This article considers how the experience of community for young people from rural places (inclusive of regional and remote) can be influential in building a legacy of strengths and qualities, much like an inheritance. While there are many studies of rural youth, few consider rurality through complex social-relational dimensions; fewer still…

In the context of a stark discrepancy in the educational outcomes of Aboriginal Australians compared to non-Aboriginal Australians, this article aims to contribute the voices of rural Aboriginal high school students to the discourse. This article utilises an appreciative enquiry approach to analyse the opinions and aspirations of 12 Aboriginal…

The capacity to aspire for young people is significant, as they cannot choose to be what they cannot experience or imagine becoming. Student exchange programmes that expand experiences of STEM may increase opportunities, interests, and participation for rural young people in the STEM subject field. This paper creates a cartography with data…

This article focuses on rural Australian students' decisions to pursue higher education, and compares metropolitan and rural higher education statistics, using select qualitative narratives to highlight rural subjectivities. By analysing school students' belonging process, this article begins to uncover the depth of the perceived influence of the…

In conjunction with the arrival of emerging technologies, many universities are encouraging their educators to rethink and reframe their teaching approaches and delivery methods. Integrating different types of media to enhance delivery of subject materials to higher education students is growing in national and international importance. As a…

As mobile technologies become increasingly prevalent throughout Australian society, it is important to consider the impact of local factors on their use. In order to support rural students and develop appropriate mobile learning frameworks, it is essential to have an understanding of the particular communication challenges presented by local…

In the Australian vocational education and training (VET) context, attention is often given to what youth work training programs should consist of, resulting in less attention on how youth work education and training programs might be imagined, constructed and implemented. In this paper, a particular South Australian youth work training program is…

The population in rural areas of Australia has been declining for many decades and it has become common practice to blame this decline on the migration of young people due to structural limitations (e.g. education and employment). This study explores factors associated with migration of youth from rural Victoria looking at their experience of…

This conference proceedings of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) contains 19 presentations and workshops. An introductory section includes SPERA's mission, goals, and history; a brief welcome address by SPERA president Sheila King; a list of past conference proceedings; and abstracts of presentations. The…

To collect data about the first-year university experiences of rural students, 15 students were drawn from a pool of 125 Riverina (Australia) students who had participated in an earlier study on factors that influence academic persistence. The sample consisted of approximately equal numbers of males and females, about equal proportions of students…

A two-phase study assessed the extent to which a set of variables predicted rural secondary students' likelihood of continuing to college and sought to determine predictors of rural students' academic success at the completion of first-year university study. Participants were drawn from seven state coeducational secondary schools in the Riverina…

A survey of 16 rural students attending college in Perth, Australia, found that all of them felt disadvantaged because of issues specific to their rural status. These issues were emotional, social, and financial or a combination thereof. The emotional and social concerns were loneliness, making new friends, and learning to adjust to an urban…

A study examined the relationship between medical students' background and their attitudes toward being trained or working as doctors in rural areas. Surveys of 97 first-year medical students at an Australian university indicated that students from rural backgrounds were more willing than urban students to be trained and to work in rural areas.…

Because of geographic isolation, many Australian families find it necessary to send their children to boarding schools for an appropriate secondary education. To determine the impact that leaving home has on young adolescents, and how they cope with the change, 38 year-8 boarding-school students from remote areas of Western Australia were…

A study examined rural Australian student experiences of the transition to high school. Data were gathered from interviews, questionnaires, and student journals of 10 rural students during the last 5 weeks of primary school and during the first three terms of Year 7 in high school. Findings indicate that students had many anxieties related to the…