Entries Tagged: Education policy

An archive of entries with keywords: "Education policy"

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Girls, School and Society

Australia, 1975

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

Women’s Liberation badge, 1970s

The revivified feminist and broader women’s movement from the late 1960s were always going to have a major impact on education policy and schools. The disparities and inequalities between males and females were deeply embedded. Commonly girls and boys had different curricula, women teachers were usually confined to less well-paid positions, fewer girls completed high school and graduated from universities and colleges in the tertiary sector, fewer girls than boys were accepted into apprenticeships.… Continue Reading »

Thomas Report, and William Thomas (1879-1945)

New Zealand, 1900-1960

By Gregory Lee and Howard Lee, University of Canterbury and Massey University. Posted .

Many national and provincial governments sought to expand access to secondary schooling during the twentieth century. New Zealand was a pioneer of the comprehensive school in its region. There would be a reformed curriculum that could include many more students than an academic elite. The influence of William Thomas was not confined to New Zealand.… Continue Reading »

Knibbs and Turner Commission and Reports

New South Wales, 1900-1914

By Dorothy Kass, Ph.D., Macquarie University. Posted .

The Commission on Primary, Secondary, Technical, and Other Branches of Education was appointed in New South Wales in early 1902. Commissioners George Handley Knibbs, University lecturer, and John William Turner, Headmaster of Fort Street Model School, travelled widely in Europe and America enquiring into education for the purpose of reforming education in New South Wales.… Continue Reading »

Making the Difference (1982)

Australia, 1970-2010

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

This book was co-written by R. W. Connell (Bob/Robert/Raewyn), D. J. Ashenden (Dean), S. Kessler (Sandra) and G. W. Dowsett (Gary). It was almost certainly the most influential social study of schooling that was written in Australia in the second half of the twentieth century. It had an impact on educational policy, the sociology of education, teacher education, teacher union policy and teachers.… Continue Reading »

Karmel Report: Schools in Australia

Australia, 1972-1974

By John McLaren, MA PhD, Victoria University. Posted .

After the federal Labor government, led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, won office in 1972 it moved quickly to implement its election promises for school reform.

The Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission was appointed in December 1972, to be chaired by Professor Peter Karmel. The Committee was to examine the position of government and non-government primary and secondary schools throughout Australia and make recommendations on their needs and on ways of meeting the needs.… Continue Reading »

Public and private in Australian schooling

Australia, 1788-2010

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

The words public and private have been used in attempts to describe the ownership, governance and purposes of Australian schools and education from close to the beginnings of British colonisation in 1788. They are concepts that had little meaning for Indigenous society before, and for some time after initial colonisation.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The meanings of these words shift over time.… Continue Reading »

Picot Report/”Tomorrow’s Schools”

New Zealand, 1945-2013

By Roger Openshaw, PhD DipTching, Massey University. Posted .

A prescription for radical change

The Picot Report, 1988

In April 1988 Administering for Excellence, the report of a taskforce headed by Brian Picot, identified ‘serious weaknesses’ in New Zealand’s three-tiered 110 year-old education system that in its view justified replacement by an entirely new two-tiered structure. The Taskforce envisaged the replacement of the Department of Education by a Ministry of Education and the abolition of regional education boards.… Continue Reading »

State aid to nongovernment schools

Australia, 1788-2013

By Ian Wilkinson, PhD, Independent Scholar. Posted .

The provision of state aid (government financial assistance) to nongovernment (independent and Roman Catholic) schools has been a major source of debate in Australian education from colonial times. For nearly a century a policy of providing no direct state aid to nongovernment schools was supported by Australian governments at all levels.… Continue Reading »