Community involvement in rural and regional schooling and student retention

Abstract

Student retention in school until the successful completion of Year 12 is an acknowledged challenge in many parts of Australia, particularly rural and regional areas. The research reported here focuses on community involvement in rural and regional schooling and student retention. The data were collected as part of a three-year ARC Linkage study of issues associated with completion of school education to Year 12 in rural, regional and disadvantaged parts of Tasmania. Eleven in-depth interviews were conducted with rural and regional community leaders across Tasmania. This paper reports on three aspects of the research: the type of involvement of the organisation that the interviewees represented, the motivation for the involvement that took place, and concerns about initiatives. A twodimensional framework was used to classify the 108 activities in which the participants reported being involved. One dimension documented the type of organisation that the participant represented and the other focused on the type of activity in which participants were involved. The range of specific activities was broad, as was the range of reasons that motivated the involvement. Outcomes of the research provide benchmarks for other studies in similar Australian or international rural and regional communities where student retention is an issue.