Essay on Sociological Issues Effects on Students

Many sociological issues within society can have both short and long term impacts on students and their school communities, this essay will focus on how rural location can affect learning communities, classroom interaction and student learning outcomes as well as provide recommendations to cater for diversity in regards to location. When discussing location it is important to know what is meant by the term rural; “The Commonwealth Government recently defined rural as all non-metropolitan places with fewer than 100,000 people.” (Stokes, H. 2011.) Examples of rural locations within Australia include Gatton and Dayboro.

Being apart of a rural school community can have both advantages and disadvantages, it can mean that because there are fewer children within the community that there are less students in the school leading to more one on one time with the teacher so students cannot get lost in the system. Angus Lloyd discusses the benefits of one on one teaching “The student benefits immensely from the personal attention inherent in a one-on-one teaching ratio. Because of the intimate environment, the teacher can accurately monitor how well the child is mastering the lessons, and can adapt the pace and targeting of skills accordingly. Children and teens have less fear of making mistakes when taken out of a group situation, and flourish in a safe learning environment.” (Lloyd, A. 2004) Another advantage of being a student within a rural community school is that the smaller environment is more secure and supportive and students are known more individually this then leads to a closer community where parents and teachers know each other personally and have remarkable partnerships.
Although being rural has many rewards the community can also be hindered, as many rural families do not live in close proximity to schools, which leads to a large travel time. Having a large travel time to school means less family time, which in turn affects the community, less rest and study for the students. “Studies have shown that sleep deprivation has caused adverse effects in students such as an increase in inattentive behavior and daytime sluggishness.” (Chalmers, F. 2010). Not only does location have an impact on the community but also interaction and practices inside the classroom.

Being apart of a rural community with a bush location means students learn more about nature and have a greater respect for the land, however due to having a remote location schools may have less access to resources such as school excursions (libraries and museums) and incursions (guest speakers or activities); as well as no access to the appropriate resources. The Rural and Remote School Education Report gives the following as an example of having appropriate resources available, “A rural school that is comprised of all Aboriginal children in a community where English is not the first language and yet all the teaching resources are based on an assumption of English as the first language.” (Stokes, H. 2011) Many rural locations do not have consistent Internet, which can make teaching and using technology in the classroom difficult. Avan Levasseur discusses the importance of teaching technology to students in his article ‘Teaching Without Technology’ “The pedagogy that's emerging to deliver 21st-century skills is student-centered and inquiry-based. It is a crucial part of modern day learning” (Levasseur, A. 2011). Therefore living in a rural location can affect student’s ability to use technology, something that is everywhere around us in many workforces. Living rurally can also mean a lack of afterschool tutoring and afterschool services as there are a limited number of teachers providing education in rural areas and often there are one teacher schools. Australian Journal of Teacher Education says “Teacher shortages in rural schools have been an problem for many decades in Australia (Lyons, Cooksey, Panizzon, Parnell, & Pegg, 2006) and the last decade is no exception.” (Hudson, P, Hudson, B, & Sue, M. 2008) It suggests that teachers do not teach rural areas due to issues such as overwork, inadequate pay, no contract permanency, loss of social status, inadequate housing and economically deficient surrounding communities. So it has been seen that rural communities are affected both within the classroom and the community by location, but the individual needs of the learner also need to be assessed.
Although all of the issues discussed so far contribute to overall student outcomes living rurally can also have a major affect on success rate of student learning. Firstly, highly intelligent students in rural communities do not have much motivation to succeed, as there is not competition besides their peers in their school, compared to city schools, which have interschool competitions for both sport and academics. Dr. Tom Verhoeff discusses competition and education saying they are inter-related, “It is not surprising that education and competition are intimately related. On one hand, it is natural for children to compete and, therefore, understandable that competition is put to educational use. On the other hand, competition may be found so important in adult life, that a society especially educates their young to compete.” (Verhoeff, T. 1997) Teachers should use this to their advantage within the classroom; one example of this is placing students in groups of 5 and rewarding groups for good behavior on a sticker chart with an end of the week prize for the group with the most stickers. “In order to prepare students to be global citizens in the 21st century, knowledge of a foreign language is of prime importance” (Block & Cameron, 2002; Cates, 1990; Gallagher- Brett, 2005). Students in rural schools may not have appropriate access to different cultures and languages compared to that of a multicultural city, therefore living rurally could directly affect the outcomes of a student’s cultural perspective and awareness.

To improve situations within communities, classrooms and student’s individual results the following recommendations have been put forth. To make getting to school for rural areas easier for students local bus systems need to be improved, there needs to be a more specific route where needed. Rural school to school systems could be set up where schools can donate resources to each other (city to country or country to city) these could be ‘buddy schools’, where children from the city write to children in the country and vice versa to increase their awareness of larger communities and cultures. The buddy schools could also hold competitions with one another to motivate students and further instill the sense of a wider community. To better communicate with other schools and also to teach more modern topics technology across all rural towns needs to be improved, and more government help to get internet and computers in all rural schools across Australia is needed. The most crucial recommendation in regards to the affect location has on students and the education system is creating better incentives for pre service teachers that encourage them to work in rural areas, this could include better pay, increased adequate living and permanent contract positions. Having quality teachers where it counts is key.

This essay looked at the sociological issue of location which can have both short and long term impacts on students and their school communities, discussing how rural location can affect learning communities, classroom interaction and student learning outcomes as well as recommendations were put forward in hopes to improve the situation. It is difficult to select teachers for rural areas (Lyons et al., 2006). Undeniably, attracting teachers to rural schools has presented a challenge for education departments for decades (Collins, 1999). With hope for the future of our rural students there needs to be a change in the next generation of teachers.

Reference List

Block, D., & Cameron, D. (Eds.). (2002). Globalization and language teaching. London: Routledge.

Chalmers, F. (2010). How Your Home's Location Can Affect Your Children's Education. Retrieved 25th March 2013, from http://www.alveoland.com/project_updates.php? id=1843
Collins, T. (1999). Attracting and retaining teachers in rural areas. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Charleston WV. Retrieved 2 April, 2013, from http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-4/rural.htm

Hudson, Peter B. and Hudson, Sue M. (2008) Changing Preservice Teachers' Attitudes For Teaching In Rural Schools. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 33(4):pp. 67-77.

Levasseur, A. (Nov 10 2011). Teaching without Technology. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/11/teaching-without-technology-314.html on 23rd March 2013.

Lloyd, A. (2004). Teaching Services One on One Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.anguslloyd.com/teachingservices.html.

Lyons, T., Cooksey, R., Panizzon, D., Parnell, A., & Pegg, J. (2006). The SiMERR national survey. National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia: University of New England. Retrieved 9th April, 2013, http://www.une.edu.au/simerr/national_survey/Report/

Stokes, H, Stafford, J, & Holdsworth, R. (2011). Rural and Remote School Education (Final Report ed.). Retrieved from http://humanrights.gov.au/pdf/human_rights/rural_remote/scoping_survey.pdf on 25th March 2013.
Verhoeff, T. (1997). The Role of Competition in Education. Retrieved March 29th 2013, from http://olympiads.win.tue.nl/ioi/ioi97/ffutwrld/competit.html