Breaking Isolation in Australian Multigrade Teaching Contexts Through Communities of Practice

In Australia, a geographically large country with a small population, multi-grade schools constitute around one third of all primary schools. In the New England region of New South Wales, the proportion is much higher. Nine rural multigrade teachers and teaching principals in this region were interviewed to discover the experiences of multigrade teachers in a developed country and how they deal with isolation in their teaching contexts. Interview findings were supported by observations in four schools. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse descriptive categories, themes and conceptual ideas. Six themes emerged during the study: the overarching theme of isolation, with five subsidiary themes related to ways of coping with isolation, namely, through the use of information and communication technologies, community participation, parental involvement, and collaborative networking, both informal and through the formation of formal school clusters. The small-scale study showed that professional development through establishing communities of practice can minimise teachers' isolation in multigrade teaching contexts. Departments of education in both developing and developed countries should support their multigrade teachers to develop similar communities of practice.