An history of the history of mass schooling in Australia

1. The History of Mass
Education
Dr Rachel Buchanan

2. History of mass education
Australian Experience
What was the job of a teacher?
Overview

3. Key terms
Dr Rachel Buchanan3
 Mass Education – Formal systems of
compulsory schooling,
 Education policy - Government policy related
to Education
 Ideology - the body of doctrine, myth, belief,
etc., that guides an individual, social
movement, institution, class, or large group.
 Socialisation – modification of an individual’s
behaviour to conform to the demands of social
life

4. Why is the history of mass education in
Australia like Shrek?
Dr Rachel Buchanan4

5. Did you say layers?
We will now explore the layers within the Australian school
system
Dr Rachel Buchanan5

6. Dr Rachel Buchanan6
 Prior to the Enlightenment, Medieval
Europe was a highly segregated and
structured society.
 Difficult to move between classes and
roles within society.
 Nation states, as we understand them
today, did not exist – changing
territories and kingdoms.
 The institutions of society (such as
Marriage, Monarchy, Church) were
believed to be of divine origin and
therefore unchallengeable.
Every society has
always educated their
young. However,
mandatory formal
systems of schooling
are a relatively recent
historical
development

7. Origins of Mass Education
Dr Rachel Buchanan7
 The Reformation and the Enlightenment slowly
changed these perceptions.
 Newly emerging belief in progress being achieved
through reason and scientific exploration and
discovery.
 Education becoming increasingly important for a
higher percentage of the population.
 Between 1869 and 1882 most western countries
implemented compulsory education for both sexes.
 Education is linked to state formation

8. Dr Rachel Buchanan8
 By 20th century
education systems
accounted for the
second largest amount
of expenditure (armies
accounted for the
largest)
 Employed the greatest
number of people
 Supervised by large,
gendered,
bureaucracies.

9. The wealthy believed that education
was a means of controlling the
masses and avoiding revolutionary
turmoil
“Children of the people, they
believed, could be taught
docility, humility and
resignation. They could be
trained to obey orders with
precision, joyously, without
being given a reason,
promised a reward, or
threatened with punishment”
(Miller, 2004, pp. 132-33).Dr Rachel Buchanan9

10.  Schooling was seen as means by which people
could be inculcated with the values of the home and
the church.
 The working classes could be trained out of their
habits of ‘insubordination’.
 The three “R’s” was a means of training children in
‘meekness, and morality’ (Miller, 2004).
Dr Rachel Buchanan10

11. Education systems set up by the wealthier classes
with their own needs in mind
Development of a two-tiered system
Working classes under represented in higher
education
Lower retention rates for secondary school
Lower rates of tertiary education
Dr Rachel Buchanan11

12. Dr Rachel Buchanan12
By the Twentieth
century, most
countries developed
parallel educational
systems with distinct
clienteles and
purposes: one
leading to university,
and usually charging
fees; the other
catering to the
vocational needs of
clerks, teachers,
tradesmen, nurses
and mothers

13. Gender and Education
Dr Rachel Buchanan13
 The teaching
profession - a
gendered hierarchy
 From the late
1880s teaching
was a female
dominated
profession
 With the
development of
state systems –
female workforce
overseen by male
bureaucracy
 19th century
beliefs about the
female brain and
purposes of
education
continue to
impact education
 More female
students study
humanities and
male students
study STEM
subjects
 Ongoing efforts to

14. Dr Rachel Buchanan14
The gender patterns in education
and culture established in Europe
accompanied Europeans wherever
they set up colonies, with racial
and ethnic hierarchies added to
those of gender and class.
Schools that were established for
the children of colonists were often
divided by gender, with higher
education reserved for boys.
White colonists used school to
“civilise the natives” – often an
explicit attempt to destroy

15. Dr Rachel Buchanan15
The development of Mass Education is a global
process that has local permutations, we shall now turn
to the Australian experience.
19th Century developments
NSW Department of School Education was
established in 1880 and compulsory state schooling
introduced – at the Primary school level
Mass schooling consolidated by Federation but
remained under the jurisdiction of the states.
With the introduction of compulsory
schooling, non-attendance became illegal
rather than immoral.

16. Dr Rachel Buchanan16
The 20th century saw
Expansion of schooling - development of state
based high schools and strengthening of
universities after WWII.
Desire for equality of opportunity.
Expansion of Higher Education, becoming more
accessible from 1980s

17. Dr Rachel Buchanan17
The development of an extensive private
school system owes a lot to Australia’s Irish
Catholic heritage and the sectarianism that
divided Australian society until after World War
Two
Due to Australia’s colonial establishment the
Irish were a discriminated under-class who
established and maintained their own
education system in order to protect not only
their cultural identity, but to ensure their
success in Australian society
Government funding of private schools
remains a contentious issue, but the Goulburn
school strike of the 1960s suggests that the
State school system could not handle the
influx of students if government funding to
private schools was withdrawn.

18. Dr Rachel Buchanan18
Public versus Private
schooling
•Inequities remain with the
way that school systems
are funded.
•State versus Federal
funding
•Colonial origins mean that
private education is
embedded in Australia and
remains a contentious
political issue
•Issue of school choice;

19. Education was seen as a means
of controlling the Indigenous
populationDr Rachel Buchanan19

20. Before 1770 there were more than 500 different
peoples populating the continent of Australia – each
group with its with its own languages and stories
(Heitmeyer, 2004)
Dr Rachel Buchanan20
Race and Education in
Australia
Control
Denial
Assimilation (removal)
Reconciliation/Redress?
‘Closing the Gap’

21. Dr Rachel Buchanan21
Public Instruction Act 1880
 Any child who lived within a
two mile radius of a school
house, must attend school
(regardless of race, creed)
Clean, Clad, Courteous Policy
of 1884
 Aboriginal children singled
out by this policy
1902 Exclusion on Demand
Policy
 No Aboriginal children
could attend school if one
non Aboriginal parent
objected
(See Heitmeyer, 2004)
Closing the Gap
 new policies have been
introduced which attempt to
redress the racism of past
policies and incorporate
Aboriginal perspectives and
history into education
• (National Curriculum –
debate regarding History
Curriculum suggests we
are not reconciled with our
colonial past)
• Community consultation,
parental involvement, and
language/s considerations,
remote and rural
geographic locations

22. Dr Rachel Buchanan22
Rules for lady teachers in 1915
~ "Part of Historical display at Halls Gap, Victoria“
1. Will not marry during the term of your contract
2. You are not to keep company with men.
3. You must be home between the hours of 8pm and 6am unless attending a
school function
4. You may not loiter down town in ice-cream parlours
5. You may not travel beyond the city limits with out the permission of the chair
man of the board.
6. You may not ride in a carriage or auto mobile with any man unless he is you
father or brother.
7. You may not smoke cigarettes.
8. You may not dress in bright colours
9. You may under no circumstances dye your hair
10. You must wear at least two petticoats and your dresses must not be shorter
than two inches above the ankle.
11. To keep the school clean you must:
a. Sweep the floor a least once daily
b. Scrub the floor with hot soapy water at least once weekly
c. Clean the blackboard at least once a day
d. Start the fire at 7:00am so that the room will be warm by 8:00am.

23. Dr Rachel Buchanan23
We can see from this lightning tour of the historical
foundations of mass schooling in Australia, that
while there have been significant changes in the
operation of mass education, the dominant
ideologies that formed the basis of the mass
schooling system have ramifications that continue
to impact today.

24. Dr Rachel Buchanan EDUC100824
References
Heitmeyer, D. (2004). It’s not a race: Aboriginality and Education. In . In J. Allen (Ed.)
Sociology of Education: Possibilities and Practices (pp. 220-249). Southbank, Vic: Social
Science Press.
Kyle, N. (1999). Reconstructing childhood. In D. Meadmore, B. Burnett, & P. O’Brien
(Eds.), Understanding Education: Contexts and agendas for the new millennium (pp. 18-
25). Sydney: Prentice Hall.
Miller, P. (2004). Gender and education before and after mass schooling. In M. E.
Wiesner-Hanks, & T. Meade (Eds.), Blackwell Companion to Gender History (pp. 129-
145). Melbourne: Blackwell.
Teese, R. & Polesel, J. (2003). Undemocratic schooling: Equity and quality in mass
secondary education in Australia. Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press.
Theobald, M.R. (1996). Knowing women: origins of women’s education in nineteenth
century Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vick, M. (2004). Watching the clock: Changes and continuities in schools and society. In
J. Allen (Ed.) Sociology of Education: Possibilities and Practices (pp. 54-80). Southbank,
Vic: Social Science Press.