/pdf/learning-to-leave-the-irony-of-schooling-in-a-coastal-1ftv10e8uu.pdf

Learning to leave: The irony of schooling in a coastal community

We argue here that critical educational scholarship is crucial to developing educational analysis attuned to the nuances of place, mobility, and change in rural locations. Critical sociological analysis, we argue, can also nuance and complicate simplistic portrayals of rural communities and their social, economic, and cultural character. Two central narratives in rural education today relate first, to the economic and social problems faced by challenged ‘left behind’ communities faced by depopulation and restructuring, and second, ‘boomtown’ communities that experience rapid infusions of wealth and population. We offer two linked case studies from Australia and Canada that draw on what we call a rural sociological imagination to interrogate how education is framed in contemporary convergences of history and biography in rural locations. These framings complicate and even confound meritocratic and human capital assumptions that underpin contemporary educational policy discourse, particularly as it relates to rural education.

Rural youth out-migration and education: challenges to aspirations discourse in mobile modernity

This article explores the issue of social mobility in relation to the recent expansion of higher vocational education (HIVE) by non-university providers. The post-school vocational education sector...

/pdf/higher-vocational-education-and-social-mobility-educational-56vc90en9q.pdf

Higher vocational education and social mobility: educational participation in Australia and England

‘Mind the Gap!’ Exploring the post-graduation outcomes and employment mobility of individuals who are first in their family to complete a university degree

There is mounting evidence that the rapid social and economic changes associated with globalisation, economic restructuring and demographic change have had differential impacts (both positive and negative) across Australia's cities and towns (Gregory & Hunter, 1995; O'Connor, Stimson & Taylor, 1998; Stimson, 2001). Gregory and Hunter provided a stark account of growing inequality across Australian neighbourhoods. Their study showed that while population averages can show a general pattern of improvement, this can hide vastly different experiences across neighbourhoods of different socio-economic status.

Placed-based Approaches to Addressing Disadvantages: Linking Science and Policy

Aspirations have been shown to be a key influence on young people's engagement with post-school education and training. This research explores how aspirations are affected by where a young person lives. It finds that young people are significantly influenced by their educational and career 'inheritance'. By encountering educational cultures (new ideas or experiences) different from their own they are more likely to make life choices divergent from those they 'inherit'. Vocational education and training (VET) provides an essential pathway of choice to further education and work but the difference in status between VET and university pathways is an enduring issue. As has been identified in previous research, practical and financial constraints significantly impact on young people's aspirations and opportunities, while a particular concern for young people in regional and outer urban areas is tolerable travel to study distances.

/pdf/geographical-and-place-dimensions-of-post-school-35j6vv11z4.pdf

Sue Plowright

Papers

Geographical and Place Dimensions of Post-School Participation in Education and Work. Research Report.