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Sea Changes, Tree Changes and Bush Lessons: Post-compulsory education and rural renewal
Deadline for Papers: 27th February 2009
The Dawkins and subsequent reforms to Australia's post-compulsory educational systems have been designed in part to provide greater opportunities for communities in regional, coastal and rural Australia, delivering wider access to universities and Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), including Institutes of Technical and Further Education (TAFE). At the same time, these communities have been undergoing significant transformation. While technological, market and climatic variations have challenged some traditional regional industries and the communities of which they are a part, others have experienced a 'sea change' and/or a 'tree change' phenomenon in which the influx of people from metropolitan centres has dramatically affected these communities' demographic, cultural and economic life. This themed issue focuses on the specific contributions that post-compulsory education can and should make to rural renewal in the context of that phenomenon.
'Post-compulsory education' from this perspective is understood as referring to at least four distinct yet overlapping forms of educational provision:
- The senior years of secondary schooling, including school-based vocational education and training;
- Provision by Institutes of TAFE and other RTOs;
- Provision by universities;
- Non-formally accredited leaning opportunities of multiple kinds operating in regional communities (including the University of the Third Age and informal community groups).
This Special Edition of Rural Society will focus upon these issues and identify the changing forms of post-compulsory education in rural Australia and their current and potential contributions to sustainable and transformative rural renewal. Key questions are:
- What positive connections can post-compulsory education make between different regional and global communities?
- What particular challenges does post-compulsory education face in servicing regional coastal and rural communities?
- What implications do particular issues impacting on regional coastal and rural communities (climate change, challenges to rural industries, the 'sea change' and 'tree change' syndrome and so forth) have for post-compulsory education?
- In what ways can post-compulsory education affect the ways that regional coastal and rural communities view themselves and the world?
- How can post-compulsory education service the lifelong learning aspirations and experiences of regional coastal and rural communities?
Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract of up to 200 words for consideration by the referees. Abstracts should be sent as email attachments in Microsoft Word Rich Text Format to the Editor of Rural Society, Darryl Maybery, at dmaybery@csu.edu.au. Identifying information such as author’s name and affiliation should not be included in the body of the abstract document.
The timetable for this issue is as follows:
- Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 16 November 2008
- Abstracts selected and successful authors advised: 30 November 2008
- Full papers due for review: 27 February 2009
- Publication date: September 2009.
Generic information for contributors to Rural Society can be found below and in more detail in Author Guidelines. Other inquiries may be directed to the Guest Editors by emailing g.danaher@cqu.edu.au; b.harreveld@cqu.edu.au; or danaher@usq.edu.au.
Geoff Danaher is Lecturer in the STEPS pre-undergraduate program in the Division of Teaching and Learning Services at Central Queensland University
Bobby Harreveld is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education at Central Queensland University.
Patrick Alan Danaher is Associate Professor (Education Research) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland.
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