Abstract:

Entering the 21st century, it is common in world education that the academic performance of rural students is lower than that of urban students, which seriously deviates from the common belief in democracy, equality, and fairness. Scholars have analyzed the causes of this phenomenon from multiple perspectives, trying to find a way to solve the problem. As a developed country, Australia has always had a huge gap in academic achievement between urban and rural students, which has attracted great attention from the government and society. Based on field theory and from the perspective of teachers’ teaching effectiveness, this study explores the main reasons for the lower academic performance of Australian rural students than in urban areas. It is believed that the unfavorable field environment of rural teachers has resulted in their lack of voice in curriculum and teaching decision-making, limited access to individual professional capital, and deviations in habitus, which seriously restricted their teaching effectiveness. By building a social support system, the Australian government promotes the endogenous growth of rural teachers’ professionalism, improves their policy discourse status, enables them to establish professional confidence and strengthen their identity, etc., so as to solve the problems of low teaching effectiveness caused by the field dilemma, as well as the low academic performance of students. Ultimately the goal of equal development of urban and rural education could be achieved.

Key words: field, rural teachers, teaching effectiveness, social support