In this paper, we examine engagement with 'the rural context' in Australian education research, focussing on the implications of the signifier 'rural'--in terms of its inclusion or absence. A review of Australian research literature in rural education indicates that the term 'rural' and its synonyms are more often used to denote assumptions of a…

Research suggests that the use of Restorative Practice (RP) in schools can foster more positive and inclusive school communities, yet there remains limited research regarding how to embed such practices. As part of a wider study, we present data from school leaders who describe their perspectives on RP and their struggles with implementing it in…

Policies of dispersal are increasingly favoured internationally for the resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers. With forty percent of the world's forcibly displaced people being school-aged children, the dispersal of refugee-background people into regional areas means that rural schools are central sites of community response to refugees.…

This paper employs Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an analytical heuristic in exploring the internationally prevalent situation of teaching out-of-field. Drawing on interview transcripts, we use CHAT to frame the activity of a young teacher teaching mathematics out-of-field in a small rural K-12 school in Australia. We identify and…

One of the Editors' 2022 "Challenges to the Field" was: "What is the story this government wants us to tell our children?" "What is education for?" Continuing this conversation leads to a related question: What can be learnt from reviewing the history of schooling in Australia in this light? I argue here that the…

This study examined the piloting of a literacy, arts and wellbeing (LAB) project in a rural school in Queensland, Australia. The research involved a Year 1 class (n = 24) participating in co-designed lessons with their classroom teacher and two visiting researchers from a regional university. These lessons were developed with literacy learning…

Purpose: Digital learning systems are crucial for education and data collected can analyse students learning performances to improve support. The purpose of this study is to design and build an asynchronous hardware and software system that can store data on a local device until able to share. It was developed for staff and students at university…

Developing Allied Health (AH) graduates who are skilled in responding to public health needs is crucial, particularly in rural areas where workforce shortages and poor health outcomes are common. However, workforce shortages make it difficult to provide rural work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities to teach these skills. This paper presents a…

Indigenous Australian students generally attain poorer educational outcomes compared to non-Indigenous students. However, some remote schools are challenging the status quo by providing schooling experiences where Indigenous students thrive. Using an Indigenous research paradigm and a comparative case study methodology, we conducted interviews…

This paper reports on the development and use of a "Blueprint for Rural Mathematics" (herein referred to as the "Blueprint") in a study of middle-primary mathematics teaching. The study presented a counter-narrative to the deficit discourse around rural education outcomes through an emic perspective of middle-primary…

Set within the broader employment crisis facing Australian schools, attracting preservice teachers to teach in a regional, rural, and remote (RRR) school community has been a long-standing educational priority. Research has identified the role of placement initiatives, the benefits of preparing preservice teachers for RRR contexts, and the…

Purpose: This paper presents a case study of successful rural school leadership in Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices were adapted to secure rural school success. Design/methodology/approach: The author used the International Successful School Principalship Project research protocols to…

The degree to which international immersion programs affect participants can be influenced by and attributed to their experiences in the host country or community. Embedded critical experiences allow participants to immerse themselves within the breadth and depth of humanity, thus fostering connections and relationships. Further, critical…

Progress towards equitable schooling and educational outcomes in Australia has been notoriously slow, with countless reports highlighting stark inequities between rural areas and urban centres. Most reforms have been grounded in distributive notions of social justice -- addressing funding, staffing, and resourcing -- but fail to address other…

Providing behavioural support to all students is increasingly recognised as an integral part of teaching and learning in schools throughout the world. This small-scale, qualitative study reports on the perceived challenges faced by staff in implementing school-wide behavioural support at two remote Indigenous primary schools in Queensland,…