The Importance of a Practical Experience in a Rural Setting for Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

Over the past decade there has emerged a considerable amount of research and writing concerning the preparation of teachers for rural schools. Surwill (1990, p.6) concludes that pre-service teachers are often "unfamiliar with the unique problems of rural schools". Many problems arise for beginning teachers facing employment in a rural setting because of "lack of familiarity with these areas" (Smith and Squires, 1988). It would appear that beginning teachers opt for employment in an area that is familiar to them.

Practice Teaching in a Distance Education Centre

“…Providing opportunities for students to undertake specialised courses of study in rural education and to complement this on-campus study with rural practice teaching experiences will ensure a supply of teachers who are prepared to seek rural appointments (Watson, et al 1986;Murphy and Cross, 1990;King, 1994).…”

“…In Australia, rurally based teacher education progtams have responded to this challenge in a number of ways. First, specific subjects on teaching in rural schools have been inclnded in the acadeotic studies, for example, Charles Sturt University (Boylan, Squires and Smith, 1994), University of Southern Queensland (King, 1994) and James Cook University (McSwan, 1985) have included rural education subjects in their pre-service courses.…”

The Perennials and Trends of Rural Education

“…These include the Country Areas Program in New South Wales (Hemmings & Boylan, 1992), the Priority Country Area Program in Queensland (Yarrow et al, 1998), university-based internship and mentoring programs (Drummond et al, 2012;Yarrow et al, 1999), community immersion programs and taster field trips (Lavery et al, 2018;Sharplin, 2010), and beginning teacher support programs (Baills et al, 2002). Practicum experience and internship programs are also discussed (King, 1994), sometimes from the perspective of pre-service teachers (Davidson, 2011;Penfold, 2000).…”

Contemporary Paradigms of Rural Teaching: The Significance of Place

“…There is evidence that a range of initiatives have been trialled to improve preservice teachers' capacity to confidently take up positions in rural and remote locations. These include innovative ways of providing authentic teaching experiences for preservice teachers in rural and remote locations, as well as monitory and/ or resource support enabling preservice students to take up such practicum opportunities (Nelligan, 2006;King, 2006;Hudson & Millwater, 2009;White, 2006: Maxwell, Reid, McLoughlin, Clarke & Nicholls, 2002. Another focus has been on the course offerings and how understandings of rural education are embedded within courses (Baills et al, 2002;Page, 2006;Gregsom, Waters & Gruppetta, 2006).…”