Traversing Personal and Public Boundaries: Discourses of Engagement in New Education 1930s–1980s

Abstract

Within the discourse of the New Education Fellowship (NEF) in Australia in the mid‐twentieth century, active engagement in creative recreation and discussion of social and political issues was highly valued. Members were exhorted to traverse personal boundaries by participating in practical and creative arts. In this discourse, NEF Creative Arts Summer Schools held in regional centres of New South Wales became a means of re‐creation of the self from passive observer to active participant. Opportunities to envisage the perspectives of others through engagement with public boundaries of race and ethnicity were created by encouraging a diverse student population. These initiatives are shown to have taken place in response to the circulation of new ideas and practices in an international context. In the process of engaging as individuals in mutual participation, students shaped their own experiences and the community itself. This paper is concerned with articulating ways in which new meanings were negotiated within networks that were engaged in developing new ideas and practices in education. Some insights into these networks are gained, particularly regarding the adoption of ideas discussed at international conferences in local practices. The creation of the Summer Schools is seen to have been an energetic response to a number of interconnected ideas and circumstances. Education was extended beyond the walls of institutions and the boundaries of conventional schooling both literally and metaphorically. Relationships between psychoanalysis and art were central to perceptions of freedom and self‐expression that came to be viewed as essential in the education of self‐controlled, democratic citizens. Wenger’s theory of Communities of Practice assists in the analysis of interviews with former students and staff of the Summer Schools which reveal ways that engagement in the Summer schools shaped personal experiences and the NEF community itself.

Notes

¹ White, Margaret H. “Negotiating ‘New’ Meanings in New Education: Generating ‘New’ Images of Art Education.” Paper presented at International Standing Conference of the History of Education XXVI, Geneva, 2004.

² Nóvoa, Antonio. “Texts, Images, and Memories: Writing ‘New’ Histories of Education.” In Cultural History and Education, edited by Tom S. Popkewitz, Miguel A. Pereyra and Barry M. Franklin. London: Routledge Falmer, 2001: 64.

³ Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 177.

⁴ Lawn, Martin. “Reflecting on the Passion: Mid‐century Projects for Education.” History of Education 33, no. 5 (2004): 505.

⁵ The first issue of the journal The New Era was published by the Fraternity in Education, which organized the first international conference in Nice. The name New Education Fellowship was changed in 1966 to World Education Fellowship (WEF). Larsson, Yvonne. “Pioneering Progressive Education: The World Education Fellowship in Australia and the World 1915–87.” The New Era 68, no. 2 (1987): 53–64.

⁶ Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983.

⁷ Brehony, Kevin. “A New Education for a New Era: The Contribution of the Conferences of the New Education Fellowship to the Disciplinary Field of Education 1921–1938.” Paedagogica Historica 40, nos 5/6 (2004): 733–55.

⁸ Sandell, Arthur. Forum for the Sharing of Educational Thinking. Melbourne: WEF Victorian Section, 1995: 2.

⁹ Boyd, William. “Education at the University Level.” In Education for Complete Living, edited by K. S. Cunningham. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research, 1938: 541.

¹⁰ Boyd, William. “Education and Citizenship.” In Education for Complete Living, 192.

¹¹ Boyd, William. “Summing Up.” In Education for Complete Living, 667.

¹² Kandel, Isaac L. “The Problem of Examinations.” In Education for Complete Living, 327.

¹³ Boyd, William. “The Reform of the Examination System.” In Education for Complete Living, 324.

¹⁴ Kandel, “The Problem of Examinations,” 328.

¹⁵ Lawn, “Reflecting on the Passion.”

¹⁶ Ibid., 509.

¹⁷ McNamara, Clarice. “Summer School of Leadership, Newport, NSW.” New Horizons Autumn (1940): 15.

¹⁸ Lawn, “Reflecting on the Passion,” 506.

¹⁹ Brehony in “A New Education for a New Era” details this shift in discussion of the 1932 NEF conference in Nice.

²² Ibid.

²⁰ McNamara, “Summer School of Leadership.”

²¹ Ibid.

²³ McNamara, Clarice. “Creative Activities for Adults.” New Horizons 9 (1952): 10–11.

²⁴ Ibid., 11.

²⁵ Between 1922 and 1923, articles relevant to creativity and the arts were predominant in The New Era.

²⁶ Ensor, Beatrice. “Editorial.” The New Era 3, no. 11 (1922): 67.

²⁷ Jones, Ernest. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol. 1. London: Hogarth Press, 1956: 401.

²⁸ White, Margaret H. “Ideas, Representations and Relationships.” Ph.D diss., University of Sydney, 2001: 133.

²⁹ Cremin, Lawrence, A. The Transformation of the School. New York: Free Press, 1961: 124.

³⁰ White, “Ideas, Representations and Relationships,” 247.

³¹ White, “Negotiating ‘New’ Meanings in New Education,” 249.

³² White, Margaret H. “Exhibiting Practices: Paper as a Site of Communication and Contested Practice.” In Materialities of Schooling, edited by Martin Lawn and Ian Grosvenor. Oxford: Symposium Books, 2005: 178.

³³ White, “Ideas, Representations and Relationships.”

³⁴ Errol Davis. Interview. Sydney, 30 June 2005.

³⁵ Bull, Charles. “Editorial.” New Horizons 15 (1955). This issue was edited by Charles Bull, Assistant Director of Youth Education at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Bull had been tutor in the Literature and Life Discussion Group at the 1955 Summer School. No indication of authorship of individual articles is given. Note regarding dates: the Summer Schools were generally held over the New Year period and bridged two years. Dates used here are the year [New Year] in which the substantial portion of the event took place.

³⁶ Bull, “Editorial,” 6.

³⁷ Ibid., 5.

³⁸ White, “Ideas, Representations and Relationships,” 251.

³⁹ Wenger, Communities of Practice, 215.

⁴⁰ Errol Davis. Interview. Turramurra (Sydney), 10 October 2004.

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² Margaret Tuckson. Interview. Turramurra (Sydney), 26 May 2005.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Giles, J. M. “Migrant Sydney,” cited in Spearitt, Peter. Sydney’s Century. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2000: 87–88.

⁴⁵ The Colombo Plan, an intergovernmental programme commenced in 1950, engaged members in economic and social development. The primary focus of developing human resources in the Asia‐Pacific region included provision of opportunities for students to study at Australian universities.

⁴⁶ Bull, “Editorial,” 7.

⁴⁷ Loc. cit.

⁴⁸ Ibid., 9.

⁴⁹ Tuckson, interview.

⁵⁰ Horne, Donald. The Lucky Country. Ringwood: Penguin, 1994. McNamara, Clarice. “Shaping the Future: NEF International Conference, Chichester.” New Horizons 36 (1966): 5.

⁵¹ See: www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/luckycountry/index.htm [accessed 18 September 2005]; INTERNET.

⁵² McNamara, “Shaping the Future.”

⁵³ Wenger, Communities of Practice.