Education and training institutions : building social capital for regional development

Education and training institutions from schools through to universities have a vital role in supporting development in regional Australia. The interaction between these institutions and their rural communities influences the social capital of the community and the extent to which the community is a learning community, willing and able to manage change to the community’s advantage.

There are benefits to be had from a collaborative approach to planning and delivering training. This approach is consistent with theories of social capital that emphasise the crucial part played by networks, values and trust in generating superior outcomes for individuals, communities and regions. Research has found that education and training is most effective in building social capital and learning communities were there is attention to customising or targeting education and training provision to local needs. The key to matching provision with local needs, particularly in the more rural and remote areas, is collaboration and partnerships. Partners can be regional organisations, other educational institutions, businesses and government. The factors that enhance the effectiveness of the collaborations and partnerships are the elements of social capital: networks, shared values and trust, and enabling leadership.

Networks are most effective where there were opportunities and structures for interaction, which can be termed interactional infrastructure, that foster networks within the region, and networks that extended outside the region. Interactional infrastructure includes regional forums, committee structures, consultative processes and opportunities for informal discussion addressing the issues of education, training and employment in a community or region. Better outcomes are evident when there is an interactional infrastructure that is resourced with financial, physical and human resources of sufficient quantity and quality. Collaborations provide access to a greater range of external resources through extended external networks. Effective networks and shared visions, values and trust among the partners in a collaboration, are fostered by enabling leaders. Educational institutions are well placed to supply the ‘human infrastructure’ that makes collaborations and partnerships work, including enabling leadership.

Attention to factors associated with the quality of social capital, especially interactional infrastructure including leadership, shared vision and values and networks within and external to the community, can be expected to improve the effectiveness of education and training outcomes. More importantly, a collaborative approach to planning for education and training in rural regions will build the capacity of regions and their constituent communities to develop and change by building social capital resources. Leadership is an important driver of processes that build community and regional capacity and ultimately produce social and economic benefits through regional development. Educational providers in rural regions are well placed to act as enabling leaders.

Continuous professional learning through school based strategic planning

There is ample evidence that in many countries school science is in difficulty, with declining student attitudes and uptake of science. This presentation argues that a key to addressing the problem lies in transforming teachers’ classroom practice, and that pedagogical innovation is best supported within a school context. Evidence for effective change will draw on the School Innovation in Science (SIS) initiative in Victoria, which has developed and evaluated a model to improve science teaching and learning across a school system. The model involves a framework for describing effective teaching and learning, and a strategy that allows schools flexibility to develop their practice to suit local conditions and to maintain ownership of the change process. SIS has proved successful in improving science teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. Experience from SIS and related projects, from a national Australian science and literacy project, and from system wide science initiatives in Europe, will be used to explore the factors that affect the success and the path of innovation in schools.

Sustaining human carrying capacity : a tool for regional sustainability assessment

Regional sustainability is an important focus for natural resource management. Measuring how social and economic systems are progressing to sustainability is therefore a critical need. But it is dependent upon the development of analytical and methodological tools to measure progress, particularly, we argue, at the regional level. Achieving sustainability at the regional scale is important since it's at this scale where social institutions and ecological functioning are most closely linked. However, our recent study that evaluated the effectiveness of current sustainability assessment methods at the regional scale found methods developed for the global, national and state scales are not entirely effective at assessing sustainability at this spatial scale. Following on from this critique, we developed and tested a new method for assessing sustainability, which we believe is applicable at the regional scale. The framework, Sustaining Human Carrying Capacity (SHCC), evaluates the sustainability of regional human activities by considering the pressures these activities have on regional ecosystems. SHCC was tested and evaluated at the regional scale, demonstrating its potential to be an effective method for monitoring sustainability. It also has potential to be used to inform the community and decision makers about the sustainability of their region, and help guide strategic planning to progress sustainability.

Placing parks on the tourism agenda : promoting Melbournes' metropolitan parks to metropolitan and regional Victorian visitors

This study establishes a strategy aimed at raising interest in visiting Melbourne’s metropolitan parks based upon interviews and focus group responses in both regional Victoria and Melbourne. As the majority of regional visitors planning a short-break collect their information prior to departure, park information needs to be available before they embark. Whilst visiting Melbourne, regional visitors agreed that they would utilise local knowledge of their host to fill any of their limited spare time. Melbournians should be seen as a potential prime source of information for visitors, but this study found that many Melburnians were often unaware of local attractions. Consequently, part of the strategy to raise interest in visiting Melbourne’s parks must be targeted at Melburnians. This leads to the conclusion that a well informed host is the key to increased visitation
to metropolitan parks.