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includes developing and maintaining close professional relationships with schools
and mentor teachers. One of the philosophical bases of the program is the impor-
tance of relationships in learning to become a teacher. This not only applies to the
preservice teachers and mentor teachers but also to the teacher educators them-
selves. Critical to the success of the program is effective communication between
all participants and the direct involvement of teacher educators in the schools as
much as possible.
Model: Western Australia (Murdoch University)
Introduction
In 2011, Murdoch University in collaboration with Curtin University and the
University of Western Australia successfully tendered for funding from the
Australian Government’s National Partnership Quality Teacher reform. The Western
Australian Combined Universities Training School (WACUTS) program offered a
select-entry 12-month internship to high-calibre preservice teachers spanning
kindergarten- year 12 in rural and metropolitan school contexts. The program gradu-
ated 50 interns per annum for 3 years (2011–2013) with a 92% employment rate
(Hall, 2013 ). When national partnership funding ceased in 2013, the WACUTS
internship model and structure was adopted by Murdoch University and used as a
blueprint for internships across all accredited initial teacher education programs.
The Murdoch Internship and Immersion Models (MIMs) continue to cater for K-12
initial teacher education options spanning rural and metropolitan schools. The
12-month MIMs’ program, currently graduates up to 40 interns each year with an
employment rate of over 90% (Foxall, 2014 ; Hall, 2013 ). It offers a combination of
immersion and internship features within its program structure.
Background
In 2010, the Tertiary Educators Rural, Regional and Remote Network (TERRR
Network) was formed in Western Australia, a region that spans over 2.6 million km^2.
The collaborative goal of the group was to improve the quality of graduates working
in rural Western Australia. The TERRR Network developed a research project to
improve the capacity of universities to prepare teachers for employment in rural and
remote locations (Trinidad, Sharplin, Ledger, & Broadley, 2014 ). The Western
Australian Combined Universities Training School (WACUTS) internship emerged
as a program initiative from the TERRR Network targeting both rural and metro-
politan school needs and contexts. The aim of the Western Australian Combined
Universities Training School Program (WACUTS) and the subsequent Murdoch
S. Tindall-Ford et al.