A survey of home-schooling parents and staff associated with the Longreach School of Distance Education in a remote area of Queensland (Australia) examined attitudes about the importance of drama and visual arts education. The majority of parents valued their children's participation in the arts and would like to see more arts education included…

Examines the context of rural communities in Australia and the extent to which inaccurate stereotypes about rurality have misshaped public policy and programs. Advocates developing a rural development plan that capitalizes on the unique attributes of rural Australia and focuses on rural empowerment, environmental concerns, entrepreneurship, and…

The Broken Hill School of the Air provides distance education to isolated rural students in the far west of New South Wales (Australia). Services include correspondence study, radio lessons, home visits, and minischool meetings. A student teacher describes his 10-week experience with Broken Hill, teaching 15 students in grade 5-6. (SV)

In response to overseas economic competition and changing technologies, Australia's national vocational education and training system was recently restructured, with emphases on competency-based training and industry participation. This national training system has had little relevance for geographically remote Aboriginal communities. Issues of…

Definitions of "education" and "rural" are debunked and expanded. The three major tasks of rural education are educating people to understand their own needs, the unavoidable changes that will transform rural Australia within their lifetimes, and the range of technologies that can enhance their well-being. Presents a strategy…

This paper reports some of the main lessons learnt from a collaborative project titled "Generating jobs in regional Tasmania: a social capital approach" investigating how two small rural Tasmanian communities could better match local training needs with training provision. The project was conducted within the context of the wider social,…

This report describes a program initiated in 1992 to provide appropriate training for rural physicians and to address the shortage of physicians in rural Australia. Rural medical practice differs dramatically from urban practice in that there is limited access to specialist services in rural areas, thus requiring rural practitioners to be…

In Australia, many teachers begin their careers in rural schools, a posting for which they are often ill-prepared. This book addresses the concerns of beginning teachers or other teachers about to take up rural appointments. The first chapter examines the context of rural schools, differentiates between "rural education" (education…

This paper demonstrates how jointly planned activities can provide an integrated system in bridging the quality gap between urban and rural education in Australia. A national communications policy and delivery system would provide a cost-effective way of improving services to rural areas. Rural schools and colleges can be transformed by developing…

This issue of the Courier contains articles loosely connected to each other by the underlying theme of developing people's capacity to improve the quality of their lives. The following articles are included: "Development of Human Resources--A Basic Needs Approach," by Mohiuddin Ahmad; "Rural Poverty," by the United Nations Food…

In its first 18 months of operation the Centre has undertaken research on major issues and problems in rural education. Its publications have been received favorably, both in Australia and overseas. Visiting scholars from Alaska and Canada have made valuable contributions to the Centre's activities and have increased its links with agencies…

General transport requirements of the Priority Country Area Program (PCAP) field staff in the South-West and Central Priority Country Areas in Queensland, Australia, (exceeding 320,000 and 150,000 square kilometers respectively) for 1978-79 were evaluated, with emphasis on: duties of PCAP staff and their consequent transport needs; existing…

A survey directed to all teachers who graduated with a Diploma of Teaching from Nedlands College of Advanced Education (Western Australia) in 1976-1977 and who had completed at least one year of teaching incorporated four basic aims: (1) to ascertain the number of teachers who had students with different cultural backgrounds; (2) to identify the…

Fifteen selected papers are presented from the Australian College of Education's twenty-first annual conference, held in May, 1980, which focused on politics in education. The first four papers discuss educational equity, covering the problems of educational policy, equality, disadvantaged rural children, and women. The next two articles consider…

Questionnaires mailed to a sample of teachers, students, and parents in Western Australia and Northwestern Ontario (Canada) were used to study the effects of isolation on rural education. Although the geographical distance may permeate all aspects of isolation, three discrete types of isolation emerged from the responses--social, cultural, and…