I have been conducting research in a rural secondary school in South Australia. This research is concerned with the literacies and the learning of new literacies of the students attending this school. This research is an outcome of a long held concern that on average students attending rural secondary schools, and some rural secondary schools in particular, are disadvantaged educationally. I have also been concerned that some families in the district where I have lived most of my life have perceived their school as inadequate, and that local students were not achieving educational credentials at the completion of their secondary education of the standard they would have if they had been attending a 'better school'.

Data collected for this research project has been centred on the students. However, some of the data from the interviews with students and teachers have implications for the school and its surrounding communities. In this paper I wish to discuss the nature and the implications of some of the links between the community, the school and the learning of literacy which have arisen as critical issues. This paper does not present a thorough analysis of the relationship between schools and communities, but rather I wish to raise some issues which are important to the success of these students and their learning of literacies.

Educational research has indicated that there is no significant difference between students attending rural schools and those attending metropolitan schools at primary level in literacy abilities and skills ( (Ministerial Review of Schooling in Rural Western Australia 1994)). However, both a federal publication (National Board of Employment 1991), and a discussion paper, 'Improving Learning Outcomes for Country Students', from the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services (Department of Education and Children's Services 1994) indicate that rural students are experiencing disadvantage at the completion of their secondary education. Rural students on average have lower retention rates to the end of secondary schooling, those who stay at school are likely to study different courses, and when rural students study the same courses as metropolitan students they receive lower marks on average than metropolitan students. Rather than geographic location, distance from large regional cities, or the rurality of a community being the cause of this disadvantage, it is more likely that influences on academic success achieved include socio-economic status, race, ethnicity or gender (Ministerial Review of Schooling in Rural Western Australia 1994). On average the socioeconomic characteristics of rural communities are lower than is the case for metropolitan areas as a whole (Martin 1994; Ministerial Review of Schooling in Rural Western Australia 1994). While the ways in which the link between socio-economic status and educational achievement operates are unclear, the socio-economic status of a community does provide a good indicator of educational achievement (Ministerial Review of Schooling in Rural Western Australia 1994; Teese, McLean & Polesel 1993). The differences in educational achievement for students completing their secondary education, for their families, and for their rural communities, are important both economically and socially.

I have chosen to concentrate my research in the area of the literacies and the learning of new literacies for the students attending a rural secondary school for several reasons. Firstly, teachers in my local secondary school have often been critical of the literacy abilities of their students, and believed that literacy was a serious deficit for some of the students. Secondly, literacy is a vital for students as they set out to prove their knowledge when being assessed or examined, and is also important for students when learning material which has been presented to them, and as they read and work to extend their knowledge, ane think through set problems in a subject area.

To be literate means more than having the skills to code and decode text. Rather, the making of meaning involves material practises which have meaning and purpose, and the language used is part of the social practices in which this meaning making is occurring (Lankshear, Gee, Knobel & Searle 1997). Literacy is a socio-cultural activity, and includes speaking, listening, viewing, thinking and actively interacting with text as meaning is constructed (for example Gee 1996; Heath 1982, 1983; Luke 1993, 1997). James Gee uses the term 'Discourse' to refer to the set of resources which constitute ways of making meaning for an identifiable group engaged in a set of activities (Gee 1989, 1992, 1996). Thus a community has its particular 'Discourse' which it uses to make and shape meaning, and at the same time the Discourse also shapes the individuals who use it through both the resources which are available to members, and the ideologies that underpin the Discourse. This view of literacy has important implications for secondary schools, as it foregrounds the role of the teachers of the different subjects of introducing students to the principles and knowledge of their discipline, but also to the Discourse and thus the literate practices of the discipline. Students are assessed in any particular class for a school subject on their knowledge of that subject and their ability to use that knowledge to solve problems. However, these students are also judged on their ability to display that knowledge in appropriate ways, that is in ways which are appropriate to the Discourse (Lee 1996; Morris & Stewart-Dore 1984). A key factor in the unequal distribution of educational outcomes and occupational outcomes is the learning of literacy, and the ability to work within the required Discourses (Luke 1993).

For parents in many rural communities the local public schools are the only educational option for their children, as there are no alternate sources for education, except for correspondence lessons or home schooling. Rural schools are important institutions in their communities, for small communities the school, usually a primary school, can be a focal point of the community. Rural communities usually place a high value the school or schools in its midst, for what it offers its young people and for their futures. Rural also value what the school offers to the community as a whole, for example through the facilities of the school which the community can access, and of the skills and experiences which the staff of the school bring to the community and contribute to various community organisations and sporting teams.

Other connections between the school and the community are less easy to quantify. The school community itself could be described as a range of communities, with the students and those who work at the physical site of the school regularly seen as the most central school community. Surrounding this school community is the parent community, who entrust the education of their children to the institution. There is also the wider community within which the school is situated, including many whom have passed links with the school, possibly future links with the school, but at a given time do not have children attending the school.

Community involvement in rural schools varies considerably. Some small primary schools, in order to have a functioning school council, need to have a representative from each family whose children attend the school, and rosters and working bees also require support and participation from each family in order to fundraise or to put in place the facilities they want for their children. Parental involvement can be different in larger schools, where those elected to school council and other committees consist of a group of parents who are interested and able to be involved in these positions, who feel comfortable in such roles in the school, and thus are usually not representative of the parent community of the school.

The school communicates with its communities through newsletters, public meetings, committees, reports and meetings with parents and students. There are also news items about school activities and student achievements which appear in the local newspapers and other media. A formal communication from the school to its parent community in South Australian schools is through the Annual General Meeting where reports from the principal and from each committee of the School Council or committee with a parent representative are presented, school councillors are elected, the budget for the next school year is presented, and there is opportunity for discussion and questions.

There are few formal ways in which the wider community participates in the community of the local school. However, there are various ways in which individuals and organisations can and do support schools, both materially and intellectually. Service clubs, for example, often have goals which specifically target young people, including school students, in ways which can provide valuable opportunities to students. Local government groups may also include education issues as part of their planning for local development. Where community facilities are not part of the local school, local government bodies are also directly involved in the provision of facilities which benefit the education and development of young people, such as a public library, and sporting facilities that may be necessary for the adequate provision of the school's curriculum.

The district The town, which I have called Gleesonville, and district have little racial or ethnic diversity, and this is reflected in the secondary school where between nil and 2.7 per cent of students are of non-English speaking background, and less than one percent of students identify as Aboriginal. However, there is much diversity of socio-economic status. Some families conduct profitable businesses or own large areas of land, and have accumulated much wealth as a result, and their children participate in private education, particularly for secondary education. In contrast there are other families who are dependent on social security payments, or low paying unskilled employment, and are excluded from much of the social power of the community (Dempsey 1990; McKenzie 1984; Poiner 1990; Wild 1974). While this is usual for rural communities, the differences in wealth in the Gleesonville district are larger, due to its history of early settlement by pastoralists who took up large holdings, and the more recent establishment of public housing and other cheaper rental accommodation which has attracted families who are reliant on rental properties and less skilled and lower paid employment, often seasonal. There other groups within the community between these outer limits of privilege and under privilege. The socio-economic status category for the population of Gleesonville is in the medium band for national and state SES groups, while the surrounding districts are all placed in the lower SES categories for national and state SES groups (Martin 1994). The areas of the district which are involved in broad acre agriculture have a lower SES rating than the areas which are more densely populated, including viticultural areas. Today youth unemployment is very low due to the rapid expansion of the viticultural industry in the district.

Rural communities An important distinguishing feature of rural communities involved in agricultural and pastoral industries is the rural ideology which guides the goals and aspirations of many in the community. The rural ideology places importance on ownership of property, with higher status and power accorded to those who own land and increasing with the amount of land owned (Alston 1991; Poiner 1990, 1996). This ideology is also supported by many other members of rural communities who do not own land (Poiner 1990, 1996), works to sustain much conservatism in rural communities (Alston 1991), and also preserves the rural class structure through successive generations. Land is held through successive generations, even at considerable cost to the families economically and emotionally.

The aspirations of young members of the community are influenced by this rural ideology, with male students often adopting aspirations which will enable the continuation of land ownership, while the girls often need to succeed in education in order to find alternative futures (Dempsey 1990, 1992). As a result students in rural schools are likely to have differing aspirations and values to those held by their teachers, and their families also usually have different educational experiences to those of their teachers, with lower levels of tertiary qualifications existing in the populations of rural communities (National Board of Employment 1991). These values and educational trends have important implications for students in the support they are able to receive from members of their families as they complete assignments, and as they set their sights on personal academic goals and career aspirations.

My discussion to this point has described what occurs in many rural communities in the relationship between the school and its communities. I now wish to draw on my research data, and concerns about my rural community, in order to have a more critical look at the relationship between one rural school, and the communities with which it interacts. I have outlined some of the formal and open ways in which the school and its communities can interact. But some of the more powerful ways in which the school and its community can interact are informal, nor are they necessarily acknowledged or easily documented.

There have been discourses in the community which are not positive about the school, but rather have concentrated on its perceived deficits, the disappointments of students who have failed to achieve their aspirations, and the poor quality of teaching and of student behaviour and academic work. Some teachers have also engaged in negative discourses, about the school, the students, and the community.

In the following sections I shall firstly relate a critical event in the life of the school, and what this has revealed about the nature of the relationship between the school and its parent and student communities. I shall also discuss the problems faced by some students in the school, and what this indicates about parent relationships with the school of their children. Both discussions reflect on the differential power of sections of the community, power which parents are able to bring to bear on their child's school and the education which their child is able to access.

In common with many rural secondary schools, though certainly not all, Gleesonville High School is a smaller school. In 1995 the enrolment on February was 347.2 (FTE) students. A result is that it is more difficult to provide the range of senior secondary curriculum which is today thought desirable if a school is to adequately provide for its students and their varied abilities, interests and aspirations. As a necessary response to staff cuts which were to be implemented for the 1995 school year the school announced during term 4 1994 a rationalised curriculum range to be offered for the next year, changes which impacted mainly on the senior secondary students.

The courses which it was decided would not be available to GHS students in 1995 included maths 2, physics, chemistry, German, music and agricultural science, with the latter three courses also not being offered to year 11 students. The school administration had decided that with the difficulty providing staffing for the curriculum planned it was necessary to no longer offer the classes which would have the smallest numbers. Except for agricultural science, these are subjects traditionally taken by students who are successful academically, have higher academic aspirations, and are likely to be socio-economically advantaged. Many in the school community have not been supportive of Open Access study, and parents were alarmed that for some students it may have been necessary to study three courses by Open Access without prior experience and knowledge of how to succeed studying by this method.

Many parents of students who were to be in the year 12 class in 1995, and who were able to, decided to send their students to other schools, several talked of removing their students from education before the completion of secondary schooling, and some students changed their course selections, and reassessed their aspirations. With the withdrawal of some students from the school for the following year, the class sizes were further diminished. These withdrawals of students from the school led to discussion among parents and students about 'good schools', which schools fitted this description, the attributes of 'good schools', and comparisons between GHS and other schools. Parents of year 10 students who were unable to take the year 11 courses they had wanted, or were looking forward to the availability of courses at year 12 the following year, also participated in these discourses, and some organised for their students to participate in their senior secondary education at other schools.

Some of the twelve year 11 students I interviewed during 1995 discussed the fact that some of their friends had left GHS, and the reasons for their leaving. Zoe, the daughter of a professional person working in the town, was one such student:

The departure of three of her best friends had left this student feeling rather lonely, including a student whose parents worked at the school, and she displayed a self-fulfilling poor work ethic.

Two other students were more mixed in their assessment of these events. Beth and Belinda, in a shared interview, also discussed the fact that some students had left the school at the end of the previous year, and the negative impact this had for themselves. Beth's parents worked hard for the local schools which their children attended, participating in the School Council, working bees, helping in the school canteen, and taking a strong stand in support of the provision of quality education in this town and other rural areas. In response to a question about disappointments for them at school that year, a question I asked in each interview, Belinda replied:

The friend these girls mentioned would have been planning to leave GHS for some time, as the opportunity to develop such a talent requires attendance at a special school, as distinct from other students who left because the range of subjects they required was not available. While Beth and Belinda indicated a position in opposition to the negative discourse about the school, they concluded with another important part of the negative discourse about this school, and many rural schools - the fact that GHS students when they went to other schools often found that their academic work was of a lower standard than that of their new group of peers. This fact was periodically used as proof that GHS was indeed a school with lower academic standards, and even the best students by parents from GHS found study difficult when they moved to other schools. While possibly these two girls were pleased that some of the students who had left GHS were no longer academic leaders, they must have wondered about the standard of the work they were completing, Belinda in particular, as she aspired to study medicine at university.

This process of student withdrawal revealed the power of parents in relation to the activities and priorities of the local secondary school, in this case in relation to the provision of curriculum. The withdrawal of a significant number of students from the school, led to a reassessment of the face-to-face curriculum to be offered by the school for 1996 onwards. The dilemma for the school was which group of students should be a priority when decisions were to be next made about courses to be offered. The result was what was termed the 'Curriculum Guarantee', which indicated what the school was guaranteeing to offer to senior school students. In June of 1995 the 'Curriculum Guarantee' was published before the commencement of subject selections for the 1996 school year:

A teacher in charge of the formation of the senior secondary classes for the next year explained:

The dilemma is about balancing the expectations about provision for some students, and the needs of other students. Although this policy was popular with a group of parents, it proved difficult for the school to sustain.

When I interviewed Wendy and Cathy, they talked about difficulties and disappointment with the range of subjects which had been available to them. I had asked these girls if they thought they stood a fair chance of doing well at school:

These two students were both from lower socio-economic families, and their fathers were employed as tradesmen by small businesses in Gleesonville. These students aspired to becoming child care workers or working in the tourism industry. Wendy, believed that it was important to gain some type of post-school qualification, and she and Cathy both indicated they wished to gain a TAFE qualification. Neither of these girls had an interest in studying the more prestigious school subjects which were being guaranteed by the school, apart from Cathy's study of German, which she was completing with Open Access. These two students had found the task of selecting five subjects for year 12 difficult. Inappropriate subject selections contributed to Wendy failing to pass enough subjects to be awarded her SACE at the end of year 12. Cathy was also unsuccessful, at least partly due to difficulties continuing her studies of German by Open Access without peers or assistance face-to-face.

During interviews with the students some of the students revealed difficulties with what I have called 'school knowledge', that is the information or knowledge at school which is necessary for successful or desired progress, or the ability to gain what the student needs for successful learning. Wendy and Cathy had an additional problem which was making school success difficult for them, and the source of disappointment for them:

These two girls believed they were not being given access information or advice which would assist them to improve the standard of their school work, and enable them to gain better marks for work submitted for assessment. However, while these two students were able to explain what they wanted from their teachers, they had little idea what was earning better marks for other students. These girls also gave no indication of knowing how they might go about gaining that knowledge from teachers or fellow students.

An other example of a student with poor school knowledge was Phil. This student also came from a low socio-economic status family, whose single parent mother was finding life dependent on social security difficult, and whose father working in semi-skilled employment in the town. Phil appeared to be quite a challenging student, with unusual thinking and learning styles which made progress in his physics class difficult. He also did not understand that in order to attain long term aspirations for future employment it is often necessary to make compromises during the school years. Phil did not do homework, as he objected to reducing his time available for writing computer game programs. At the time of my interview with Phil he had begun to understand that he would have benefited from spending time during the year learning physics formulae, completing assignments to a good standard, and learning for tests. This student was fortunate to benefit from the generosity of a member of the community who had volunteered to assist students at GHS for one day a week, and for a few weeks at the end of the year Phil had some support for several hours each week to work on areas of his academic work where he most wanted assistance. This indicated that Phil had, for whatever reason, articulated to a teacher his desire for assistance, and indicated the type of assistance he required.

Due to Phil's poor results during the year he had failed to successfully complete some semester units. This had made his selection of courses for the following year more difficult. Phil did not have the prerequisites for some of the courses he would have preferred to study the next year, and he complained that he was being forced to do what he termed the 'dumb subjects'. Phil had little knowledge of the requirements for the SACE, and options available such as completing year 12 over two years an option which would have given him time to repeat some of the prerequisites for the year 12 courses he wished to study.

Phil had attended meetings in the school which were intended to provide the students with this information, but he was evasive about why he did not ask questions.

Wendy and Cathy also had difficulties with their subject choices for the following year. Their ability to tell me what they were to study the next year was made more difficult by the efforts of the school to make the process of deciding the course offerings for the next year a student centred process which met the needs of as many students as possible. The courses finally offered also needed to meet the constraints of the school's staffing, timetable and the 'Curriculum Guarantee'.

From a limited range of subjects these girls had selected art, as it had no prerequisite, and by default the maths course which met the needs of the majority of students. Here Wendy and Cathy were again limited in their school knowledge. Although they were very positive, even enthusiastic, about the prospect of studying art the next year, their reasons for the selection of this subject were not ideal, and the subject proved an unwise choice for Wendy. She proved to be very slow producing the required pieces of art work, and found the art theory work difficult. Near the end of year 12 Wendy discovered that a fellow student was studying by Open Access home economics, a subject which she would particularly have liked to study. This student had not realised that this could have been a possibility for her too, and she demonstrated the effect of poor school knowledge here.

The fact that literacy is a sociocultural activity and students each bring different resources and experiences to bear on the production of texts appropriate to the set school tasks has important implications for students. These differences are the result of varying exposure to, and usage of texts, determined by the Discourses in which the students are participants. If a community is to realise a shared vision of appropriate education for all, such that each student is able to achieve their goals, the support and material assistance of all sectors of the community can make an important contribution to the community's school(s).

Community support is necessary if a school is to understand the community Discourses and the literacy experiences and abilities of its students, in order to recognise both the literacy strengths and weaknesses as defined by the school and assessment criteria. Some communities have larger proportions of students who have not had exposure to the types of literacies expected of students at school, while the children from other social groups come to school with much 'cultural capital' (Giroux 1983; Luke 1993) which enables them to fit in easily with the expectations and ways of learning of schools (Heath 1983; Jones 1991; Schieffelin & Gilmore 1986). Some communities are also better positioned to support their school and their children. This is the case where communities have more resources, including financial, intellectual and time resources to contribute to their schools. This ability to contribute is not evenly spread, either by location or over time. For example rural communities are prone to experiencing times of economic hardship due to natural disasters or economic downturns, and these can result in decreased support for their school. In a similar way rural or urban communities may experience sudden increases in unemployment or underemployment, or may become enclaves of a higher proportion of the emerging 'working poor', or may be distracted by concerns with the deterioration of other living conditions which also detract from support available to schools. It should also be recognised that some communities contain more members whose contributions to their schools are not seen as appropriate and therefore are less than welcome.

Community support is also difficult where community goals differ from the goals of schooling which can be overwhelmingly middle class. It is a problem that this situation needs to continue if students are to have the opportunity to access the full range of options for future lives. It is this contradiction which can feed and support negative discourses in education about students, and about their families and communities. This negativity and lack of sympathy for some students can make it difficult to understand who they are, and enable sensitive instruction to facilitate necessary building of new literacies.

The process of a school coming to know and understand the nature and aspirations of the community it serves is complex, particularly where the community is heterogeneous, with a significant proportion of the population from non-mainstream groups. Just as there is uneven distribution of power, particularly in a heterogeneous community, so too there is unequal voice granted for some parents and sub-communities in the school. Where a school is subject to greater voice from one section of the community, at the expense of other groups in the community, there will be sections of the student body who are going to be less well served by the school, and the school will be less able to discern the needs of the various sections of its student body. This unequal voice can lead to a school continuing the process of allowing familiarity with the dominant culture of our society to be a prerequisite for school success (Jones 1991). Schools need to enable students to gain from the education process what they require to enhance their literacy learning. Some students are well supported by their families to achieve this, while other students, recognise that they need assistance, but either have little idea how to go about this, or do not believe they are empowered to achieve this. While individual schools need resourcing to meet the needs of their communities, schools serving heterogeneous communities also need to resource delivery to students specifically to meet the differing needs within their student population.

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