Lessons from the edge

Authors

Alison Handmer, Australian Catholic University

Abstract

Low school attendance and literacy and numeracy levels affect schools in some of Australia's remotest communities. At some schools, these problems are compounded by community ambivalence, teachers' professional isolation, rapid staff turnover and limited resources. Despite such problems, some school communities are rising to the challenge and identifying creative solutions, with the help of Australian Catholic University, Edith Cowan University and Griffith University, to formulate better policy and programs for the benefit of the students, staff, school communities and education systems with a basic goal: to improve student outcomes. ACU's Flagships for Creative and Authentic Leadership and Mathematics and Literacy Education Research have joined forces with Catholic and government education authorities in two national research projects: the Leading Aligned Numeracy Development (LAND) project, and the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) project. Both projects seek to identify the most effective teaching practices but also to specify what professional learning needs to take place, and the policies and programs that need to be in place to spread and embed the most effective practices. [Author abstract, ed]

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