Education in rural and regional areas - Strategic Review

One of the strategic aims of the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation (VFFF) is to support rural, regional and remote youth to achieve their education goals. This project sought to support the VFFF to identify and understand:

• What is the current state of play for young people in rural and regional areas in relation to their education?
• What is the current situation and how does this differ to the metro landscape?
• What is working and can be built on?
• What are young people asking for and what are the emerging opportunities?
• What are their needs and priorities?
• What is not working and needs to change?
• What are the system issues and barriers?
• What are the root causes of the challenges facing young people in this area?

In this review we focussed on the perspectives of rural youth as they are the ones most likely to remain living and working in these communities. This is because we have often found that researchers and policy actors speak on behalf of the rural and that the rural voices that are allowed to be heard are not representative. However, engaging overlooked youth cohorts is crucial to support the development of sustainable community economies.

This project involved revisiting data from multiple REC projects in rural, regional and remote NSW in recent years, a reanalysis of data from our previous projects from the perspective of youth participants, a review of the academic literature and significant programs, discussions with youth in rural, regional and remote locations, and a workshop with the national Rural Youth Ambassadors.

Publications

• Roberts, P., Dean, J., Downes, N., & McPherson, A. (2021). Education in Rural and Regional Areas: A Strategic review of potentials and possibilities for philanthropic engagement. https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/publications/education-in-rural-and-regional-areas-a-strategic-review-of-poten

Related Projects

• ARC DECRA: Engaging rural knowledges for sustainable futures: spatial justice and rural schooling
• ARC Discovery Project:  Building rural knowledges: connecting classrooms, communities and learners with curriculum
• NSW Ambassador Schools Program
• Cultural context in standardised tests
• The sociocultural experiences of rural students at university
• NSW rural and remote schools research project
• Higher education career advice for low SES and rural students
• Towards place-based education in the Murray-Darling Basin
• Enhancing aspirations for STEM careers in rural, regional and remote communities
• Evaluation of the Schools for All Evaluation Plan
• Re-centring Outback Education