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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ItemEducation and state control in Victoria, 1900-1925( 1963)This is an attempt to make sample assessments of State-controlled education in Victoria in the first quarter of this century, to define the nature of State control and to judge of its quality and effectiveness. The term 'State control' has been interpreted to include partial and indirect control as well as that which is complete and direct: hence Part III has been devoted to control exercised by the State over private and denominational schools, for this extension of the State's arm was characteristic of the period. Within the State's own Department system, the whole field proved too vast for one thesis: therefore, on the assumption that the system at the Primary level was fairly well established before the turn of the century and that other Melbourne researchers are covering the field of technical education, attention in Part II has been focussed on the establishment of State high-schools. Part I, on administration, naturally treats of the system as a whole. Another limitation imposed by space and time concerns sources of material. Any assessment must embrace causes as well as results, and in that even the sample field proved too large for detailed consideration of a wide range of causes, attention has been concentrated on internal evidence -- that is, evidence contained in Department documents and reports. Apart from practicability where evidence is embarrassingly plentiful, one justification of this approach is that in the period under survey Victorian State-controlled education was dominated by the strongest and most influential of its several Directors, Mr. Frank Tate. It has been the fashion to count this domination to the credit of Victoria's first Director and to the great advantage of the State. But one of the assumptions underlying the commentary in the pages that follow is that in a democratic society the professional administrator and his officers should not be obliged or even permitted to determine the social objectives underlying the processes of education. It is theirs as experts to determine the most appropriate means by which the goal shall be reached after it has been determined and defined by the community through its elected representatives. (From Introduction)