34th National SPERA Conference

Access for All: Equity Matters

The Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA), in partnership with the NCSEHE, held the 34th National SPERA Conference on 28-30 November 2018.

The conference included a welcome reception on Wednesday 28 November, with a full program over Thursday 29 and Friday 30 November, including a whole-of-sector symposium addressing the Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education government response.

Themes

Conference sub-themes were based on Halsey’s 2018 Independent Review into Rural, Regional and Remote Education, as follows:

• Global Directives [OECD & UN SDG4]
• Asset-driven place-based innovations [international, national, local]
• More than IT solutions [Creative alternatives]
• ESL, Language and Learning [Cultural & Linguistic Competency; Aboriginal Curriculum Framework]
• Poverty and Power [General Capabilities; Enablers; Disrupting Discourse]
• System-level equity [Showcasing WA RRR -DET, AISWA, Catholic, TAFE]

Speakers

• Emeritus Professor John Halsey
  College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University
• Associate Professor Jayne Downey
  Center for Research on Rural Education, Montana State University
• Denyse Ritchie
  The THRASS Institute (Teaching, Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills)
• Dr Jude Walker
  Regional Australia Institute
• Dr Sue Ledger
  Murdoch University 
• Phil Brown
  Country Education Partnership 

Event overview

PowerPoint presentation

Photo gallery

For more information visit the SPERA website.