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Nature Study

Australia, 1890-1920

By Dorothy Kass, MA DipEd DipLib, Macquarie University. Posted .

Nature Study was a new subject introduced to elementary school curricula throughout the English speaking world in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It was an important component of the educational reform movement known as New Education. Nature Study was supported by a considerable body of theoretical and practical literature. Its subject matter introduced plant, animal, and geological studies to even the youngest children in elementary or primary schools.… Continue Reading »

Universities

Australia, 1850-2014

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd & Hannah Forsyth, MA PhD GradCert LS&T, University of Sydney & Australian Catholic University. Posted .

This entry provides a list of Australian universities organised by the date of their founding (often on the passing of an act of parliament), and a brief outline of some of the major interventions by governments that have organised their operation. The list has been developed from the member institutions of Universities Australia, the renamed Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (AVCC) that began meeting in 1920.… Continue Reading »

Junior teachers

South Australia, 1913-1945

By Anthony McGuire, PhD. Posted .

Junior teachers proved to be a considerable asset for education authorities during the straitened financial periods of World War I, the Great Depression and World War II. Apart from a brief period of prosperity in the early 1920s, untrained, lowly paid junior teachers were used extensively in South Australia to alleviate pressures arising from these events.… Continue Reading »

Playcentre: Whānau tupu ngātahi – Families growing together

New Zealand (Aotearoa), 1940s to 2014

By Suzanne Manning, MEd & Sue Stover, PhD, University of Auckland & AUT University. Posted .

Unique to  New Zealand (Aotearoa), Playcentre is a parent-led educational organisation providing adult and early childhood education since the 1940s. Founded on democratic principles embedded in the progressive education movement, Playcentre has evolved in response to the social changes in New Zealand society, in particular the changing role of women. As well as pioneering adult education publications and pedagogies, Playcentre was part of the normalisation of very young children in spaces designed for their learning through play.… Continue Reading »

Arnoldian school culture

Australia, 1860-2010

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

During the second half of the nineteenth century in England, the cultures of the great public schools were reformed. Even though Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby from 1828 to 1841 gave his name to the reforms, he was only one of a number of school headmasters who influenced the process.

In general the reforms meant schools were more likely to attract wealthier middle class families.… Continue Reading »

Australian College, The

Sydney, Australia, 1831-1854

By Geoffrey Burkhardt, PhD, Australian National Museum of Education (ANME). Posted .

The Australian College for boys was established in November 1831. It was one of the earliest collegiate schools in the colony to offer a comprehensive curriculum in post-elementary school subjects, although Rev. Henry Fulton’s Academy had offered a limited classical curriculum in his private school at Castlereagh since 1816. Also the Sydney Free Public Grammar School, originally established by Dr Halloran in the 1820s as a private venture, may have taught some students at the junior post-elementary level.… Continue Reading »

Young, Gay and Proud (1978)

Australia, 1970s

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

Whilst realising the difficulties of setting up a human relationships programme in many schools, we feel that an unequivocal affirmation of the validity of homosexual relationships is the only responsible course open to educators. Gay students need support and they need it now. … Effective change in the situation for gay students will not be achieved by decree or by mere good intentions.… Continue Reading »

Differentiated schooling

Australia and New Zealand, 1840-2000

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

Different schools and different courses of instruction for different groups of students have existed throughout the history of schooling. It is only in relatively recent times, mainly from the mid-nineteenth century that common schools with a common curriculum developed, usually in public school systems.

In this entry, recent approaches to ‘differentiated teaching’ are not considered to any great degree.… Continue Reading »

Teaching and pedagogy (1)

Australia, 1788-1850

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

The range and nature of instructional methods used by teachers with students has a long history. Most teachers adapt variably from this historical bank of teaching theory and methods. In this sense every teacher teaches differently. Nevertheless there are a number of basic approaches that have been used in schools since the British colonisation of Australia from the late eighteenth century.… Continue Reading »

Education for Complete Living (1938)

Australia, 1930-1960

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

Edited by Kenneth Cunningham, the first director of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), this volume collected papers given during the travelling conference of the New Education Fellowship through 1937.

Education for Complete Living was likely the most influential of any nongovernment publication about education and schooling in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century.… Continue Reading »