Engaging rurality in Australian education research: addressing the field.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Roberts, Philip; Downes, Natalie; Reid, Jo-Anne
- Source
- Australian Educational Researcher (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.). Mar2024, Vol. 51 Issue 1, p123-144. 22p.
- Subject
- *EDUCATION research
*AUSTRALIAN literature
*RURAL education
*RURAL children
*EDUCATIONAL literature
*RURALITY
- Language
- ISSN
- 0311-6999
In this paper, we examine engagement with 'the rural context' in Australian education research, focussing on the implications of the signifier 'rural'—in terms of its inclusion or absence. A review of Australian research literature in rural education indicates that the term 'rural' and its synonyms are more often used to denote assumptions of a generalised and predetermined 'context' for research than to think about its meaning. We present our findings here and discuss the implications of the signifier 'rural' in the Australian research literature to argue that while educational policy-makers must attempt to think differently about the 'problem of the rural', the field itself also needs to more fully develop the capacity to do this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]