Rural and Regional Education: Innvovation, partnerships and possibilities

[Anne Mirtschin]

Rural and Regional Education
Innovation, partnerships and possibilities

This interesting forum took part on Thursday Aug 13th and Friday 14th at the Deakin Management Centre, Deakin University Geelong. As always, innovation and partnerships are of great interest to me and I was proud to have been asked to give a short presentation on my work re connecting students and schools, on the Friday morning.
The key foci for the research group that were of interest to me were:
-investigate the nature of regional and rural school or tertiary students’ experience in education, that would provide insight into barriers to and real and potential supports for educational opportunity
-better understand the available resources and interactions within these communities that could improve the educational and life opportunities of students, enhance teacher professional learning, attract quality teachers and impact on community quality of life.
-investigate the sustainability of environmental and cultural practices that enhance educational opportunities and community wellbeing.
There are government concerns about regional and rural education and rural issues generally. The rural and regional focus is significant as it is consistent with Deakin’s charter priority concerning equity, regional and rural issues and strategic partnerships and aligns with Educational Futures and Innovation (EFI) Research Cluster’s core agendas relating to transformation and change, partnerships and equity/social justice agendas

The program included the following speakers
Professor Sue Kilpatrick, Pro Vice Chancellor (Rural andRegional), Deakin with and introduction re Deakin’s role in rural and regional education.
David Gallagher, VCAA speaking on VCAL and rural youth issues: a policy and practice perspective.
Richard Cooper, Principal, Colac College (one of the Leading School Funds schools) on setting a reform agenda for rural schools: the case of Colac College.

David Gallagher spoke on schooling and learning in the 21st Century where gaining knowledge will be replaced by the ability to actually apply that knowledge in real world situations. The educational challenges therefore are to produce students who are capable individuals, can solve problems, are creative, display integrative and collaboration skills, who can form and develop networks, are global and digital citizens with interpersonal and communication skills. This was then applied to the VCAL model.
Richard Cooper spoke about the progress of the “Colac Education Recreation and Community Precinct”, in regard to aims and significance, and the findings and implications to date. One of the aims that I particularly attuned to was to “promote Colac as a globally recognised leading rural centre of innovation and excellence”.
On Friday the following people were invited to present in short sessions:-
Karen Moore, Community participation and partnerships officer on the Corio-Norlane neighbourhood renewal project: issues, innovations and potential research partnerships
Simone White, Deakin on supporting beginning rural teachers: Lessons from successful schools
John Henry on regional post-compulsory change initiatives to improve transitions.
Mark Ross, Deakin Institute, for Koori Education, on the Indigenous perspectives on regional and rural education and community.
Greg Waddell from the Gordon Institute on TAFE pathways for rural and regional youth.
Brooke Connolly and Sue Cormack, Leisure Networks speaking about ways of connecting youth with community sports
Bernadette Walker-Gibbs and Alistair McCosh, Deakin on breaking down the walls: The potential of learning through community partnerships.
Russell Tytler, Deakin on Innovation and school – community links for rural science and mathematics education
Throughout the Friday, discussions took place around the following questions:-
What are the key issues for rural schools that need further research?
What research partnerships might be formed to address these?
What are the key issues around rural and regional youth transition issues? What are the potential research based partnerships for addressing these?
What can innovation and research partnerships offer for improving education in rural and regional communities?
The outcomes of the discussions will be summarized and emailed to the participants when completed.

[Anne Mirtschin]

Hi Richard, yes I am sure that we can make semi-literate, disillusioned youngsters global and digital citizens. Give them tools that engage them, their learning will improve - these may be digital or other. The VCAL speaker was really interesting in this repsect. Also many of the community partnerships were working towards this objective eg the Corio/Norlane regeneration project and Brooke Connolly and Sue Cormack, Leisure Networks speaking about ways of connecting youth with community sports. Further to this, part of the project being researched and set up by Alistair McCosh and Bernadette Walker-Gibbs (involving setting up online learning and video streaming) are looking at encouraging more TAFE students to take up tertiary study. Rural students now have the opportunity to connect and communicate as never before. If we work towards our goals and in partnership with the community, we will win.

[Richard Opie]

Sunded really valuable. I want to meet the needs of our early, vulnerable school leavers. I think that using the internet is the way to go. I want to use your statement about David Gallagher's aims as part of my ideas. Can we make disenfranchised and semi-literate, disillusioned youngsters global and digital citizens, in a formally educated sense, in a credential sense??