Professional Experience Partnerships in Regional and Remote Schools
A Pathway to Employment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47381/aijre.v35i1.762Keywords:
Regional schooling, professional experience, partnerships, graduate employmentAbstract
The shortage of teachers in regional and remote schools remains a pressing problem and has been exacerbated by the current national teacher shortage. The preparedness and willingness of graduate teachers to work in regional and remote areas are central to this problem. Partnerships between professional experience sites, providers of initial teacher education, and education systems are considered key to a successful professional experience placement, combined they can prepare pre-service teachers for future graduate employment. This qualitative study provides insight into the perspectives of professional experience site leaders to understand the benefits and challenges of professional experience and graduate employment in regional and remote schools and how to address these issues. The findings suggest that the benefits and challenges of professional experience and graduate employment in regional and remote schools are complex and shaped by various factors. Mentor teacher availability, limited uptake of placements by pre-service teachers, a limited understanding of regional and remote contexts, specific preparation, and general early-career teacher retention all contribute to the multi-pronged complexity inhibiting regional and remote employment. Benefits such as offering an alternative to a city-centric lifestyle, fast-tracked permanency, and financial incentives have shaped policy with limited success in addressing the teacher workforce crisis. Our findings suggest an alternative approach may benefit the issue of teacher shortage in regional and remote schools. We propose the widespread implementation of successful context-specific instruction as pre-service teachers prepare for professional experience in regional and remote schools as a possible means to address the long-standing regional and remote teacher shortage.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Claire Bartlett, Brendan Bentley, Susan Ledger, Sarah James, Chris Morrissey , Jacki Thomson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to The Australian and Internation Journal of Rural Education agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that you indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to The Australian and Internation Journal of Rural Education.
Manuscripts submitted for publication should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. It is the responsibility of authors to secure release of any copyright materials included in their manuscripts, and to provide written evidence of this to the editors.
Papers are accepted on the understanding that they are subject to editorial revision. The Editorial Committee cannot guarantee that all contributions will be published nor give definite dates of publication. However, contributors will be advised if their papers are not accepted or if there will be a long publication delay.