A new teacher for a new nation? Teacher education, ‘English’, and schooling in early twentieth-century Australia

Abstract

The late nineteenth-century expansion of public schooling in Australia from an initial focus on the elementary phase to post-primary provision, and then to a more systematic secondary education over the early to mid-twentieth century, went hand in hand with the emergence of new populations of children and young people – a new constituency. In turn, these developments called into being a New Teacher, and a new system of teacher education, formed in accordance with what was widely understood as the New Education. Moreover, this was conceived as clearly in the service of nation-building. This paper traces aspects of the history of teacher education in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century, proposing that this is best understood with reference to the cultural and ideological significance of English teaching and the English language, nation and empire.

Keywords:

• teacher education
• (post-)primary schooling
• secondary education
• English teaching
• nationhood

Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge our ongoing work in this regard with Phil Cormack. Much of the research drawn on here arose originally from an ARC-funded project, as part of a larger programme of curriculum-historical investigation focused largely on the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century – Bill Green, Jo-Anne Reid and Phillip Cormack, Schooling Australia: A Curriculum History of English Teaching, Teacher Education and Public Schooling – From Federation to World War 2, ARC Large Grant (2001–2003).

Notes

We refer specifically to New South Wales and South Australia. The Colleges studied were Sydney Teachers College and Armidale Teachers College in New South Wales. Further to this, and to a lesser extent, research was undertaken with regard to Adelaide Teachers College in South Australia.

For an account of a situation where the teachers were clearly both unprepared and lacking support, see Meadmore (2003a, 2003b) on Queensland's reform initiatives in the period in question.

For a similar sentiment in the UK, see Adams (1922, p. 2) on the challenge of the ‘new teaching’: ‘Fortunately our profession is safe from the danger of violent change coming from with in’. Australian educationists like Peter Board, however, were an obvious exception in this regard. On the trope of the ‘new’, see Green and Cormack (2008, pp. 253–254).

It should be noted, however, that Mackie himself was keenly interested in the challenge for teacher education of the rural schools (Hyams 1979, p. 76).