Number 5 in the Remote Education Systems project's lecture series, this presentation about successful remote schools was delivered on 29 July 2015 at Broome.

1. Successful remote schools. What
are they?
Remote Education Systems project
Broome, 29 July 2015

2. Introduction
• Success, what is it?
• What does the literature say about successful education?
• What do remote school respondents say it is?
• How should it be taught?
• What are the implications for systems?
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3. Generalisations about remote education
• Problematic, intractable (Wilson 2014)
• Difficult to manage and resource (Ladwig and Sarra 2010)
• Failing (Hughes and Hughes 2012)
• Falls short of targets and benchmarks (ACER 2013, Atelier 2012)
So to address this we look for
• ‘What works’ (What Works: The Work Program 2012)
• Closing gaps (FaHCSIA 2013)
• Overcoming disadvantage (SCRGSP 2014)
• Removing obstacles (O’Keefe, Only and Angus 2012)
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4. How the dominant discourse frames success
• Successful learning
• Melbourne Declaration (2008)
• National Education Agreement (2012)
• Measurement framework (2012)
• Successful teaching
• Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2010)
• Successful systems
• ‘Raising productivity is a key focus of COAG’s agenda…education and
training are critical’ (COAG 2012)
• Students First (DET 2015)
• Influence of international comparisons (Jenson 2012, COAG Reform
Council 2013)
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5. RES project Aim
• To find out how remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities can get the best benefit from the teaching and learning
happening in and out of schools.
Research questions
• What is education for and what can/should it achieve?
• What defines ‘success’ from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander standpoint?
• How does teaching need to change to achieve ‘success’?
• What would an effective education system in remote Australia look
like?
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6. RES Project data sources
• Publicly available datasets (my school and Census)
• Community surveys in 10 remote communities
• Observations from site visits in 3 jurisdictions (WA, SA, NT)
• Engagement of over 200 remote education stakeholders in
research processes (20 Thinking Outside The Tank sessions)
• Dare to Lead Snapshots in 31 Very Remote schools
• Reading of the relevant research literature
• 6 Post-graduate research projects in progress
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7. Descriptions of success in the RES data
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0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Parent involvement and role models in child's education
Academic outcomes
Community engagement
Attendance
Learning outside school
Children choose to engage
Place and space
First language literacy
Meeting student needs
Post school transition
Governance and decision making
Strong
Completion and retention
Health and wellbeing determinants
Recruitment and induction
No word for success
Early childhood
Failure
Year 12 completion
Number of references
Response
Non-remote (n=445) Remote Aboriginal (n=295)

8. Teaching to success
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0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12%
Health and wellbeing at school
Local language Aboriginal teachers
Relationships
ESL and multi-lingual learning
Teacher qualities
Contextualised curriculum
Culturally responsive
Pedagogy
Both-ways and two way
Contextually responsive
High expectations
Classroom management
School leadership
Professional learning
Assessment and Progress
Experience
Informal learning opportunities
Time
Whole of school practices
Unsuitable teaching
Per cent of references within group
Response
Non-remote (n=753) Remote Aboriginal (n=299)

9. System responses
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0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%
Parent and community power
Community developmental and community responses to…
Partnerships
Secondary education
Workforce development
Inspiration and aspiration
Boarding
National frameworks and international benchmarks
Reconciliation, race, equity and aboriginality
Resourcing
Attendance
Employment strategies and conditions
Coordinated response
Curriculum
Early childhood
Political, policy context
Measurable outcomes and NAPLAN
Other structural possibilites
Philosophy of education
Responding to mobility
Health and wellbeing system response
Evidence
How should it not respond
Is it capable of responding
Poverty and Socio-economic status
Scaleability and sustainability
Per cent of references within group
Response
Non-remote (n=787) Remote Aboriginal (n=134)

10. Positive outcomes when schools employ locals
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Figure 1. Ratio of non-teaching to teaching staff, very remote schools with >80% Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students, 2008-2014
62
64
66
68
70
72
74
76
78
80
0-.5 .51-1 1.01-1.5 1.51-2 2.01-2.5 >2.5
Averageschoolattendancerate
Ratio of non-teaching to teaching staff
Source: Analysis from My School data

11. Implications for measures of successful remote
schooling
Attendance and academic outcomes are identified by remote respondents,
but there is little connection between these measures and system responses
or teaching responses.
‘Parent involvement and role models in education’ could be seen as a
measure of success in its own right or as a precursor to other measures of
success.
There are ample references in the broader literature about the important role
of communities in schools.
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12. How could you measure parent and community
involvement?
• Is there a school council with community representation?
• Does the school have parent-teacher days/events? How many attend?
• Is there a school policy that actively pursues employment of local
educators? How many have been employed as a result?
• Do parents meet with teachers? What proportion of parents have contact?
• Are community members involved in extra-curricular activities?
• Are community members employed at the school?
• What practices are in place in the school to build relationships between
local and non-local staff?
• Do parents or community members help with reading to children?
• Is there local adaptation of curriculum?
• Are community members involved in recruitment of new staff?
• Are teachers competent with local languages?
• Do teachers and non-local staff engage with organisations outside of
school?
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13. System and teaching responses
Workforce development issues include employment, support and training of
local community members to work in remote schools, training and
recruitment of new teachers, and professional development and systemic
support of existing staff.
Parent and community empowerment means putting structures in place that
allow local decision making, inclusion of contextually and culturally relevant
content in curricula: ‘red dirt curriculum’
Putting these structures in place is not a kind of magic bullet that will fix the
perceived problems of remote education. We believe though, that they will
contribute to the kind of success that is desired by remote community
members.
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14. Conclusions
• Our findings run counter to the views of success that are promoted
by the dominant national discourse
• Codified measures of successful outcomes vs parent involvement
• To achieve community views of success:
• Giving power to parents and communities
• Building local and non-local workforce capacity
• Successful teaching:
• set of qualities and skills will be found in the collaborative efforts of local
and non-local staff,
• a contextualised curriculum and in two-way approaches
• building on and respect local languages and cultures.
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15. Suggested readings
Guenther, J., Milgate, G., O'Beirne, P., & Osborne, S. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander aspirations and expectations of schooling in very remote
Australian schools. Paper presented at the AARE Conference Proceedings,
Queensland University of Technology Kelvin Grove Campus, Brisbane.
http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2014//data/2014_Conference/Full_
papers/GUENTHER_14.pdf
Osborne, S., & Guenther, J. (2013). Red Dirt Thinking on Aspiration and Success. The
Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 42(Special Issue 02), 88-99.
doi:10.1017/jie.2013.17
Guenther, J., Disbray, S., & Osborne, S. (2014). Digging up the (red) dirt on
education: one shovel at a time. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues
(Special Edition), 17(4), 40-56.
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16. Questions for discussion
1. If we conceive success differently, does it matter that the ‘other’
view of success might not be achieved?
2. If we pursued remote understandings of success, what might be
the implications? What would likely follow?
3. Is it possible to hold two different views of success in balance?
4. Given the inevitability of change, should we also expect remote
views of success to change?
5. Supposing a young person achieves the ‘other’ view of success,
where does that leave their relationship with community?
6. What are the costs of a successful education for a young person
living in a remote community?
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17. More about RES
http://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems
John Guenther
0412 125 661
john.guenther@flinders.edu.au
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