Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    The work of the denominational and national boards of education in Victoria 1850-1862
    Curry, Norman G. ( 1965)
    Any historian has many difficult decisions to make concerning his choice of material, for the educational historian the problem is no less difficult. Should be concentrate on the complex issue of relations between church and state which influence both education and the life of the whole community, or should he allow his educational interests to anchor him in the classroom itself, and so develop a history of pedagogies which only rarely asks what is happening in the wider community? Should he take some issue, such as teacher training or inspection, and trace it through a period of time, or should he endeavour to see the way in which various activities are carried on in a more limited period? Both these vertical and horizontal views of history are necessary, for without the one history can appear static, and without the other the interaction of various forces can often be ignored.
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    A century of Presbyterian mission education in the New Hebrides : Presbyterian mission educational enterprises and their relevance to the needs of a changing Melanesian society, 1848-1948
    Campbell, Malcolm Henry ( 1974)
    The role of mission educational enterprises in developing territories during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been examined in recent years. The relationship between mission schools and social, political and religious change has been reviewed in case studies of African, Asian and Pacific nations. The New Hebrides provides a unique opportunity to study the development of mission education policies in a territory in which government assistance and control over education was completely absent. On most of the islands of the New Hebrides group, the history of education from 1848 to 1948 is the history of Presbyterian Mission education.The New Hebrides Presbyterian Mission possessed neither the resources nor the policies necessary for the task of providing a broadly based national education system. Yet for more than a century, civil administrations left the entire responsibility for the provision of education in the hands of the Christian missions. The Presbyterian Mission willingly accepted this responsibility. It regarded education as an integral and essential part of its three-fold programme of evangelism, healing and teaching.(For complete abstract open document)
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    The system of payment by results in Victorian elementary schools, 1864-1905
    Baker, Ronald Frederick ( 1977)
    "Payment by results" was a system used to determine teachers' salaries, in full or in part, in some parts of the world in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was originally conceived in England by Robert Lowe, Vice-President of the Education Department, and incorporated in regulations issued in 1861. These regulations led to considerable dispute but reappeared, in a slightly modified form, in the Revised Code of 1862. The system came to an end in England in 1897 but at the turn of the century still remained in Mauritius and Victoria. It was first proposed in Victoria in 1862 by the Premier, (Sir) John O'Shanassy but was firmly rejected by the Legislative Assembly. Nevertheless a modified version came into operation in 1864. The Board of Education, newly created under the Common Schools Act was responsible for this. Whether O'Shanassy put covert pressure on this Board whose members were appointed by his Ministry is open to conjecture. Certainly at the time a large number of people, inside and outside Parliament, thought so. Educationists and historians have tended to view the system as something of a curio. However its ramifications were so great that it has to be viewed more seriously. The system lasted in Victoria for forty-one years - almost one-third of the history of the State - and therefore cannot be lightly dismissed. Not wanted in the first place, it nevertheless remained in operation until the end of 1905. It survived Royal Commissions, newspaper campaigns, political criticism, opposition from teachers, educationists, and the general public. However its grip on Victorian elementary education was broken only when the forces of change, heralded by the "New Education" towards the end of the nineteenth century, made it an anachronism.
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    The development of junior technical education in Victoria, 1868-1966
    Robson, Derek Ian ( 1967)
    In 1851, alluvial gold was discovered in large quantities in Victoria and the men of the colony flocked to the rich fields believing that wealth could be gained with the minimum of effort. In the first few months about half the male population of Victoria gathered on the fields while the news of the rich strikes soon brought more diggers from across the Murray River and from Van Diemen's land.
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    Origins of the Victorian Apprenticeship Commission: a history of apprenticeship regulation in Victoria 1896-1927
    Brereton, P. D. ( 1970)
    By the eighteen nineties, factory methods had encouraged looseness or avoidance of apprenticeship contracts. The improver system, under which employers were not responsible for teaching, flourished. Youths grew up insufficiently skilled to command full tradesman's pay, thus threatening adult jobs and wages. In 1896, following anti-sweating agitation, wages boards were established to determine minimum rates and maximum numbers of juveniles in certain seriously exploited trades. By 1900, this system was extended to other trades, but the minimum duration of apprenticeship contracts was set at only one year. Because employers resented limitation, wages boards in 1903 lost the power to fix the proportion of apprentices; but in compensation an apprentice was redefined as one bound to be taught for at least three years. Nevertheless, without adequate means of training, adequate definition of trade skills, or an adequate tribunal, the situation remained unsatisfactory. Trade classes were developed to supplement workshop experience, but they had little effect. In 1907 a Conference recommended that an Apprenticeship Commission take control of certain skilled trades and establish the numbers to be admitted as apprentices, their wages, and the goals and methods of their training, including technical education. Improvers would be excluded from those trades. Although wages boards gained power to prescribe indentures in 1909, and regained their limitation powers in 1910, when Bills to establish a Commission were presented in 1911 and 1912, both the form of the proposals and the antagonism of employers resulted in their rejection. A second Conference in 1911 recommended that apprenticeship be left to the wages boards. Between 1911 and 1921, the Federal Arbitration Court improved apprenticeship conditions in some trades; the technical school system developed its capacity, especially in preparatory work; and a Repatriation Training Scheme adopted organisational machinery similar to that proposed in 1907.
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    The educational work of the Presentation Sisters in Victoria, 1873-1960
    Kavanagh, Mary ( 1965)
    The general aim of this study is to examine the activities of one congregation of religious teachers, the Presentation Sisters, in one state, Victoria. Within such a small world it is possible to recognise in very human terms the working out of forces set in motion by political procedures, developments which in a more general history would be dismissed in one or two rather abstract statements. Who would expect to find more than a brief reference to Dr. James Francis Corbett in a general history of formal education in Australia? Such trifles as the names and the fortunes of the nuns caught up in the stream of events would be too infinitesimal to be considered, except in so far as, for better or for worse, in some vague, shadowy way they helped maintain a system of independent schools. It is the human element that interests the writer most – the impact of events on people of certain character and temperament, the interaction of widely differing personalities, the emergence of leaders, the formation of opinions, the movements towards decisions, the careful plans, the apparently haphazard developments. The specific aims of the study are to provide a record of the work of the Presentation Sisters in Victoria from 1873 to 1960, and to show how far latter day trends, within the Congregation, are explained by its history. The framers of policy in 1873 could not envisage the scene of 1960, yet that scene can be interpreted only in terms of the forces set in motion during the early years. Those forces have gathered momentum and have resulted in the development of distinctive characteristics in the Victorian convents. Amalgamation is an interesting case in point. The two oldest foundations, Presentation Convent, Windsor, dating from 1873, and Star of the Sea, Gardenvale established in 1885, had their roots in Limerick and Kildare respectively. These Irish houses, though essentially the same, developed as separate foundations with strong local traditions. By 1960, however, there are twenty four Victorian convents amalgamated under on Mother General resident at O’Neill College, Elsternwick. Parallel to this development is the process of adaptation, as essentially European traditions have been reinforced, modified or completely changed, under the impact of the Victorian educational environment over a period of nearly one hundred years. This is not to imply that amalgamation and acculturation are developments peculiar to the Australian communities, but merely to point the fact that certain characteristics may be explicable only in terms of the Victorian educational scene. The phrase “certain characteristics’ calls for emphasis. As a religious order working within the Catholic Church in five continents, the congregation must be viewed within this wider context if its Victorian story is to have any real significance. Valuable data preserved in the archives of the twenty four Victorian Houses : there are many senior nuns who lived with the Foundresses of the earlier established houses, and who are well informed about the origin and growth of the Congregation in Victoria. As yet, no systematic attempt has been made to assemble this information for the benefit of the younger members of the communities. It is the writer’s sincere wish that this first effort may open the way for further research. This work is presented in two parts. Each chapter of Part I deals with a major chronological period: Part II is concerned with major developments in the schools, therefore each chapter cuts across the chronological periods.