Leadership practices contributing to STEM education success at three rural Australian schools

Abstract

The limited research into leading STEM education in rural schools internationally tends to adopt a deficit view, with a focus on the poor achievement and aspirations of rural students, difficulties recruiting and retaining STEM teachers, and issues of isolation and under-resourcing. Counter to this trend, this paper reports on research investigating leadership practices shaping STEM education at three high STEM-performing rural schools. High-performing rural schools in Victoria, Australia were identified through analysis of state-wide final year enrolment and achievement data in STEM related senior subjects. Three rural schools with relatively high STEM subject enrolments and achievement levels were selected for in-depth study. The theory of Practice Architectures guided thematic analysis of interviews with principals, middle leaders, and teachers, facilitating a description of the ways that leadership practices interacted with the Practice Architectures evident at each school, which, in turn, enabled and constrained practices that contributed to each school’s STEM education success. Five leadership practices were identified as contributing to STEM education success at all three schools: leveraging community relationships, utilising local resources to enrich STEM learning, empowering STEM teaching staff, promoting the value of STEM education, and supporting STEM pathways. In detailing these leadership practices, this paper provides guidance to rural education leaders and policy makers seeking to improve STEM education in rural schools.

STEM teacher professional development in pre-service teacher education: A literature review

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“…Empowering STEM teaching staff is one of the principles in supporting the success of STEM education (Murphy, 2022). Therefore, in many places, the preparation of teachers to teach STEM in schools is starting to be done a lot.…”

Contemporary Debates on Equity in STEM Education: Takeaways From a Doctoral Seminar in Equity in STEM Education

“…This lack of access in rural communities is not unique to the US. For example, similar issues have been found within rural populations in Australia and China (see Murphy, 2022 andMurphy et al, 2007). Moreover, although rural environments are a rich context for learning science, rural students' opportunities to engage in their local communities often do not reflect traditional schooling systems in their counties (Saw & Agger, 2021).…”

“…One of the biggest criticisms of STEM equity in rural education is how little attention it has received (Saw & Agger, 2021). The lack of attention is problematic because rural students experience many challenges, including a lack of resources due to their geographic isolation and decreased access to qualified educators, especially in mathematics and science (Murphy, 2022). Additionally, rural schools struggle to provide advanced coursework in mathematics and science, reliable internet access, and resources to encourage students in STEM fields (Ihrig et al, 2018;Marksbury, 2017;NASEM, 2021).…”

Australian teachers’ views on how primary science education can be improved

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