Developing Strategies at the Pre-service Level to Address Critical Teacher Attraction and Retention Issues in Australian Rural, Regional and Remote Schools

Abstract

This ALTC project is a collaborative endeavour between the four public universities involved in teacher education in Western Australia (Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia), focussed on improving the quality of preparation of pre-service teachers for rural, regional and remote appointments. The project, building on the work of other recent Australian rural education research projects (conducted through the ARC funded Renewing Rural Teacher Education: Sustaining Schooling for Sustainable Futures [TERRAnova] and the Renewing Rural and Regional Teacher Education ALTC Curriculum projects), will create a nexus between the theory and practice of teaching and learning by developing models of pre-service teacher rural, regional and remote practicums. Existing rural health collaborative models will be drawn upon to inform the developing project. The project brings together rural community and professional partnerships (including the Society for the Provision of Education for Rural Australia [SPERA] and The National Centre of science, Information and Communication Technology, and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia [SiMERR]) that will help to sustain rural communities through the provision of quality, prepared rural, regional and remote teachers.