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Australia, 1903
Note: Photographs of Indigenous persons who have passed away appear in this entry.
In 1903, the Russian scientist, Aleksandr Leonidovich Yashchenko visited Australia, two years after federation. Yashchenko was an accomplished scholar whose education and graduate training included zoology, anthropology and geography. He taught at prestigious colleges in St Petersburg. His visit to Australia was a research commission on behalf of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences. … Continue Reading »
Australia, 1898
At the end of the nineteenth century there was much to interest visitors from Britain and Europe in Australia. The country was pioneering innovative forms of democracy such as votes for women, reducing the property franchise for various groups of voters and the use of the secret ballot at elections. There was also government sponsored industrial conciliation and arbitration, a response to the strikes and industrial turmoil of the early 1890s.… Continue Reading »
Australia, 1820-2010
In Australia’s colonial period, before there were universities, technical and agricultural colleges, and when post-elementary schooling was uncommon, there were few institutions that were able to disseminate advanced or “useful knowledge”. This was a period in which more scientific approaches to agricultural, mining and later, industrial production, were increasingly advocated. Spreading the new knowledge, was haphazard, often dependent on what recent immigrants, newspapers, periodicals and books arriving from Britain had to contribute.… Continue Reading »
Western Australia, 1980-2005
Subtitled “a dramatic tale of neoliberal reform in an Australian high school”, Martin Forsey’s analysis of Como Senior High School in Western Australia provides a case study of radical public education reform in the 1990s. It stands as a parallel study to that of Mount Druitt High School in New South Wales.
… Continue Reading »Australia, 1880-1989
Anxiety concerning the fitness of youth for coming adulthood and its responsibilities has had a long history. Towards the end of the nineteenth century in Australia such anxiety rose to the level of a moral panic. Larrikinism was a problem for the respectable middle classes. The behaviour of too many unruly working class youths, larrikins, tended towards criminality, immorality, disorder and violence of various kinds.… Continue Reading »
Australia, 1901-2020
On 1 January 1901, the Australian federal constitution came into operation and the Australian nation was born. Among its many tasks, as in all federal constitutions, was the enumeration of powers to be divided between the national or Federal government, and the States of the Commonwealth. The Australian Constitution specified the exclusive powers of the Federal government.… Continue Reading »
Australia, 1840-1900
It was mainly from the 1850s, and especially from the 1870s, that a new kind of teacher in the elementary schools emerged. They were increasingly likely to have had some training, certainly to a greater degree as apprentices, that is pupil and then junior teachers, but also with some time in normal or model schools and eventually teachers colleges.… Continue Reading »
Victoria, 1960-2005
Alf Salkin (1923-2005) was a teacher in Victorian Education Department secondary schools from 1964 until 1985. He taught at Mount Waverley, Monash and Brentwood high schools. He was primarily an art teacher but late in his career he also taught science. His contributions to environmental education were extensive and stretched well beyond school teaching.… Continue Reading »
Victoria, 1863-1866
Mary Mackillop is the only Australian to be deemed a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She has been widely recognised for her involvement in education; particularly her work with schools conducted by a religious order she co-founded with the Rev. Julian Woods in 1866: the Institute of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.… Continue Reading »
Australia, 1840-1870
The best way of teaching reading and writing has been a contentious question for at least two centuries. Phonics first approaches, building reading skills from the progressive recognition of letters, syllables, words, phrases and sounds has a long history, as do meaning-centred approaches that attempt to contextualise words, phrases and sentences within accessible stories and other contexts.… Continue Reading »
