Expanding educational opportunities through place-based initial teacher education in very remote communities

This paper reports on the concept of a ‘place-based’ initial teacher education program for very remote communities in Australia. The paper draws on experiences in developing and implementing a customised approach to initial teacher education for Aboriginal Assistant Teachers in Catholic Community schools in remote Northern Territory communities. It highlights some of the challenges of meeting normal regulatory and academic conventions while delivering culturally rich and responsive programs to diverse groups of mature learners in very isolated and unique contexts. In particular, it addresses issues around cultural fidelity and ways of customising and integrating required content, language and literacy to achieve intentional outcomes. The program’s success is reflected in its first graduates who are now teaching in their own schools and communities and the continuity and expansion of the program.