Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe educational ideas and influence on Victorian education of Dr. John Smyth: principal of the Melbourne Teachers' College, 1902-1927 and the first professor of education in the University of Melbourne, 1918-1927( 1967)Second in authority and influence only to Frank Tate, Dr. John Smyth was uniquely qualified to interpret the ideas of the "New Education" movement for Victorian schools at the turn of the century. Instead of using a biographical approach, this thesis outlines the diverse intellectual backgrounds which together formed the basis of Smyth's ideas. His New Zealand teaching experience coincided with the beginnings of reform there and his understanding of the "New Education" was deepened through study in Germany and Scotland from 1895 to 1901. German demands for realism in education; kindergartens and the theories of Froebel and Pestalozzi; the new techniques of Herbart and Rein; the establishment of teacher-training as a legitimate function of the university; and the beginnings of experimental psychology at Leipsic, were experienced by Smyth at first hand. The philosophy of Neo-Idealism which he espoused explains his ability to synthesize conflicting elements of the complex "New Education" movement. These major influences can be seen as the thesis examines Smyth's impact on Victorian education as Principal of the Melbourne Teachers' College (1902-27) and as the first Professor of Education at the University of Melbourne (1918-27). Separate chapters develop Smyth's attitudes to teacher-training and the College's growth under his control; his direct responsibility for the creation of the Free Kindergarten Union of Victoria and the improvement of Infant Schools; his idealistic philosophy translated into practice in the rural schools; and the significant contributions he made to the development of a School of Education at the University of Melbourne. A final assessment of Smyth the man reveals him as an intensely religious, dedicated educationist who had a lasting impact on the pattern of Victorian education. His relationship with Frank Tate emerges as that of an idealistic reformer unable to accept happily the limitations of compromise forced on Tate, the shrewd administrator, by a political and economic climate hostile to any but utilitarian educational reforms. Whilst Smyth’s educational ideas were not always fully implemented, the part he played in a period of educational history hitherto dominated by the name of Tate cannot be ignored. His intellectual stature and his actual accomplishments mark him as a key figure in our understanding of the development of Victorian education.
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ItemJohn Thomas Lawton (1878-1944): biography of an educational and social reformer( 1978)John Thomas Lawton (1878-1944) was a pioneer of progressive education in Australia. His school, St. Andrew’s College, Kew, (1921-1933) trained a generation of students into new ideals in education of truth, individual freedom and self-government. Through his school, Lawton sought social reconstruction, following the trauma of World War I. He was convinced that human nature is perfectible in an imperfect society and that the youth of the country must assert their strength against the demands of industrial society with its exploitation and materialism. Apart from his educational experiment of the Twenties, Lawton was a broad social reformer with radical views. He was quick to espouse the new psychology from Germany and America and the social idealism from Britain, Europe and America. His originality lay not in the ideas but in his application of these in the emerging Australian nation. As a Presbyterian minister, his radicalism led to serious opposition from his clerical colleagues and a personal disillusionment. To some extent he withdrew from direct involvement with the Workers’ Co-operative Movement and the Movement Against War and Fascism. He took the stance of a Christian Socialist and avoided all contact with the Communist Party of Australia in order to keep his Ministry. Lawton came from a strict Presbyterian pioneering family in an isolated bush setting of the Western District of Victoria. He was a product of the 1872 Education Act, precariously implemented by consistent community pressure to open a school in the area. He suffered the repressions and stern social and family conventions of the Victorian era in Australia and his childhood presents us with the curious mixture of freedom and independence, physical hard work and initiative and a mother's driving ambition for her children to escape the harsh and alien environment which held little future for her large family. Lawton responded to his mother's ambition, excelled scholastically as a pupil-teacher and pursued his studies in Melbourne. Lawton's own personal drive and ambition can surely be traced to his bush childhood. He was consistent in his ideals but moved readily and somewhat impatiently into new areas of social reform. His educational experiment lasted only eleven years and he soon realised that social reform through education is necessarily a long term proposition. Returning to the Ministry, he took up new causes for peace and social and fiscal reform. He died relatively young during the Second World War. Lawton was earnest and sincere, strong willed and, at times, dogmatic. His commanding stature and eloquence of speech and manner made it possible to attract a large following of forward-thinking people of all social classes and, although he did not live long enough to see the fruits of his labour, his influence can be clearly discerned to-day in those who knew him and in the better society which has developed from the past.
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ItemThe Victorian agricultural high schools : origins, development and failure: with special reference to Ballarat, Sale, Shepparton and Wangaratta agricultural high schools( 1977)The concept of the vocational secondary school is not unique to Victoria and, as in other places, the questions of its origin, development and success or failure are integrally tied to the political, social and economic conditions of its environment. The agricultural high schools of Victoria, established in the first decade of this century, were not, as some would have us believe, poorly considered experiments proposed by a few optimistic educators in a fledgling State which provided education for its children only up to grade six level. Rather, they represented the first major move by an ambitious young Director of Education, Frank Tate, into a field hitherto dominated by independent interests. That they were vocational, that they were rural, was determined by the political and economic realities of the time: that they were failures was determined by the liberal philosophies and, therefore, approach of Tate and other department men, and by the social realities in a State where industrialization and resultant social mobility militated against any attempt to keep the boys "down on the farm". Poorly constructed, and unwanted by the rural populace, the vocational aspect of the agricultural high schools was, in the main, dysfunctional to the composition of Victorian society, and the thinly veiled contempt of the Education Department could be seen in the words and deeds of its administrators. But they had to pay lip-service to their political masters, and the façade was necessarily maintained until long after the passing of the 1910 Education Act, the composition of which, had Tate been so allowed, would have brought to fruition his dream of a large and integrated State secondary system. When it finally disappeared from the Victorian educational scene, the agricultural course was lamented by few. It had been, however, the necessary medium through which the initial steps along the road to a State-wide system of secondary education had been taken. The schools lived on, as district high schools, and helped to provide the model for that system.