“I do plan to do that in the future, just not the near future”: Rural professional experience programs insights and developing a survey tool for PST propensity to pursue a rural teaching career

The Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) have invested $84 million in rural, remote and hard to staff schools, including $45.2 million in the form of incentives intended to attract teachers and school leaders to these settings (DET, 2020) and more recently supporting pre-service teachers placement (DET, 2023). This presentation reports on a project where pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) were interviewed about their experiences of rural placements and how these might inform their future employment-seeking choices. The semi-structured interviews also sought insights into the ways rural placements influenced PST understandings around working in rural settings, the diverse teaching and learning experiences they had on these placements, and what impact these had on their graduate destinations. Participants were recruited from two Victorian Universities who had placements in metropolitan, regional, rural, and remote settings. The researchers were particularly interested in metro-based PSTs who undertook regional/rural/remote placements including placements in the Northern Territory, and also included PSTs who were already based in rural settings. PSTs shared a variety of experiences that enabled them to develop rewarding pedagogical approaches and significant personal growth as well as experiences that challenged their prior notions of quality teaching.  Three broad themes were identified from the analysis of the PST data. These were pedagogical development, connecting to place, and engaging with the community. An additional finding was identified and related to considerations around future pathways and intentions to pursue employment in rural contexts. These were varied and highly individualistic. The presentation will explore the overall findings from the research which suggested that while rural placements were highly valued, they were insufficient in relation to overcoming personal circumstances when seeking employment in rural settings. Based on the findings of this research study, a survey tool is being developed which aims to measure in part the propensity of PSTs, and ultimately graduate and in-service teachers, orientation to teaching in a rural school as a career. Within this paper presentation preliminary findings from the analysis of the initial survey data will also be presented as well as plans for the further development of the survey.