Red Dirt Teachers – System responses to community aspirations
Red Dirt Teachers – System responses to community aspirations Conference Paper
AARE 2015: Coast to coast: locations and directions in educational research
- Author(s): Disbray, Samantha, Guenther, John
- Published: 2015
Abstract: The Remote Education Systems project within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation has gathered and analysed qualitative data directly from over 230 remote education stakeholders and from more than 700 others through surveys over the last four years. Four research questions guided the study: 1) What is education for in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities?; 2) What defines ‘successful’ educational outcomes from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint?; 3) How should teaching and learning look to achieve ‘success’ as defined by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint?; and 4) What would an effective education system in remote Australia look like? This paper reports findings that identify teacher qualities important from the perspective of remote community members and local teaching staff. Dominant themes have that emerged include community relationships, support for home language and culture, cultural safety, safety and well-being, and English as a second language pedagogy. The analysis relates these themes to system responses for remote education contexts and the mechanisms for such responses. These include policy for teacher standards, recruitment, orientation and in-servicing at level of the teacher, and school-wide practice, and resourcing at the level of schools. The paper explores the notion of a quality teacher for the remote context. It proposes policy and practice that allow systems to meet these aspirations. A key means is through recognition of remote education as a specialist area of teaching and the provision of targeted professional learning, at pre-service and induction, and in on-going learning. The second is through ways that schools respond to aspirations on the ground through the active involvement of community members in education settings.
- Urls: https://www.aare.edu.au/publications/aare-conference-papers/show/10212/red-dirt-teachers-system-responses-to-community-aspirations
- Publisher Location: Melbourne