Abstract:
Attracting teachers to live and work in rural and remote schools is a continuing challenge in more isolated parts of Australia and internationally. It was this challenge that prompted the Priority Country Area Program (PCAP) to fund the trial of a Community-based Mentoring Model in Queensland to ascertain if a joint approach could make a difference for teachers. Two aims guided the research; 1) to design and implement a Community-based Mentoring Model for enhancing the lives of teachers living and working in rural and remote settings and; 2) to ascertain the effectiveness of the mentoring model by conducting two case studies in different geographic locations. One site was in a medium sized rural setting (population 900) and personnel from two schools and the local community were involved. The second was in a much smaller remote community (population 323) where local community members and school personnel participated.