Innovation for Equity in Rural Education : Proceedings of the International Symposium for Innovation in Rural Education

PREFACE The concept of an international symposium on rural education arose from a meeting between members of the SiMERR National Centre, Australia and the NURI Teacher Education Innovation Centre (NURI-TEIC) at Kongju National University, Korea in 2007. Despite the very different national contexts, the teams were struck by the similarities of the challenges facing rural schools in the two countries, and curious about the degree to which these challenges were shared by other countries. At a subsequent meeting in Australia in December 2007, the two centre Directors - Professor John Pegg (SiMERR) and Professor Youn-Kee Im (NURI-TEIC) - agreed on a framework for the first International Symposium for Innovation in Rural Education (ISFIRE). This volume consists of the keynotes and refereed papers presented at ISFIRE 2009. The papers provide insights into rural education in Australia, Bhutan, Canada, Korea, Norway, South Africa and the United States along the following themes: 1. Promoting rural policy initiatives; 2. Nurturing the rural teacher experience; 3. Enhancing rural student experience and growth; 4. Optimising the curriculum; 5. Improving resources in rural schools; and 6. Addressing special issues in rural education. The authors and titles of a further 23 presentations based on refereed abstracts only are listed at the end of this volume. The abstracts for these presentations can be found in the symposium Program. The academics and practitioners who came together for this symposium are passionate about rural education and have dedicated their time and capacities to working for the benefit of rural teachers, students and communities. The papers in this volume offer direction not only for Australia and South Korea, who jointly hosted this symposium, but for all countries in which rural education is contested ground. The keynotes in particular contribute rich perspectives on rural education trends, policies and practices. We hope that this volume generates a greater appreciation of the advantages of rural education and the many innovative approaches being implemented to meet its challenges.

Teachers' motivations for working in rural schools

This paper reports on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data concerning Australian teachers’ motivations for taking up, remaining in, or leaving teaching positions in rural and regional schools. The data were collected from teachers (n = 2940) as part of the SiMERR National Survey, though the results of the qualitative data analysis were not published with the survey report in 2006. The teachers’ comments provide additional insight into their career decisions, complementing the quantitative findings. Content and frequency analyses of the teachers’ comments reveal individual and collective priorities which together with the statistical evidence can be used to inform policies aimed at addressing the staffing needs of rural schools.

Rural people and the land

There is a long and fundamental connection between rural place and the land. Whereas land is simply the foundation for the construction of towns and cities, whose urban culture and economy thrives on human ingenuity and industry that may have little direct attachment to the physical ground over which it occurs, historical discourses of rurality place the land at the heart of the rural economy and society. Rural people, such discourses hold, live on the land, work the land, tend the land and know the land. The land formed not only the base of the rural economy (as ‘a physical, tangible resource which can be ploughed, sown, grazed, built upon’ (Macnaghten and Urry 1998, 200)), but also shaped rural culture and the rural calendar, and contributed to the constitution of the rural character (see Bell 1994). As such, the land is central to rural sense of place.

The role of Non-Government Organisations (NGOS) in practising editorial photography in a globalised media environment

The news media industry has changed dramatically into a global business with ever-increasing attention being devoted to entertainment and celebrity across the last 10–20 years. There has also been a growing reliance on images produced by citizens (citizen photojournalism), by media outlets and publishers. It is widely acknowledged that in tandem these changes have shrunk publication opportunities for professional photographers undertaking editorial projects. As a result, photographers are increasingly relying on non-government organisations (NGOs) to gain access to photographing issues and events in developing countries and to expand their economic and portfolio opportunities. This increase in photographers working for and alongside NGOs has given rise to a new genre of editorial photography which I call NGO Reportage. By way of a case study, an exploration of this new genre reveals important issues for photographers working with NGOs and examines the constructed narratives of images contained within these emerging practices.

Ecological design with respect to the environment of large-scale marina developments in Queensland

Ecological principles have been employed to assist in the sustainability of a suite of 'gateway' marinas currently being developed in Queensland. Tasks included (a) location and fostering of core remnant native vegetation areas, (b) understanding the dynamic patterns of region behaviour using the ecological strategies employed by key flora and fauna species, (c) promoting those native wildlife species best characterising the region, and (d) allocating management actions along elongated buffer zones to the catchment headwaters (rather than only peripheral to the property). The design of infrastructure and its relationship to sustainable landscape development is lacking such a response int eh planning and detailing of new marinas. This paper distinguishes between the practice of landscape ecology and the design of ecological landscapes, offering examples of the principles of the latter in support of the concept of ecological landscape practice.

Remarkable objects : supporting collaboration in a creative environment

In this paper, we report the results of a field trial of a Ubicomp system called CAM that is aimed at supporting and enhancing collaboration in a design studio environment. CAM uses a mobile-tagging application which allows designers to collaboratively store relevant information onto their physical design objects in the form of messages, annotations and external web links. The purpose of our field trial was to explore the role of augmented objects in supporting and enhancing creative work. Our results show that CAM was used not only to support participants' mutual awareness and coordination but also to facilitate designers in appropriating their augmented design objects to be explorative, extendable and playful, supporting creative aspects of design work. In general, our results show how CAM transformed static design objects into 'remarkable' objects that made the creative and playful side of cooperative design visible.

Organizational probes : exploring playful interactions in work environment

Playfulness, with non-intrusive elements, can be considered a useful resource for enhancing social awareness and community building within work organizations. Taking inspirations from the cultural probes approach, we developed organizational probes as a set of investigation tools that could provide useful information about employees’ everyday playful experiences within their work organizations. In an academic work environment, we applied our organizational probes over a period of three weeks. Based on the collected data we developed two design concepts for playful technologies in work environments.

An overview of the role of goethite surfaces in the environment

Goethite, one of the most thermodynamically stable iron oxides, has been extensively researched especially the structure (including surface structure), the adsorption capacity to anions, organic/organic acid (especially for the soil organic carbon) and cations in the natural environment and its potential application in environmental protection. For example, the adsorption of heavy metals by goethite can decrease the concentration of heavy metals in aqueous solution and immobilize; the adsorption to soil organic carbon can decrease the release of carbon and fix carbon. In this present overview, the possible physicochemical properties of the goethite surface contributing to the strong affinity of goethite to nutrients and contaminants in natural environment are reported. Moreover, these chemicals adsorbed by goethite were also summarized and the suggested adsorption mechanism for these adsorbates was elucidated, which will help us understand the role of goethite in natural environment and provide some information about goethite as an absorbent. In addition, the feasibility of goethite used as catalyst carrier and the precursor of NZVI was proposed for removal of environmental pollution.

Higher uptake of long-acting reversible and permanent methods of contraception by Australian women living in rural and remote areas

Objectives: To examine factors associated with the uptake of i) long-acting reversible, ii) permanent and iii) traditional contraceptive methods among Australian women. Methods: Participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health born in 1973–78 reported on their contraceptive use at three surveys: 2003, 2006 and 2009. The participants were 5,849 women aged 25–30 in 2003 randomly sampled from Medicare. The main outcome measure was current contraceptive method at age 28–33 years categorised as long-acting reversible methods (implant, IUD, injection), permanent (tubal ligation, vasectomy), and traditional methods (oral contraceptive pills, condoms, withdrawal, safe period). Results: Compared to women living in major cities, women in inner regional areas were more likely to use long-acting (OR=1.26, 95%CI 1.03–1.55) or permanent methods (OR=1.43, 95%CI 1.17–1.76). Women living in outer regional/remote areas were more likely than women living in cities to use long-acting (OR=1.65, 95%CI 1.31–2.08) or permanent methods (OR=1.69, 95%CI 1.43–2.14). Conclusions: Location of residence is an important factor in women's choices about long-acting and permanent contraception in addition to the number and age of their children. Implications: Further research is needed to understand the role of geographical location in women's access to contraceptive options in Australia.

Identity, addressing, authenticity and audit requirements for trust in ERP, analytics and big/open data in a “Cloud” computing environment : a review and proposal

Enterprises, both public and private, have rapidly commenced using the benefits of enterprise resource planning (ERP) combined with business analytics and “open data sets” which are often outside the control of the enterprise to gain further efficiencies, build new service operations and increase business activity. In many cases, these business activities are based around relevant software systems hosted in a “cloud computing” environment. “Garbage in, garbage out”, or “GIGO”, is a term long used to describe problems in unqualified dependency on information systems, dating from the 1960s. However, a more pertinent variation arose sometime later, namely “garbage in, gospel out” signifying that with large scale information systems, such as ERP and usage of open datasets in a cloud environment, the ability to verify the authenticity of those data sets used may be almost impossible, resulting in dependence upon questionable results. Illicit data set “impersonation” becomes a reality. At the same time the ability to audit such results may be an important requirement, particularly in the public sector. This paper discusses the need for enhancement of identity, reliability, authenticity and audit services, including naming and addressing services, in this emerging environment and analyses some current technologies that are offered and which may be appropriate. However, severe limitations to addressing these requirements have been identified and the paper proposes further research work in the area.

Sustainable Urban Water Environment : Climate, Pollution and Adaptation

"This multi-disciplinary book provides practical solutions for safeguarding the sustainability of the urban water environment. Firstly, the importance of the urban water environment is highlighted and the major problems urban water bodies face and strategies to safeguard the water environment are explored. Secondly, the diversity of pollutants entering the water environment through stormwater runoff are discussed and modelling approaches for factoring in climate change and future urban and transport scenarios are proposed. Thirdly, by linking the concepts of sustainable urban ecosystems and sustainable urban and transport development, capabilities of two urban sustainability assessment models are demonstrated."--publisher website

goDesign Express 2011 Workshop

The goDesign Express 2011 Workshop was a design immersion workshop run by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Built Environment and Engineering Faculty during three weeks of 70-minute art class periods/sessions in August/September 2011 at Morayfield State High School, for 80 Grade 10 and 64 Grade 11 art students and two teachers, and October 2011 at Narangba Valley State High School for 60 Grade 10 and 30 Grade 11 art students and two teachers. Funded and administrated through QUT’s Widening Participation Program, which supports outreach activities to increase tertiary enrolments for under represented groups (such as low-SES, rural and indigenous students), the program utilised two activities from Day 1 of the highly successful 3-day goDesign Travelling Workshop Program for Regional Secondary Students (http://eprints.qut.edu.au/47747/). In contrast to this program, which was facilitated by two tertiary design educators, the goDesign Express 2011 Workshop was facilitated primarily by three tertiary interior design/architecture students, with assistance from a design educator. This action research study aimed to facilitate an awareness in young people, of the value of design thinking skills in generating strategies to solve local community challenges. It also aimed to investigate the value of collaboration between secondary school students and teachers, and tertiary design students and educators, in inspiring post-secondary pathways for school students, professional development for schoolteachers, and alternative career prospects and leadership skills for tertiary design students. During the workshop, secondary students and teachers explored, analysed and reimagined their local community through a series of scaffolded problem solving activities around the theme of ‘place’. Students worked individually and in groups designing graphics, fashion and products, and utilising sketching, making, communication, collaboration and presentation skills to improve their design process, while considering social, cultural and environmental opportunities for their local community. The workshop was mentioned in a news article in the local Caboolture Shire Herald newspaper.

IT governance stability in a political changing environment : exploring potential impacts in the public sector

Public sector organisations (PSOs) operate in information-intensive environments often within operational contexts where efficiency is a goal. What's more, the rapid adoption of IT is expected to facilitate good governance within public sector organisations but it often clashes with the bureaucratic culture of these organisations. Accordingly, models such as IT Governance (ITG) and government reform -in particular the new public management (NPM)- were introduced in PSOs in an effort to address the inefficiencies of bureaucracy and under performance. This work explores the potential effect of change in political direction and policy on the stability of IT governance in Australian public sector organisations. The aim of this paper is to examine implications of a change of government and the resulting political environment on the effectiveness of the audit function of ITG. The empirical data discussed here indicate that a number of aspects of audit functionality were negatively affected by change in political direction and resultant policy changes. The results indicate a perceived decline in capacity and capability which in turn disrupts the stability of IT governance systems in public sector organisations.

“Scary” heterosexualities in a rural Australian mining town

This paper draws upon Hubbard's (1999, p. 57) term ‘scary heterosexualities,’ that is non-normative heterosexuality, in the context of the rural drawing on data from fieldwork in the remote Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie. Our focus is ‘the skimpie’ – a female barmaid who serves in her underwear and who, in both historical and contemporary times, is strongly associated with rural mining communities. Interviews with skimpies and local residents as well as participant observation reveal how potential fears and anxieties about skimpies are managed. We identify the discursive and spatial processes by which skimpie work is contained in Kalgoorlie so that the potential scariness ‘the skimpie’ represents to the rural is muted and buttressed in terms of a more conventional and less threatening rural heterosexuality.