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Article
Publication date: 14 October 2008

Lesley Preston

At Shepparton in the Murray electorate of Victoria in 2007, the Federal Liberal Member, Sharman Stone, announced that under a returned Coalition Government, Shepparton ‘would get…

Abstract

At Shepparton in the Murray electorate of Victoria in 2007, the Federal Liberal Member, Sharman Stone, announced that under a returned Coalition Government, Shepparton ‘would get a stand‐alone technical college’. One year earlier, the Victorian Minister for Education, Lynn Kosky claimed that ‘We lost something when technical schools [the ‘techs’] were closed previously. Yes, the facilities were not great but we lost something that was important to young people’. This article explores the development and demise of ‘South Tech’, Shepparton South Technical School, 1966‐86 to identify the ‘something’ that Kosky claimed was lost, and to argue that technical education is essential in a reconstituted system.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 37 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2007

Lesley Preston

School sex education has the potential to evoke a range of personal and political reactions. While it is usually agreed that sexuality should be ‘done’ in school, few agree on the…

Abstract

School sex education has the potential to evoke a range of personal and political reactions. While it is usually agreed that sexuality should be ‘done’ in school, few agree on the best way of ‘doing’ it. This article provides a personal account of the development of sex education at Shepparton South Technical School, Victoria, Australia from 1973‐1985. It is supported by interviews with the people involved in those events and archival materials, including media reports. It also documents the efforts of extreme right activists to discredit and stop programmes, and the State Liberal government’s attempt to formulate a policy on sex education. First I provide a general background to technical schools in Victoria in the 1970s followed by a discussion of Shepparton South Technical School specifically. I then discuss the development of the sex education (social biology) programme, the pivotal role of the Social Biology resource Centre, and the networks involved. I also describe the attacks on the programme in the late 1970s, and their origins and impact. I conclude with a discussion of the outcomes of this intense public scrutiny, and the demise of social biology and the secondary technical schools, the ‘techs’ in the 1980s.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 36 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 May 2014

Lesley F. Preston

Using sex education at Shepparton South Technical School (South Tech) as a prism, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the Victorian Technical Schools Division policies and…

468

Abstract

Purpose

Using sex education at Shepparton South Technical School (South Tech) as a prism, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the Victorian Technical Schools Division policies and practices during the 1970-1980s.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on a documented history of South Tech by using a blended methodology consisting of interviews, media-centred debates and a range of documentary sources.

Findings

The Technical Director, Edward “Ted” Jackson's 1970 policy empowered principals as educational leaders, in partnership with their community, to develop courses responding to student needs. This paper analyses a controversy concerning sex education in 1980 that brought such courses under the scrutiny of the Victorian public.

Social implications

Identifying the policies and practices of a sex education course that proved successful in the past enhances the development of contemporary courses.

Originality/value

Victoria's former secondary technical schools provide an important insight into current social and vocational problems.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 43 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

John Pardy and Lesley F. Preston

The purpose of this paper is to trace the restructure of the Victorian Education Department in Australia during the years 1980-1992. It examines how the restructuring of the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to trace the restructure of the Victorian Education Department in Australia during the years 1980-1992. It examines how the restructuring of the department resulted in a generational reorganization of secondary schooling. This reorganization culminated in the closure of secondary technical schools that today continues to have enduring effects on access and equity to different types of secondary schooling.

Design/methodology/approach

The history is based on documentary and archival research and draws on publications from the State government of Victoria, Education Department/Ministry of Education Annual Reports and Ministerial Statements and Reviews, Teacher Union Archives, Parliamentary Debates and unpublished theses and published works.

Findings

As an outcome the restructuring of the Victorian Education Department, schools and the reorganization of secondary schooling, a dual system of secondary schools was abolished. The introduction of a secondary colleges occurred through a process of rationalization of schools and what secondary schooling would entail.

Originality/value

This study traces how, over a decade, eight ministers of education set about to reform education by dismantling and undoing the historical development of Victoria’s distinctive secondary schools system.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 44 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2009

Peter Rushbrook and Lesley Preston

In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses…

Abstract

In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses and relocated them into new Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs), leaving many ‘middle‐level’ and technician vocational courses in limbo. Junior technical schools also offered apprenticeship and middle‐level courses, further confusing where courses were, or should be situated, suggesting an overall ‘gap’ in program provision. This challenge came when the Technical Schools Division (TSD), the smallest of Victoria’s three division structure (primary, secondary and technical) continued its struggle to maintain sectoral identity through courting acceptance from private industry and the public sector for its credentialed programmes. With significant others, TSD Director Jack Kepert, followed by Director Ted Jackson, responded by designing policy to reshape the TSD’s structure and functions and its reporting relationships within a new technical college and junior technical school system. Jackson’s policy statement, The future role of technical schools and colleges (1970) facilitated these changes. The paper narrates the events constituting this period of policy innovation and evaluates their contribution to the creation of a more seamless

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 38 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2011

Anthony Potts

The purpose of this paper is to examine an aspect of the working lives of a group of Australian college of advanced education academic staff who worked at Bendigo College of…

392

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine an aspect of the working lives of a group of Australian college of advanced education academic staff who worked at Bendigo College of Advanced Education, one of Australia's oldest colleges, during the period 1965‐1982.

Design/methodology/approach

Using extended interviews that were conducted with academic staff in 1982 this paper examines these academic staff's perspectives on the influence of their own tertiary education and previous employment on their then academic roles.

Findings

The academic staff in this study reported that their previous employment was more important in carrying out their academic roles than were other factors such as their tertiary education. Interestingly, current Australian university students, according to university commissioned research, by one research intensive Australian university, also attach more importance to the prior industrial and work experiences of university lecturers as opposed to their research excellence and productivity.

Originality/value

Using the perspectives from these academic staff of almost 50 years ago, this paper questions the direction of current Australian higher education policies and practices with respect to university staffing and its directives and emphases. This paper provides an important insight into current academic careers and the tension in current academic roles as a result of current higher education policy and practice, by using these voices from the past.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 40 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1948

THE activity of librarianship during September was almost breathless. Visitors to Chaucer House in the third week of the month had possibly the most cosmopolitan experience of…

30

Abstract

THE activity of librarianship during September was almost breathless. Visitors to Chaucer House in the third week of the month had possibly the most cosmopolitan experience of their lives. It was, as our readers know, the assembly time of the International Federation of Librarians, which divided its London meetings between Chaucer House and the equally hospitable University College. The members, coming from a score or more of countries east and west, had, many of them, been present at the successful and crowded conference of Aslib at Ashorne, and were now conferring further, and being entertained by the Library Association, together with members of the Unesco Library School. That school spent its first week in Manchester, with a tour of Derby County libraries; its second week was in London. Amongst the guests at the reception given by the British Council at Portland Place, and at the L.A's own reception at Chaucer House three days later, many distinguished librarians were met, including Dr. Munthe, Dr. Sevensma, Dr. Ranganathan, the state librarian of Ankara, the University Librarians of Istanbul, Copenhagen, Trondhjem, of Alexandria; and many others, including those of England and Scotland, the Chief Keeper of the Printed Books, Bodley's Librarian, and the Librarian of the National Central Library. Moreover, as these gatherings coincided with the meeting of the Library Association Council, the official leaders of the profession were present, including the President (Mr. Nowell).

Details

New Library World, vol. 51 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1941

TRAGEDY has touched many libraries in the past few weeks, but the really sporting manner in which has been met the worst that the Nazi bomber can do places librarians, we hope…

Abstract

TRAGEDY has touched many libraries in the past few weeks, but the really sporting manner in which has been met the worst that the Nazi bomber can do places librarians, we hope, fully in line with our people. Roofless rooms have been patched, sometimes merely with canvas and felt, empty houses have been taken over, and by similar expedients even in the worst places a library service has been continued. It has been used, too. There is no fear for the future of the book and reading, whatever difficulties impede them. It has become almost commonplace that reading is a main employment of war leisure; but we still have to get that over to the powers that be. Or have we? The Board of Education wrote to local authorities asking them to maintain and even to extend library facilities as their value in war was enhanced. Some have responded.

Details

New Library World, vol. 43 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1966

A re‐opening of negotiations for Britain, either unilaterally or with other States, to enter the European Economic Community appears distinctly likely in the coming year. It is…

Abstract

A re‐opening of negotiations for Britain, either unilaterally or with other States, to enter the European Economic Community appears distinctly likely in the coming year. It is more than four years since we discussed, in these columns, the subject of the Common Market and its possible effects on food standards and legislation generally, if Britain linked its economic fortunes and future with the Community. The main obstacles at the time were a chariness to accept the full implications of the Treaty of Rome and the agricultural policy of France. In fact, one gained the impression from all the reports that but for the intransigence of France, we might have joined in 1963.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 68 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1996

Martin Fojt

It is all too easy in the hectic world of business to get too involved with the day‐to‐day managing of processes and events. When this happens it is difficult to see the wood for…

1022

Abstract

It is all too easy in the hectic world of business to get too involved with the day‐to‐day managing of processes and events. When this happens it is difficult to see the wood for the trees and the automatic pilot syndrome takes over. This does not suggest that you do not know what you are doing ‐ on the contrary you are probably as switched on to whatever activity you are managing as anyone could be. What you could be missing, however, is the explanation as to why you are doing it. If this sounds familiar to you, what might be needed is a detached period from your work. By this I mean stay on the high ground for a while so you can get an overview of what you are doing and, more importantly, why you are doing it. How many managers, I wonder, get the opportunity to question what they are doing? If you allow yourself to slip into complacency then you and your organization will soon lose competitive advantage.

Details

Logistics Information Management, vol. 9 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-6053

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