended to remain in a rural area. Almost all of the teachers in each school responded that they would not remain in their present positions if they did not get the jobs that they wanted. These responses have an ominous significance for the future of rural Australian schools.

Conclusion
Teachers in both Schools A and B faced double isolation: not only were they sent to live and work in remote parts of the country, in doing so they were isolated from their profession and their employers. It appears from the above responses that the degree of isolation from major centres of population as well as from the (largely urban) teaching profession shapes the perceptions of rural teachers. If the responses to the above questions can be replicated in other Australian communities it will be necessary to consider a Perspective of rural schools based on the nature of their relationships with urban areas. The position of teachers in rural communities is often a significant one (Maclaine 1966, Lauglo 1982) and its effectiveness can be improved by knowing more about the nature of the tasks that are performed as well as difficulties that are experienced. Unless the nature and the extent of rural teachers' isolation is recognised, it is unlikely that steps can be taken to improve the position of rural students. Nash's (1980) thesis that the characteristics of rural life "are to be understood as determined by the relationships which exist between the urban centres and the rural areas" has immediate implications for teachers in isolated Australian schools. An important dimension of rural life is the nature of the education that is provided locally. The responses of the teachers in Schools A and B indicate that the quality of their relationships with the rest of their profession, with rural Education in Rural Australia, Vol2 (2) ..... Page 21 students and their communities as well as with their employer are all impQrtant aspects of the provision of education. Overall, in the more remote school, School A, teachers' professional concerns were more acute than those expressed in School B suggesting that the education they pr6vided was influenced by the nature of the relationships they had with urban Australia.
Research into rural education has been dominated by issues of disadvantage (Edington, 1970) inequality of opportunity (Fyfield, 1970;Verco and Whiteman, 1970) and concern about the quality of schools provided for outback children (Edgar 1978, Schools Commission, 1975Commonwealth Schools Commission, 1987;Tumey, tlJ!I, 1980). It has been pointed out that a major problem in considering rural education in Australia is the existence of a myth that the rural minority are somehow "basically 'different' from the city people" (Bessant, 1978). A major report however noted: "One problem which emerges in rural schools is that in most cases the content of schooling is not tailored to students' needs but simply replicates that of urban schools. This is justified by teachers who have been trained to accept the policy that general curricula, universally available, constitute the best basis for leaming and preparation for the future ... it seems that the background and cultural reality of country children are ignored." (Fitzgerald, 1976) The challenge to rural educators is to reduce the effects of isolation for themselves while choosing between the position taken by Bessant (l978) that rural students are not "basically 'different' from city people" and that expressed by Fitzgerald (1976) that the "background and cultural reality" of country children should not be ignored.