The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) maintains a suite of Professional Standards. They are integral to all professional relationships and practices. New Professional Standards was approved by GTC Scotland's council on 9 December 2020. The question of how national standards on professional and lifelong learning in relation to excellence/equity is developed and influence of the rural context is one which needs to be examined.  This presentation seeks to examine the role national, local authority and school location of where a newly qualified teacher is placed influences their professional development, and the impact that this may have in the design and delivery of curriculum that needs to be both nationally and locally relevant and situated. Using qualitative methodologies, namely constructivist grounded theory and action research, two research projects were carried out over an 18 month period that sought to explore the level of importance that is given to the relationship of place and the cultural context within the pedagogical construct. Both projects involved working with a group of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) in a rural local authority where there were perceived difficulties in attracting, retaining staff and the access to continued professional learning. In 2015 Priestly, Biesta and Robinson presented an ecological model for teacher agency, built on from earlier work of Emirbayer and Mische (1998). The 2015 study agency emerged from the interaction of teachers past histories, future orientations and current context. The theory sits easily with the structure of initial and continuing teacher education in Scotland. This framework was utilised NQT cohort of teachers to explore the development of agency in rural schools in their induction year. Additionally, through project 2 this presentation will seek to address how utilising a constructivist grounded theory approach can be used to explicate the experiences of newly qualified teachers and the expectations and prescriptions on them at many levels, along with the contradictions therein.  Exploring what professional learning means in a remote setting and the challenges it can pose in terms of isolation, access to opportunities and a small cohort of staff to work collaboratively with.  The dilemma with a small number of staff and a small budget of balancing the needs of the school and the needs of the teacher to ensure their development and career progression is not limited by location. Focussing on the development of professional identity and evolving classroom practices in a teacher’s first year of teaching, this presentation seeks to highlight the value of considering using grounded theory in near to practice research. Place limits us, defines us and shapes us. There is a growing evidence base that place requires to be further examined in designing the curriculum, pedagogical approach, and professional development within rural education and what is the impact on learning (Corbett, 2015).  However the complex current focus on governance that requires standardisation of national curriculum, testing, guidance on teaching strategies pays little cognisance to the local place. As Smith and Tushman (2005) highlight, the act of organizing creates distinctions of roles and responsibilities, which may result in inner-organizational contradictions. Lastly, the above research will be situated in relation to the OECD’s (2019) report that examines the differences in learning outcomes and education expectations between rural and urban students. This document is one of the most recent and provides ideas for policy and country experiences that governments may consider to ensure high quality learning for students in rural contexts. The presentation will seek to bring together the national and local influences in the topic and briefly reflect and evaluate the wider influences in the organisational field and the opportunity for learning, development, and reconciliations.

Project one - through the theory of ecological agency (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; Biesta, Priestley and Robinson, 2015) NQT teacher awareness of rural education and their preparedness for the context was explored and data collated. The framework was utilised to explore the starting point for each NQT on the induction programme. The enquiry focused on the background that the newly qualified teachers brought to their role as a teacher, how their current context was influencing their views and what their future aims were within the context of a rural school. The NQT’s were introduced to the model of agency to explore their own views and beliefs in relation to rural education. Biesta, Priestley and Robinson (2015) note that teacher beliefs and aspirations relate strongly to teacher agency. The model was used for scaffolding views through a “Triad Map”. The data was used as a construction for a narrative around the past, present and future. A deeper look at each of the aspects of the model of agency took place with a smaller focus group (eight members) to gain an understanding of how newly qualified teachers gain experience to allow them to become highly effective teachers within a rural education setting. Project two utilised a constructivist grounded theory approach as it enabled the researcher to be part of the research and not apart, working with bias and precious research while also enabling new concepts to emerge that are relevant in a specific time and place (Charmaz, 2006) Grounded theory is a systematic method of conducting research that shapes collecting data and provides explicit strategies for analyzing them. The defining purpose of this method is to construct a theory that offers an abstract understanding of one or more core concerns in the studied world (Charmaz, 2000) The researcher used a focus group to elicit the initial codes (gerunds) for the grounded theory to begin to emerge, followed by theoretical sampling in the form of semi structured interviews. The interviews were subsequently coded and categories formed utilising further theoretical sampling where pertinent. In addition to the memoing, this process of reflexivity helped ensure theoretical sensitivity and legitimise the emergent theory, situated in the time and place the study was conducted.

Through evaluation of the two projects it has become apparent that whilst Scottish Government acknowledged that key areas of policy such as the economy, transport, education and health can have a particular impact on rural communities there has been little recent research in Scotland in regard to the development of pedagogy and teacher professionalism focusing on Rural Schools. During the work carried out in the projects there was a clear direction for future research focus to look at the following areas: • Professional development- rural teachers need opportunities for professional development • Rural difference- recognition that rural teaching context is different • Economic recognition- rural teachers have higher costs and are locked out of the economic cycle • Social- rural teachers may live away from family, friends and other support networks In relation to developing teacher agency in rural schools there requires to be an enhanced understanding on the support given during ITE and induction year. Long et al (2017) state that only an agentic teacher can fulfil the requirements of the vocation of teaching in a transformative way. Whilst interrogating the data from the projects a clear message resulted that the influence on the NQT from their own school background and their life histories was an important factor. Whilst in school the biggest factor for support was the colleague support and a large percentage of the cohort wanted to remain in a rural setting. Corbett (2015) states that rural schools are embedded in communities and potentially integrated within the community and often the heart of rural communities. It is essential that the system surrounding rural education supports teacher agency and brings an agentic approach to teaching in rural schools.

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