ABSTRACT

Tasmania has a small education system compared with other states of Australia. The participating schools were in the two major centres in Tasmania and all socio-economic groups were represented. The cluster would be set up, it was suggested, to enable schools to work for equal opportunity. The chapter provides a description of the progress of the cluster, which attempts to show the qualitative changes gained, and which suggests improvements that could be made. Participants generally felt that the cluster method used had been a good way of gaining in-service training. More specific advantages were the support, remotivation, sharing awareness, learning about strategies, and the resources available. General complaints about the difficulty of changing things in schools were made but with the additional complication of the particularly controversial nature of gender equity. Apart from this, a number of other problems were mentioned, including time, attitudes of others, support from school structures and students' attitudes.