Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe origins and early history of the State secondary school teachers in Victoria, 1872-1926( 1968)In tracing the history of state secondary school teachers in Victoria from their origins in the primary teaching service until 1926, this study covers the areas relevant to teacher status - viz., teacher training, conditions and associations - and an attempt has been made to evaluate the progress made towards professional status. The Diploma of education course, initially a two-year University course aimed to train teachers of academic subjects, was instrumental in raising the academic and pedagogical qualifications of secondary teachers. It was, however, inadequate in that it did not train teachers in sufficient numbers, and it was always starved of finance and essential resources. The Diploma was supplemented by the post- Intermediate Trained Teacher's Certificate courses in manual and Domestic Arts and Commercial subjects. Because the education Department played a significant role in both systems of training and the teachers had no control of training standards, the progress that was made was achieved without reference to the teachers, and was offset by the increasing numbers of temporary teachers employed in the secondary schools. No significant progress was made by secondary teachers in determining their professional conditions. These were almost entirely decided by the centralized administration which widened and tightened its influence. Professional freedom in areas such as curricula was further limited by the uniformity imposed by the public examination system. State secondary teachers were willing conformists to these pressures restricting their professional activity, and directed most of their energy towards regularizing their position within the public service. Even in this sphere, they achieved little: their salaries were relatively poorer in 1926 than they had been in 1912, it took thirteen years to gain a Classification Board, and they rarely succeeded in gaining concessions even on minor matters. Hence state secondary teachers were enthusiastic supporters of the movement towards the uniting of all teachers within the one Union which culminated in 1926. By 1926, then, the greatest gain that state secondary teachers had made was in their training and qualifications. For the rest, their steps towards professional status were faltering and often retrograde.
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ItemThe platonic tradition and the beginnings of modern education( 1965)The threefold aim of the present study is a) to investigate the evolution and the main characteristics of the thought which led up to and underlay most of the educational assumptions in the principal German states about the beginning of the nineteenth century; b) to establish if 'ideas' affecting education and appearing as entirely novel at the same time were not actually conceptions with a very long past; c) to discover if there be sufficient ground to recommend a scrutiny of the continuation of the same undercurrent of thought with a view, to its possible contribution to the emergence of the 'New Education' of the Australian states; from the first decade of this century. (From Chapter 1)
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ItemThe influence of Alfred Williams, and the Price ministry, on public education in South Australia( 1964)The immediate problem confronting an education historian of the period which includes the lifetimes of Alfred Williams and Thomas Price is the paucity of other investigations on the trends and developments in South Australia at the time. While clearing, breaking the soil, and then farming my selection, I have been made continually aware that my field is a small enclave in miles of unbroken, virgin bush. As a consequence, I have had to look at the lie of the land as well as the quality of the crop, to combine as it were the two jobs of surveyor and agriculturalist. Of all the men who have been permanent heads of the State's education services, only one, John Anderson Hartley, has so far been the subject of critical research. In a State as comparatively small as South Australia, the impact of personalities on the State system is likely to provide the reasons for reform and practice, since one man here and there could in fact be the monarch in so small a kingdom. Thus as this investigation has proceeded, it has become increasingly clearer to me that there are rich areas to be examined outside my frame of reference. The influence of W.T. McCoy, a powerful Director from 1919 to 1929, must soon have to be estimated. H.J. Adey, who is often mentioned in the following pages, seems to me to have given a many-sided contribution to South Australian education, but as yet he is revered without many people knowing exactly why. Dr. Charles Fenner, as initiator of Technical Education after 1915 and then later as Director, is another who needs a just appraisal. The Directors alone, it seems to me, warrant closer attention by research scholars before the history of our State's education can properly be told. Furthermore, the mark of Dr. A.J. Schulz has been left indelibly on Teacher Training in this State if for no other reason than that he controlled the destiny of the State's only Teachers College from 1908 until 1948. My interviews with Mr. Ben Gates and Mr. Reg. West also emphasized the impression that these men were themselves the fabric of the history, for what has happened in the high schools since such schools were instituted has to a large extent been the result of the actions and policies of these men. Yet such extensive areas of research lie virtually unexplored; and without critical research there cannot be a balanced or definite account of how South Australian education has developed. (From Preface)