DOCUMENT RESUME ED 412 361 · DOCUMENT RESUME. ED 412 361 CE 074 881. TITLE Towards a History of Adult Literacy in Australia. A Record. of the History of Adult Literacy Weekend (Armidale,

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 412 361 CE 074 881

TITLE Towards a History of Adult Literacy in Australia. A Recordof the History of Adult Literacy Weekend (Armidale, NewSouth Wales, Australia, November 12-13, 1994). SecondEdition, Revised.

INSTITUTION Technology Univ., Sydney (Australia).SPONS AGENCY National Languages and Literacy Inst., Melbourne

(Australia).ISBN ISBN-1-875578-77-3PUB DATE 1994-11-00NOTE 98p.; Product of the New South Wales Adult Literacy Research

Network.AVAILABLE FROM Language Australia Publications, GPO Box 372F, Melbourne,

Victoria 3001, Australia.PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) Reports Descriptive

(141)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Adult Basic Education; *Adult Education; *Adult Literacy;

Delivery Systems; Educational Change; *Educational History;Educational Policy; Educational Practices; EducationalTrends; Foreign Countries; *Government School Relationship;*Literacy Education; Program Development; Public Policy;*Weekend Programs

IDENTIFIERS *Australia

ABSTRACTThis document contains materials about and from the "History

of Adult Literacy Weekend" that was held at the University of New England inArmidale, Australia. The following papers about the weekend are included:"Foreword" (Patricia Ward, Rosie Wickert); "Introduction" (Rosie Wickert);"Focus on Oral History" (Janis Wilton); and "Arch Nelson Reminisces aboutAdult Literacy" (Arch Nelson). Also included are a list titled "EmergingResearch Questions" that was compiled after Janis Wilton's workshop, andabstracts compiled by Rosie Wickert of six background reports. The texts ofthe background reports contained in this document are: "Helpful Histories"(Deborah Tyler, Lesley Johnson); "How Adult Literacy Became a Public Issue inAustralia" (John Hodgens); "Introduction of 'Debating Literacy in Australia:A Documentary History 1945-1994'" (Bill Green, John Hodgens, Allan Luke);"'Fall out the Illiterates'--Lessons from a World War II Adult LiteracyProgram" (Darryl R. Dymock); "'An Issue of Significant Community Concern':The Postwar Development of Adult Literacy Policy and Provision in Australia"(Darryl R. Dymock); and "A Selected Chronology of Events" (James A. Draper).Several background reports contain substantial bibliographies. Appended is alist of key dates in the history of adult literacy. Contains 11 references.(MN)

********************************************************************************

Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.

********************************************************************************

Towardsahistoryofadultliteracyin AustraliaA Record of the History of Adult Literacy Weekend

November 1994

U.S. EPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONiOffi Ot Educational Research and Improvement

ED ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

This document has been reproduced asreceived from the person or organizationoriginating it.

CI Minor changes have been made toimprove reproduction quality.

Points of view or opinions stated in thisdocument do not necessarily representofficial OERI position or policy.

PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE ANDDISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL

HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Towardsahistoryofadult literacyin AustraliaA Record of the History of Adult Literacy Weekend

November 1994

The Nabonal languages and literacy Institute of Australia

U T sUniversity of Technology, Sydney

NSW Adult LiteracyResearch Network

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Towards a history of adult literacy in Australia.

2nd ed. (rev.).ISBN: 1 875578 77 3

1. Literacy - Australia - History. 2. Language policyAustralia - History. 3. Literacy Government policy -Australia History. I. Ward, Patricia. II. Wickert,Rosie, 1945- .

379.240994

© Copyright 1997 - Language Australia Ltd.No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission fromthe publisher.

Language Australia, PO Box 31, Belconnen ACT 2614, Australia

For information regarding production and marketing of this publication contactDavid Dickson, Language Australia Publications, GPO Box 372F, MelbourneVIC 3001, Australia

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The Weekend

Background Readings

1

Janis Wilton 6

Arch Nelson 12

Emerging Research Questions 20

Abstracts 23

Helpful Histories 25

How Adult Literacy became a 30

Public Issue in AustraliaDebating Literacy in Australia, 37

1945-1994"Fall Out the Illiterates" 45

Lessons from a WWII AdultLiteracy Program

"An Issue of Significant 53

Community Concern": ThePostwar Development ofAdult Literacy Policy andProvision in Australia

A Selected Chronology 68

of Events

Appendix Key Dates in the History 73

of Adult Literacy

Bibliography 78

AcronymsABEACALALBEALFALLPNLLIATAFEUNEUTS

Adult Basic EducationAustralian Council of Adult LiteracyAdult Literacy and Basic EducationAustralian Literacy FederationAustralia's Language and Literacy PolicyNational Languages and Literacy Institute of AustraliaTechnical and Further EducationUniversity of New EnglandUniversity of Technology, Sydney

ForewordA Workshop: Towards a History of Adult Literacy in Australia was organised by theNSW node of the NLLIA Adult Literacy Research Network and held at the Universityof New England, Armidale, on the weekend of November 12/13 1994.

The University of New England, Armidale was chosen because of its significant placein the history of adult literacy in Australia. Arch Nelson was the founding President ofthe Australian Council for Adult Literacy which was officially formed in October1976. He held this position until 1984, after which he became Patron for a further fiveyears. Through his association with the University of New England, Arch was able toprovide much needed infrastructure support to the fledgling ACAL and must takemuch of the credit for the important position that ACAL came to play in policy makingarenas. Additionally, a number of influential ACAL publications were published withthe assistance of the University of New England, one of which was 'Adult LiteracyProvision in Australia: Trends and Needs (1982), written by Darryl Dymock, anacademic at the University of New England, who also has a long and committedassociation with ACAL. Further, Armidale witnessed the NSW Department ofTAFE's first step towards adult literacy provision in 1975, when the Technical Collegeand the College of Advanced Education at Armidale cooperated in an adult literacyprogram using volunteer student teachers.

In this foreword we wish, in particular, to thank Arch Nelson, now into his eighties, forhis energetic contribution to the weekend and Darryl Dymock for his help in makingthe weekend so productive and enjoyable. We also wish to thank the guest speakers:Janis Wilton for her wonderfully stimulating introduction to 'doing' oral history, BillGreen for his insights and his historical imagination, and Chris Buckley, the Universityof New England's archivist, who alerted us, at short notice, to some of the realities ofestablishing an historical collection.

Finally we would like to thank all the participants for their interest in and contributionto the weekend: Trish Branson (SA), Chris Campbell (NSW), Margaret Caruthers(SA), Audrey Grant (La Trobe), Heather Haughton (VIC) and Jean Searle (QLD).

Patricia WardRosie Wickert

UTS

IntroductionR SOE WICKERT

Why History?

"We need to plan for the future. But to do so effectively we must

study our past and know our present situation. Very little has beenwritten about the history of education for adult literacy in Aus-

tralia" Arch Nelson - some notes for ACAL's eighth conference in

1984

"... historical research, however well done and however brilliantlyexpounded, will not provide the large formulations that mightenable the remaking of the organisational and educational worlds.But it could supply a little insight - and even a little insight mightprevent the issuing of politically naive and intellectually confusedreports. Those who work in, or wish to change, large socialorganisations like Education Departments, sail amidst shiftingwinds on treacherous waters. A knowledge of history providesthem with charts and helps acquaint them with the local climacticconditions. Such information will not tell them where to go; but

once they have decided their destination, it will help them getthere. And it might stop them, while they are making up theirminds, from being pulled by the wind onto rocks of whose exist-

ence they are ignorant."R.J.W Selleck. The Restructuring: Some historical reflections. InMurray Frazer, Jeffrey Dunstan and Philip Creed. Eds. (1985)Perspectives on Organisational Change: Lessons from education.Melbourne: Longman. p.123

"history serves to show that-which-is has not always been...sincethese things have been made, they can be unmade." MichelFoucault (1988) Critical theory/intellectual history', in L.D.Kritzman Ed. (1988) Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews andother writings 1977 1984. New York.

Background to the History Weekend Project

To say that literacy is a complex term appears to be stating the self-evident. But towhom is it self-evident? Certainly those of us who have been involved in literacy

education and literacy politics have lived that complexity. Furthermore, the potential for

ever greater complexity sometimes seems limitless as we get to ask more and differentkinds of questions about literacy. For many of us, that is part of what makes working in

the area of literacy education so compelling. But for many others, the term literacy

evokes images of school reading and writing and the temptation to stifle a yawn of utter

boredom. It is not until some event causes a degree of engagement with the concept, that

any inquiry or interest is triggered.

In the adult literacy world, we have not been as prepared as we could be to respondconstructively and productively to the many questions that are emerging as more and

more people, and not just academic researchers, fmd their interest in the subject quick-

ened. Adult literacy has a fascinating and complicated history in Australia - philosophi-cally, pedagogically and politically. But so much of that history lies in the memories,

filing cabinets and under the beds of a relatively small number of people who are

1

Towards a History of Adult Literacy in Australia

(L-R) Back- Audrey Grant, Arch Nelson, Jean Searle, TrishBranson and Heather Haughton. Front- Patricia Ward, ChrisCampbell, Rosie Wickert and Darryl Dymock

themselves important parts of that history.And maybe because adult literacy has agrass roots history, driven by the commit-ment and energy of practitioners, ratherthan the intellectual interests of academicsand researchers, the need to make thathistory visible and accessible has not beenwell understood.

The less information there is aboutsomething the harder it is to know how toact or what to think about it, and it iscertainly very hard to make commitmentson the basis of scant knowledge. On whatbasis can decisions about the future ofadult literacy be made when so little isknown about it? The policy makers'dilemma. This dilemma is clearly evidentin the sub-text of the two national lan-guage policies that have succeeded ingetting a degree of government expendi-ture for adult literacy. The adult literacycomponents of the National Policy onLanguages (NPL) (Lo Bianco 1987) andthe Australian Language and LiteracyPolicy (ALLP) (Department of Employ-ment, Education and Training 1991) bothdrew attention to the need for, and actuallysecured funds for policy related researchin order to develop a knowledge base onwhich to base future decisions.

Our concern here is not about what kindsof projects were funded or whose intereststhey served or about all those issues to dowith commissioned research projects, butabout the fact that fairly substantialamounts of new research funds attracted anew interest in the field. But whenresearchers tried to get some kind of a

2

handle on what they were studying, therewas nothing to grab.

To those coming from outside, adultliteracy in Australia was seeminglywithout a history. But constructing ahistory is not a straightforward descriptiveexercise. It is also a political one. Soalthough research teams around Australiawere attempting to construct some kind ofhistorical understanding in order toprovide some context for their work, thesehistorical understandings usually emergedin the form of literature reviews designedto serve the purpose of contextualisingspecific projects. This is perfectly validbut partial.

One of the important achievements of theNLLIA Adult Literacy Research Networkis that its funding is not linked to specificcommissioned projects. It was establishedexplicitly, as a strategy of the ALLP, tostrengthen the research base in adultliteracy (Department of Employment,Education and Training 1991, p.21). Theconcept of the network, argued forstrongly by ex-practitioners and arguedagainst by some established academics,was supported in the ALLP as a way ofbuilding research strength on a nationalbasis rather than focusing only on one ortwo centres. This may not produce thekind of research quality that some aca-demics expect, at least not for a while, butit is consistent with the bottom up phi-losophy of adult education which is basedon an egalitarian philosophy of partner-ship, learning through experience andresponsiveness to local needs.

It is this freedom that enabled the NSWNode of the Adult Literacy ResearchNetwork to decide to begin to acquire theknowledge and skills of historicallyoriented research. We did not want tobecome historians, rather we wanted todevelop our understandings of how towork with historical material so as tobetter understand, explore and unpack thefield of adult literacy education. However,in addition to acquiring those researchskills, it soon became obvious that animportant first step was to catch thestories of adult literacy in Australia beforethey began to disappear. Key individuals

8

introduction

are getting older and material is disappear-ing amid the seemingly endlessrestructurings and repositionings ofprovision. The workshop held at Armidalein November 1994 was the first step in thisdirection.

Objectives of the historyweekend

Given the scope of the task, the objectiveswere quite varied. The intention at thisstage was to cover ground rather than todig deep in any one particular place.Invitations were sent out to a range ofpeople in all states and territories; therationale for this being that a researchagenda around adult literacy's historyshould be something that was collabora-tively developed. The NSW ALRN sawitself as the host of this initiative; it did notnecessarily want to own the entire 'historyof adult literacy' project.

1) The first objective was to begin aprocess whereby material could be col-lected before it started to disappear. Thishad two dimensions. One concernedlearning about how to collect and archivematerial in a systematic and accessibleway. The other concerned learning tech-niques of researching particular historiesusing methodologies such as those devel-oped by oral historians. Thus this objectivehad a document focus and an inter-personal focus.

2) The second objective was to begin todevelop our knowledge about ways ofmaking sense of history. What kinds oftheoretical and analytical perspectives canbe called on and in what kinds of ways, tomake what kinds of sense of history? Weknow there is more than one history. Whatkinds of ways of thinking about history arethere? What kinds of questions can beasked of particular histories? What kindsof analyses can be made of historicalmaterial?

3) A third objective concerned our wish todevelop a network of people concernedwith adult literacy's histories and whomight want to begin to work together onparticular projects.

4) Linked to the above was our fourthobjective, which was to develop, in acollaborative fashion, some kind ofresearch agenda; to explore and documentthe kinds of ideas and interests that such anetwork of people might hold and to beginto identify ways of starting on this work.

Activities of the historyweekend

Guest speakers were invited on the basis ofhow they might be able to contribute toeach of the objectives above.

To accomplish the first objective, JanisWilton, Senior Lecturer in History at UNEwas asked to run a workshop on ways ofthinking about doing history research witha special emphasis on techniques of oralhistory. This was a wonderful exercisewhich stimulated many of the participantsto want to start straight away! However, asJanis reminded us, a prior, and oftenneglected question, concerns the manage-ment, cataloguing and storage of historicalmaterial. Accordingly, Chris Buckley, thearchivist at the University of New Englandwas invited to tell us how to begin tocollect and archive the wealth of historicalmaterial scattered around Australia.

The second objective was met by invitingBill Green from Deakin University tospeak at the workshop. Bill Green is anacademic with a keen interest in the historyand politics of curriculum. During thecourse of collecting material for a post-warhistory on literacy in Australia, he hadbecome very aware of adult literacy'splace in this history. An extract from that,as yet unpublished, report was circulated inadvance of the meeting and is includedwith this report. Part of Bill's project ininterpreting history, particularly through itsdocumentation, is to unsettle commonsense assumptions about history throughthe use of Foucauldian perspectives ofhistorical analysis. His presentationenabled us to think about a number ofdifferent kinds of ways of asking questionsabout historical data, and also about theconcept of adult literacy. We hope topublish his talk at a later stage.

The original calfor expressionsof interest stillhdds


History ofAdult Literacy

in AustraliaA group of people are interested in gatheringthe rich and varied history of adult literacyand numeracy before it's 'lost' or 'forgotten'.To this end, we'd like to hear from peoplewho have any documentation (letters,policies, reviews, etc) from the 'old' days ofadult literacy or who have interviewedpractitioners and others who have worked inthe field for some time, especially in 'the earlydays'. If you have any materials which youthink should be kept as part of the history ofthe field or you would like more information,please get in touch.

NSW Adult Literacy Research Network

phone: (02) 330 3817 orfax: (02) 330 3939.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 4

0

Some of the participants at the workshopalready have a developed sense of thehistory of adult literacy in Australia. ArchNelson spoke about many of his memorieswhich caused a number of us to reflect onsome of Janis Wilton's suggestions ontalking to people about their life histories.Darryl Dymock spoke of his experience asa researcher of the history ofadult literacypolicy and provision in Australia.

All this activity then contributed to thebrainstorming work that marked thepursuance of the fourth objective. Al-though an extensive list of ideas emergedfrom this process, the contributions of thespeakers had effectively introduced a noteof realism into the aspirations of theparticipants such that our attentionsbecame focused on what was reasonableand 'doable' as a next stage. Much of theworkshopping activity of the groupfocussed on this issue and is reportedbelow. One gesture in this direction wasthat the proceedings of the workshop weretaped and transcribed.

Outcomes of the Workshop

- transcription of Arch Nelson's talk and asubsequent video interview of his recollec-tions "A Fair Go for All".

- emerging questions deriving from theparticipants' collective thoughts. (Theseare included in this report.)

- this publication of the workshop proceed-ings including the papers circulated priorto the workshop with abstracts and editedversions of the transcripts of guestpresentations.

- a submission prepared, in associationwith ACAL and the NLLIA, for funds tobegin to establish an archival collection ofdocuments. Although this was unsuccess-ful in obtaining funds from the Commu-nity Heritage Grants Program of theNational Library, the process of writing thesubmission has helped clarify what needsto be done. The NLLIA and the UTS NSWAdult Literacy Research Network node arenow acting on the basis of that submission.Expert advice is currently being soughtabout how to categorise a collection such

5

as the Adult Literacy Archive so thatmaterial can be classified on receipt andstored in a systematic manner.

- request to the National Library Manu-script Librarian to house an archive.

- workshop presentations at the 1995ACAL conference with a view tostrengthening and developing a networkand facilitating the archival collection.

an initial register of people whose oralhistories should be recorded (ethicalguidelines need to be prepared along withconsent forms).

- procedures for the clearance of materi-als to be deposited in the archive.

- approaches have been made to a numberof possible sources of fmancial assist-ance.

Longer term outcomes

These will be discussed at the 1995ACAL Conference Workshop

- an initial register of documentary andother materials. (This has not yet beenstarted by this project because we learntthat it demands expertise to avoid timewasting and double handling).

- design of a policy framework forestablishing an archive.

- decisions about manageable researchprojects to be conducted in the future

- an increase in discussion and 'informa-tion flow' about adult literacy's historythrough journal articles and conferencepresentations.

- a team for writing an edited book onadult literacy's history.

establishment of mailing list/network.

ReferencesDepartment of Employment, Educationand Training (1991) Australia's Lan-guage: The Australian Language andLiteracy Policy Canberra: AustralianGovernment Publishing Service.

Dymock, Darryl (1982) Adult LiteracyProvision in Australia: Trends and NeedsArmidale: University of New England.

Lo Bianco, Joseph (1987) NationalPolicy on Languages Canberra: Austral-ian Government Publishing Service.

The Tyree Key Areas of

Oral History

1. The role and use of

memory in ore his1ory

2. Gra:do:re:lice it

interviewing

3. The stages ir, settng up

an oral history project


Focus on Oral HistoryJAN OS WILTON

Janis Wilton conducted a practice oriented workshop with the objective of exploring thetechniques of oral history. She focused on the more practical aspects of the disciplinewhich would provide a foundation on which practitioners and researchers could buildtheir own work.

The three key areas of oral history which Janis explored are:

1. The role and use of memory in oral history2. Good practice in interviewing3. The stages in setting up an oral history project

The role and use of memory in oral history

She began the workshop by describing memory. Understanding the role of memory inundertaking oral history research is essential in successfully utilising the sources. Acompetent oral historian will be able to uncover details that had previously beenforgotten. There are several techniques that can be put into practice in this regard, butfirst the nature of memory has to be understood, as far as that is possible.

People cannot possibly remember everything that they are exposed to intellectually orexperientially. There are two major criteria by which we select what we are to retain.Firstly, we remember what we understand. This is very evident in a typical classroomsituation. It is next to impossible to absorb a mathematical function that is totally aliento us. By contrast, when we are familiar with its workings, we can readily recall themethod. This is because we have processed it.

Secondly we remember what we are interested in. This goes hand in hand with remem-bering what we understand as we are often interested in what we understand, or viceversa.

Memory is also selective in terms of censorship, that is to say that there is conscious aswell as unconscious censorship. People may deliberately choose not to share a memory,or deliberately block a memory out, or repress it.

Another thing to consider in relation to memory is the effect that social change anddiffering moral contexts have on the retrieval of a memory and the form in which thatmemory will be manifested. Janis used the example of a woman who has had anabortion. Forty years ago it would have been rare for someone to admit to having hadan abortion, and if she did the terms of reference may well have been guilt ridden andself flagellating. Today, because of a shift in moral consciousness in relation to the issueof abortion, a description of the event would be very different. The memory essentiallyis the same, but it has been profoundly influenced by the current societal attitudes.

Janis then went on to describe how best to trigger memories. The first point of contactis to ask about personal experience to ascertain certain chronological reference points.An example of this is not to ask what year something obscure happened, but to link itwith a personal event such as a pregnancy or a relocation. People are much more adeptat remembering events, images, feelings, attitudes and places, rather than facts andfigures. The oral historian must accept this and turn it to their advantage.

Good practice in interviewing

It is essential to keep field notes, or an interview diary to document the interviewer's

BEST COPY AVAILABLE6

1'2

Janis Wilton

reaction to events and reflections onproceedings.Reviewing this after the interview canserve the function of determining whetherthe interview had achieved its aims.Questions can be answered such as 'Did Igo to the interview with my agenda set?'

Ethical practice in interviewing is anextremely important consideration in thefield of oral history. There are two levelsof ethics that are relevant. Firstly, thereare ethical considerations relating to theinterviewee. A certain responsibility hasto be accepted for a person's emotionalstate after an interviewer has probedmemories that may be painful. Measuresthat may need to be taken include makingsure that someone is there with theinterviewee to offer emotional supportafter the interviewer leaves.

It is essential that the interviewee'srequests in relation to the interview mustalways be adopted. If a person says theywant all tapes and transcripts to bedestroyed the oral historian must comply.

The second category of ethical considera-tions is those more concerned withadhering to the law, particularly copyrightand the restriction of documents underacts such as the thirty year rule.

Copyright in oral history is very compli-cated. Essentially the record of theinterview belongs to the person who ownsthe tape. This can get messy if the inter-viewer is funded by a governmentdepartment. When the tape is transcribedthe situation becomes even more unclear,with ownership being dually held by theinterviewer and interviewee, with thefunding having some copyright control.For these reasons, it is essential to specifyconditions before the interview takesplace, and to make sure each party isaware of the situation and their rights and

obligations.

The stages in setting up aproject

Janis presented the participants with avery practical and pragmatic approach to

the development of an oral history project.Focusing a project is the most importantfeature of the project set up stage. Thequestions which follow are:How is a suitable focus chosen?Where do we go from there?

The process of focusing a project must bebased on a careful consideration ofpriorities and a ruthless pruning of objec-tives. A broad project is often much lessuseful, and a great deal more stressful thana manageable focused task. Small projectsand focused case studies are often idealpreparations for a broader project some-where down the line.

A simple way to guarantee a focus is to seta specific question to be addressed. Thequestion can be modified during the courseof the project. It is not designed to be arigid framework, but to serve as a refer-ence point to keep coming back to.

The next stage is to access sources, eitherinterviews or other primary sources suchas photographs, newspaper articles and, inthe case of adult education, teachers' notesor programs. A repository should also beidentified and confirmed. There are anumber of these located in major cities,most commonly situated in libraries,universities or private archives.With these ideas about the establishmentof the archive, Janis concluded her session.

Arch Nelson, Trish Branson and Janis Wilton

3


Oral History NotesPrepared by Janis Wilton as handouts for the workshop

Stages of and Oral HistoryProject

1. Inspiration and MotivationWhat is oral historyVariety of uses

2. PreparationBe realisticTopicThe nature of memoryQuestionsQuestionnairesInterview skillsEquipmentEthicsCopyrightPractice interviewSelecting interviews

3. The InterviewBefore:

Specific background preparationInterviewee profileLocation and timeChecklist

During:The interviewOther sourcesInformal conversations

After:Interview evaluationOngoing contact

4. Processing the interviewsKeeping recordsTranscribingAccessing interview contentsStorage and preservationConsultation with interviewee/s

5. Final ProductAudienceForm and FocusEvaluating interview contentsEditingIntroductions & commentariesPhotographs & illustrationsInterviewee review & approvalThe first draftThe End!

Interview Skills

Do:- be a good listener- follow your interviewees train of

thought- stick to a fruitful area and follow it

through while the memories are flowing- be sensitive to your interviewee's

feelings, values and needs- be aware of your own biases and

prejudices- be patient- use appropriate language- ask for descriptions and examples- use sensitive 'open-ended' and 'follow-

up' questions as often as possible- be alert to touchy subjects and don't just

blunder in- follow-up emotions e.g. how did you

feelabout to? How did you react?

- be empathetic i.e. suppress your ownemotions and values, and empathisewith those of your interviewee

- provide emotional support when needed- probe generalisations- allow your interviewee to complete a

story- encourage interviewees to reconstruct

conversations e.g. and what did themayor say then?

- encourage interviewees to reconstructconversations e.g. could you take me onan imagery walk through the house?

- respect silences if they are pauses whileyour interviewee collects and/or selectsmemories

- be able to pick up leads, make a mentalnote, and return to a point later

- provide positive reinforcement to assureyour interviewees that the memoriesthey are offering are worthwhile e.g.

. That's a very interesting point. Couldyou tell me more about that?

- ask for and make use of family photographs and other personal documentsand papers

- spend time with you interviewee

81 4

The

inte

rvie

wer

sho

uld

ask

that

fun

ding

bod

ies

or e

mpl

oyer

s

prov

ide

a w

ritte

n co

ntra

ct o

r ag

ree

to a

wri

tten

prop

osal

that

cle

arly

stat

es th

e pu

rpos

e an

d in

tend

ed u

se o

f in

terv

iew

s an

d w

hat c

opyr

ight

prov

isio

ns a

pply

acce

pt th

e co

nfid

entia

l sta

tus

of in

terv

iew

s un

til th

e co

mpl

etio

n of

asi

gned

agr

eem

ent a

llow

s ot

herw

ise

allo

w th

e in

terv

iew

er to

act

pro

fess

iona

lly a

nd to

abi

de b

y th

e gu

idel

ines

of e

thic

al p

ract

ice

of th

e O

ral H

isto

ry A

ssoc

iatio

n of

Aus

tral

ia

plac

e in

terv

iew

s in

a r

epos

itory

whe

re th

ey w

ill b

e av

aila

ble

for

rese

arch

,su

bjec

t to

any

cond

ition

s pl

aced

by

the

part

ies

invo

lved

.

5

OR

AL

HIS

TO

RY

AS

SO

CIA

TIO

NO

F A

US

TR

ALI

A

51 6

Prea

mbl

e

1.T

he O

ral H

isto

ry A

ssoc

iatio

n w

as f

orm

ed in

197

8 to

pro

mot

e th

e pr

actic

eof

ora

l his

tory

in A

ustr

alia

. The

re a

re b

ranc

hes

of th

e A

ssoc

iatio

n in

eac

hSt

ate

whi

ch p

rovi

de in

form

atio

n an

d fo

rum

s fo

r di

scus

sion

abo

ut o

ral

hist

ory.

2.T

he A

ssoc

iatio

n is

con

cern

ed th

at d

ue r

egar

d is

giv

en to

eth

ical

pra

ctic

esan

d st

rong

ly a

dvis

es th

at th

e fo

llow

ing

guid

elin

es b

e fo

llow

ed b

y an

yone

invo

lved

in o

ral h

isto

ry.

3.O

ral h

isto

ry in

volv

es r

ecor

ding

, pre

serv

ing

and

mak

ing

avai

labl

e ca

ndid

info

rmat

ion

that

may

be

sens

itive

or

conf

iden

tial.

The

Ass

ocia

tion

advi

ses

all i

nter

view

ers

to a

ct to

pre

serv

e th

e ri

ghts

and

res

pons

ibili

ties

of th

edi

ffer

ent p

artie

s in

volv

ed a

nd to

ref

use

to w

ork

in a

ny o

ther

way

.

4.T

hese

gui

delin

es d

escr

ibe

ethi

cal p

ract

ice

only

. Inf

orm

atio

n ab

out m

etho

dis

ava

ilabl

e el

sew

here

and

it is

hop

ed th

at n

o-on

e un

dert

akes

ora

l his

tory

with

out b

eing

com

pete

nt in

inte

rvie

w te

chni

que.

5.Q

uest

ions

reg

ardi

ng a

ny is

sue

aris

ing

from

thes

e gu

idel

ines

may

be d

irec

ted

to th

e O

ral H

isto

ry A

ssoc

iatio

n of

Aus

tral

ia.

The

inte

rvie

wer

's r

espo

nsib

ilitie

s ar

e to

pro

tect

the

righ

ts o

f in

terv

iew

ees

by:

expl

aini

ng the

purp

ose

of e

ach

inte

rvie

w, h

ow it

will

be

orga

nise

d an

dre

cord

ed, w

heth

er it

will

be

plac

ed in

a r

epos

itory

, and

wha

tin

terv

iew

ees

will

rec

eive

aft

er th

e in

terv

iew

, suc

h as

a c

opy

ofth

e ta

pe, t

rans

crip

t or

plan

ned

publ

icat

ion

oral

his

tory

cop

yrig

ht, t

he im

plic

atio

ns o

f as

sign

ing

copy

righ

t to

anot

her

part

y, a

nd th

e ri

ghts

of

inte

rvie

wee

s to

hav

e a

say

in th

eus

e of

thei

r m

ater

ial b

y as

king

for

ano

nym

ity a

nd/o

rpl

acin

gre

stri

ctio

ns o

n us

e of

the

inte

rvie

w d

urin

g th

eir

lifet

ime

poss

ible

fut

ure

use

of in

terv

iew

s by

all

part

ies

invo

lved

suc

h as

the

inte

rvie

wer

, int

ervi

ewee

, and

a r

epos

itory

givi

ng e

ach

inte

rvie

wee

an

agre

emen

t to

sign

whi

ch c

lear

ly s

tate

s w

heth

erth

e in

terv

iew

ee w

ill r

etai

n co

pyri

ght o

r as

sign

it to

ano

ther

par

ty a

ndun

der

wha

t con

ditio

ns a

ssig

nmen

t of

copy

righ

t is

gran

ted;

any

cha

nge

inus

e no

t cov

ered

in th

e or

igin

al a

gree

men

t wou

ld n

eed

to b

e re

nego

tiate

d

cond

uctin

g in

terv

iew

s w

ith o

bjec

tivity

, hon

esty

and

inte

grity

bein

g aw

are

of d

efam

atio

n la

ws

and

the

impl

icat

ions

, for

all

part

ies

conc

erne

d, o

f re

cord

ing

pote

ntia

lly d

efam

ator

y m

ater

ial

trea

ting

ever

yin

terv

iew

asa

conf

iden

tial

conv

ersa

tion

until

anin

terv

iew

ee g

ives

the

righ

t to

shar

e in

form

atio

n th

roug

h an

agr

eem

ent

ensu

ring

that

inte

rvie

wee

s ar

e gi

ven

the

oppo

rtun

ity to

rev

iew

, cor

rect

and/

or w

ithdr

aw m

ater

ial

ensu

ring

that

inte

rvie

ws

are

pres

erve

dfo

rfu

ture

res

earc

hers

by,

ifpo

ssib

le, p

laci

ng th

em in

a r

epos

itory

und

er c

ondi

tions

agr

eeab

le to

the

inte

rvie

wee

.

Janis Wilton

Oral History Association of New South WalesHandbooks and Contacts

Some useful Handbooks

Douglas, L., Roberts, A., and Thompson, R. Oral History: A Handbook. Allen and

Unwin, Sydney, 1988.

Price, B. Famil Memories: A guide to reminiscing. State Library of NSW, Sydney ,

1992.

Robertson, B. Oral History Handbook. ThirdEdition. OHAA (SA), Adelaide, 1994.

Some discussions on method and theory oforal history

Darian-Smith, K. and Hamilton, P. (eds). Memory and History in Twentieth Century

Australia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994.

Dunway, D. and Baum, Willa. Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology.

A.A.S.L.H., Nashville, 1984.

Frisch, M. A Shared Authority: Essays on the craft and meaning of oral and public

history. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1990.

Gluck, S.B. and Patai, D. (eds). Women's Words. Routledge, New York, 1991.

Lummis, T. Listening to History. H.E.D. Books, Canvey Island, 1987.

Portelli, A. The Death of Luigi Trastulli and other stories: Form and Meaning in OralHistory. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991.

Thompson, P. The Voice of the Past. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford,

1988.

Oral History Association of Australia (OHAA)

For information about the OHAA (NSW) c/- Oral History Program, State Library of

NSW, Macquarie St, Sydney. 2000.

1 1


Arch Nelson Reminiscesabout Adult LiteracyTHE TRANSCRIPT OF ARCH NELSON'S ADDRESS AT THE ARMIDALEHISTORY OF ADULT LITERACY WEEKEND

Rosie approached me about this, and Darryl spoke to me, and suggested that I mightexplain to you how I came to be involved in the history weekend and in the AustralianCouncil for Adult Literacy particularly.

As I mentioned yesterday, in 1971, I became a professorial fellow in Adult Education, Ithink I used the phrase yesterday, to my chagrin I became that, but that was done partlybecause Adult Education had been prospering too much in the University of NewEngland, and there were people around about who became a bit frightened about this,that funds might be going to adult education rather than to X or Y or Z, around thecampus. And perhaps it was partly my tactlessness, and the tactlessness of other people,that brought about this attitude. It was in 1976 that Zelman Cowan, who was our Vice-Chancellor then, made a memorable address as chairman of the Australian Associationof Adult Education. Now, as is proper in these circumstances, he went to his thenDirector of Adult Education for assistance in writing this, and I helped him, and therewas one memorable paragraph, where he said that Adult Education was of tremendousimportance to Australia's future. It was so important that it should be expanded enor-mously, and if it were expanded to the extent that was necessary, it would be the mostexpensive branch of education in this country. Now that sort of statement was probablynoted here and noted there, and the other situation that I think worried some of ourcolleagues, was that we had been going out and working in community development,and folk didn't quite know where this was going to lead. We were encouraging people tolook at their own situation and make up their own minds as to what kind of educationthey want to have. I had discussions with committees around the campus before I wentaway. I thought they were pretty satisfactory.

In 1971, I went on sabbatical leave. Just before I left, we had two committees. One wasa committee of council, the other was a committee of the professorial board, and theymade some criticisms which I answered, and in the end, I think it was the committee ofthe professorial board that recommended the slight increase in staff in the department ofAdult Education. I went away and when I was in London, I had a letter from Vice-Chancellor Darryl Lasenby saying 'Dear Arch, We've been thinking about the future ofadult education, and we decided that you deserve a promotion. We have decided to makeyou a professorial fellow, because of your academic prominence in this field. It wouldbe a great honour, would you accept?'

Well, I thought about this, and thought it wouldn't be a bad idea, and I could settle downand do some work, in studying adult education and still have an influence on policywithin the University. But when I came back I found I was to make a study of adulteducation, and was to have very little to do with practice, and that was a great disap-pointment to me because I was deeply interested in the practice of adult education aswell as the theory.

Because I was a professorial fellow, and I was the only academic proper working inadult education in Australia at the time, I got numerous requests from around the worldfor this kind of job and that kind of job. If I hadn't had so many requests I might havespent more time looking at the local situation and being critical of it.

One request that I had, was from the International Association for Adult LiteracyMethods, which at the time was located in Persia. They said we want to do a summary

012

Arch NeiS n

of adult education experience in Australiaand would you do it for us? I gladlyagreed to this, and as a result of that, twoissues of Literacy Discussion, (you areprobably familiar with Literacy Discus-sion), were issues about the Australianexperience. I didn't know much aboutliteracy practice, but Brian Preen washere on the staff of the Teachers' Collegeat the time and he guided me on this, andI talked to him about whom I shouldcontact, and I probably missed out anumber of important people, but I gotsome people who were very good.

I think these two editions paint quite agood picture of adult education and adultliteracy in Australia. The people whocontributed, I had the temerity to put in aforward, a historical note about adultliteracy in Australia, and the history ofadult literacy is very interesting indeed.Major McConichee came out here withthe first fleet that came out here to NSW,and he had charge of a depot on NorfolkIsland, I think, it was, for the reallyincorrigible convicts. He was a reformerand practiced adult education with them,gave them literacy classes and so on, andfor his pains was sent back to England,reprimanded and sent home. These peoplewere sent out to NSW, not to be educated,not to be helped, but to be punished fortheir sins back home in the old country.

Loma Lipton, wrote on literacy andethnic problems and A. Gray, AlistairGray I think it was. Brian Preen on AdultLiteracy in a literate society, and A.J.Pierce who is a member of our staff herewrote something for me. Don Nelsonwrote On Reflections on an AdultLiteracy Pilot Project, Nancy Shelley,wrote An Approach to Innumeracy, GeoffFalkenmire on Operation Literacy-Research and Action Among Adults inNSW. Judith Goyen on The Incidences ofAdult Illiteracy in the Sydney Metropoli-tan Area, and then I had the temerity todo a summary and prospects, to makesome prophecies about the future of adultliteracy in Australia.

Now, soon after I did this job, in 1975, Iwent to a meeting of the Australian


Association of Adult Education, I think itwas in Adelaide, and they had a littleworking party on Adult Literacy. Now as Ihave just done this I joined this workingparty and I was genuinely informed, and Ifound myself being able to answerquestions, and I knew quite a good dealabout it . They said you are just the manwe want as chair of this association, thatis the answer to the question of how Ibecame chairman. I accepted.

Why did I accept? Well, even though Ihadn't been involved in adult literacy, Ihad been interested in it for a long time. Ihad been brought up among people whowere semi-literate, up in the AdelaideHills, in those days I should say aboutfifty percent of the population of adultswere semi-literate. I had a great respectfor them all, they were friends of mine,the man who lived in the small blockbehind us was quite illiterate. I went toschool in grade one, and I rememberwalking through his garden with, the FirstPrimer, the hat, cat, mat and he said 'Whathave you got there Archie?' I said, ' I'vegot a book, a reading book from school.'He then said 'Could I have it please whenyou have fmished with it at the end of theyear.' It was quite pathetic, and there werea number of people around with similarinclinations to want to learn to read and towrite. I remember old Vmce Glynn whenradio came in. I remember when radiocame in after World War One, and the hallnext door to our school they put in aradio. They had a young man workingthere, who was not only a carpenter but anenthusiast for radio, and the whole schoolgathered around at twelve o'clock, to hearthe GPO chimes in Adelaide on the radio.There was one telephone, that was at myhome, but here we had something thatwas magical coming over the air withoutthe benefit of lines. There they were - theGPO chimes from Adelaide. There werelots of people around about who had adesire to read and write and they were myfriends, and I thought, well, it would begood to help people and I am very willingto become chairman of this council.

During my time as a primary schoolteacher, I remember the first school I had

6..

iMajorMcCorichee]was a reformer andpracticed adulteducation vvth them,gave Them literacydasses and soon,and for his painswas sent badEngiand, redri-mended art ,.rtthprne.-Thc opwere sent out toNSW, notto beeducated, not ir) beIted, but to bepunished forth&sYls back home in

the old ccumy.

One Iliumphihat I hadwas that, in my third

group i had the wife ofthe local Methodistparson, and

understand Thai my

lectires where rrelayethe pulpit

Towar s a History of Adult Literacy in Australia

was up at Copperhouse Borough. I remem-ber our efforts to make people literatethere and my mind harks back to my daysat school, when we had an excellentteacher, a fellow called Sylvester Smith,who was very fond of language. He was apoet and he taught us spelling, reading andgrammar in the formal way that it wastaught then, but he also gave us poetry. Iremember how much we enjoyed thepoems, how much I enjoyed Wordsworth,from old Smithy and when I went toCopperhouse, I made a point of emphasis-ing poetry.

The normal practice of the morning was tohave a spelling test. Youngsters wouldlearn their spelling the night before or onthe way to school. I would say in themorning, 'Should we have a poem beforewe have spelling?', and they would all say,`Yes sir', and we would have a poem, andsome of the little devils would have theirspelling book under the desk, learning upall the words that they hadn't learnt thenight before. They enjoyed poetry, and inour discussion yesterday it occurred to methat one thing that we ought not to forget isthat language is an enjoyable thing.

I think back now to some of the kids that Itaught. There were two for example - theLockett family. It was just about impossi-ble to make these two kids literate, but Idon't think it mattered so very much,because Peter Lockett was very good withhorses and he was very good on the farm,and his sister was a delightful girl. When Iwent back to the Borough, I said is PeterLockett still here, and my informant said,Òh yes, he was in town in his Jag theother day'. So he was doing pretty well onthe farm, despite the fact that he couldneither read nor write and certainlycouldn't spell. I had a strong feeling forthese people.

Now in my army days, I started out first ofall as a private in the Army EducationService in Adelaide. There is a storybehind that. I remember going over to theGDD, at the showgrounds in Adelaide,they had a Colonel in charge, he was a stiffold devil, and I saluted him as one had toin the anny, and I said, 'Private Nelson,

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 1 4

22

Sir, from the Army Education Service'.He said, Ì'm playing with the educationpeople, but what do they do by sendingme a bloody Private'. I said, 'I wasn't aPrivate before I came into the army Sir,and I hope that you will judge me on myperformance after rather than before'. Imust say to his credit that after we hadfinished, and after I had talked to histroops, there were about 400 of them,heading out to New Guinea, he escortedme to the lectern and saluted me fast ofall. I could go on talking about armyexperiences for a long time, but eventu-ally I was given a special job, as I hadbeen involved in adult education duringmy civil days. I graduated with honoursin History, as a part time student as I wasteaching at the schools. And immediatelyon graduation I was given the job as apart time tutor, in the WEA tutorial classsystem in Adelaide, I had three classes.One was at the University itself, weremature people came in and discussed thepresent clash of political ideals, this wasjust before the war. I had a beaut classdown at Port Adelaide. It was very smalland we discussed capitalism and itscritics and concentrated on Karl Marx,and one of my students went on tobecome the Federal Treasurer afterwards,the others I think enjoyed the course andthat was all that mattered. One triumphthat I had was that in my third group Ihad the wife of the local Methodistparson, and I understand that my lectureswhere relayed from the pulpit.

Let me not meander on, let's get back tothe army situation. As I went aroundtraining officers in discussion methods,(that was a job I was given especially), Ifound there was an understandablereluctance on behalf of officers to rundiscussions with their men, on the basisof the current affairs bulletin that wassend out. (The editor of that by the waywas one Duncan who wrote the DuncanReport.) The attitude of officers oftenwas, particularly up in New Guinea, whois this so and so who has come fromLHQ, they all assumed that I had comefrom Melbourne, to teach us all how tolook after our troops. What could he tellus, we'll show him.

c! Nelson

I remember one group, it was a militarymaintenance group, just up from Lae, theUEO, the Unit Education Officer. He wasa part time fellow, marched in a wholebunch of fellows. I'm pretty sure at leasta half of them or perhaps more than thatwere quite illiterate, or sub-literate. Ithink he picked out, how shall I put it, theleast advanced of the people in the unit,this was to test me out and see how theywent. They were wonderful, glorious.

My general feeling about illiterates in thearmy is one of gratitude to them, becausethis sort of pattern was not uncommon.The people who didn't have very muchlearning were brought in to see how thisso and so from LHQ would get alongwith them, they generally respondedpretty well. And the feeling in the armytowards the illiterate was not bad gener-ally on the part of the troops. In the armythe feeling was that in a unit the subliterate or the completely illiterate feltcomfortable. Old Joe, you know, he can'tread or write but he is not a bad sort of abastard is he, that was the sort of attitudethat people adopted, and they got alongwell with the rest.

There were some units in which effectivework was done. In literacy, for example, Iwent to Singleton, to their training depotup there. I went to their little high school,and met the headmaster, who was a MrNajerick, he was the brother of theColonel in charge of the army educationservice, who became the Vice-Chancellorat UNE afterwards. He said, 'We've beenhelping people from the army depot overthere, the illiterates, we run a class forthem. What I'm struck by is their patheticgratitude, for what is being done forthem'. The advantage I think that peoplehad in the army was that there was anorganisation, there was a structure, aready made sort of structure from whichcommunities could develop. Within thosecommunities it was possible to dosomething for the people for whom youworked. I got into that from telling youwhy I was so willing to come in and workwith the AC AL. I think it has been, andyou'd agree, a successful organisation,evidently so, I think.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

I did find that I got a reputation wellbeyond my desserts you know, for being aperson who knew all about literacy. SirJohn Carrick, was the Minister forEducation at that time. When I went awayon holiday, I had a call from the local PostOffice. I had a call to come to the phone,'the Minister for Education wants to talkto you about literacy.' I felt a bit of a fraudbecause I didn't really feel I was up onthis area. I had learned a bit from peoplelike you with whom I was associated, butnever the less I think I told them thethings that I ought to have told them. Ithink I told them it was tremendouslyimportant for example, that more fundsought be allocated. I think it was aboutthis time that we did get a lift in funds,and a lift in prestige.

Only the other day in a meeting that weheld here in Armidale, on the past ofAdult Education, I met the local memberIan Sinclair, who was a member ofcabinet at about that time. He said, 'Youknow, Arch, what we did here for literacywas a wonderful thing, and it all startedhere in Armidale, didn't it?' That kind ofattitude, on the part of politicians is totheir advantage, and may it go on.

Now going back to what I was sayingabout army communities, my hope hasalways been that we could develop thekind of community in which literacymattered. One of my regrets from movingout of the practical work in adult educa-tion in 1971, was that I was not able to goon and follow up the work we had beendoing in community development andapply it into literacy fields, that wouldhave been magnificent.

In 1971, I travelled through India, I wentaround and talked enthusiastically. I wasthere for about three months. I gavelectures and seminars at universities andso on. Looking through some of the mailthat came afterwards, it was all verywarm. I had gone around telling them ofthe wonderful things we were doing herein New England in community develop-ment and how we hoped to apply this onthe literacy scene.

Many things come to mind as I'm talking.

1 5

23

An the arrny the,

feeling was that in a

.unit the sub iterateor-the oompteteiyilliterate feltdomfor.4b. Joe.you Imw, he cantread or write but heis not abaci sort of abastard is he, that

was the sort ofetude that peopleadopted, -ardtheygotdon() well with the

rest.

I would like to emphasise

that I had hoed that thisunivers4, RANIEI would be

more active in literacy-than it is now. and itAraki have exparctdstaff. in order to be ableto do agood job. Not

taking over literacy, byno means, but bygMngsupp3rt he:p and

inspiration.

My principle funconin relation to theKALl Catindiwas to:lobby, to talk to

pc Iical people; to getthem to uteistandwhat our work wasal about.


One thing is that when I talk this waypeople become sometimes frightened. Iknow that you don't but people who don'tunderstand say, here is the universitytaking over adult education, which isnonsense. The university has a particularfunction in adult education, a specialisedsort of leadership, to help with research,and teaching and experimental work. In1966 for example, the Universities Com-mission passed a resolution to the effect. Itwas dreadful, a dreadful statement.Academics are sometimes very badwriters. People who work for the Universi-ties Commission are no exception. Iworked for them for awhile, and in thisrecommendation the government came outsaying that no more money should go touniversities for adult education, that adulteducation was something that should belooked after be the Colleges of AdvancedEducation, or the Technical Colleges. Itwas not the province of the university, andthat all funding should be cut off.

I met Ian Sinclair in a cafe down here for acouple of hours and talked about this, andhe was horrified, because he had seen thekind of work that we were doing. He said,`Look Arch, when people question thevalue of putting universities in productiveplaces, if you could see what the Univer-sity of New England has done for thesmall places in New England, you wouldhave no doubts about the value of this sortof thing'. I said, 'Ian if you could see whatthis small place has done to universitystaff, in broadening their outlook, andmaking them more human, you'd have nodoubt either about putting universities inthese places'.

I would like to emphasise that I had hopedthat this university [UNE] would be moreactive in literacy than it is now, and itwould have expanded staff, in order to beable to do a good job. Not taking overliteracy, by no means, but by givingsupport help and inspiration. When I firstcame here I talked to [the Vice-Chancel-lor] about the very diverse program thatwe had. I said, 'Surely, Vice- Chancellorthere are many things that ought to bedone by somebody else, by the technicalcolleges and so on and so on'. He said,Àrch but are they doing them, surely it is

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

up to us to show the way, then to pass itover', and that has been our generalpolicy here.

Now to get back to the ACAL, and ourfunction. The first national conference ofACAL was held in 1976, and the fourthNational Conference was held in 1980,and it was at that that I think we made afairly distinct advance. We had a smallgroup. I gave a talk there on fmance. Myprinciple function in relation to theCouncil was to lobby, to talk to politicalpeople, to get them to understand whatour work was all about. At the fourthconference we reached a stage were wewould talk about these things. I gave atalk on fmance, on the getting of funds,on the funds that we would need for thefuture. Then we had a small workingparty, and that working party formulateda submission to go to the government toask for money. That submission was, Ithink, quite successful.

One thing before I close in this verygeneral and wandering talk, is to say thatwe were floundering a bit in the first yearas I recall for lack of secretarial assist-ance. We had a gentleman from theOffice of Education, which had by thistime moved to Canberra, George Harvey.He was quite helpful, but he was a longway away from headquarters whichbecame Armidale, and so I prevailed onDarryl Dymock to take over the secre-taryship which he did and I hope hehasn't regretted it. He certainly made awonderful contribution. I think thesecretary and chairman business is oftencompletely out of focus. It is the chair-man who gets all the credit and sits in thefront seat, and it's the secretary who doesall the work and often corrects all theerrors of the chairman. That was verymuch the function of Darryl as Secretary.

I went on as chairman until 1984 when Istepped down and I became patron for alittle while, but shortly after that Isuggested we rotate the office of patronand we had some quite distinguishedpeople in. One was Kim Beazley, thefather of the present Kim Beazley. Iremember meeting Kim Beazley senior in

24

ch &son

Western Australia, when I went over tothe army. Fred Alexander who wasProfessor of History and Director of AdultEducation for the university was alsoMajor in charge of army education. Hesaid 'Lieutenant Nelson, this is youngBeazley, young Beazley', he said, 'worksfor me, he is doing a wonderful job whileI am engaged in army work, but he wantsto go into politics, and I think it would bemost unwise, don't you?' I didn't hazardan opinion at all.

But, we were helped considerably by thesort of patrons that we had. Another thingthat I wanted to invite your attention to; Istepped down in 1984, as I felt I had beenchairman long enough. In 1989, over theyears I had still been interested, I hadwrote a thing called My Dear Ministers .Unfortunately, soon after writing it, I hada minor stoke, and that prevented me fromgoing on and doing the kind of work that Iwanted to do. What I wanted to do, was toget groups around about as I had thoughtof many years ago, discussing this MyDear Ministers thing, and lodging theiropinions and sending them back to me. Iwas going to prevail on the university tohelp me in this regard, because they didhave provision for discussion groups. Igot all sorts of responses, many of themwere critical, but they were generally veryinterested indeed. There was one I wouldlike to read here just for interest's sake. Itcame from an old fashioned teacher, aman called Mr Stromm. He was running aclass up in Byron Bay, now you'veprobably heard of Byron Bay, it is a placewere a lot of people do extraordinarythings. My daughter lives there as amatter of fact.

'Dear Arch Nelson, Reference page 61',[he is referring to My Dear Ministers.]The reason for the title My Dear Minis-ters, by the way, is I emphasised the factthat we shouldn't leave education toministers or to teachers. Education is theresponsibility of us all, and I emphasisedin the letter that we shouldn't look to theteachers to do all the work in this area.The parents should take responsibility too.

I look back to my days at Copperhouse,

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

and it was the kids that came from homesthat were supportive, who were doingwell. It wasn't entirely my efforts. Iremember one bright little boy, (I wonderhow he got on?) I had a monitor workingwith me then, he was a bright little kid, hecame forward with pertinent things. One

day he said he said Sir, I think you're abit keen on Ms Steel aren't you?'. Shewas the monitor in this building, and Iwas, as a matter of fact. I said 'Yes, ofcourse I am and so are you, and so are weall.' That was the best answer that I couldgive. Now you see, I wonder how Hallsygot on in life, because his home back-ground wasn't at all conducive to literacy.If I went back there now, I don't think hewould be anything like a professor, or ateacher, though he might be a successfulbusiness man, because he was quiteperceptive about things. But that's just bythe by. Now let's get on with this, MyDear Ministers thing.

Dear Arch Nelson, whether youlike to acknowledge it or not theprime cause of illiteracy is in ourschools. The law says that attend-ance at learning institutions fromX years until Y years, by everychild is compulsory, for theunderstood reason of becomingliterate. To learn to read. If a kiddoesn't learn, it means someonehasn't taught him. The end resultwill be an adult who can't read,yes it can be argued that schoolsare very successful, because 80%qualify, but what of the 20%? Youmust realise that there are kids inthe classrooms who are there inbody only, their minds are some-where else, beyond the room."

Now I don't think I will read the whole ofthis to you, as it is rather long. He goes onto say, what we want is really dedicatedteachers, and if we had them, then wewould be alright. He told me what he wasdoing. He had about eighty youngsters,who were not getting along well at school.They weren't learning to read, and he wasgiving them more or less coaching, and hewas very successful in doing this andacknowledged in doing so by all of the

1 errir...trasittetact that weshoultht leaveecimtiontoministers or toto hens. Edutionis the rcasponsitifity

of us ail

Wien [the four of us iTihedeiedation] hadfinished we had toappear before Haile.Sak9Sie, Thera was aroom full of people, I

think itwas set up as anquite a big

room. All of us wakeddow). We were &eninstructions beforehard that we had toaddress; him as yourimperial majesty,we did, to our discredit!think We had to bowthreelimes going in andgoing out we had towalk dackwa iris an.dowihreetimes, Michwe did, to our discredit


parents. And what was my reply to him? Isaid,' Yes I congratulate you on this, butdidn't the parents bring them along?Weren't the parents concerned enough tosee that they came to you. And didn't youtell me in your letter, that the parentscame along and listened to what you weredoing? That was the important thing'.

The other thing, that if I had more time Iwas going to mention to you, was that Ihad another literacy experience duringmy earlier time at [the University of]New England. I went out to Ethiopia,during my first sabbatical leave, and I hadto report for UNESCO on the state ofadult education. It was in the days ofHaile Salasie. I spent about ten weeksthere, it was not unpleasant, and I met upwith some quite inspiring people. Iremember one sister from the churchschool who was doing something with thecommunity. I remember the Director ofPrimary Schools, who was quite aninspiring person who went out andworked in communities. And I rememberof all things, the anger of Haile Salasie.

When [the four of us in the delegation]had finished we had to appear beforeHaile Salasie. There was a room full ofpeople, I think it was set up as an occa-sion, quite a big room. All of us walkeddown. We were given instructions beforehand that we had to address him as yourimperial majesty, which we did, to ourdiscredit I think. We had to bow threetimes going in and going out we had towalk backwards and bow three times,which we did, to our discredit again.

Anyway, my three colleges were thankedvery much for their efforts, I thought thiswas not bad, he was sort of congratulat-ing them and thanking them. And then hecame to me, I had been reporting on adulteducation, and he said 'Mr Nelson, I readyour report. You come from Australiadon't you?', and I said 'yes'. He said,`You have said some critical things aboutmy country, do mind if I say some criticalthings about yours?'. And I said 'Not atall, your imperial majesty.' He said, 'Whyis it that Ethiopians are not admitted intoAustralia?' He was thinking of the WhiteAustralia Policy, and I said, 'That is news

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

to me, your imperial majesty. When I leftmy country we had six, highly esteemedEthiopian students in our university.. Theyare terribly well regarded, and they havecertainly been admitted to the country, ifthe law has changed since I have left Ishould be very perturbed, and if youwould wish me to, your imperial majesty,I will make representations on yourbehalf to my government.' Oh no, leaveit as a matter between man and man.'

My reflection on that has been since, thatit would have been a good thing....whathe was objecting to in my report, was thatI had recommended that people incountry places and in city places too,should have more say about the kind ofeducation that they had. You see he wasusing education, adult education inparticular in order to consolidate hispower. Wouldn't it have been sensible forSalasie to have taken notice when hetalked to me, and other people? And tohave gone to the people and endeavouredto assist them, to set up there owninstitutions, there own committees foreducation? That happened afterwards. Iheard through the SBS, World Live, in1973.

I don't pretend to be an expert on Ethio-pia, but I have read a little bit since I wasthere, and I have noticed this. Of coursethere was havoc in the early '70s. In 1974Salasie was tossed out, and in '77, thepeople who tossed him out were over-thrown by Mengiscu, in an army revolu-tion. The first army were a group, I thinkwas fairly fascist, the second one wascommunist, in outlook. But, I think theSBS publication was accurate, educationwas free, and each school was controlledby peasants or urban dwellers associa-tions, which was precisely the thing I wasputting up to Haile Salasie in 1962. Amajor literacy campaign was launched in1979, and by 1987 the adult illiteracy ratehad repeatedly been reduced from 93%,to 39%. So something was done aboutilliteracy and at the same time thegovernment consolidated its power, and Ithink I will leave it at that.

18

ch Nelson

[And, later, expanding on his commentsand the 2 Volume publication LiteracyDiscussion, Arch went on to quote fromhis summary in that publication and to addextra comments.]

For certain segments of our population,while pluralism continues to be ignored,while methods of teaching remainunrelated to the student's reality, whilebureaucracies continue to legislate whatit is that people must learn, this is a bitlike Haile Salasie, isn't it, really? Whileteachers continue to grow cynical ratherthan critical about the effectiveness oftheir teaching, our society will have greatneed of community based teachingnetworks. And I quote Nancy Shelly, whois a teacher of teachers and has doneinteresting work on the teaching ofmathematics to women. I'll put in hersuggestions for the future."An approach which denies the history ofthe development of mathematics, andignores the role of the inspired guess, ofintuitive developing and the creative leap,is blind to how the learning process takesplace". She deplores this.

Geoffrey Falkenmire, talks about a largeprogram of adult literacy training pro-vided by the Ministry of Education. Heidentifies three groups for whom provi-sion was made: native born Australians,who are deficient in literacy skills;illiterate migrants; and adults whoseilliteracy was related to physical orintellectual handicap. The most encourag-ing thing about these articles, and thosepresented in the last issue of LiteraryDiscussion, was their sensible optimism.

I come now to consideration of the veryvaluable and interesting paper by DrJudith Goyen, which was commissionedlater and arrived after I had written, theforegoing part of this summary. I pre-ferred not to revise my summary state-ment to incorporate Dr Goyen's findings,but rather to add a postscript relatingsome of the points raised, to the evidencebrought forward by Dr Goyen. Thefigures produced in Dr Goyen's surveyare interesting. The functional literacyrate of 43.3% for adult migrants, fromnon English speaking backgrounds,contrasts so markedly with the rate of3.7% of adults born in Australia. I don'tbelieve most of the figures I see aboutliteracy you know, really I don't. ThePhilips Atlas of the World, gives us a97% literacy rate, which I think is

nonsense. People exaggerate them theway that they want to.

I'll return to this question of the barelyfunctional, because it seems to me to beof amazing importance, because theGoyen findings may well underline itsimportance. I have always thought thiswas tremendously important you know.There are people who are literate but whoare not really functional in society. This isone of the dangers I think about univer-sity populations. There is a danger, and Istress this about universities in countryplaces. University teachers becomeisolates, working unto themselves, andknowing more and more about less andless, and come to be thought of by theirfellows, in the rural places in which theyare functioning, as isolates, who hold avery colourful ceremony once a year, inwhich they award themselves degrees andso on, dressed up in medieval costumes.That is a danger, unless there is aneffective program of adult education andcommunity development coming fromuniversities.

And, this business of whether you arefunctional or barely functional remainsvery much to the question of continuingeducation. Without some sort of continu-ing education, I think dialogue is theimportant thing here, continual talking,sifting ideas and so on, then people arenot going to be more than barely func-tional. Women probably are doing betterin this regard than men at the moment. Iam trying to be controversial here, a little.The women's movement has probablyhelped quite a lot, because women gettogether and talk, in the past they used tohave more time to do this than they donow. This I suppose is the point of thepresent men's movement, the one thatSteve Biddulp is concerned with. Thatmen should become more caring, moreunderstanding than they are, and thatwomen have achieved this through gettingtogether and talking and understandingeach other. There is an affective thing,that's the right word I think isn't it, thatyou develop emotionally as well asintellectually. Women have achieved thismore effectively than men. I tell myfamily that my greatest achievement inlife was to secure for them a very loving,and very lovable mother and grandmother.That's more important than all theintellectual things that I might or mightnot have done.

27

For tertaln segments ofour populaton, whilepluralism continues tobe ig:rme-.d,

methods of te.,achingremain umlated to tilestudent's reality, wh lebureau:I-Jades continueto legislate what it isthat people must team.this Ise bit like HaileSalasie, isn't t. really?

BEST COPY AVAILABLE


Emerging research questionsThe following list of topics is a distillation of the ideas raised during a brainstormingsession after Janis Wilton's workshop. The list is intended to give an overview of therange of topics which could be taken up (and reformulated) in future research projectsinvestigating the history of adult literacy in Australia. The list reflects the brainstormingnature of the session: it includes questions which could be asked as well as tasks whichcould be done. The topics are inter-related; many questions could be asked undermorethan one heading.

Mapping the major (and minor events) in adult literacy'shistory from 1973

What was the impact of funding from the National Policy on Languages (1987) and thesubsequent Adult Literacy Action Campaign (ALAC)?How did the impact vary in each state and territory?What sort of other regional and state variations exist?What were the sources of funding prior to NPL?Where did programs happen?What sort of resources were available to the field?How did this change with funding?What have been the impact of more recent policy and funding changes?Map the relationship between adult literacy's development in Australia and the develop-ment of language and literacy policies.When were the first adult literacy classes held in each state and territory?By whom?Where?What were the composition of classes?What sort of teaching materials were used?What role did volunteers and 1:1 tutoring play in this initial provision?How has provision changed over time?What outcomes were valued at different periods?What worksites existed for teachers at different periods?Where were teachers placed in hierarchies and decision-making processes?What philosophies and political attitudes have affected adult literacy in the last 20years?What values have underpinned adult literacy pedagogy and research methodologies?What have been the changing paradigms which have organised the field (eg, socialjustice, progressivism, economic rationalism).Map the substantive changes in rhetoric in different sectors.Ask people about their perceptions of the key moments in adult literacy's history.Who has benefited and who has 'lost out' with the changes over time?

Rosie Wickert and Trish Branson2023

EmergEng 4.63 esearch Questions

Adult literacy teaching as work:Charting the development of the adult literacy profession

How has the nature of adult literacy teaching changed over the last 20 years?

Why?What factors have influenced these changes?Who have been the key players in facilitating or challenging changes?

For example, what roles have been played by professional associations (the state

councils and ACAL), by unions, by systems and policy makers, by academics?

What have been the changes in working conditions and status?Capture some individual stories from the 'long time servers' in adult literacy.

What were their experiences?What was their 'career path'?Did they see adult literacy teaching as a career?What do adult literacy teachers need to know?What are they expected to know?What is the history of professional development and teacher education for adult literacy

teachers?That is, what sort of training has been available to them over the last 20 years and how

do you 'get qualifications' in adult literacy?What is the content of professional development and teacher education courses?

How appropriate have they been to teachers' work?What registration processes, if any, exist, officially orunofficially?

Create a 'timeline of credentialism' (ie, map entry requirements of employers and

university courses).Chart the statements of informing principles to be found in the mission statements of

providers and professional associations.What is the role of voluntarism in the history of adult literacy?

What are its origins and its impact?What is the relationship between provision by volunteers and that by trained teachers?

What are the issues and tensions associated with this relationship?

How has provision of adult literacy varied between different providers or systems?

What has been the role of public and private providers?What has been the impact of the emergence of 'newer' providers (such as SkillShare

and private providers) in adult literacy?When does the term 'profession' or 'professional' start to emerge?

What changes have taken place in the naming of the field and the professional associa-

tions associated with the 'adult literacy profession'?Who is 'inside' and who is 'outside' the adult literacy profession?

Who perceives or decides whether there is a profession and who the insiders and

outsiders are?What are the shared understandings between different players?

What are the differences or gaps in understanding?What assumptions or 'baggage' does the notion of 'profession' rest on?

Where did funds come from for the so-called `professionalising' of adult literacy?

What are the professional boundaries between adult literacy and related 'professions' or

areas such as TESOL, Communication, child or school literacy, adult education?

What are the backgrounds of adult literacy teachers?What, if any, barriers have they experienced in their teaching?

2 1


Adult literacy in different forums and different sectors

How does adult literacy get framed in different forums?By whom?Why?How and why is adult literacy on the public and policy agendas?What is the role of adult literacy in adult education? in community education? ineducation and training for the unemployed?Who represents adult literacy at forums and on committees?Who participates in the decision-making processes which affect adult literacy?What were and are the dialogues between different stakeholders (teachers, students,policy makers, professional associations, program managers and administrators)?Describe the nexus between state and federal governments and other agencies.

The role of professional associations

What role do professional associations play in the history of adult literacy?How and when was each state council established?What involvement, if any, did the associations have in professional development?Map the changing face of the national ACAL conference - eg, who were the presenters?the participants? what topics or themes were covered? what other fields were involved(eg, ESL)?Map the appearance and disappearance of adult literacy students' participation atnational and state conferences.Write case studies of the various associations (ACAL, ALF, the state and territorycouncils).

International perspectives

What are the similarities and differences between adult literacy in Australia and over-seas?

What has been the role of UNESCO internationally and, in particular, what impact hasUNESCO has on the Australian context?What influences have come from overseas?What links have been made?

Bill Green, Trish Branson and Chris Campbell

cl

AbstractsCompiled byROSBE WICKERT

1. Deborah Tyler and Lesley Johnson (1991)Helpful Histories?History of Education Review 20.2. 1 - 8.

The paper by Deborah Tyler and Lesley Johnson, which is the introduction to a special

issue of the History of Education Review, is included for those readers who are inter-

ested in exploring Foucault 'on history'. In it the writers explain the concept of the

`history of the present' and the "challenge this represents to others conceptions and

methods of making histories". A discussion of feminist approaches to history is drawn

on to illustrate these differences and to emphasise how the history of the presentapproach does the important work of analysing how a particular category such as

`woman' [or literate] is "constructed in different contexts rather than assuming it as a

stable category of analysis." Histories of the present, they explain, "pay attention tospecificities and contingencies, and thus examine the production of our current realities

rather than seeking to explain or interpret them in their terms."

2. John Hodgens (1994)How adult literacy became a public issue in Australia,Open Letter 4.2. 13 - 24.

This article developed from an extensive documentary history project about "howpublic debates over literacy and education have been used to forward different versions

of appropriate behaviour, different versions of the ideal literate and citizen" (Green,Hodgens and Luke forthcoming). (The history of that project of itself is worthy of the

telling but will have to wait for another time.) The article is an historical review anduses documentary evidence to argue that the 'literacy crisis', for both adults andchildren, appears to have been 'constructed' in the 1970s as a response to "the shifting

social order and its perceived impact on the formation of the character of youngpeople". The various ways through which such claims were 'made' are discussed as are

attempts to seek a cause or lay blame. What emerges from this is the 'deficiency thesis',

the legacy of which persists today.

3. Bill Green, John Hodgens & Allan Luke (Eds) (1994)Introduction: Debating literacy in Australia:A documentary history, 1945 - 1994.Available from the Australian Literacy Federation, PO Box 78,Carlton South, Vic 3053

This piece is the introduction to an extensive collection of material that has been

collected to provide a documentary history of literacy debates in Australia since 1946.

The authors discuss the concept of literacy and demonstrate how its meaning shifts and

changes depending on the context and purpose of its use. They argue that 'literacy' can

be understood as a codeword used to support different political positions and that, given

that literacy is a social and historical construction, it is illogical to use it to support

notions of 'decline' or 'crisis' in any absolute sense. They conclude by stressing that

teachers need to understand the constructedness of the concept of literacy and apply this

understanding to critical examinations of what and how they teach.

Towar a; s a History of Adult Literacy in Australia

4. Darryl R. Dymock (1993)`Fall Out the Illiterates'- Lessons from a World War II Adult Literacy Program.Open Letter 3.2 53 - 66.

In this paper, Dymock outlines how the Australian Army responded to its dawningawareness of literacy difficulties among wartime enlisted servicemen and also howthese difficulties were used as scapegoats for all kinds of other 'problems'. In it he .

provides a fascinating glimpse into pedagogic, testing and assessment practices (includ-ing personality and attitude assessment) and also the growing influence of the 'princi-ples of adult education'. His discussion on the outcomes of these programs echoesmuch of what we hear today and provides yet more evidence of the complexities ofunderstanding literacy and numeracy difficulties and what should be considered assuccessful learning outcomes.

5. Darryl R. Dymock.Àn issue of significant community concern': the postwardevelopment of adult literacy policy and provision inAustralia.In Suzanne McConnell and Aileen Treloar. Eds. (1993) Voicesof Experience: Changes and Challenges, Canberra: DEET.

As the title suggests, this paper is an account of the postwar development of adultliteracy policy and provision in Australia until the adoption of the ALLP in 1991. Itcharts, for the first time to my knowledge, the contribution of a number of federalgovernment enquiries to the developing awareness of the need to act. Alongside this,the work of the professional associations is reported as is the uneven growth in provi-sion. As this information is organised by decade, it easy to access and follow. The finalsection comments on the changing directions of adult literacy policy and provision asadult basic education takes a more central position in mainstream education andtraining agendas. The paper closes with a plea that adult literacy not overlook itsìntelligent and compassionate attitudes and relationships' in its desire for a more`professional' approach.

6. James A. Draper (1991)A Selected Chronology of Literacy Events.In Maurice C. Taylor and James A. Draper Eds. (1991) AdultLiteracy Perspectives Culture Concepts: Ontario.

This piece is included to show that other countries are also beginning to document thehistory of their adult literacy provision. Even a simple chronology of events is animportant task to undertake. In this extract, James Draper provides a context to thechronology of events in Canada and a way of reading them as 'more than a series ofunrelated events'. In his view, such a chronology "expresses a complicated interrela-tionship between social forces, the creation and sharing of ideas, the needs of govern-ments and individuals, and humanitarian goals, human suffering and deprivation". Sucha view presents us with quite a challenge if an Australian chronology is to speak withsuch power.

32 24

Background Readings"Helpful Histories"Deborah Tyler and Lesley JohnsonHistory of Education Review Volume 20, No 2, 1991

Historical writings drawings on the work of Michael Foucault have recently begun to have some impact in the field

of eduction. A number of articles have appeared in this journal in the past five years, for instance, which have

referred to Foucault in some way or sought to develop Foucauldian framework. Similarly, Marjorie Theobald and

R. J. W. Selleck, in their recent edited collection of essays on the history of education, acknowledge work drawing

on Foucault as constituting a significant development in discussions about the history of mass compulsory school-

ing.' But, thus far, little debate has occurred in such arenas about the place of history in Foucault's work and the

challenge this represents to other conceptions of and methods of making histories. It is hoped that this special issue

of the History of Education Review on 'the history of the present' may serve to promote such a debate.

The term 'history of the present' is connected with the work of Michel Foucault, although it is not a term that

he especially privileges. Foucault at different times describes his approach to making histories as 'genealogy',

èffective history', 'criticism', 'diagnosing the present', or, more simply perhaps, as intellectual work which uses

historical investigations as a tool.' This proliferation of terms is frustrating for those concerned to fmd 'Foucault on

history' in the sense of some simple and straightforward definition of the place of historical writing in his work.

But, whether Foucault is writing of the tasks of the intellectual or defending the work of criticism, he offers a

consistent enough set of remarks on his thinking about historiographical problems.A second clarification is needed. Just as Foucault does not adopt a single term to describe his approach to the

making of histories, nor does his work include single, coherent piece which explains that approach. 'Foucault on

history' circulates through his interviews and essays mainly through repeated calls to expand the boundaries of

possible approaches to contemporary problems by using historical investigations to permit a thinking of those

problems in different ways. It is this understanding of the use of history which has come to be understood as the

project of the 'history of the present'. The term has come to have a certain currency amongst those writers influ-

enced by Foucault's historiography; it points to a particular project, as well as a methodology to be used.

What then is meant by 'history of the present'? To summarise. First, histories of the present take as their

starting point questions posed in the present and seek to make the terms through which those problems are currently

understood an object of inquiry.3 Second, such histories attempt to work out the genealogy, or line of descent, that

has led to problems being posed in these ways.4 Third, rather than a search for foundations or origins, a genealogy

attends to the precise, sometimes mundane, historical changes that give the present its shape.' Fourth, rather than

disclosing an unbroken continuity that has led to a particular problem being posed in its contemporary clothing,

which has the effect of producing a sense of inevitability, the recourse to history is meaningful to the extent that

`history serves to show that -which-is has not always been... since these things have been made, they can be un-

made'.6 Fifth, the intended effects of histories of the present are to 'wear away' at certain commonplaces, to make

some actions that are habitually performed open to reflection-'to dissipate what is familiar and accepted'.' In brief,

the project of histories of the present can be understood as the making of histories that locate the present as a

strange, rather than familiar landscape, where that which has gone without saying becomes problematic.

How then do histories of the present differ from other methods of making histories? Contemporary writing

in the history of education commonly constructs its own history as having gone through a number of phases. Within

these accounts it is generally now accepted, however, that contemporary preoccupations shape the writing of

different histories in different times and places. But the role those preoccupations play is not necessarily clearly

articulated nor accepted without considerable unease within the history of education or in other related fields of

historical writing. Contemporary concerns are often viewed with suspicion or unease, seen as a necessary evil but

potentially disabling in the production of good histories. We will address here a number ofthe issues raised by

historians of education and by feminists writing about this question in order to clarify further the project of the

history of the present. We look briefly at feministwritings in this context as one arena in which contemporary

preoccupations are acknowledged more readily as legitimate both in the field of education and more generally. Our

discussion of feminist approaches to history will thus serve to illustrate the difference between histories of the

present and the work of those historians who simply want to acknowledge that their preoccupations in the present

shape the way they ask questions of the past.

33


A major concern among historians of education in recent years has been that contemporary preoccupations, whetherin the form of considerations about present-day issues or in the forefronting of theoretical frameworks, will doirrevocable damage, to the proper conduct of historical investigation. In this argument, good history maintains andrecreates the past in its proper setting, displaying sensitivity to the past in itself, and leaves the matter there. Newquestions arrive on the historians' agenda through the work of historians in uncovering more 'evidence' about thepast, not through new questions in the present. This view has been articulated by Gwyneth Dow in her criticism ofthe `presentism' with which she charges many of those influenced by what she refers to as 'leftist sociology'.8 Suchwork, she claims, is guilty of 'Working back from the present with today's attitudes, questions and hindsight appliedto yesterday's problems produc[ing] anachronistic accounts that, by definition, cannot be regarded as history'.9

Dow does have a point: there is no doubt that some historians do read the present backwards onto the past.But it is difficult to sustain the case that those whose objects of inquiry lie in the present are more likely to do thisthan others. There is limit, too, to the degree to which allegations of `presentism', which carry with them a view ofhistory writing as concerned with the past, should be defended. Dow's view of the proper practice of history is arefusal of historical writing as an intellectual tool in the present. It fails to acknowledge the productive role ofhistoriography by ignoring its part in shaping what counts as knowledge in the present, the boundaries between whatis understood to be true and false. Nikolas Rose's analysis of histories of the psychological sciences illustrates thispoint:

authoritative texts of scientific history play a key role in constructing the image of the present day reality of thediscipline...a role which indicated by the part they play in the training of every novitiate. They establish the unity ofthe science by constructing a continuous tradition of thinkers who sought to grasp the phenomena which form itssubject matter...They police the boundaries of the discipline by their criteria of inclusion or exclusion.'°

The failure to take account of the role of history writing in producing what counts as knowledge in the present workstO diminish the significance of history writing as an intellectual practice, not to bolster it. Histories of the presentseek to place these issues explicitly on the agenda.

***********

Discussions of the historiography of the history of education have, in recent years, mostly talked of the necessity todevelop either better theories- ones which correct the blindness of past histories to questions such as those ofgender- or more carefully nuanced and researched histories which will make for better theories." Both these claimshave rested on an assumption of the role of theory in history which histories of the present seek to question.

The first view understands history as performing the role of the critique of ideology. Social control ap-proaches which set out to demonstrate the significance of class to the history of mass education exemplify such aview of history, as do more recent critiques of the failure of such histories to take account of the central importanceof patriarchal relations. Miller and Davey, for instance, have argued that transformations in patriarchal relations inthe eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are as important as transformations in class relations for explanationsof the rise of compulsory schooling. Characterising this claim as hypothesis, they propose that it should be 'testedin the light of theoretically informed historical work on the state and patriarchal relations'!'

Such an approach sets out to use theory to interpret practices, institutions and vocabularies of the past. Itclaims to be able to read them for what they, in Nikolas Rose's words, 'reveal about fundamental processes orcontradictions which they dissimulate or suppress'.'3 Rather than looking to understand how new ways of thinkingand acting have been introduced into our reality- the ways in which we have come to think and act as we do- thisapproach to history (and theory) attempts to explain away these realities by reference to a more authentic or largerreality.m

Similarly, the argument made in various contexts that history of education should be committed to a morecareful documenting of historical detail in order to make better theories does not question how our realities havebeen produced. Despite the unease expressed in such instances about the role of theory in history, these claimsabout the proper business of history do not necessarily make contemporary categories problematic.' Such writingabout history fails to live up to its own claims about the importance of paying attention to specificity and contin-gency. This comment will be explained by turning now to look briefly at developments in feminist history and theissues raised for this area of work by histories of the present.

The distinctions between women's history and feminist history are now well rehearsed!' As already mentioned,

34 2

ackground Readings

feminist history is one arena in which contemporary preoccupations are seen as legitimate. It is widely understood

as concerned with rewriting history, scrutinising, in Judith Allen's terms, 'past interpretations of both ancient and

more recent history' in the attempt to 'account for the present situation of women'." Feminist history is necessarily

political, Allen argues, directed by feminism as a political position.'s She proposes that feminist historians should

abandon history as it currently operates as an academic discipline. It is, she declares, too firmly committed to

notions of what counts as legitimate evidence and to modes of interpretation which can only lead to representations

of a masculine version of the past.° Yet, such radical calls for a different or better history for feminism, a history

which will account for the present, rarely appear to question the terms in which we currently understand out prob-

lems in the present. The failure to undertake this task threatens to undermine the very project which writers like

Allen define as central to the purposes of a feminist history: the foal of showing that 'patriarchal relations are not

natural and inevitable, but contingent and changeable'.2°The work of Joan Wallach Scott is useful in explaining this point further. Scott makes a similar point to Allen

about the necessity of challenging the discipline as it currently operates. She argues that feminists should pay

attention to the 'assumptions, practices and rhetoric of the discipline' and to the way in which power relationships

are constituted in the discipline itself.2' But she calls for a feminist history which moves beyond accusations of male

bias directed both at the practice of history and at the historical processes under examination. Drawing on the work

of Foucault and Jacques Derrida, Scott argues, in particular, for greater attention t be paid to categories or concepts

which we tend to treat unproblematicaly. In studying discrimination- relations of advantage and disadvantage in

history- she suggests, we need to extend our analysis to the meaning of categories themselves: categories like class,

worker, citizen, man, woman, and, we would add, the state. Such a focus, she says, will demonstrate the volatility,

the variability and the contested nature of these concepts!This approach does not presuppose that interests operate, but sets out to document their emergence and

production. Rather than seeking to explain or interpret events in terms of underlying class or gender interests, and

thus assuming, as Nikolas Rose points out, that 'these interests pre-existed the events and determined their course

and pattern', we should look to see the 'emergence of new ways of constituting one's own and other's interests, and

new mobilisations of forces around them' .23

These comments, we suggest, indicate why a history of the present approach is important to feminist projects. This

approach would ensure that feminist histories analysed how the category of 'woman' (or 'women') is constructed in

different contexts, rather than assuming it as a stable category of analysis. Such an approach is essential if feminist

history is to destabilise and challenge the categories of gender, rather than strengthen them. It is essential, too, to the

project of demonstrating that gender relations are not natural and ahistorical, but contingent and changeable.

In the context of this issue of History of Education Review these comments about feminist history help to

clarify the challenge which the history of the present approach constitutes to current debates about the

historiography of Australian history of education. Histories of the present pay attention to specificities and contin-

gencies, and thus examine the production of our current realities rather than seeking to explain or interpret the past

in their terms. Approaches to history which wants tomake better histories with better theories- or vice versa- do not

necessarily question those realities. This, we suggest, limits both approaches in achieving their aims. This discus-

sion of feminist history also underlines the distinctiveness and significance of the history of the present approach: its

project of making the present strange rather than the past familiar and the challenge this represents to both tradi-

tional and contemporary understandings of the purposes and methods appropriate to the proper business of historical

research.

In this issue of History of Education Review we publish five articles to illustrate the history of the present approach.

In addition, we have commissioned two extended book reviews of key texts in this field, one of which looks at

issues relevant to those interested in education, the other being specifically on education.

Two articles address contemporary debates in Australia about government control and the university. Bruce

Smith examines the representations of the traditions ofhumanities teaching and of liberal education offered by

contemporary academics as explanations of their contributions. He uses historical investigations to unsettle familiar

accounts of the development of universities as institutions devoted to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and

organised around freedom of thought. Smith shows that the formation of the Australian university, and the place of

the humanities within it, are more accurately understood as part of a larger educational campaign to reform and

govern a colonial population. But he does not offer this as an alternative beginning for a smooth story leading

inevitably to the present. Smith identifies a compels combination of compromise, failure and adjustment in the

efforts of the humanities to defend their position in the university, as well as their integral place in strategies for the

27 35

Towards a History of Ad It Literacy in Australia

government of the Australian population.

Rather than a past supportive of the notion that the humanities depend for their character and pedagogicoutcomes on a separation form the concerns of government, Denise Meredyth finds reciprocal relationships betweenthe two. In a move that is particularly relevant to readers of History of Education Review, she demonstrates her caseby examining the emergence of the tutorial, a pedagogic practice privileged within the humanities and one that iscommonly viewed as exemplifying their distance from the kinds of calculations made by government. Instead,Meredyth discovers the tutorial entering Arts faculties through the practices of the secondary school classroom, theexigencies of an explosion in tertiary student numbers and diverse levels of preparation, and the requirements ofgovernment for particular kinds of personnel.

Looking to a different set of problems, Jennifer Laurence questions the contemporary feminist strategy ofseeking to reclaim and celebrate the nurturing female teacher. In both historical work and discussion of currentissues in education, feminists frequently seek to juxtapose a bureaucratic, dehumanised, public sphere to authentic,nurturing, private sphere in which the female teacher reigns supreme. Laurence argues that 'such a strategy simplystrengthens the categories and binary oppositions which have been so powerful in organising women's lives'. Sheexamines a number of key historical documents to show how a very precise regime of love was devised to defineand position the identity of the nurturing female teacher. The 'mother teacher'- as she calls her- is very much aregulated figure, produced by the developing education bureaucracy.

Two papers examine the formation of citizens suitable for the workings of advanced liberal democracies.Ester Faye examines how changes to the secondary education system in the 1950s have contributed to contemporaryunderstandings of adolescents as having their future well-being tied to their identities as school students. Lookingprimarily at the increasing intervention of educational psychology in the Victorian state secondary education systemin this period, she investigates the production of the adolescent as the developing democratic citizen and the second-ary school as the site in which such individuals were supposed to be made. Gavin Kendall directs his attention tothe ways that literacy has been recast from a dangerous capacity to a necessary attribute of the liberal democraticcitizen, and to understanding the conditions that made possible this reversal of the place of literacy in the govern-ment of the population. He argues that shifts in conceptions of the reader- in what is involved in the acquiring ofliteracy- facilitated the emergence of the category of the 'child' as a distinct sector of the population. Changesduring the seventieth and eighteenth century in notions of the relationship between the reader and the textreconceptualised reading as a complex activity. The child was simultaneously defined as a separate category ofperson, and as one who will have difficulty and must be helped to read.

In the first of the two book reviews commissioned for this issue of History of Education Review, DavidMcCallum discusses the significance of Nikolas Rose's book, Governing the Soul: The shaping of the private self,for historians of education. This review augments the account we have given of the 'history of the present' and itsusefulness to the history of education.

Finally, R.J.W. Selleck reviews Ian Hunter's book, Culture and Government. This work has begun to haveconsiderable impact in the fields of cultural studies and contemporary social theory, but has not as yet been widelydiscussed in education circles. Hunter argues that contemporary pedagogical practices in English criticism emergedin the context of moves to establish a system of popular education as a means of forming the population into amodem citizenry. His claims challenge understandings of those practices which view their purpose as, for instance,the complete or harmonious development of human capacities.

In his review, Selleck raises questions about the language used in historical work influenced by Foucault.While not wishing to comment specifically on his points in relationship to Hunter's work, we believe this an impor-tant issue to be addressed here, even if only briefly. We consider it inevitable that an approach which sets out tobreak self-consciously with past frameworks will necessarily appear strange and awkward in its language. In part, anew approach needs to use unfamiliar language to find ways of speaking which are not inflected with preciselythose past understandings and assumptions it wishes to challenge. In part, too, a new approach has to retrain itsaudiences, to require them to become accustomed to new ways and new terms. Thus, for instance, feminist histori-ans have now generally trained the audience of historians to be at least familiar with the term 'gender' as it iscurrently used, even if they do not all accept the importance of its usage. But we acknowledge the importance ofclarity and the need to explain the use of new terms or new usages of terms. These undertakings are necessary, bothto make that training of the audience possible, and to pursue one of the central goals of the history of the presentproject- to investigate the specificity and contingent character of historical processes.

Department of Humanities, Victoria University of TechnologyDepartment of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney

28

ackground Readings

NOTES:

' M.R. Theobald and R.J.W. Selleck (eds), Family , School and State in Australian History, Sydney, 1990, p. x.

See, for example, the following essays and interviews by Michel Foucault: 'Nietzsche, genealogy, history' in

Donald F. Bouchard (ed), Language, Counter-Memory, Practice, New York, 1977, where the terms 'genealogy' and

èffective history' appear; 'Practising criticism' In L.D. Kritzman (ed.), Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews and

Other Writings 1977-1984. New York, 1988, where this kind of activity is described as 'criticism'. The language of

`diagnosis' is used in `Neitzche, genealogy, history' and in 'Critical theory/intellectual history' in Kritzman (ed.),

Politics, Philosophy, Culture. This essay also describes historical investigations as a tool for intellectual work on the

nature of the present.'M. Foucault, 'The concern for truth: an interview by Francois Edwald', trans. A Sheridan, in Kritzman (ed.), p.

262.4Foucault, 'The concern for truth'.'Foucault, `Nietzche, genealogy, history' .pp. 146-7.6Foucault, 'Critical theory/ intellectual history' .p. 37.' This is a common formulation in Foucault's work. See M. Foucault, 'Questions of method: An interview with

Michel Foucault,' Interview and Consciousness, 'no. 8, 1981, pp. 11-12. The quotation is from, 'The concern for

truth', p.263G. Dow 'Review article. Family history and educational history: towards an integration', History Studies, vol. 21,

no. 84, 1985 pp. 429-30.9 Dow, p. 43010N. Rose, 'Calculable minds and manageable individuals', History of the Human Sciences, vol. 1 , no. 2, 1988, p.

180." See P. Miller and Davey, p. 21. 'Family formation, schooling and the patriarchal state', and M.R. Theobold and

R.J. W. Selleck, 'Introduction', in Theobold and Selleck.'2 Miller and Davey, p.21.'3 N. Rose, 'Beyond the public/private division: Law, power and the family' in P. Fitzpatrick and A. Hunt, Critical

Legal Studies, Oxford, 1990, p.68.'4 These comments should not be read as suggesting that class and gender relations disappear in histories of the

present. This issue will be discussed below in relation to feminist histories.15 For instance, Theobald and Selleck in their introduction to their new book on the family and the state in the

history of education do not make the category of the state itself problematic, but seek to present different views of

the state and different histories of its functioning.16 See, for example, J.J. Mathews, 'Feminist history', Labor History, no. 50, 1986: J. Allen, 'Evidence and silence:

Feminism and the limits of history' in C. Pateman and E. Gross (eds), Feminist Challenges: Social and political

theory: Sydney, 1986.17 Allen, p.173.18 Allen, p176.19 Allen, pp. 188-9.20 Allen, p. 173.21.J.W. Scott, Gender and the Politics of History; New York, 1988, pp.. 2-3.

Scott, pp. 3-5.23 Rose, 'Beyond the public/private', p.72.


Towards a 6-listory of Adult Literacy in Australia

"How Adult Literacy became a public issue in Australia"John HodgensOpen Letter, Volume 4 (2)

HOW ADULT LITERACYBECAME A PUBLIC

ISSUE IN AUSTRALIAJOHN HODGENS

CONSIDER THESE HEADLINES FROM reports on literacy andilliteracy in Australia:

Please Help Me: Nearly one of every 25 adult Australians isilliterate (The Australian Women's Weekly 5 May 1976, p. 58)

lm Australians are illiterate (The Northern Territory News 22May 1978, p. 3)

A million Australians lack literacy: survey (The Age 6 Sept.1982, p. 1)

Reading worries 92,000: At least 92,000 Australian bornQueenslanders have trouble reading and writing.(The Courier-Mail 6 June 1982, p. 3)

Australian illiteracy rate '10%': Up to 10 per cent of adults inAustralia are functionally illiterate, a survey by the AustralianCouncil for Adult Literacy has shown. (The Canberra Times 10Sept. 1982, p. 8)

From the mid-1970s to the present, such headlines have beencommonplace in Australian print media. In the mid-1960s, literacybarely rated a mention. How, then, did adult illiteracy become anissue of public concern? And why? A simplistic explanationwould be that adult illiteracy was a sleeping giant waiting to beawoken, a hidden social phenomenon which until the 1970sescaped the scrutiny of the press and social researchers.

But such an account tends not register the impact of one basicfact. The growth of student numbers in educational institutions,

3 8 3o

part

icul

arly

sec

onda

ry a

nd te

rtia

ry, h

as b

een

am

ajor

tren

d in

Aus

tral

ia s

ince

the

late

195

0sa

tren

dw

hich

sys

tem

s ar

eat

tem

ptin

g to

cop

e w

ith to

day

in th

edo

ublin

g of

pos

t-co

mpu

lsor

y

seco

ndar

y en

rolm

ents

sin

ce 1

976

(Aus

tral

ian

Edu

catio

n C

ounc

il

1991

, p. 5

). T

he 1

960s

and

197

0s w

ere

ape

riod

of

unpr

eced

ente

d

grow

th a

nd e

xpan

sion

of

seco

ndar

yan

d te

rtia

ry e

duca

tion

inA

ustr

alia

. Sec

tors

of

the

popu

latio

n pr

evio

usly

excl

uded

wer

e no

w

goin

g on

to h

ighe

r le

vels

of

seco

ndar

yed

ucat

ion.

In

1945

ther

e

wer

e ap

prox

imat

ely

181,

000

seco

ndar

y en

rolm

ents

in A

ustr

alia

. In

1975

ther

e w

ere

1.1

mill

ion

(Con

nell

etal

. 198

2, p

. 19)

.T

he

child

ren

of th

e ba

by b

oom

wor

king

-cla

ssan

d lo

wer

mid

dle-

clas

sst

uden

ts, m

atur

e-ag

ed s

tude

nts,

wom

enan

d m

igra

ntsw

ere

hitti

ng th

e w

orkf

orce

or

tert

iary

edu

catio

nin

stitu

tions

in la

rge

num

bers

. The

fac

t tha

t man

y w

hopr

evio

usly

had

not

had

the

chan

ce n

ow w

ent o

n to

fur

ther

stud

y, w

heth

er s

econ

dary

or

tert

iary

, doe

s no

t mea

n th

at th

eyac

hiev

ed s

ucce

ss in

term

s of

the

abili

ty to

han

dle

the

'tim

eles

s' c

urri

culu

mof

the

disc

iplin

es o

r th

eir

infl

exib

le m

etho

ds o

f tr

ansm

issi

on.

How

ever

, the

cha

nged

dem

ogra

phy

of e

duca

tion,

the

now

soci

ally

div

erse

stu

dent

popu

latio

n, c

erta

inly

did

hav

e an

impa

ct o

nth

e in

stitu

tiona

l lif

e of

Aus

tral

ia a

nd c

ontin

ues

to d

o so

.T

his

artic

le is

an

hist

oric

al r

evie

w.

It c

onsi

ders

doc

umen

tary

evid

ence

to s

how

how

edu

catio

n sy

stem

san

d in

tere

sted

gro

ups

and

indi

vidu

als

tend

ed to

see

this

soci

al d

iver

sity

in te

rms

of

defi

cit a

nd d

efic

ienc

y; a

nd f

urth

er, h

ow'li

tera

cy' w

as s

hape

d to

fit

this

vis

ion

in p

ublic

dis

cour

se.

I be

gin

here

by

setti

ng th

e br

oad

hist

oric

al c

onte

xt o

f th

e 19

70s,

then

turn

ing

to n

ewsp

aper

rep

orts

of th

e lit

erac

y cr

isis

.I

seek

to

iden

tify

the

sour

ces

of c

laim

s of

cri

sis,

and

the

natu

re o

f th

eir

clai

ms,

and

con

clud

e w

ith s

ome

com

men

ts o

nth

e w

ay li

tera

cy

prob

lem

s ha

ve b

een

defi

ned

in p

ublic

disc

ours

e an

d de

bate

. I w

ill

also

indi

cate

bri

efly

the

effe

ct o

f th

epu

blic

'cri

sis'

on

curr

ent

curr

icul

um p

olic

y an

d te

ache

r ed

ucat

ion.

39

Into

the

1970

s: E

stab

lishi

ng th

e co

ntex

tof

the

liter

acy

cris

is

A r

ecen

t com

men

tary

mak

es th

e fo

llow

ing

clai

m:

Lite

racy

was

not

a m

ajor

issu

e in

Aus

tral

ia b

efor

e pr

epar

atio

nsfo

r In

tern

atio

nal L

itera

cy Y

ear

(IL

Y)

bega

n in

198

9. A

part

fro

mtr

aditi

onal

con

cern

abo

ut li

tera

cy s

tand

ards

in s

choo

ls, i

t exc

ited

little

inte

rest

in p

ublic

pol

icy

deba

tes.

Aus

tral

ia e

ven

seri

ousl

yco

nsid

ered

whe

ther

it w

as w

orth

par

ticip

atin

g in

IL

Y. (

Sim

pson

1992

, p. i

v)

Thi

s is

cur

ious

, in

a nu

mbe

r of

way

s. F

or o

ne th

ing,

it m

akes

too

hast

y a

conc

lusi

on.

Aft

er s

ever

al s

earc

hes

of n

ewsp

aper

s an

dar

chiv

al s

ourc

es (

Gre

en, H

odge

ns &

Luk

e, f

orth

com

ing)

, it b

ecom

escl

ear

that

apa

rt f

rom

the

stat

e ai

d is

sue,

sch

oolin

g re

ceiv

es li

ttle

atte

ntio

n du

ring

the

1950

s an

d up

to th

e la

te 1

960s

. The

sam

eap

plie

s to

lite

racy

in a

ny f

orm

. Was

it a

cas

e of

Men

zies

in o

ffic

ean

d al

l's w

ell w

ith th

e w

orld

? L

ooki

ng a

t fro

nt p

age

head

lines

of

the

time,

all

was

cer

tain

ly n

ot w

ell.

New

spap

ers

duri

ng th

e19

50s

are

cons

iste

nt in

anx

ious

rep

ortin

g of

the

cold

war

. In

part

icul

ar,

nucl

ear

test

ing,

Sov

iet a

nd U

S sp

ace

expl

oits

, and

'For

mos

a',B

erlin

and

othe

r ho

t spo

ts a

re f

ront

pag

e ite

ms

on a

reg

ular

bas

is. A

sw

ell,

the

ongo

ing

Lab

or P

arty

spl

it an

d its

eff

ects

rec

eive

sust

aine

d

atte

ntio

n.Pr

ior

to th

e 19

70s,

lite

racy

as

such

rec

eive

s lit

tleex

plic

itat

tent

ion.

It i

s cl

ear

from

our

res

earc

h, h

owev

er, t

hat t

he 1

970s

is a

key

peri

od in

the

cons

truc

tion

of a

lite

racy

cri

sis

in A

ustr

alia

,an

dth

at a

dult

liter

acy

is a

t lea

st a

s fr

eque

nt a

n ite

m a

s sc

hool

liter

acy

in n

ewsp

aper

rep

orta

ge o

f th

e tim

e.R

egul

ar r

epor

ting

on e

duca

tion,

with

ref

eren

ce p

artic

ular

ly to

scho

olin

g, c

erta

inly

occ

urs

in th

e ea

rly

1970

s. L

itera

cy a

ssu

ch,

how

ever

, is

not t

he m

ajor

rep

orte

d ed

ucat

ion

item

by

any

mea

nsdu

ring

this

per

iod.

Sta

te a

id a

nd th

e su

bseq

uent

publ

ic v

ersu

spr

ivat

e sc

hool

s fu

ndin

g de

bate

are

dom

inan

t. O

ther

repo

rted

issu

es a

re th

e br

ain

drai

n an

d in

dust

rial

unr

est o

nth

e pa

rt o

fte

ache

r un

ions

, sym

ptom

atic

of

the

emer

genc

e of

a n

ewfo

rm o

f

teac

her

pow

er.

Loo

king

bac

k fr

om th

e m

id-1

960s

onw

ards

, sig

nifi

cant

chan

ges

had

been

taki

ng p

lace

acr

oss

the

who

le e

duca

tion

sect

ordu

ring

the

fina

l yea

rs o

f th

e lo

ng p

erio

d of

Lib

eral

-Cou

ntry

Par

ty r

ule

(194

9-

40

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

HO

W A

DU

LT L

ITE

RA

CY

BE

CA

ME

A P

UB

LIC

ISS

UE

IN A

US

TR

ALI

A

1972

).A

s in

dica

ted,

ther

e ha

d be

en a

ste

ady

expa

nsio

n of

num

bers

of

teac

hing

inst

itutio

ns a

t all

leve

ls o

f ed

ucat

ion

to c

ope

with

the

'bab

y bo

om'.

Dur

ing

this

per

iod,

Aus

tral

ian

educ

atio

nsy

stem

s st

arte

d to

impo

rt id

eas

and

expe

rtis

e fr

om o

vers

eas

inm

any

area

s. T

hese

incl

ude

expe

rtis

e on

rem

edia

l edu

catio

n an

d're

adin

g di

ffic

ultie

s' a

nd 'l

itera

cy' i

tsel

f. I

n th

e la

te 1

960s

ther

e is

clea

rly

a st

rong

voc

al lo

bby

for

rem

edia

l edu

catio

n. T

he A

ustr

alia

nJo

urna

l of

Rem

edia

l Edu

catio

n w

as f

ound

ed in

May

196

9, a

ndSp

ecif

ic L

earn

ing

Dif

ficu

lties

(SP

EL

D)

asso

ciat

ions

in v

ario

usst

ates

for

med

a n

atio

nal f

eder

atio

n in

197

0.B

y 19

73, t

he W

hit l

am G

over

nmen

t ref

orm

s of

sch

oolin

g st

arte

dto

pla

ce e

mph

asis

on

equa

lity

and

rect

ifyi

ng d

isad

vant

age.

Cur

ricu

lum

dev

elop

men

t and

cha

nge

beca

me

a di

rect

con

cern

of

the

Com

mon

wea

lth w

hich

sta

rted

mak

ing

gran

ts to

sch

ools

on

the

basi

s of

nee

d. T

he n

eeds

of

spec

ific

dis

adva

ntag

ed g

roup

s w

ere

plac

ed o

n th

e ag

enda

. At t

he te

rtia

ry le

vel,

fees

wer

e ab

olis

hed.

Tec

hnic

al a

nd f

urth

er e

duca

tion

and

adul

t lite

racy

with

in it

achi

eved

a n

ew p

rom

inen

ce b

y 19

74. A

fter

the

chan

ge to

Lab

or in

Dec

embe

r 19

72, t

he o

peni

ng u

p of

Aus

tral

ian

educ

atio

n to

inno

vativ

e id

eas

and

pers

pect

ives

tend

ed to

acc

eler

ate

thro

ugh

man

y ne

w p

rofe

ssio

nal i

nter

est g

roup

s ac

ross

a r

ange

of

area

s in

educ

atio

n. T

he A

ustr

alia

n R

eadi

ng A

ssoc

iatio

n w

as f

orm

ed in

1975

. As

a re

actio

n, a

t lea

st in

par

t, to

the

new

pol

icy

dire

ctio

ns a

ndin

nova

tions

in e

duca

tion

unde

r W

hit l

am, t

he A

ustr

alia

n C

ounc

il fo

rE

duca

tiona

l Sta

ndar

ds (

AC

ES)

was

fou

nded

in 1

973

and

fuel

led

the

'sta

ndar

ds d

ebat

e'. T

he m

ajor

ideo

logi

cal c

hang

e un

der

Lab

orw

as th

e un

equa

l dis

trib

utio

n of

fun

ds in

pur

suit

of th

e go

al o

fso

cial

equ

ality

. Fro

m a

con

serv

ativ

e pe

rspe

ctiv

e, 'e

qual

ity' f

orso

cial

ly d

iver

se g

roup

s w

as s

een

by m

any

as a

dow

ngra

ding

of

qual

ity o

r 'e

xcel

lenc

e'. C

alls

for

cur

ricu

lum

cha

nge,

to c

ater

for

the

man

y, w

ere

seen

to e

rode

the

very

not

ion

of e

duca

tiona

l qua

lity,

whi

ch d

epen

ded

on th

e ed

ucat

iona

l suc

cess

of

the

few

.C

onse

rvat

ives

tend

ed to

see

spe

ndin

g on

the

basi

s of

equ

ality

as,

at b

est,

a w

aste

of

time

and

mon

ey.

Loo

king

bey

ond

educ

atio

n, th

e 19

60s

was

a ti

me

ofun

prec

eden

ted

chan

ge. T

he s

igni

fica

nce

of th

e C

row

n w

as w

anin

g.In

Vie

tnam

, Aus

tral

ian

troo

ps to

ok p

art f

or th

e fi

rst t

ime

in a

war

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

HO

W A

DU

LT L

ITE

RA

CY

BE

CA

ME

A P

UB

LIC

ISS

UE

IN A

US

TR

ALI

A

in w

hich

Bri

tain

was

not

invo

lved

. Sec

tions

of

yout

h, p

artic

ular

lyst

uden

ts, b

ecam

e po

litic

ally

voc

al. T

he s

tabi

lity

of w

omen

's a

ndm

en's

rol

es c

ame

into

que

stio

n, a

nd th

e 'g

ener

atio

n' g

ap w

asex

tend

ed b

y ex

pres

sion

s of

you

th c

ultu

reth

e B

eatle

s, d

rugs

, blu

eje

ans

and

long

hai

r. B

y 19

74, t

he in

tern

al p

oliti

cal o

rder

was

bei

ngsh

aken

up

by th

e tu

rbul

ent y

ears

of

Lab

or G

over

nmen

t. T

his

was

an a

ge o

f an

xiet

y an

d ch

ange

. Con

fide

nce

in m

any

inst

itutio

ns w

asbe

ing

shak

en. S

choo

ls b

ecam

e a

prim

e fo

cus

of m

edia

anx

iety

abou

t the

dir

ectio

n th

ey w

ere

taki

ng a

nd th

e w

ay k

ids

wer

e 'tu

rnin

gou

t'. T

here

was

a 'c

risi

s', a

t lea

st in

the

repo

rtin

g of

eve

nts.

Aft

er tw

o an

d a

half

dec

ades

of

rela

tive

quie

t in

the

pres

s,lit

erac

y w

as s

udde

nly

'in c

risi

s'. M

y ar

gum

ent i

s th

at th

is c

risi

s is

rela

ted

to th

e sh

iftin

g so

cial

ord

er a

nd it

s pe

rcei

ved

effe

ct o

n th

efo

rmat

ion

of th

e ch

arac

ter

of y

oung

peo

ple.

It i

s a

cris

is in

whi

chth

e m

oral

ord

er o

f so

ciet

y its

elf

is s

een

to b

e at

sta

ke. I

llite

racy

, as

repo

rted

, is

an in

dica

tor

of a

dee

per

inst

itutio

nal m

alai

se.

Wha

t is

at is

sue:

Lite

racy

or

mor

ality

?

The

mor

al a

spec

t of

the

liter

acy

cris

is c

an b

e se

en v

ery

clea

rly

ince

rtai

n re

port

s w

hich

link

illit

erac

y di

rect

ly w

ith c

rim

e:

Whe

n ill

itera

cy c

an b

e a

crim

e: A

s m

any

as o

ne in

10

Tas

man

ian

adul

ts a

re il

liter

ate

..

.. A

nd m

any

have

bee

n pu

nish

ed a

nd in

som

e ca

ses

jaile

d .

. (T

he M

ercu

ry 2

9 Ju

ly 1

982,

p. 7

)

Em

otiv

e im

ages

abo

und:

'aff

lictio

n', '

dise

ase'

, 'sh

ame'

, 'di

sord

er'

are

com

mon

des

crip

tions

. Illi

tera

cy is

soc

iety

's 'h

idde

n fe

ar'(D

aily

Tel

egra

ph 2

7 Ja

n. 1

982,

p. 1

0). T

he A

ustr

alia

n W

omen

's W

eekl

y (2

4Se

pt. 1

977,

pp.

16-

17)

repo

rts:

Lite

racy

: A S

ham

eful

Pro

blem

for

Eve

ry S

even

th A

ustr

alia

n?Il

liter

acy

is a

big

ger

prob

lem

in A

ustr

alia

than

mos

t of

uspr

obab

ly r

ealis

e. S

ome

say

up to

two

mill

ion

peop

le-1

4 pe

rcen

tof

our

pop

ulat

iona

re a

fflic

ted

....

The

lang

uage

of

mor

al d

isor

der

is u

sed.

Mor

al d

isor

der

requ

ires

acr

usad

e. N

umer

ous

head

lines

at t

he ti

me

calle

d fo

r w

ar:

How

to f

ight

illit

erac

y (T

he N

atio

nal T

imes

29

Sept

. 197

5, p

.18

)

TV

, Tut

ors

to b

attle

illit

erac

y (T

he S

ydne

y M

orni

ng H

eral

d 3

Dec

. 197

6, p

. 3)

2

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

HO

W A

DU

LT

LIT

ER

AC

Y B

EC

AM

E A

PU

BL

IC I

SSU

E I

N A

UST

RA

LIA

Rea

ding

cen

tre

resu

mes

atta

ck o

n ill

itera

cy(T

he N

orth

ern

Ter

ritor

y N

ews

14 O

ct. 1

976,

p. 1

5)

Mot

hers

join

in s

choo

l's s

peci

al p

rogr

amm

e fi

ghtin

g ill

itera

cy(T

he A

ustr

alia

n W

omen

's W

eekl

y19

Oct

. 197

7, p

. 83)

Illit

erac

y w

ar s

tart

s on

lap

(The

Mer

cury

27 J

uly

1978

, p. 1

2)

Acr

oss

the

1970

s, th

en, i

llite

racy

dre

w m

etap

hori

cally

on

anu

mbe

r

of h

ighl

y em

otiv

e di

scou

rses

: tho

se o

f im

mor

ality

,w

arfa

re, a

nd

dise

ase.

An

Ava

lanc

he o

f nu

mbe

rs

The

se c

onno

tatio

ns o

f so

cial

and

mor

al d

isor

ders

wer

efu

rthe

red

by's

cien

tific

evi

denc

e', a

nd p

ress

rep

orts

wer

e ac

com

pani

edby

an

'ava

lanc

he o

f nu

mbe

rs' (

Hac

king

, 198

2). F

rom

197

4, a

nota

ble

feat

ure

in m

ost p

ress

rep

orts

is th

e su

rvey

. Int

erna

tiona

l sur

veys

,ur

ban

sam

plin

gs a

nd d

istr

ict s

urve

ysan

d ev

enth

e ho

me-

grow

n

indi

vidu

al s

choo

l var

iety

abou

nd.

Stat

istic

s pr

olif

erat

e in

new

spap

er r

epor

ts, b

ut o

n cl

oser

insp

ectio

n th

ese

are

ofte

n'e

stim

ates

' by

empl

oyer

s an

d ot

hers

.M

ore

than

fif

teen

per

cent

of

stud

ents

who

leav

e hi

ghsc

hool

cann

ot r

ead

wel

l eno

ugh

to r

ead

or w

rite

wel

len

ough

toco

mm

unic

ate

in th

e m

ost f

unda

men

tal w

ay th

eV

icto

rian

Em

ploy

ers

Fede

ratio

n sa

id y

este

rday

.(T

he A

ustr

alia

n3

Mar

ch19

75, p

. 3)

Typ

ical

ly, p

reci

se d

etai

ls o

f so

urce

s of

sur

veys

are

not

giv

en.

The

'edu

catio

n ex

pert

s' b

ehin

d m

ost s

choo

l sur

veys

rem

ain

asan

onym

ous

figu

res

in th

e re

cess

es o

fedu

catio

n de

part

men

ts:

Mor

e th

an 3

0,00

0 N

SW h

igh

scho

ol s

tude

nts

have

a r

eadi

ngle

vel o

f ni

ne y

ears

and

und

er, e

duca

tion

expe

rts

said

this

wee

k.

(The

Sun

day

Tel

egra

ph17

Mar

ch 1

974,

p. 4

3)

The

sca

le o

f th

e in

cide

nce

of il

liter

acy

vari

es a

nd th

epe

rcen

tage

of

prim

ary

stud

ents

, sec

onda

ry s

tude

nts,

sch

ool

leav

ers,

uni

vers

ityst

uden

ts, a

dults

, gir

ls a

nd w

omen

, or

the

popu

latio

n at

larg

e w

ho

are

havi

ng tr

oubl

e, s

win

gs w

ildly

. The

sur

veys

and

estim

ates

mov

e

from

off

erin

g ra

w n

umbe

rs to

det

ectin

g tr

ends

, nam

ely,

'dec

line'

:

Em

ploy

ers

had

notic

ed a

ste

ady

decl

ine

in r

eadi

ng,

writ

ing

and

basi

c ar

ithm

etic

sta

ndar

ds o

ver

the

past

fou

r ye

ars,

the

3

JOI1

N H

OD

GE

NS

HO

W A

DU

LT

LIT

ER

AC

Y B

EC

AM

E A

PU

BL

IC I

SSU

E I

N A

UST

RA

LIA

orga

niza

tion'

s se

cret

ary,

Mr

I. C

. Spi

cer

said

yes

terd

ay.

(Tic

e

Aus

tral

ian

3 M

arch

197

5, p

. 3)

Jour

nalis

ts te

nd to

cal

l upo

n 'c

omm

onse

nse'

as

oppo

sed

to e

xper

tkn

owle

dge

in th

eir

com

mitm

ent t

o ex

posi

ng th

e cr

isis

and

wag

ing

war

on

it:[S

lom

e fi

gure

s ca

nnot

be

dism

isse

d ...

. No

expe

rt c

an d

eny

ther

ear

e to

o m

any

illite

rate

s in

a la

nd o

fsuc

h gr

eat w

ealth

and

sm

all

popu

latio

n.(T

he A

ustr

alia

n W

omen

's W

eekl

y29

Sep

t. 19

77, p

p.16

-17)

Rep

orts

on

adul

t illi

tera

cy a

nd il

liter

acy

in s

choo

ls a

re e

qual

ly a

sfr

eque

nt a

nd th

e tw

o pr

oble

ms

are

conf

late

d te

xtua

lly. T

his

is a

very

impo

rtan

t fac

tor

in th

e ov

eral

l 'cr

isis

'bec

ause

fro

m th

e st

art o

fth

e 19

70s

repo

rts

ofte

n co

ncen

trat

e on

adu

ltsan

d th

eir

defi

cien

cies

, and

pro

ject

the

blam

e on

to s

choo

ls, t

each

ers

and

the

'sor

ry s

tate

' of

educ

atio

n:

For

thou

sand

s of

peo

ple

..

. illi

tera

cyis

a c

ripp

ling,

sha

min

gdi

sabi

lity

... a

nd o

ne w

hich

may

hav

e be

en p

reve

nted

by

bette

rsc

hool

ing

wri

tes

Jill

Bow

en.

(Tic

e A

ustr

alia

n W

omen

's W

eekl

y5

May

197

6, p

. 58)

As

one

head

line

of th

e tim

e pu

ts it

: 'Il

liter

ates

turn

ed o

ut b

ysc

hool

s' (

Tile

Aus

tral

ian

3 M

arch

197

5, p

. 3).

Lite

racy

bec

ame

a pu

blic

issu

e du

ring

an

era

of in

vest

igat

ive

jour

nalis

m w

hose

mos

t spe

ctac

ular

suc

cess

was

'Wat

erga

te' i

n19

74. A

llega

tions

of

gove

rnm

ent a

nd b

urea

ucra

tic 'c

over

-ups

' wer

efr

eque

nt in

new

spap

er r

epor

ting

gene

rally

. For

inst

ance

, as

the

Sun

day

Tel

egra

ph(1

7 M

arch

197

5, p

. 43)

rep

orte

d: 'E

duca

tion

Dep

artm

ent o

ffic

ials

hav

e co

ncea

led

this

in-s

choo

lill

itera

cy f

or a

t

leas

t a d

ecad

e'.

Who

mak

es th

e cl

aim

s?

The

re a

re s

ever

al id

entif

iabl

e so

urce

s of

voc

al a

nd r

egul

ar r

epor

tson

lite

racy

:T

he r

epor

ting

of c

once

rns

ofte

n co

mes

fro

m jo

urna

lists

doin

gth

e in

vest

igat

ive

stud

y. A

s su

ch, t

hey

are

a m

ajor

play

ers

inth

eir

own

righ

t in

the

liter

acy

'cri

sis'

.

Con

cern

ed in

divi

dual

uni

vers

ity a

cade

mic

s, m

ainl

y fr

omlit

erar

y an

d sc

ient

ific

'dis

cipl

ines

', st

ake

out c

laim

s as

the

44

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

HO

W A

DU

LT L

ITE

RA

CY

BE

CA

ME

A P

UB

LIC

ISS

UE

IN A

US

TR

ALI

A

guar

dian

s of

dis

cipl

ined

lear

ning

and

cul

ture

. The

y fi

nd la

rge

num

bers

of

stud

ents

who

can

not r

ead

or w

rite

ade

quat

ely

inth

eir

cour

ses.

Indi

vidu

al te

ache

rs a

re o

ften

rep

orte

d la

men

ting

the

appa

lling

stat

e of

lite

racy

in s

choo

ls. S

uch

teac

hers

tend

to b

e en

liste

din

the

push

for

mor

e re

med

ial p

rogr

ams.

Tea

cher

uni

ons

tend

to s

uppo

rt th

e cr

usad

e in

cal

ling

for

redu

ced

clas

s si

ze a

nd p

rogr

am p

rovi

sion

for

spe

cifi

c tr

aini

ng.

Em

ploy

ers

notic

e a

stea

dy d

eclin

e in

the

liter

acy

'sta

ndar

ds'

of y

oung

adu

lts e

nter

ing

the

wor

kfor

ce.

Oft

en e

mpl

oyer

grou

ps a

nd r

epre

sent

ativ

es u

se th

e cr

isis

as

a pr

etex

t to

atta

ckth

e go

vern

men

t.

Lib

rari

ans

as p

rofe

ssio

nals

in th

e ar

ea o

f pu

blic

rea

ding

join

the

crus

ade,

mai

nly

in a

res

erve

d w

ay.

Polit

icia

ns jo

in in

fro

m ti

me

to ti

me,

mai

nly

as s

poke

sper

sons

for

ethn

ic g

roup

s, o

r as

cha

irpe

rson

s of

par

liam

enta

ryen

quir

ies.

The

issu

e of

mig

rant

illit

erac

y re

mai

ns v

ery

muc

h in

the

back

grou

nd th

roug

hout

this

per

iod.

Inte

rest

gro

ups

such

as

SPE

LD

cal

l for

mor

e to

be

done

in th

epr

ovis

ion

of r

emed

ial p

rogr

ams.

Pare

nt o

rgan

isat

ions

suc

h as

the

Aus

tral

ian

Cou

ncil

of S

tate

Scho

ol O

rgan

isat

ions

cal

l for

mor

e re

med

ial p

rogr

ams

and

spec

ific

trai

ning

.

Off

icia

ls o

f C

ounc

ils o

f A

dult

Edu

catio

n, a

nd e

duca

tion

syst

em o

ffic

ials

fro

m b

oth

scho

ols

and

TA

FE s

ecto

rs, t

end

tobe

quo

ted

on th

e ai

ms

of n

ew p

rogr

ams.

Lite

racy

pro

fess

iona

ls, s

uch

as a

cade

mic

s in

the

liter

acy

fiel

d,pu

t the

'pro

gres

sive

' vie

w.

Unf

ortu

nate

ly, i

n re

port

ing

succ

essf

ul a

nd in

nova

tive

prog

ram

s an

d in

lobb

ying

for

fund

ing,

lite

racy

edu

cato

rs o

ften

fue

l pub

lic a

nd g

over

nmen

tal

arm

and

rea

ctio

n ov

er li

tera

cy 'c

rise

s'. T

hey

also

oft

enus

eth

e la

ngua

ge o

f 'c

rusa

de' i

n pu

tting

thei

r ca

se.

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

HO

W A

DU

LT L

ITE

RA

CY

BE

CA

ME

A P

UB

LIC

ISS

UE

IN A

US

TR

ALI

A

Who

or

wha

t is

the

caus

e of

illit

erac

y?

In a

ll th

e ar

ticle

s, th

e ca

uses

of

illite

racy

tend

to b

e m

ultip

le.

Firs

t,m

any

repo

rts

in c

allin

g fo

r re

med

ial p

rogr

ams

impl

y th

at th

e ba

sic

caus

e is

in th

e m

ake-

up o

f in

divi

dual

s. A

ccor

ding

to th

is v

iew

, the

reis

a s

igni

fica

nt c

ompo

nent

of

the

popu

latio

n w

ho h

ave

read

ing

prob

lem

s th

at a

re b

iolo

gica

l and

/or

psyc

holo

gica

l in

orig

in. A

llin

divi

dual

s w

ould

eith

er h

ave

or la

ck 'n

atur

al' r

eadi

ng a

bilit

yto

agr

eate

r or

less

er e

xten

t.H

ere

the

iden

tific

atio

n of

'lac

k' is

all

impo

rtan

t.Id

entif

ying

, sep

arat

ing

and

rem

edyi

ng th

e pr

oble

mgr

oups

acc

ordi

ng to

'lev

els'

is c

entr

al to

this

kin

d of

arg

umen

t.Se

cond

, in

man

y re

port

s th

e pr

oble

m is

seen

to li

e in

the

hom

ew

here

chi

ldre

n's

prob

lem

s ar

e ca

used

by

TV

and

pare

ntal

beha

viou

r. T

here

is a

con

tinui

ngco

ncer

n w

ith th

e ne

gativ

e ef

fect

of

mas

s m

edia

on

read

ing.

Thi

s co

ncer

n re

wor

ks p

ublic

anx

ietie

ses

tabl

ishe

d in

the

1940

s an

d 19

50s.

Suc

h re

port

sex

pres

s w

orry

abou

t the

low

mor

al c

onte

nt o

f po

pula

r en

tert

ainm

ent a

nd/o

rth

eer

osio

n of

dis

cipl

ine,

par

ticul

arly

in th

e ho

me.

Spe

cifi

cally

, TV

isse

en to

dis

trac

t chi

ldre

n fr

om th

e di

scip

lined

lear

ning

hab

itsre

quir

ed o

f re

adin

g an

d sc

hool

ing.

TV

is a

lso

a m

enac

e to

the

disc

iplin

e re

quir

ed o

f go

od p

aren

ting.

Par

ents

may

opt

out

of

thei

rre

spon

sibi

litie

s an

d w

atch

TV

inst

ead

of r

eadi

ng to

thei

r ch

ildre

n:'P

aren

tsan

d te

levi

sion

mus

t sha

re th

e bl

ame'

(T

he S

ydne

yM

orni

ng H

eral

d 5

June

197

5,p.

6).

In e

ssen

ce, t

his

clai

m is

ultim

atel

y a

ques

tion

of th

e m

oral

mak

e-up

of

indi

vidu

als

thro

ugh

thei

r so

cial

isat

ion

in th

e ho

me

and

thei

r or

ient

atio

n,or

lack

of

it, to

'dis

cipl

ine'

and

'res

pons

ibili

ty' (

both

of

whi

char

e hi

gh f

requ

ency

term

s in

rep

orts

).A

fur

ther

and

mos

t sig

nifi

cant

cla

im ta

rget

spo

or te

achi

ng in

scho

ols.

Som

e re

port

s cl

aim

that

teac

hers

are

indi

ffer

ent

to th

ene

eds

of y

oung

peo

ple

and

lack

the

nece

ssar

y co

mm

itmen

t to

the

task

at h

and.

Aga

in, t

each

ers

are

ofte

n ac

cuse

d of

irre

spon

sibi

lity

and

lack

of

disc

iplin

e in

thei

r te

achi

ng, p

artic

ular

ly b

y un

iver

sity

acad

emic

s ou

tsid

e of

the

liter

acy

and

educ

atio

n fi

eld.

Polit

ical

activ

ism

on

the

part

of

teac

hers

(i.e

. goi

ngon

str

ike)

isco

unte

rpos

ed w

ith r

espo

nsib

ility

to c

hild

ren

and

com

mitm

ent

toth

eir

task

. And

fin

ally

, dev

iatio

n fr

om tr

ied

and

true

way

s (i

.e.

oa

4 rd

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

How

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y B

EC

AM

E A

PU

BLI

C IS

SU

E IN

AU

ST

RA

LIA

'pro

gres

sive

' ide

as a

nd p

ract

ices

) is

likel

y to

hav

e a

detr

imen

tal

effe

ct o

n th

e m

oral

cha

ract

er o

f yo

ung

peop

le:

NSW

sch

ools

are

turn

ing

out a

gro

win

gnu

mbe

r of

irre

spon

sibl

e

and

ofte

n ill

itera

te c

itize

ns. B

ut th

est

uden

ts a

re n

ot to

bla

me,

acco

rdin

g to

Pro

fess

or H

arry

Mes

sel .

...'C

hang

es' h

ad w

reck

ed

the

syst

em a

nd s

tude

nts

wer

een

cour

aged

to d

o w

hate

ver

they

liked

, Pro

f M

esse

l sai

d. (

Dai

ly T

eleg

raph

22 M

ay 1

978,

p. 5

)

A f

ourt

h ta

rget

is te

ache

r ed

ucat

ion

inst

itutio

ns. T

his

clai

m s

tate

s

that

in th

e m

ove

from

'tea

cher

trai

ning

' to

'teac

her

educ

atio

n' th

at

occu

rred

in th

e 19

60s

and

earl

y 19

70s,

teac

her

educ

ator

s ha

ve b

een

'irre

spon

sibl

e' f

or p

uttin

g in

pla

ce 't

rend

y' c

ours

esth

at p

reve

nt th

e

next

gen

erat

ion

of te

ache

rsfr

om le

arni

ng h

ow to

teac

h 'th

e ba

sics

'.

The

'pol

itica

l' or

ient

atio

n of

'tea

cher

educ

atio

n' is

cri

ticis

ed, a

nd

coun

terp

osed

with

the

'pra

ctic

al' o

rien

tatio

nof

'tea

cher

trai

ning

'.

Rep

orts

dra

w o

n th

e im

ager

y of

the

'ivor

y to

wer

' syn

drom

e to

atta

ck a

cade

mic

s. 'P

rogr

essi

veed

ucat

ion'

is c

ount

erpo

sed

very

stro

ngly

with

'the

bas

ics'

and

with

'trad

ition

al e

duca

tion'

.

A f

ifth

targ

et is

'the

gov

ernm

ent'

whi

ch in

vari

ably

'cou

ld d

o

mor

e' to

ale

rt th

e pu

blic

and

fig

htth

e pr

oble

m. A

gain

cla

ims

of

irre

spon

sibi

lity

and

cove

r-up

s ar

e fr

eque

nt.

Stri

dent

cal

ls a

re m

ade

freq

uent

ly f

or m

ore

rem

edia

l tea

cher

s.T

he is

sue

of s

peci

fic

lear

ning

diff

icul

ties

gets

a h

igh

prof

ile.

By

1974

ther

e is

a H

ouse

of

Rep

rese

ntat

ives

sel

ect c

omm

ittee

on

the

mat

ter.

It is

impo

rtan

t to

note

that

empl

oyer

s do

not

alw

ays

orne

cess

arily

sup

port

the

rem

edia

l pus

h:'I

feel

that

if th

e jo

b w

as

done

pro

perl

y in

the

firs

t pla

ce w

ew

ould

n't n

eed

rem

edia

l wor

k'

says

the

pres

iden

t of

the

Vic

tori

an E

mpl

oyer

s Fe

dera

tion

(The

Aus

tral

ian

3 M

arch

197

5, p

. 3).

How

ever

,em

ploy

er s

poke

sper

sons

do te

nd to

cla

im th

at s

choo

ls a

reac

tual

ly p

rodu

cing

a 'f

lood

of

unem

ploy

able

s'.

Con

clus

ion

Cle

arly

then

, the

cau

ses

lie in

def

ectiv

ebr

ains

, def

ectiv

e ho

mes

,

defe

ctiv

e te

achi

ng a

nd te

ache

rtr

aini

ng, a

s w

ell a

s de

fect

ive

gove

rnm

ent:

in s

hort

, the

def

icie

ncy

thes

is. I

n ou

r cu

rren

t deb

ates

of a

dult

liter

acy

and

natio

nal

polic

y, th

e le

gacy

of

the

1970

s is

pers

iste

nt. P

artic

ular

ly in

rec

entc

ompe

tenc

y-ba

sed

educ

atio

n an

d

trai

ning

, the

re h

as b

een

an u

nder

lyin

g te

noro

f de

fici

t in

the

mov

e to

JOH

N H

OD

GE

NS

How

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y B

EC

AM

E A

PU

BLI

C IS

SU

E IN

AU

ST

RA

LIA

spec

ify

and

cons

trai

n te

achi

ng a

nd c

urri

culu

m.

Wha

t I th

ink

this

hist

ory

show

s is

that

in it

s ve

ry g

enes

is a

s a

fiel

d in

Aus

tral

ia,

adul

t lite

racy

edu

catio

n ha

s be

en f

ram

ed in

the

publ

ic im

agin

atio

n

in te

rms

of in

divi

dual

'lac

k' a

nd m

oral

failu

re, a

s a

cons

eque

nce

larg

ely

of th

e pe

rcei

ved

'dec

line'

of

the

trad

ition

al in

stitu

tions

of

educ

atio

n an

d th

e fa

mily

.H

ow d

id e

duca

tion

syst

ems

and

gove

rnm

ents

resp

ond

to

med

ia c

laim

s? A

t the

end

of

the

1970

ste

ache

r ed

ucat

ion

prog

ram

s

wer

e be

en c

ritic

ised

for

thei

r la

ck o

f fo

cus

on p

ract

ical

ski

lls. T

heIn

teri

m C

omm

ittee

of

Enq

uiry

into

Tea

cher

Edu

catio

n in

Vic

tori

a,

com

plet

ed o

n 29

Feb

ruar

y 19

80, i

s qu

oted

at

leng

th in

The

Aus

tral

ian

(10

July

198

0, p

. 9):

The

Rep

ort s

aid:

'Loo

king

rea

listic

ally

at

all t

he in

flue

nces

that

aff

ect t

he a

cqui

sitio

n of

lite

racy

and

num

erac

y, a

nd th

eco

mpe

titio

n th

at th

e sc

hool

fac

es f

rom

hom

es w

ith p

oor

com

mun

icat

ion,

impo

veri

shed

lang

uage

, abs

ence

of q

uant

itativ

elo

gic

and

exce

ssiv

e te

levi

sion

wat

chin

g, it

is c

lear

that

the

begi

nnin

g pr

imar

y sc

hool

teac

her

shou

ldha

ve a

bas

icco

mpe

tenc

e in

the

teac

hing

of

liter

acy

and

num

erac

y...

.'

As

in th

is e

xtra

ct, t

he n

ow f

amili

ardi

scou

rse

of th

e lit

erac

y cr

isis

sees

def

icit

ever

ywhe

re.

The

ans

wer

to d

efic

it is

to s

peci

fy b

asic

com

pete

nce

and

to te

ach

to it

, not

only

in r

elat

ion

to th

e sc

hool

curr

icul

um b

ut a

lso

in te

ache

r ed

ucat

ion.

DE

ET

is q

uite

ope

n ab

out

its in

tent

ions

to s

ee th

at te

ache

red

ucat

ion

has

a m

ore

'com

pete

ncy-

base

d' o

rien

tatio

n (B

eazl

ey, 1

993

p.8)

.I

wou

ld h

old

that

this

mov

e ha

s its

gen

esis

ver

yfi

rmly

roo

ted

in th

e pu

blic

'cri

sis'

of

the

1970

s. C

urre

ntly

the

Com

mon

wea

lth a

nd S

tate

s,

whe

ther

col

lect

ivel

y or

inde

pend

ently

, are

look

ing

at s

peci

fyin

g

perf

orm

ance

in th

e cu

rric

ulum

gen

eral

ly a

ndin

lite

racy

pra

ctic

e

mor

e sp

ecif

ical

ly. T

heda

nger

is th

at s

uch

spec

ific

atio

n w

ill tu

rn

out t

o be

ext

rem

ely

narr

ow.

My

ques

tion

is: H

ave

thes

e po

licy

initi

ativ

es, w

hich

now

thre

aten

to p

lace

such

hea

vy c

onst

rain

ts o

n

liter

acy

and

curr

icul

um, b

een

shap

edsu

bsta

ntia

lly b

y th

e ve

ry

succ

ess

of m

ore

than

twen

ty y

ears

of th

e lit

erac

y cr

usad

e?

Ack

now

ledg

men

t

My

than

ks to

Alla

n L

uke

and

Bill

Gre

enfo

r th

eir

assi

stan

ce in

the

prep

arat

ion

of th

is p

aper

.


JOHN HODGENS

HOW ADULT LITERACY BECAME A PUBLIC ISSUE N AUSTRALIA

References

Australian Education Council 1991, National Report on Schooling inAustralia 1990, Curriculum Corporation, Melbourne.

Connell, R., Ashenden, D., Kessler, S. & Dowsett, G. 1982, Making theDifference: Schools, Families and Social Division, Allen & Unwin,Sydney.

Green, B., Hodgens, J. & Luke, A. forthcoming, Debating Literacy? ADocumentary History of Literacy in Australia (1945-1994) TheAustralian Literacy Foundation.

Beazley, K. 1993, Teaching Counts: A Ministerial statement by TheHonourable KC Beazley, Minister for Employment, Education andTraining, AGPS, Canberra.

Hacking, I. 1982 , 'Biopower and the avalanche of printed numbers',Humanities in Society vol. 5, nos 3 & 4, pp. 279-295.

Simpson, N. 1992, 'Preface', Putting Literacy on the Agenda, ILY End ofthe Year Report 1990, Department of Employment, Education andTraining, Canberra, pp. iv-v.

36

ackg round Readings

Bill Green, John Hodgens and Allan Luke (eds)Introduction ofDebating Literacy in Australia: A Documentary History 1945 -

1994

INTRODUCTION:Debating Literacy in Australia, 1945-1994

"Delinquents are rare in Christian homes." Argus, 10/5/54, p5.

"Under the pressure of world competition, Australian teachers have been warned,

time and again, that they must produce a new generation of scientists quickly if we

wish to hold our place in the atomic age". The Age, 22/12/59, p.2.

"Illiteracy is the great Australian disease ... We may live in an age of computers

but the engineers in charge cannot spell ... There are no jobs left for the illiterate".

The Australian, 2/8/76, p.3.

"Australia's ability to compete internationally will remain seriously impeded while

one in seven workers cannot read and write well enough to improve their skills ...

Upgrading literacy skills in Australian workplaces is crucial to improved produc-

tivity". John Dawkins, Media Release, Department of Employment, Education and

Training, 30/7/1990, p. 1.

"The romance of the written word ... has been the chief casualty ofthe technologi-

cal revolution in popular culture, a headlong rush away from the written word and

towards mush less demanding, much less fulfilling and ultimately much less

civilising forms of communication ..." The Australian, 13-14/6/93, p. 18.

1. The challenges of the literacy debate

Rarely does the axiom that those who fail to understand history are bound to repeat it

appear more relevant than in the case of public debates over literacy. Teachers' work by

definition concentrates on the present. But because teaching and teacher education are

defined in terms of finding the 'state of the art', the latest, most scientific approaches it

is all too easy to neglect an understanding of historical contexts and influences, particu-

larly those of the recent and immediate past.

Controversy over literacy has become a permanent fixture of educational debate and

policy. With the release of a recent federal parliamentary report entitled "The Literacy

Challenge" one front page headline read: "Flaws in Child Literacy" (The Age, 2/2/93,

p.1). Another newspaper account, more soberly headlines "Report Calls to Boost

Literacy Study" (The Australian, 6-7/2/93, p.43), argued that primary school children

and teacher education alike were seriously and significantly deficient in regard to

training and exercise of "literacy skills". Other articles followed: The Age published

feature articles by Margaret Easterbrook ("Primary Schools Failing Students, Report

Finds", 9/2/93) and Michael Barnard ("Literacy Campaign Fails the Written Test", 1/1/

93. p.13). The Weekend Australian followed this in turn with a feature article by

Christopher Bantick, a freelance writer and educational consultant who is currently

Senior English Master at Trinity Grammar School, Melbourne. The article was headlined

more dramatically, "Burnt by the Fire of New Language", but its subtitle was more familiar

S7 50


"Disturbing decline in literacy skills in Australian schoolchildren" (February 13-14, 1993,p. 46). Both of these newspapers have become significant players in recent and currentliteracy and educational debates.

How are teachers and teacher educators to meet the challenges raised by such debates?Typically, these 'outbreaks' continue on with responses by teachers' unions, professionalorganisations and academics. As you will see in this history, recent strategies have beento cite changing demographic figures and working conditions, and to question theanecdotal, survey or test data upon which such claims are made. Debates then tend to 'diedown' after a flurry of reports on other media and public response on radio talk-back andletters-to-the-editor. But the effect is powerful and the damage has been done.

As illustrated in the examples above, much of the literacy debate requires a loss ofmemory. It depends on the capacity of journalists, politicians and public figures,educators and 'experts' themselves to recycle the same claims, the same images year inand year out. If such claims are repeated and restated sufficiently, they become part ofpublic common sense, part of the 'way things are'. To meet these challenges requiresinformed and constructive strategies. An important first step for all teachers and teachereducators, journalists and politicians would be to become more familiar with the recenthistory of public debates over literacy and schooling.

This documentary history provides a useful resource for debate and discussion. Our aimhere is to show how literacy education is not really about science or method, a simplecontest of truth and falsity, but rather, it is fundamentally a contest of social visions andideologies.

People have not always talked about literacy as 'literacy'. The use of the terms 'literacy'and 'illiteracy' rarely occurs in the Australian press until recently, from about the early1970s on. Before this, many educators, politicians and journalists used to use the terms'reading' and 'writing', or even 'proper English' to refer to what they consideredproblems in schooling. Our guiding questions for this history, then, are:

When and why did literacy become a key term in public debates over schoolingand culture?

What is its relationship to more general claims about the English language?

How did it become connected with a host of other issues, like censorship andmorality, standards and standardisation, nationalism and nationality, technologyand economic productivity?

This documentary history is about how public debates over literacy and education havebeen used to forward different versions of appropriate behaviour, anddifferent visions ofthe ideal literate student and citizen. Our concerns here are the diverse and competingimages of the literate and illiterate, and images of the causes and consequences of literacyand illiteracy. We also provide introductions to some of the complex social and cultural,political and economic influences which have shaped these versions ofliteracy and theliterate.

What we offer here is a story, a story of how and why 'literacy' came to matter inAustralian cultural and political life.

2. Defining literacy

What is literacy? Across these documents we find it referred to as 'skill', 'competence',"morality", 'tradition', 'heritage', 'knowledge' and so forth. What is interesting is that allof these terms are empty sets for contemporary social and cultural norms and values. Thepicture that emerges is that of 'literacy' as a continually contested and unfinished concept,

3

ackgroun Readings

an empty canvas where anxieties and aspirations from the popular imagination and publicmorality are drawn.

Everybody is an expert on literacy: parents, teachers, politicians, journalists and media'experts' and, of-course, students themselves. In the midst of dynamic social change andcultural diversity, the experiences of schooling and 'becoming literate' are shared socialevents. That is, literacy education appears to be something everybody has in common.Typically, everybody who has been schooled becomes somewhat of an expert onschooling. In public forums, from talk-back radio shows to school parent meetings,anecdotes about 'how it was when I was in school' become the basis for serious debateand conflict. This should hardly be surprising, since Western educational systems legallyrequire 8-10 years of everyone's daily life experience for classroom work with teachersand texts. Literacy education is an important cultural touchstone: a point of sharedcultural practice and experience.

But people have dramatically different memories of becoming literate. Depending on thetime and place of their schooling, these range across innumerable versions of the 3R'sand the 'basics' to grammar school literary education, from religious training to bilingualeducation, from phonics teaching to creative writing instruction, from memories ofcorporal punishment and rote learning to open classrooms. These remembrances ofliteracy past, filtered through years of life history and experience, are easily turned intoclaims about how reading and writing should be taught, about what teachers and schools

should do.

This reliance on personal memory and local experience is part of what makes debating anddiscussing what we should doing with literacy education so difficult. For what at firstglance appears to be a cultural touchstone and shared experience, turns out to be acollection of diverse and conflicting experiences. Since the first compulsory State literacyeducation in the 1400s, one of the persistent beliefs about literacy education has been thatit could be the 'great leveller', 'equaliser' and unifier. In fact, there is ample historicalevidence that literacy education has served very diverse social, political and economicpurposes since that time. In many school systems, the unequal distribution of kinds andlevels of literate practice and skill are used to include and exclude students fromcredentials and, ultimately, occupational and life outcomes.

Literacy education, then, always has been about difference and power, about teachingmembers of communities and nations to 'be' different kinds of literate citizens, withstratified access to social institutions. In this way, who gets what kind of literacy, how,where, to what ends, has always been about 'other thingsabout cultural communitiesand social relations, politics and economics, about wealth and power. So while literacyeducation might appear at first glance to be a common cultural experience, it is not that atall. Rather, the different kinds of literacies provided for communities at learners tend toreflect, rather than erase, Australian social difference and cultural diversity.

As you read this documentary history, you will find that the terms 'illiteracy' and'literacy' have only become common in mediaand political educational debate in Australiain the last two decades. In fact, there is little mention of the terms 'literacy' and'illiteracy' in newspapers, magazines, and public debates prior to the early 1970s. By aninteresting contrast, it is worth nothing that the terms are common in American, Britishand Canadian educational debates at least since World War I.

So why and how, then, does literacy become a central focus of the last ten years ofeducational funding and policy? In the last two decades, Australians have had to contendwith large-scale shifts in social, cultural and economic realms. These include at least fourclosely interrelated elements of change:

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

39 52


A shift from relative geographic and communications isolation to participation inglobalised culture and multinational economic relations via 'fast capitalist' media,transportations infrastructure, telecommunications, and computer technology;

An intergenerational shift from traditional British cultural and politicalorientations to those affiliated with the USA, Asia and other Pacific Rim countries;

A shift from a resource and agriculture-based economy with protected,traditional markets to a multinational, corporate economy that increasingly isrequired to compete for global markets and resources, across a range of primary,manufacturing, service and information sectors;

The emergence of an overtly multicultural, multilingual population as the resultof successive waves of postwar immigration, recognition of Aboriginal citizenshipand entitlements, and the move away from assimilationist social policy.

Why and how did literacy become an issue? This question requires an analysis of thelarger political, cultural and economic issues and forces at play during these periods. Noone would doubt that literacy and schooling have parts to play in the making of Australianinstitutions, politics and everyday life. The period studied here marked the expansion ofboth private and public Australian educational systems to accommodate the post-war'baby boom' generation, migrants, and newly-enfranchised Aborigines and Torres StraitIslanders. The rapid expansion of State schooling, colleges of advanced education, anduniversities began in the late 1960s. Hence, from the 1970s on, debates over theinternational competitiveness of schools, colleges and universities; universal access andequity in educational funding; inclusive, economically useful and socially relevantcurricula have been placed on the public agenda.

But to argue that levels of 'literacy' or 'illiteracy' are driving forces in changes like thosenoted above would be a gross overstatement. In fact, there is no recent or contemporaryevidence from any country that levels of literacy either have or are capable of driving suchlarge-scale economic and cultural change.

2. Literacy as a codeword

Unfortunately, this is precisely the assumption at work in the literacy debate: thatsomehow illiteracy causes social upheaval, cultural and economic decline, and that literacycan solve a range of social problems, from delinquency, to immorality, to crime, tounemployment. In this way, literacy acts as a smokescreen for debate over larger social,cultural and economic issues. One of the central lessons of this history, then, is that it isimpossible to study or discuss literacy per se. In other words, literacyacts as a'codeword' for other concerns and anxieties in public debate.

To see this process in action, we turn to a key editorial in The Australian, "Losing OurRomance with [the] Printed Word", published on June 13, 1987. It began thus:

This week we have seen the conclusion of two separatetrials for two of the most brutal and disturbing crimes inAustralia's history, the rape and murder of Mrs AnitaCobby and the multiple murders which occurred in theMilperra massacre when rival bikie gangs confronted eachother in the car park of a suburban hotel.

Australia is not alone in suffering incidents of this kind.The whole world was horrified by the Yorkshire Rippermurders in Britain a few years ago, while America is stillpondering the senseless killing of a black youth in NewYork's Howard Beach district

5340

Background Readings

There is a thread connecting these disparate acts of carnagebeyond merely the gross violence which they involve, andthat is the poverty, the emptiness of the culture in which theperpetrators of these crimes live.

At the heart of this poverty of popular culture is the declineof the printed word. Nowadays, when every young schoolchild is exposed to a computer, when school-age childrenspend almost as many hours in front of the television set asat school, when arithmetic has been almost abolished infavour of calculators and when thousands of children spendcountless hours amusing themselves in front of video gamesgenerally simulating death and destruction, the romance ofthe written word has been overwhelmed by the instantgratification offered by the video screen.

The film director Steven Spielberg, the master of the specialeffects potential of the visual medium, when accepting theIrving Thalberg Memorial Award recently flagged thedanger our societies face when they ignore or demean thewritten word. He called on us to "renew our romance withthe word".

The romance of the word: this perhaps above all else hasbeen the chief casualty of the technological revolution inpopular culture, a headlong rush away from the writtenword and towards much less demanding, much lessfulfilling and ultimately much less civilizing forms ofcommunication and entertainment.

In a classic expression of the discourse of 'cultural literacy', it went on to set literatureagainst television, reading against viewing, and the new forms of communication againstreceived forms of culture and morality, as well as to make an explicit connection betweenliterature and literacy. Central to its argument and polemic was a conviction of "thecivilising effects of words on character":

[W]ithout the appreciation of the written word, without theability to lose themselves in a novel, or be thrilled andstimulated by the powerful language of poetry or the lucidityand eloquence of a sustained essay, without the access to adetailed study of history, young people are cut off fromtheir own inheritance and deprived of the civilising effectsof words on character.

It concluded in this fashion:

The eclipse of the written word is the eclipse of sensibilityin our society. The more we demean the essentialimportance of literaure in all its forms the more weimpoverish and harden our community, and deprive it of theintellectual and spiritual sustenance it so obviously needs.

This editorial links literacy with a constellation of broader issues and concerns. It beginswith references to rape and murder, connecting these with the "poverty of popularculture" and the "decline of the printed word". We are led to believe, then, that violentcriminal acts are the result of a decline of literacy. This decline is caused by the advent of"less civilising forms of communication and entertainment" including television, video

41


games, and computers, by the entry of women into the professional workforce, and bythe decline of those institutions that "traditionally taught people a certain code ofmorality". So the image of the 'illiterate here is that of the criminal, improperly reared byworking women, crazed by exposure to barbaric forms of technological, popular culture.

The overall situation is described as nothing less than the "poverty of . . . contemporaryculture" and the "decline" of family, church and school. The answers for immorality,"purposeless", unemployment and "other social ills" lay in a return to "the essentialimportance of literature". Throughout, the article calls in experts of no less stature thanSteven Spielberg, John Howard, and G.K. Chesterton. The image of the 'literate' here isone of the (male?) novel-reading, civilised sensibility, who follows a "certain code ofmorality" and, no doubt, believes that women should be kept in the home to raisechildren, and that Rudyard Kipling's Kim beats any documentary or mini-series in theprovision of "mysterious thrill[s]" any day.

Our point here is that the literacy debate is rarely about 'literacy' in itself. It is tied upwith larger political and moral debates about the directions of communities and cultures,nation-states and economies. Here literacy is a codeword for conservative politics, anti-feminist 'backlash', Anglo/British monoculturalism, and so forth. Illiteracy is associateddirectly with criminality, immorality, mass media, technology, women's right to work.In a wider political field, it implicitly refers to such matters as Repubicanism andnationalism. So in this case, literacy is neither the real issue, problem or answer. Whatwe can ask about such texts is: Whose interests and values are served by this particularversion of literacy and illiteracy?

As you can see, by sheer repetition, the literacy debate strings together claims: (1) thatstandards and practices of literacy are falling; (2) that these declines are definitive causeof wider social, economic and cultural and; (3) that schools and teachers aredirectly or indirectly responsible for these declines.

Above all, then, literacy debates need to be recognized as instances of social andideological struggle. As Garth Boomer wrote over a decade ago, in a Special Issue ofThe Australian Journal of Reading ("What's Happening to Standards of Literacy?"Vol3, No 1, March 1980): "Literacy debates are always diagnosed downwards. Very rarelydoes a less powerful or less prestigious community group accuse a superior section of thecommunity of being illiterate".

At this point it is worth taking brief account of what is now Australia's official policy onlanguage and literacy, following the Green and White Papers of 1990-1991. In hisspeech to a Forum organized by the then very new Australian Literacy Federation onMarch 8, 1991, John Dawkins, Minister for Employment, Education and Training, hadthis to say: We need not apologise for linking literacy and language development to thiscountry's economc future as well as to its social, educational and cultural well-being. Thedevelopment of long term skills and capacities in individuals assist[s] not only their ownpersonal growth, but also that of the nation's productivity as well". Here, economicconsiderations are clearly marked out as a primary context for thinking about literacy. Asyou will see in this history, this is a recurrent theme of the public 'debate' on literacy,schooling and related matters, making up a significant strand as it gathered in momentumfrom the early 1970s on. What does 'literacy' mean in this regard?

So what is to be done? How are teachers, administrators and parents to respond to suchclaims? The task of stripping away the various levels of cultural and editorial baggage totalk about standards or levels of literacy is difficult. As this history shows, the statisticaldata cited from surveys and tests typically is poorly detailed and not documented at all,calling into doubt polemical claims and interpretations reported. Consider these claimsfrom a three year period in the 1970s:

5b

Background Readings

"High school illiteracy ... Two of the three R's are forgotten .. and 30,000 pupilssuffer". Sunday Telegraph, March 17, 1974, p. 43.

"More than fifteen per cent of students who leave high school cannot read or writewell enough to communicate in the most fundamental way ". The Australian, March3, 1975, p. 3.

"About 45% of Form 1 and Form 2 students in Melbourne eastern suburbsGovernment schools are at least two years retarded in reading" The Age, April 10,1075, p.3.

"... in an average Australian community, there are probably more than ten percent ofadults who cannot to read, and up to 15 per cent of children who have serious readingdifficulties". Northern Territory News, October 14, 1976, p. 15.

"More than 225,000 people in NSW cannot read or write as wellas a 10-year-old. Eight percent of juvenile offenders in Victorian gaols areincompetent in reading, writing and arithmetic". Australian Women's Weekly,September 24, 1977, p. 16.

Often the stringing together of statistical claims is at best speculative, if not deliberatelymisleading. For instance, if we create a composite of figures from claims in the mid-1970s, near half of the Australian population, adult and child, male and female would be'illiterate', or, to pick up on some of the dominant metaphors of the time, 'retarded' or,even more to the point, 'diseased'.

But even in the rare instance where data cited might be reliable and accurately reported,the claim of declining standards is both impossible to establish and impossible to refute,for the simple reason that reading and writing are not static and unchanging. They aredynamic social practices, that change in accordance with particular cultural, social andhistorical contexts. Consider, for example, the straightforward comparison of how wellstudents 'write' or 'read' between 1953 and 1993. A number of factors would have to beconsidered:

The student population of Australian schools has changed radically,progressively extending school retention rates such that the typical student in 1953at, for instance, Grade Five, would hardly be directly comparable to the student of1993 in cultural, demographic, social, and, quite likely, linguistic background.

'Reading' and 'writing' themselves as valued community and workplacepractices have changed and developed. For example, the emergence of urbanpopular culture and the globalisation of Australian culture have meant that differentkinds of reading and writing are valued in everyday life. The changing economyhas meant that some kinds of jobs have disappeared, and others, aligned withservice industries, have emerged. So some demands for literacy and everydaysites where it was used in particular, occupational ways have emerged and othershave disappeared.

School instruction and curriculum have developed to reflect and foreshadowsuch changes. While the 1950s curriculum might have emphasised literary study,handwriting and spelling, for instancecurrent curriculum has widened its net tocover such areas as computer and basic keyboard skills, writing and reading arange of functional, occupational and academic text types, and media study. Thedemands on curriculum from community, employers and political groups continueto widen and expand.

So simple claims that standards and practices of literacy have 'declined' at best risk beingunfair and/or illogical. To compare students' reading and writing of the 1950s and 1980s

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

4356


is akin to comparing apples and oranges. As recent debates over declining readingachievement test scores has shown once again, even apparently straightforwardcomparisons of school achievement on standardised tests over shorter periods of timeneed to consider a range of historical, contextual and population variables. This is to saynothing of questions about the accuracy and efficacy of test instruments, examinationresults and other measures.

Articles like "Losing Our Romance with Printed Word" and the everyday claims thatteachers encounter have to be approached critically and analytically. Educators andliteracy professionals dismiss them lightly at our own professional risk. Our task in thishistory is to try to identify and disentangle all of the associated cultural and politicalinterests at work in such claims. By providing an historical overview of how the present'came to be', we would hope that this documentary history will offer tools and conceptsfor taking up this challenge.

At the same time, the professional responsibility of educators is to continually reappraiseour own teaching practices and curriculum materials. That is, to say that literacy is asocial and historical construction, to say that it is impossible to document a decline inabsolute termsthese should not lead to the hasty conclusion that 'all is well' in literacyeducation. Quite the contrary. Schools, teachers and teaching remain the focus of thesesame historical forces and institutional interests at work in this history. To respondcritically and constructively to curriculum change, to renewed pressures on teaching andlearning conditions, to make decisions about how and in what directions to shape literacy,requires that we understand its history. It requires that we understand how literacy isrelated to social and cultural issues, and political and economic forces. Only then can webegin to make informed decisions about what should count as literacy, for whom, and inwhat kind of literate culture and society.

44

Background Readings

Darryl Dymock"Fallout the Illiterates' - Lessons from a World War II AdultLiteracy Program"Open Letter Volume 3.2

'FALL OUT THEILLITERATES'-LESSONSFROM A WORLD WAR II

ADULT LITERACYPROGRAM

DARRYL R. DYMOCK

THE OFFICIAL HISTORIAN FOR World War II, Gavin Long (1963,p.85), claimed that a 'big achievement' of the Australian ArmyEducation Service (AAES) was in reducing the 'grave degree' ofilliteracy that existed in Australia. The extent to which the AAES had

an impact on illiteracy in Australia is debatable, but the Service didhelp to draw the size of the problem to the attention of army andpublic authorities in the early 1940s and evolved innovative practices

to help those affected. Current policy makers and practitioners willidentify with many of the circumstances confronted by ArmyEducation staff and will also recognise some of the deeper issuesinvolved.

Adult illiteracy 'discovered'

The AIF Education Service provided literacy classes for Australiansoldiers in World War I, but that experience was apparently forgottenwhen its successor, the Australian Army Education Service, wasestablished in 1941. The purpose of the AAES during World War II

was to provide a range of educational activities for Australian troops

45 0u

DA

RR

YL

R. D

YM

OC

K

'FA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'- LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

stat

ione

d ac

ross

the

coun

try

and

in P

apua

and

New

Gui

nea,

in o

rder

to h

elp

alle

viat

e bo

redo

m a

nd to

pre

pare

them

for

thei

r ev

entu

al r

etur

nto

civ

ilian

life

(D

ymoc

k 19

90).

The

rea

son

that

pro

visi

on f

or il

liter

acy

was

not

incl

uded

in th

e se

cond

sch

eme

was

no

doub

t bec

ause

, by

that

time,

sch

ool a

ttend

ance

in a

ll St

ates

was

com

puls

ory

up to

the

age

of14

yea

rs, a

nd a

193

8 re

port

(C

unni

ngha

m e

t al.)

con

fide

ntly

sta

ted

that

'illi

tera

cy in

Aus

tral

ia is

pra

ctic

ally

non

-exi

sten

t'. A

for

mer

sen

ior

Arm

y E

duca

tion

Off

icer

rec

alle

d in

an

inte

rvie

w (

Wils

on 1

986)

that

itth

eref

ore

cam

e as

som

ethi

ng o

f a

shoc

k fo

r ed

ucat

ors

to d

isco

ver

five

year

s la

ter

that

a s

igni

fica

nt p

ropo

rtio

n of

adu

lts h

ad d

iffi

culti

es w

ith'th

e th

ree

Rs'

.J.

G. M

cKen

zie,

Dir

ecto

r-G

ener

al o

f E

duca

tion

in N

ew S

outh

Wal

es,

rais

ed th

e is

sue

at a

mee

ting

of th

e A

ustr

alia

n Se

rvic

es E

duca

tion

Cou

ncil

(Min

utes

p. 9

), a

n ad

viso

ry b

ody

to th

e A

AE

S, in

Aug

ust

1942

, whe

n th

e E

duca

tion

Serv

ice

had

been

ope

ratin

g fo

r ju

st o

ver

twel

ve m

onth

s. M

cKen

zie

repo

rted

that

his

Dep

artm

ent h

ad tr

ied

toas

sist

sol

dier

s w

ho h

ad r

eadi

ng a

nd w

ritin

g pr

oble

ms,

but

sai

d th

ere

had

been

dif

ficu

lties

, par

ticul

arly

bec

ause

of

the

re-p

ostin

g of

troo

ps.

One

of

his

teac

hers

had

als

o be

en to

ld, h

e cl

aim

ed, t

hat i

llite

rate

sold

iers

'cou

ld p

erfo

rm o

rdin

ary

arm

y dr

ill, s

o th

ere

was

no

need

tote

ach

them

to r

ead

and

wri

te'.

It is

to b

e ho

ped

that

edu

cato

rscu

rren

tly tr

ying

to in

trod

uce

wor

kpla

ce b

asic

edu

catio

n pr

ogra

ms

enco

unte

r m

ore

enlig

hten

ed a

ttitu

des

amon

gst e

mpl

oyer

s!A

bout

the

sam

e tim

e, A

rmy

Edu

catio

n st

aff

cam

e fa

ce-t

o-fa

ce w

ithth

e pr

oble

m in

the

fiel

d: r

epor

ts f

rom

Edu

catio

n O

ffic

ers

in m

any

area

sha

d m

entio

ned

the

inci

denc

e of

illit

erac

y, a

nd c

ompa

ny c

omm

ande

rsan

d ot

her

offi

cers

wer

e as

king

Edu

catio

n st

aff

if th

ey c

ould

ass

ist

(Coa

tes

1948

, p. 1

68).

Suc

h so

ldie

rs w

ere

said

to b

e ca

usin

g pr

oble

ms

with

mili

tary

trai

ning

, dis

cipl

ine

and

gene

ral m

oral

e, a

nd th

eir

supe

rior

offi

cers

app

aren

tly b

elie

ved

that

rem

edyi

ng il

liter

acy

wou

ld o

verc

ome

the

othe

r pr

oble

ms.

A la

ter

repo

rt (

McK

inty

n.d

., p.

1)

into

illit

erac

yam

ong

arm

y re

crui

ts s

uppo

rted

this

vie

w, n

otin

g th

at, a

part

fro

m th

epe

rson

al a

spec

t of

illite

racy

, arm

y ef

fici

ency

and

dis

cipl

ine

impr

oved

beca

use

a so

ldie

r's in

tere

st in

trai

ning

incr

ease

d w

hen

he c

ould

rea

d

DA

RR

YL

rt. D

YM

OC

K

'FA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

char

ts a

nd b

lack

boar

d su

mm

arie

s an

d be

caus

e he

bec

ame

mor

eco

nten

ted

if h

e co

uld

corr

espo

nd, '

how

ever

poo

rly'

, with

his

fam

ily.

The

Ser

vice

s E

duca

tion

Cou

ncil

(Min

utes

194

2) c

alle

d on

the

Arm

yto

take

mea

sure

s to

dea

l with

wha

t it s

aw a

s a

'ser

ious

edu

catio

nal

prob

lem

', w

hich

cou

ld a

ffec

t eff

icie

ncy

as w

ell a

s pl

ans

for

post

-war

reco

nstr

uctio

n (a

n in

dica

tion

that

an

emph

asis

on

liter

acy

for

voca

tiona

l pur

pose

s is

not

just

a r

ecen

t phe

nom

enon

). S

ubse

quen

tly,

the

Dir

ecto

r of

Arm

y E

duca

tion,

R.B

. Mad

gwic

k (1

943)

rep

orte

d to

anA

SEC

mee

ting

in M

ay 1

943

that

, on

the

basi

s of

AA

ES

surv

eyfi

ndin

gs, o

ver

3 pe

r ce

nt o

f al

l Aus

tral

ian

troo

ps c

ould

be

assu

med

tobe

'illi

tera

te',

a to

tal o

f ar

ound

15,

000

sold

iers

.O

ne o

f th

e re

ason

s th

at il

liter

acy

part

icul

arly

cam

e to

not

ice

in th

ear

my

was

that

sol

dier

s co

uld

not d

epen

d on

the

help

of

a lit

erat

ere

lativ

e as

they

pro

babl

y ha

d in

civ

il lif

e. S

ome

of th

ose

foun

d w

ere

iden

tifie

d th

roug

h th

e ce

nsor

ing

of m

ail o

r th

eir

inab

ility

to r

ead

map

san

d or

ders

. One

rep

ort (

Mac

lain

e 19

48, p

. 1)

note

d th

at il

liter

ates

had

little

pro

spec

t of

prom

otio

n an

d w

ent i

n fe

ar o

f be

ing

puni

shed

for

offe

nces

they

thou

ght t

hey

mig

ht h

ave

inad

vert

ently

com

mitt

edbe

caus

e th

ey c

ould

not

rea

d R

outin

e O

rder

s an

d ot

her

prin

ted

inst

ruct

ions

. How

ever

, the

dif

ficu

lty o

f en

cour

agin

g ad

ults

app

aren

tlyin

nee

d of

ass

ista

nce

to a

dmit

that

nee

d w

as a

s gr

eat t

hen

as it

has

been

in r

ecen

t tim

es: '

In th

e A

rmy

a m

an g

radu

ally

par

ts w

ith m

ost o

fhi

s pe

rson

al s

ecre

ts, b

ut th

is a

ppea

red

to b

e th

e la

st s

ecre

ta

man

wis

hed

to y

ield

up'

(C

oate

s 19

48, p

. 171

).

The

Ini

tial R

espo

nse

of A

rmy

Edu

catio

n

Initi

ally

, the

Arm

y E

duca

tion

resp

onse

was

slo

w a

nd s

pora

dict

here

wer

e fe

w s

taff

, and

non

e of

them

was

exp

erie

nced

in d

ealin

g w

ithill

itera

cy a

mon

g ad

ults

. Acc

ordi

ng to

one

rep

ort (

July

194

3), t

he la

ck o

fte

ache

rs w

ith r

elev

ant e

xper

tise

was

com

poun

ded

by a

dea

rth

ofsu

itabl

e m

ater

ial f

or s

tude

nts,

com

petin

g de

man

ds o

n so

ldie

rs' t

ime,

and

the

cont

inua

l mov

emen

ts o

f tr

oops

fro

m o

ne p

ostin

g to

ano

ther

.N

ever

thel

ess,

as

unit

com

man

ding

off

icer

s ga

ve in

crea

sing

enco

urag

emen

t and

ass

ista

nce

to E

duca

tion

staf

f to

est

ablis

h cl

asse

s in

DA

RR

YL

R.

DY

MO

CK

'FA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

basi

c re

adin

g an

d w

ritin

g fo

r so

ldie

rs, t

he A

AE

S ac

cept

ed th

is n

ew're

med

ial'

role

.A

sig

nifi

cant

AA

ES

initi

ativ

e w

as th

e pu

blic

atio

n in

Dec

embe

r19

43 o

f a

read

er f

or u

se in

lite

racy

cla

sses

, Opp

ortu

nity

Boo

k N

o. 1

. In

keep

ing

with

an

appr

oach

that

has

mor

e re

cent

ly b

ecom

e co

mm

onpr

actic

e, th

e bo

ok d

rew

hea

vily

on

fam

iliar

asp

ects

of

arm

y lif

e an

dw

as u

sed

in th

e fi

eld

with

con

side

rabl

e su

cces

s (M

adgw

ick

1944

).D

espi

te th

e va

riou

s at

tem

pts

to h

elp

sold

iers

in th

e fi

eld,

how

ever

,so

me

Arm

y E

duca

tion

mem

bers

bel

ieve

d (M

acla

ine

1948

, p. 5

) th

at a

mor

e ef

fect

ive

appr

oach

mig

ht b

e to

try

to id

entif

y th

e pr

oble

m a

ndco

pe w

ith it

bef

ore

sold

iers

wer

e po

sted

to o

pera

tiona

l uni

ts, t

hat i

s, a

tth

e re

crui

t tra

inin

g de

pots

.A

t thi

s st

age,

wel

l bef

ore

such

con

trov

ersi

al d

evel

opm

ents

as

the

Adu

lt L

itera

cy a

nd N

umer

acy

Com

pete

ncy

Scal

es (

Gri

ffin

& F

orw

ood

1991

), th

ere

wer

e no

lite

racy

test

s fo

r so

ldie

rs o

n en

try

to th

e A

rmy.

Subs

eque

ntly

the

'Arm

y Ps

ycho

logy

Ser

vice

Lite

racy

Tes

t' w

asin

trod

uced

, not

to d

iagn

ose

spec

ific

rea

ding

and

wri

ting

disa

bilit

ies,

but t

o en

able

a p

relim

inar

y es

timat

e to

be

mad

e of

the

abili

ty to

rea

dan

d w

rite

(Y

ande

ll 19

46, p

. 5).

Val

idat

ion

of th

e te

st e

stab

lishe

d th

ree

cate

gori

es o

f ill

itera

cy, '

illite

rate

'cor

resp

ondi

ng to

the

read

ing

and

wri

ting

abili

ty o

f an

Aus

tral

ian

child

bel

ow s

ix y

ears

ten

mon

ths

in a

ge;

'nea

r-ill

itera

te'h

avin

g a

read

ing

age

from

six

yea

rs te

n m

onth

s to

eigh

t yea

rs s

ix m

onth

s; a

nd 'e

duca

tiona

lly b

ackw

ard'

havi

ng a

read

ing

age

from

eig

ht y

ears

six

mon

ths

to te

n ye

ars

two

mon

ths

(Coa

tes

1948

, p. 1

72).

Tho

se w

hose

test

res

ults

indi

cate

d a

read

ing

age

of m

ore

than

ten

year

s tw

o m

onth

s w

ere

rega

rded

as

'sat

isfa

ctor

y'.

The

ext

ent o

f ad

ult i

llite

racy

in th

e 19

40s

In m

id-1

943,

the

Arm

y de

cide

d to

trai

n al

l rec

ruits

, exc

ept t

hose

fro

mW

este

rn A

ustr

alia

, at o

ne r

ecru

it tr

aini

ng c

entr

e at

Cow

ra, N

ew S

outh

Wal

es. E

arly

in 1

944,

the

Arm

y Ps

ycho

logy

Ser

vice

adm

inis

tere

d th

ene

wly

dev

elop

ed li

tera

cy te

st to

all

avai

labl

e re

crui

ts a

t the

Cow

raca

mp.

The

tabl

e on

the

follo

win

g pa

ge d

ispl

ays

the

resu

lts (

Mitc

hell

1944

).

Ri

DA

RR

YL

R.

DY

MO

CK

'FA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

Lite

racy

leve

ls o

f A

ustr

alia

n A

rmy

Rec

ruits

, Cow

ra, e

arly

194

4

Rat

ing

No.

in g

roup

Perc

enta

ge (

appr

ox)

Satis

fact

ory

925

88.6

Edu

catio

nally

bac

kwar

d84

8.0

Nea

r Il

liter

ate

302.

8Il

liter

ate

6.6

(N =

104

5)

The

120

sol

dier

s w

ho w

ere

not i

n th

e 's

atis

fact

ory'

cat

egor

y w

ere

then

furt

her

test

ed u

sing

an

AC

ER

test

in a

n at

tem

pt to

dis

cove

r th

e de

gree

to w

hich

eac

h re

crui

t was

cap

able

of

lear

ning

to r

ead

and

wri

te. N

inet

yof

the

grou

p w

ere

foun

d to

be

of 'v

ery

poor

' int

ellig

ence

with

the

rem

aini

ng th

irty

rat

ing

from

'ave

rage

' to

'ver

y go

od'.

From

thes

ere

sults

, the

cam

p's

com

man

ding

off

icer

con

clud

ed th

at o

nly

thes

e th

irty

sold

iers

, or

twen

ty-f

ive

per

cent

, wer

e of

suf

fici

ent i

ntel

ligen

ce to

be

able

to b

enef

it fr

om li

tera

cy tu

ition

, and

the

issu

e w

as th

eref

ore

'ess

entia

lly a

min

ority

pro

blem

' (M

itche

ll 19

44, p

. 1).

In A

pril

1944

, a s

tudy

of

over

150

0 re

crui

ts p

rovi

ded

sim

ilar

figu

res

(Coa

tes

1948

, p. 1

73).

The

se tw

o st

udie

s es

tabl

ishe

d th

at ju

stov

er th

ree

per

cent

of

the

arm

y's

pers

onne

l wer

e ill

itera

te o

r ne

ar-

illite

rate

, and

a f

urth

er 8

to 1

1 pe

r ce

nt h

ad a

rea

ding

age

bel

ow th

at o

fan

ave

rage

ten-

year

-old

chi

ld. C

ould

thes

e fi

gure

s al

so b

e ap

plie

d to

the

civi

lian

popu

latio

n at

that

tim

e? A

sen

ior

Arm

y E

duca

tion

Off

icer

obse

rved

:

In a

pply

ing

this

stu

dy to

the

civi

lian

popu

latio

n, it

mus

t be

rem

embe

red

(a)

that

man

y su

peri

or m

en e

duca

tiona

lly w

ere

exem

ptfr

om m

ilita

ry s

ervi

ce o

n m

anpo

wer

gro

unds

, or

had

join

ed th

e N

avy

or A

ir F

orce

, and

(b)

that

the

men

test

ed w

ere

actu

ally

enl

iste

d, a

ndan

unk

now

n nu

mbe

r of

men

off

ered

to th

e A

rmy

by th

e D

irec

tora

te o

fM

anpo

wer

wou

ld a

lrea

dy h

ave

been

cut

off

at t

he R

ecep

tion

Dep

ots

and

reje

cted

bec

ause

of

men

tal d

efic

ienc

y. T

hese

con

side

ratio

nsw

ould

wor

k in

opp

osite

dir

ectio

ns, a

s m

any

of th

e re

ject

s in

(b)

wou

ld

62

DA

RR

YL

R. D

YM

OC

K

'FA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'- LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

be il

liter

ate

or a

lmos

t so.

It i

s re

ason

able

to a

ssum

e, th

eref

ore,

that

the

figu

res

for

the

civi

lian

popu

latio

n w

ould

be

of th

e or

der

give

n by

the

abov

e sa

mpl

es. (

Coa

tes

1948

, p. 1

24)

Thi

rty

year

s la

ter,

Goy

en's

stu

dy (

1977

) of

illit

erac

y in

Syd

ney

prod

uced

ver

y si

mila

r fi

gure

s fo

r ad

ults

bor

n in

Eng

lish-

spea

king

coun

trie

s an

d W

icke

rt's

(19

89)

mor

e so

phis

ticat

ed a

ppro

ach

esta

blis

hed

that

ther

e co

ntin

ue to

be

man

y ad

ults

in th

is c

ount

ry w

hoca

nnot

cop

e w

ith c

erta

in li

tera

cy a

nd n

umer

acy

task

s in

cer

tain

situ

atio

ns. H

owev

er, t

he w

artim

e fi

gure

s be

lie th

e ar

gum

ent t

hat t

here

was

a 'g

olde

n ag

e' in

Aus

tral

ia w

hen

all a

dults

cou

ld r

ead,

wri

te a

ndca

lcul

ate

with

out a

ppar

ent d

iffi

culty

.

The

Pre

para

tory

Mili

tary

Tra

inin

g Pr

ogra

m

Follo

win

g a

reco

mm

enda

tion

from

the

cam

p's

com

man

ding

off

icer

, the

Prep

arat

ory

Mili

tary

Tra

inin

g C

ours

e (P

MT

C)

bega

n at

Cow

ra in

Aug

ust 1

944

(Mar

quet

n.d

., p.

2)

to m

eet t

he 'm

inor

ity p

robl

em',

with

a si

mila

r pr

ogra

m in

Wes

tern

Aus

tral

ia. E

ach

cour

se r

an f

or th

ree

wee

ks, w

ith te

n in

com

ing

recr

uits

(al

l the

Arm

y w

ould

rel

ease

) se

lect

edat

a ti

me.

If

nece

ssar

y, a

stu

dent

cou

ld a

lso

be r

etai

ned

a fu

rthe

r w

eek.

It w

as th

roug

h th

eir

invo

lvem

ent w

ith th

e PM

TC

that

Arm

y E

duca

tion

staf

f di

scov

ered

muc

h ab

out t

he n

eed

for

inno

vativ

e m

etho

ds a

ndm

ater

ials

in a

dult

liter

acy

prov

isio

n.In

pre

pari

ng th

e co

urse

syl

labu

s, s

taff

wer

e gu

ided

by

the

AA

ES

Inst

ruct

or's

Man

ual f

or O

ppor

tuni

ty C

lass

es, w

hich

had

bee

n de

velo

ped

to a

ccom

pany

Opp

ortu

nity

Boo

k 1.

The

aim

s of

the

cour

se (

quot

ed b

yY

ande

ll 19

46, p

. 40)

, des

igne

d to

mee

t the

imm

edia

te d

eman

ds o

ftr

aini

ng, a

lso

reve

al a

n un

ders

tand

ing

of s

ome

of th

e pr

inci

ples

of

adul

t edu

catio

n w

hich

hav

e be

en p

ropo

sed

in m

ore

rece

nt ti

mes

. The

yec

ho, f

or e

xam

ple,

one

of

the

assu

mpt

ions

of

andr

agog

y, th

at a

dults

'lear

n ne

w k

now

ledg

e, s

kills

, val

ues

and

attit

udes

mos

t eff

ectiv

ely

whe

n th

ey a

re p

rese

nted

in th

e co

ntex

t of

appl

icat

ion

to r

eal-

life

situ

atio

ns' (

Kno

wle

s, 1

990,

p. 6

1).

DA

RR

YL

R. D

YM

OC

K

TA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R H

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

1. T

o de

velo

p th

e ab

ility

to r

ead

Arm

y si

gns,

dir

ectio

ns, o

rder

s,no

tices

, bul

letin

s, a

nd tr

aini

ng m

anua

ls.

2. T

o de

velo

p su

ffic

ient

ski

ll in

ora

l rea

ding

to b

e ab

le to

pas

s on

esse

ntia

l mili

tary

info

rmat

ion.

3. T

o de

velo

p th

e ab

ility

to r

ecog

nize

som

e of

the

com

mon

est

abbr

evia

tions

use

d in

the

Arm

y, a

nd to

fill

in e

ssen

tial A

rmy

form

s.

4. T

o en

larg

e th

e so

ldie

r's in

tere

sts

and

life-

expe

rien

ce b

y de

velo

ping

requ

isite

ski

lls to

rea

d ne

wsp

aper

s, b

ooks

and

mag

azin

es, a

nd to

read

and

wri

te p

riva

te le

tters

.

5. T

o de

velo

p th

e ab

ility

to w

rite

legi

bly

at a

fai

r sp

eed.

6. T

o gi

ve s

ome

inci

dent

al p

ract

ice

in o

ral l

angu

age

thro

ugh

disc

ussi

on o

f th

e le

sson

mat

eria

l and

of

mat

ters

of

com

mon

inte

rest

to th

e so

ldie

r.

7. T

o la

y a

foun

datio

n fo

r fu

rthe

r st

udy

by m

aste

ring

the

nece

ssar

ysk

ills

of r

eadi

ng, w

ritin

g an

d ex

pres

sion

of

idea

s.

As

in c

urre

nt a

dult

basi

c ed

ucat

ion

prog

ram

s, s

taff

had

to c

onte

ndw

ith a

ran

ge o

f at

titud

es. O

ne o

ffic

er (

Mar

quet

n.d

., p.

7)

sugg

este

dth

at s

tude

nts

coul

d be

pla

ced

on a

con

tinuu

m. A

t one

ext

rem

e w

ould

be th

e so

ldie

r w

ho h

ad n

ot b

een

able

to c

ompe

nsat

e fo

r hi

s 'd

isab

ility

'an

d w

as th

eref

ore

sens

itive

and

dif

fide

nt, a

nd a

t the

oth

er th

e so

ldie

rw

ho h

ad r

espo

nded

with

agg

ress

ive

belit

tling

of

the

acco

mpl

ishm

ents

he la

cked

and

with

an

appa

rent

dis

incl

inat

ion

to le

arn.

Sin

ce th

eco

urse

was

com

puls

ory

for

thos

e se

lect

ed f

or it

, the

re w

as o

ften

an

initi

al a

ntag

onis

m a

nd a

path

y to

ove

rcom

e, a

n at

titud

e fa

mili

ar to

curr

ent t

each

ers

in c

ours

es p

repa

ring

'rel

ucta

nt le

arne

rs' f

or s

uch

purp

oses

as

empl

oym

ent o

r pr

omot

ion.

Atte

ndan

ce a

t the

PM

TC

dre

w th

e un

wel

com

e at

tent

ion

of f

ello

wre

crui

ts a

nd th

e dr

aft o

f a

talk

on

illite

racy

giv

en b

y an

Edu

catio

nO

ffic

er (

Kir

by n

.d.,

p. 5

) at

the

Scho

ol o

f A

rmy

Edu

catio

n in

clud

ed a

refe

renc

e to

a r

eal o

r im

agin

ed p

arad

e co

mm

and:

'Fal

l out

the

illite

rate

s!' M

any

of th

e re

crui

ts in

the

PMT

C in

itial

ly r

esen

ted

bein

g

DA

RR

YL

R. D

YM

OC

K

'FA

LLO

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'- LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R 1

1A

DU

LT L

ITE

RA

CY

PR

OG

RA

M

sent

'bac

k to

sch

ool'

whi

le th

eir

frie

nds

com

plet

ed th

eir

mili

tary

trai

ning

ahe

ad o

f th

em. T

o he

lp th

e tr

ansi

tion,

Edu

catio

n st

aff

trie

d to

avoi

d de

velo

ping

a 's

choo

l atm

osph

ere'

by

mak

ing

the

clas

sroo

ms

asat

trac

tive

as p

ossi

ble,

pro

vidi

ng p

lent

y of

rea

ding

mat

eria

l and

wal

ldi

spla

ys, a

nd a

llow

ing

the

men

to s

mok

e in

cla

ss.

Bec

ause

mos

t AA

ES

mem

bers

had

not

bee

n in

volv

ed in

adu

lted

ucat

ion

befo

re th

e w

ar, t

hey

also

dis

cove

red

muc

h ab

out a

dult

lear

ning

fro

m th

ose

sold

iers

labe

lled

'illit

erat

e', '

near

-illi

tera

te' a

nd'e

duca

tiona

lly b

ackw

ard'

:

It w

as...

mor

e su

rpri

sing

for

a te

ache

r w

ho f

rom

exp

erie

nce

with

smal

l chi

ldre

n ha

s be

en tr

aine

d to

exp

ect a

slo

w r

ealiz

atio

n an

d an

even

slo

wer

acc

urat

e ap

plic

atio

n of

a n

ew a

rith

met

ical

pri

ncip

le to

find

that

adu

lts o

f be

low

ave

rage

inte

llige

nce

wer

e ab

le to

gra

sp th

em

athe

mat

ical

wor

k qu

ickl

y by

vir

tue

of th

e fa

ct th

at th

ey b

roug

htto

thei

r ta

sk a

mat

ure

outlo

ok, a

des

ire

to le

arn

and

a gr

eat d

eal o

fex

peri

ence

. The

suc

cess

of

the

inst

ruct

or in

no

smal

l mea

sure

depe

nded

upo

n hi

s ab

ility

to li

nk h

is te

achi

ng w

ith e

very

day

expe

rien

ce c

omm

on to

mos

t adu

lts. (

Mac

lain

e 19

48, p

. 36)

Sim

ilar

to th

e si

tuat

ion

in A

ustr

alia

n ad

ult l

itera

cy p

rogr

ams

in th

e19

70s

(Dym

ock

1982

), th

e la

ck o

f su

itabl

e te

xtbo

oks

was

a p

robl

emth

at s

tret

ched

the

inge

nuity

of

the

inst

ruct

ors.

Alth

ough

Opp

ortu

nity

Boo

k N

o.1

was

ava

ilabl

e in

late

194

3, th

ere

was

littl

e ap

prop

riat

esu

pple

men

tary

rea

ding

mat

eria

l ava

ilabl

e an

d th

e pu

blic

atio

n of

the

next

boo

k in

the

seri

es w

as d

elay

ed u

ntil

1945

. Ini

tially

som

e le

sson

sw

ere

base

d on

ari

thm

etic

boo

ks a

nd th

e Sc

hool

Mag

azin

e us

ed b

y th

eN

SW E

duca

tion

Dep

artm

ent,

but t

heir

lim

itatio

ns w

ith a

dults

wer

eso

on r

ealiz

ed. A

rmy

Edu

catio

n st

aff

wer

e fo

rced

to d

evel

op th

eir

own

arith

met

ic e

xam

ples

, rel

atin

g th

em p

artic

ular

ly to

arm

y tr

aini

ng, w

hile

smal

l 'B

ox C

ircu

latin

g L

ibra

ries

', Sa

lt m

agaz

ine

(the

AA

ES

jour

nal)

and

daily

new

spap

ers

also

pro

vide

d th

e ba

sis

for

read

ing

and

wri

ting

activ

ities

. In

Dec

embe

r 19

44, t

he s

ylla

bus

was

bro

aden

ed to

incl

ude

soci

al s

tudi

es, m

ilita

ry tr

aini

ng (

e.g.

iden

tifyi

ng e

mbl

ems)

and

gam

es.

65

DA

RR

YL

It D

YM

OC

K'F

ALL

OU

T T

HE

ILLI

TE

RA

TE

S'-L

ES

SO

NS

FR

OM

A W

OR

LD W

AR

IIA

DU

LT L

ITE

RA

CY

PR

OG

RA

M

The

out

com

esG

iven

that

the

inst

ruct

ors

in th

e PM

TC

use

d in

nova

tive

met

hods

and

mat

eria

ls, w

hat r

esul

ts d

id th

ey a

chie

ve?

The

ans

wer

see

ms

to b

em

uch,

and

littl

e, d

epen

ding

on

the

crite

ria

used

. As

late

r ed

ucat

ors

wer

e to

dis

cove

r, q

uant

itativ

e te

sts

wer

ein

adeq

uate

in tr

ying

topr

ovid

e a

'sin

gle

mea

sure

' tha

t wou

ld s

epar

ate

the

liter

ate

from

the

illite

rate

ther

e w

ere

indi

vidu

al in

stan

ces

whe

re e

arly

test

s in

dica

ted

ade

crea

se in

lite

racy

had

occ

urre

d ov

er th

e pe

riod

of

the

cour

se. T

heof

fice

r-in

-cha

rge

of th

e Ps

ycho

logy

Tes

ting

Sect

ion

at C

owra

(B

arra

tt)re

port

ed in

Jan

uary

194

5 th

at s

core

s fr

om a

sam

ple

of 1

06 r

ecru

its w

hoha

d co

mpl

eted

the

PMT

C s

how

ed a

sig

nifi

cant

ris

e ov

er th

e sc

ores

at

the

begi

nnin

g of

the

cour

se. H

owev

er, h

e w

arne

d th

at th

e te

sts

wer

e no

tde

sign

ed to

eith

er h

elp

sele

ct s

tude

nts

for

furt

her

educ

atio

nal c

ours

esor

to g

rade

fin

e im

prov

emen

ts in

lite

racy

, and

sai

dth

at th

e re

sults

had

to b

e ta

ken

only

as

indi

catin

g ge

nera

l tre

nds.

One

Arm

y E

duca

tion

offi

cer

(Mar

quet

n.d

., p.

6)

sugg

este

d th

at it

wou

ld a

ppea

r to

take

'app

roxi

mat

ely

doub

le th

e tim

e to

mak

e an

Edu

catio

nally

Bac

kwar

dm

an S

atis

fact

ory

than

it ta

kes

to m

ake

a N

ear

Illit

erat

e m

anE

duca

tiona

lly B

ackw

ard'

. Whe

ther

som

eone

dec

lare

d to

hav

e re

ache

dth

e le

vel o

f 'e

duca

tiona

lly b

ackw

ard'

wou

ld r

egar

d th

at a

s an

achi

evem

ent i

s an

othe

r m

atte

r!W

hat s

eem

s to

em

erge

is th

at th

ere

was

gen

eral

ly a

n im

prov

emen

tin

the

liter

acy

and

num

erac

y sk

ills

of s

tude

nts

com

plet

ing

the

PMT

C.

How

ever

, Edu

catio

n O

ffic

ers

at C

owra

had

dou

bts

abou

t how

long

-la

stin

g th

ese

resu

lts w

ere.

Res

erva

tions

exp

ress

ed m

ore

rece

ntly

abo

utth

e ef

fect

iven

ess

of s

hort

bas

ic e

duca

tion

cour

ses

(e.g

. Wic

kert

and

Zim

mer

man

, 199

1) a

re e

choe

s of

com

plai

nts

by A

rmy

Edu

catio

n st

aff

in 1

945:

it w

as s

ugge

sted

(M

arqu

et n

.d.,

p. 7

) th

at th

e so

ldie

r st

uden

tsw

ould

not

be

able

to c

ope

with

adv

ance

d tr

aini

ng u

nles

s th

e PM

TC

was

long

er th

an th

ree

wee

ks, a

nd th

at e

ven

the

best

stu

dent

s ne

eded

at

leas

t a m

onth

. Som

e of

the

'gra

duat

es' o

f th

e co

urse

wer

e po

sted

for

furt

her

trai

ning

but

had

gre

at d

iffi

culty

with

suc

h ac

tiviti

es a

s m

apre

adin

g an

d na

viga

tion,

and

one

Edu

catio

n O

ffic

er (

Mac

lain

e, 1

948,

p.

53)

sugg

este

d th

at m

ost o

f th

e re

crui

ts w

ho c

ompl

eted

the

PMT

C

36

DA

RR

YL

R. D

YM

OC

K

'FA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R H

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

reta

ined

som

e of

thei

r im

prov

ed s

kills

in r

eadi

ngan

d w

ritin

g bu

t tha

tth

ey g

radu

ally

reg

ress

ed to

thei

r pr

evio

us g

ener

aled

ucat

iona

l lev

el. I

nan

y ev

ent,

in A

ugus

t 194

5, th

e m

onth

Wor

ld W

ar I

I en

ded,

Arm

yau

thor

ities

dec

ided

that

'the

pro

visi

on o

fa

prep

arat

ory

educ

atio

nal

cour

se f

or il

liter

ate,

nea

r-ill

itera

te a

nd e

duca

tiona

lly b

ackw

ard

recr

uits

is n

ot a

n A

rmy

resp

onsi

bilit

y' (

quot

ed in

McK

inty

, n.d

.,p.

8)

and

the

Cow

ra p

rogr

am e

nded

. No

subs

tant

ial p

rovi

sion

for

adul

t lite

racy

teac

hing

was

then

mad

e in

Aus

tral

ia f

orm

ore

than

twen

ty-f

ive

year

s(D

ymoc

k 19

82).

Des

pite

the

unce

rtai

nty

abou

t the

rel

iabi

lity

of r

esul

ts o

fth

e C

owra

prog

ram

and

whe

ther

any

gai

ns w

ould

be

sust

aine

d, th

ere

appe

ar to

have

bee

n so

me

outc

omes

that

wer

e no

t eas

ily m

easu

red.

For

exa

mpl

e,m

ost m

en r

epor

ted

(Mar

quet

n.d

., p.

6)

that

they

had

ben

efite

dfr

omth

e co

urse

eve

n th

ough

som

e ha

d be

en a

ntag

onis

ticto

war

ds it

at t

hest

art.

The

re w

ere

also

rep

orts

(M

acla

ine

1948

, p. 4

9; M

cKin

ty n

.d.,

p.6)

of

a no

ticea

ble

chan

ge o

f at

titud

e to

war

ds th

ear

my

itsel

f an

d on

eE

duca

tion

Off

icer

(M

acla

ine

1948

, p. 6

) su

gges

ted

that

the

men

bec

ame

smar

ter

in p

erso

nal a

ppea

ranc

e an

d ph

ysic

al a

ctio

nsan

d m

ore

men

tally

ale

rt. S

ome

of th

is a

ppar

ent i

mpr

ovem

ent n

o do

ubt w

as th

ere

sult

of a

ttem

pts

by th

e in

stru

ctor

s to

trea

t the

recr

uits

as

adul

ts a

ndto

hel

p th

em r

ecog

nize

thei

r se

lf-w

orth

. The

less

onw

as, a

s nu

mer

ous

late

r w

rite

rs o

bser

ved

(e.g

. Whi

te 1

985;

Gra

nt19

87)

that

the

deve

lopm

ent o

f se

lf-e

stee

m g

oes

hand

-in-

hand

with

the

impr

ovem

ent

of li

tera

cy a

nd n

umer

acy

skill

s.

Mee

ting

liter

acy

need

s of

oth

ergr

oups

The

AA

ES

also

gav

e as

sist

ance

to th

ose

who

mor

e re

cent

ly h

ave

been

refe

rred

to a

s ad

ults

with

a 'N

on-E

nglis

h Sp

eaki

ngB

ackg

roun

d'. S

ome

of th

is w

ork

was

car

ried

out

am

ongs

t im

mig

rant

sor

'fri

endl

y al

iens

',en

liste

d in

em

ploy

men

t (i.e

. lab

our)

com

pani

esan

d in

clud

edex

peri

men

tal w

ork

with

Chi

nese

-sta

ffed

em

ploy

men

tco

mpa

nies

inW

este

rn A

ustr

alia

and

with

Gre

ek-

and

Ital

ian-

born

mem

bers

of

such

com

pani

es in

Que

ensl

and

(Mem

o 19

44).

By

earl

y 19

44,

the

AA

ES

inW

este

rn A

ustr

alia

had

dev

elop

ed tw

o pu

blic

atio

ns f

orlit

erac

y cl

asse

s,

DA

RR

YL

R. D

YM

OC

K

TA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LE

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

'Eng

lish

less

ons

for

fore

ign-

born

per

sonn

el' a

nd 'A

rmy

Edu

catio

nSe

rvic

e R

eade

r' (M

emo

1944

).A

gain

ther

e w

ere

less

ons

for

the

educ

ator

s to

lear

n. O

ne r

epor

t(M

arqu

et n

.d.,

p. 9

) of

a Q

ueen

slan

d pr

ogra

m s

aid

that

the

dive

rsity

of

Eur

opea

n te

mpe

ram

ents

and

nat

iona

litie

s re

pres

ente

d in

cla

sses

mea

ntth

at th

e in

divi

dual

ity o

f th

e st

uden

ts w

as ta

ken

into

acc

ount

even

mor

e th

an f

or A

ustr

alia

n-bo

rn li

tera

cy s

tude

nts.

Man

y of

the

mem

bers

of e

mpl

oym

ent c

ompa

nies

, esp

ecia

lly th

ose

liter

ate

in th

eir

own

lang

uage

, rea

cted

str

ongl

y to

bei

ng tr

eate

d lik

e ch

ildre

n, a

nd li

tera

cycl

asse

s he

ld in

an

empl

oym

ent c

ompa

ny in

Syd

ney

had

to a

llow

for

the

fact

that

man

y of

the

stud

ents

wer

e un

iver

sity

gra

duat

es in

thei

rco

untr

ies

of o

rigi

n (M

arqu

et n

.d.,

p. 8

).R

eade

rs w

ill h

ave

notic

ed th

at th

e re

fere

nces

so

far

have

bee

n on

lyto

men

in li

tera

cy p

rogr

ams.

Thi

s is

bec

ause

ther

e is

no

men

tion

ofw

omen

in r

epor

ts o

f sp

ecif

ic li

tera

cy p

rogr

ams

whi

ch w

ere

cons

ulte

dfo

r th

is a

rtic

le n

or in

the

hist

ory

of e

duca

tion

in th

e A

ustr

alia

nW

omen

's A

rmy

Serv

ice

(194

1-51

). A

sen

ior

Arm

y E

duca

tion

Off

icer

sugg

este

d at

the

time

that

ther

e w

as li

ttle

need

for

bas

ic e

duca

tion

for

wom

en in

the

Serv

ices

'pre

sum

ably

bec

ause

of

the

high

er e

duca

tiona

lst

anda

rd r

equi

red

for

enlis

tmen

t' (C

oate

s 19

48, 2

02).

With

the

end

of th

e w

ar, l

itera

cy c

lass

es w

ere

mad

e av

aila

ble

toA

ustr

alia

n tr

oops

aw

aitin

g tr

ansp

ort h

ome

from

New

Gui

nea

and

othe

r pa

rts

of th

e so

uth-

wes

t Pac

ific

. The

se s

tude

nts

usua

lly m

ade

rapi

d pr

ogre

ss b

ecau

se th

ey w

ere

stro

ngly

mot

ivat

ed: '

Tro

ops

wer

ebe

com

ing

cons

ciou

s of

the

fact

that

they

wou

ld c

ome

back

to a

diff

eren

t wor

ld a

nd w

ould

nee

d to

be

bette

r ed

ucat

ed' (

Hay

nes

1988

).

Rev

iew

It is

dif

ficu

lt to

det

erm

ine

from

the

vari

ous

repo

rts

and

stud

ies

to w

hat

degr

ee th

e A

AE

S he

lped

sol

dier

s w

ho h

ad li

tera

cy p

robl

ems

in W

orld

War

H. O

ne r

esea

rche

r (M

ande

ll 19

46, p

. 43)

rep

orte

d th

at th

e se

rvic

eco

nduc

ted

its c

lass

es a

nd r

ecor

ded

the

resu

lts 's

o ha

phaz

ardl

y' th

at it

was

impo

ssib

le to

kno

w h

ow m

any

sold

iers

atte

nded

lite

racy

cla

sses

and,

of

thos

e w

ho d

id, h

ow m

any

achi

eved

'fun

ctio

nal l

itera

cy',

a S9

DA

RR

YL

R.

DY

MO

CK

TA

LL O

UT

TH

E IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES

'-LF

SS

ON

S F

RO

M A

WO

RLD

WA

R II

AD

ULT

LIT

ER

AC

Y P

RO

GR

AM

situ

atio

n no

t unk

now

n in

mor

e re

cent

tim

es a

mon

g lit

erac

ypr

ogra

mco

ordi

nato

rs p

artic

ular

ly in

the

1970

s (D

ymoc

k 19

82).

And

cur

rent

prac

titio

ners

will

no

doub

t cri

nge

at s

uch

prac

tices

as

usin

g th

e te

rm'il

liter

ate'

; equ

atin

g ad

ult l

itera

cy le

vels

with

chi

ldre

n's

read

ing-

ages

;an

d th

e us

e of

labe

ls s

uch

as 'e

duca

tiona

lly b

ackw

ard'

to ty

peca

st th

eso

ldie

r st

uden

ts.

Nev

erth

eles

s, w

hat t

he A

ustr

alia

n A

rmy

Edu

catio

n Se

rvic

eac

hiev

ed w

ith it

s ad

ult l

itera

cy p

rogr

ams

was

qui

te s

igni

fica

nt in

educ

atio

nal t

erm

s; b

ecau

se it

was

a n

ew a

rea

of te

achi

ng a

nd le

arni

ng,

the

inst

ruct

ors

wer

e fo

rced

to e

xper

imen

t. T

heir

initi

al r

elia

nce

onsc

hool

pra

ctic

es a

nd m

ater

ials

was

soo

n fo

und

to b

e in

effe

ctiv

e w

ithad

ults

, par

ticul

arly

sin

ce m

ost o

f th

e st

uden

ts w

ere

com

pelle

d to

atte

nd. T

he r

esul

t was

inno

vativ

e te

achi

ng a

nd m

ater

ials

, des

igne

d to

mee

t the

lite

racy

and

num

erac

y ne

eds

of a

dults

in p

artic

ular

situ

atio

ns.

The

re w

ere

sim

ilar

deve

lopm

ents

in o

ther

alli

ed a

rmie

s, b

ut th

ese

appa

rent

ly p

roce

eded

inde

pend

ently

(Y

ande

ll 19

46, p

. 43)

,so

the

effo

rts

of th

e A

rmy

Edu

catio

n st

aff

wer

e pi

onee

ring

in A

ustr

alia

. It i

sun

fort

unat

e th

at th

eir

expe

rien

ces

wer

e lo

st w

ith d

emob

ilisa

tion

and

the

virt

ual d

ism

antli

ng o

f th

e E

duca

tion

Serv

ice

at th

e en

d of

the

war

-th

e le

sson

s le

arne

d ab

out a

dult

liter

acy

teac

hing

and

mat

eria

lsde

velo

pmen

t wou

ld h

ave

been

a u

sefu

l sta

rtin

g po

int f

or A

ustr

alia

nad

ult e

duca

tors

thir

ty y

ears

late

r, w

hen

the

firs

t wav

e of

rec

ent a

dult

liter

acy

prov

isio

n be

gan

to s

prea

d ac

ross

Aus

tral

ia.

Ref

eren

ces

Aus

tral

ian

Wom

en's

Arm

y Se

rvic

e, H

eadq

uart

ers,

194

1-19

51, A

ustr

alia

nA

rchi

ves

(AA

): C

RS

MP

1158

/5.

Bar

ratt,

P.E

. 194

5, R

epor

t on

test

ing

in c

onne

ctio

n w

ith P

MT

C, 8

Jan

uary

,A

ustr

alia

n W

ar M

emor

ial f

iles

(AW

M)

54, i

tem

52/

2/25

.C

oate

s, T

.H. 1

948,

Edu

catio

n in

the

Aus

tral

ian

Arm

y 19

41-4

6, M

Ed

thes

is,

Uni

vers

ity o

f M

elbo

urne

.C

unni

ngha

m, K

.S.,

McI

ntyr

e, G

.A.,

Rad

ford

, W.C

. 193

9, R

evie

w o

f ed

ucat

ion

in A

ustr

alia

, 193

8, M

elbo

urne

Uni

vers

ity P

ress

.D

ymoc

k, D

. 198

2, A

dult

liter

acy

prov

isio

n in

Aus

tral

ia: t

rend

s an

d ne

eds,

Aus

tral

ian

Cou

ncil

for

Adu

lt L

itera

cy, A

rmid

ale,

NSW

.

DA

RR

YL

R.

DY

MO

CK

'FA

LL

OU

T T

HE

IL

LIT

ER

AT

ES'

-LE

SSO

NS

FRO

MA

WO

RL

D W

AR

II

AD

UL

TL

ITE

RA

CY

PR

OG

RA

M

- 19

90, A

sw

eet u

se o

f ad

vers

ity: a

dult

educ

atio

n in

the

Aus

tral

ian

Arm

yin

the

two

wor

ld w

ars,

PhD

thes

is, U

NE

, Arm

idal

e.G

oyen

, J. D

. 197

7, A

dult

illite

racy

in S

ydne

y, A

AA

E, C

anbe

rra.

Gra

nt, A

. N. 1

987,

Opp

ortu

nity

to d

o br

illia

ntly

, AG

PS, C

anbe

rra.

Gri

ffin

, P. &

For

woo

d, A

. 199

1, A

dult

liter

acy

and

num

erac

y co

mpe

tenc

ysc

ales

, Ass

essm

ent R

esea

rch

Cen

tre,

Phi

llip

Inst

itute

of

Tec

hnol

ogy,

Mel

bour

ne.

Hay

nes,

J.C

. (w

artim

e ar

my

inst

ucto

r) 1

988.

Let

ter

to a

utho

r.K

irby

, R.C

. n.d

., Il

liter

acy,

lect

ure

note

s, A

WM

54,

item

52/

2/25

.L

ong,

G. 1

963,

The

fin

al c

ampa

igns

, AW

M, C

anbe

rra.

Mac

lain

e, A

.G. 1

948,

Exp

erim

ent a

t Cow

ra: a

cri

tical

exa

min

atio

n of

an

Aus

tral

ian

Arm

y Sc

hool

for

edu

catio

nally

bac

kwar

d so

ldie

rs, B

Ed

inve

stig

atio

n, U

nive

rsity

of

Mel

bour

ne.

Mad

gwic

k, R

. B. 1

943,

Illi

tera

cy in

the

forc

es, R

epor

t to

ASE

C m

eetin

g, 6

-8M

ay, A

WM

52,

item

1/1

/18,

Jul

y-Se

ptem

ber

1943

.-

May

194

4, R

epor

t on

educ

atio

nal a

ctiv

ities

in th

e A

rmy,

ASE

C m

eetin

g,A

WM

52,

item

1/1

/18.

Mar

quet

, P.H

. n.d

., R

epor

t on

Prep

arat

ory

Mili

tary

Tra

inin

g C

ours

e: C

owra

,A

WM

54,

item

52/

2/25

.M

cKin

ty, M

. n.d

., A

n ed

ucat

iona

l exp

erim

ent a

t Cow

ra, N

SW, u

npub

lishe

dre

port

, AW

M 5

4, it

em 5

2/2/

24.

Mem

o 19

44, E

nglis

h le

sson

s fo

r fo

reig

ners

, 30

May

, AA

: CR

S M

P 74

2/1,

item

89/4

/229

.M

inut

es 1

942,

ASE

C M

eetin

g, 1

8-19

Aug

ust,

AW

M 5

4, it

em 5

2/2/

30.

Mitc

hell,

J.W

. 199

4, I

llite

rate

, nea

r ill

itera

te, a

nd e

duca

tiona

lly b

ackw

ard

pers

onne

l, 21

Apr

il, A

WM

54,

item

52/

2/25

.R

epor

t on

proc

eedi

ngs

of S

econ

d A

nnua

l Con

fere

nce

of F

ull T

ime

Dut

yO

ffic

ers,

War

rant

Off

icer

s an

d N

on C

omm

issi

oned

Off

icer

s of

the

AA

ES,

1943

, 6-9

Jul

y, P

erth

, AW

M 5

4, it

em 5

2/2/

35.

Whi

te, K

.A. 1

985,

'Inf

luen

ces

on a

dult

liter

acy

prac

tices

in A

ustr

alia

', in

Adu

lt lit

erac

y an

d co

mm

unity

dev

elop

men

t, ed

s A

.J.A

. Nel

son

& D

.R.

Dym

ock,

Con

tinui

ng E

duca

tion,

UN

E, A

rmid

ale.

Wic

kert

, R. &

Zim

mer

man

, J. 1

991,

'Adu

lt ba

sic

educ

atio

n in

Aus

tral

ia-

ques

tions

of

inte

grity

', in

Adu

lt an

d co

ntin

uing

edu

catio

n in

Aus

tral

ia,

ed. M

. Ten

nant

, Rou

tledg

e, L

ondo

n an

d N

ew Y

ork.

Wic

kert

, R. 1

989,

No

sing

le m

easu

re, D

epar

tmen

t of

Em

ploy

men

t, E

duca

tion

and

Tra

inin

g, C

anbe

rra.

Wils

on, L

. (fo

rmer

Arm

y E

duca

tion

Off

icer

) 19

86, I

nter

view

with

aut

hor,

Sydn

ey.

70


DARRYL R. DYMOCK

'FALL OUT THE ILLITERATES'-LESSONS FROM A WORLD WAR IIADULT LITERACY PROGRAM

Yandell, L.C. 1946, The measurement of literacy in the Australian Army: itsvalue to Victorian education, BEd investigation, University ofMelbourne.

7i

52

Background Readings

Darryl Dymock"'An issue of significant community concern' : the postwardevelopment of adult literacy policy and provision inAustralia".

This article appeared in: Voices o f Experience: changes and challenges. McConnell, S. andTreloar, A. (eds), Canberra, Department of Employment, Education and Training, 1993, pp. 3 - 11.It was funded under the Australian Language and Litertacy Policy program and administered bythe Adult Literacy Policy and Programs section, Commonwealth Department of Employment,Education, Training. Commonwealth of Australia copyright reproduced by permission.

'An issue of significant community concern': the postwardevelopment of adult literacy policy and provision in Australia

Darryl R Dymock

The Commonwealth Government's White Paper, Australia'slanguage: the Australian language and literacy policy, (DEET, 1991,vol.2, 8) suggested that 'adult literacy has only recently emerged as anissue of significant community concern in Australia'. Yet evidence ofsignificant literacy difficulties among Australian adults first emergedaround 50 years ago, and educators have been attempting to drawattention to it to a lesser or greater degree ever since. This paper chartsthe postwar development of adult literacy policy and provision andexamines the recent emergence of a national language and literacypolicy. The intention is to provide a brief history and analysis whichmight provide some background for the other papers in this volumeand in the volumes that follow.

World War II and afterA national report on Australian education in 1938 confidently assertedthat, since schooling up to the age of 14 years was compulsory,'illiteracy in Australia is practically non-existent' (Cunningham et al,1939, 19). Five years later, surveys by members of the wartimeAustralian Army Education Service found that just over three per centof Australian troops were 'illiterate or near illiterate' and a furthereight to eleven per cent had a reading age 'below that of an averageten-year-old child' (Coates, 1948, 175). The army responded byestablishing a short course at the main recruit training centre, andArmy Education staff organised classes at other depots in Australia forthose already in the army. This was the first attempt at widespread'provision'.

However, with the end of the war in 1945 and subsequentdemobilisation of most of the troops, Army Education's effortdissipated, and the official concern for adult literacy education was lost.This was despite the findings of a 1944 report on Australian adulteducation by Duncan (1944, 105), supported by a sen:cr army educationofficer (Coates, 1948, 224), that the Army figures were valid for theAustralian civilian population. The issue was not yet 'of significantcommunity concern'.

5 3 72


Twenty years later, the official line was similar to that of 1938: theFederal Government advised Unesco that, since schooling wascompulsory, there was no illiteracy in Australia (IBE and.Unesco, 1964,xvi). This was despite the fact that, in the same year, the Handbook ofAustralian Adult Education (Warburton, 1964, 37) reported thatevening colleges in New South Wales organised classes for adultilliterates 'from time to time as the occasion demands'. The studentcounselling service at Technical and Further Education (TAFE) collegesin New South Wales also provided remedial classes in reading andmathematics for college students from the 1950s (TAFE, 1977), andliteracy teaching was a major part of prisoner education in some Statesin this period (Pearse, 1976, 79).

The seventiesThe 1970s saw the first wave of the widespread development of adultliteracy policy and provision in Australia. The decade was marked by atrickle of activities by State and Territory authorities, the firstAustralian survey of adult literacy levels, two influential nationalreports, the awakening of Federal Government interest, increasinginvolvement by the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) sector,and the emergence of advocacy bodies.

The reasons for the upsurge in activity in this period amongst adulteducators can be summarised by the experience of the Council of AdultEducation (CAE) in Victoria in 1973 (CAE, 1974, iv) which:

...stumbled, as it were, on the problem. It had set out, in the firstinstance, to discover at first hand by direct contact what theeducational needs of the disadvantaged suburbs were, those needswhich were not being met by traditional programs. The directcontact with social workers, community groups, and educationalauthorities in the Western suburbs uncovered the problem ofilliteracy overnight.

Similar discoveries north of the border had led to the establishment ofadult literacy classes in New South Wales evening colleges in 1972, inconjunction with the Adult Migrant Education Service (Falkenmire,1976, 35). Along with Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland introducedsmall literacy programs in 1973, and the other States and Territoriesfollowed soon after (Dymock, 1982). By 1976, while most programswere offered through State Government departments and agencies,there was also some involvement by a few independent organisations(Pearse, 1976, 79).

BEST COPY AVAILABLE73

54

Background Readings

Around this time, a survey by Goyen (1977) in Sydney indicated thatalmost 4 per cent of Australians born in English-speaking countrieswere functionally illiterate according to a Unesco definition. Thisfinding was similar to that of the Army Education service 30 yearsearlier. Goyen also estimated that more than 40 per cent of migrantsborn in non-English-speaking countries were illiterate in English.

Despite the national implications of Goyen's study and the increasingamount of educational activity, the issue of adult literacy moved veryslowly on to the Federal political agenda. Three reports helped bring itto the closer attention of the Federal Government and the TAFE sector.The first of these was the Kangan Report (TAFE in Australia: report onneeds in Technical and Further Education, 1974) which briefly notedlack of literacy as both an access problem to further TAFE education(p.xxv) and as a 'learning disability', under the sub-heading'Handicapped persons' (p.16), and recommended further research.

The following year, the Richardson Report (TAFE in Australia : secondreport on needs in Technical and Further Education, 1975) was moreexpansive, direct and subsequently influential. It included illiteracy inthe category of 'specific learning disabilities', but observed that 'themajor TAFE sector has a poor record in the area of adult literacy', andsuggested that this area should be a major challenge for TAFE , andurged State TAFE authorities 'to regard literacy programs as a highpriority in their use of Australian Government funds' (p.96). Theinterplay between the Commonwealth and the States has been afeature of postwar education policy and it was not until the RichardsonReport that much consideration was given to the administration ofCommonwealth funds granted to the States for adult educationpurposes such provision had never been a significant responsibility ofthe States (Pearse, 1976, 78).

About that same time, a House of Representatives Select Committeereport, Learning difficulties in children and adults (Cadman, 1976, 81-86) recommended that there should be more opportunities andfacilities for adults wishing to overcome literacy problems and that theTAFE authority in each State should co-ordinate programs. There wassupport too from the Australian Government Commission of Inquiryinto Poverty (Fitzgerald, 1976, 151), which suggested that theCommonwealth should provide funding for existing adult literacyeducation programs and participate in evaluation of their work.

The State and Federal Governments responded to the pressure exertedthrough these reports and increasing community concern by 1980,there was significant TAFE or equivalent adult literacy provision in

55


every State and the ACT (Dymock, 1982). Earmarked Commonwealthfunds, directed through the Technical and Further EducationCommission, were generally used by the States to finance innovativeprojects, while State Government funds were used 'to maintain theschemes, to pay the salaries of full-time professional staff, and toextend and improve the quality of service offered' (White, 1980, 4).

In addition to these official responses, the late seventies also saw theemergence of adult literacy advocacy bodies at both State and nationallevel. New South Wales and Victoria were the first to have Statecouncils, established outside the official providers but composed ofthose involved in the field. Nationally, a report by a working party ofthe Australian Association of Adult Education (AAAE, 1976) led to theestablishment of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy (ACAL),which held the first of a series of annual conferences in 1977. At thatconference, it was decided that ACAL's functions would be: publicationof a newsletter, organisation of conferences, information gathering andexchange, co-ordination and development of materials and resources,liaison with other education organisations, and inviting communityattention to adult literacy problems (ACAL, 1977, 123). The last was areminder that, despite increasing educational activity and 'a positivesocial climate' (Pearse, 1976, 89), adult literacy was only just beginningto emerge as 'an issue of significant community concern'.

In 1978, the Federal Government responded to an ACAL initiative byestablishing the Commonwealth Interdepartmental Working Party onAdult Literacy and Numeracy. In responding to the CommonwealthMinister for Education's initial proposal, Prime Minister MalcolmFraser said (Commonwealth Department of Education, 1979, 7):

I have no objection to your proposal to establish a short terminterdepartmental working party convened by your Departmentto consider the need for co-ordination in Commonwealthprograms with relevance to adult literacy and numeracy. Theworking party could also, as you suggest, provide you with advicefor a public statement regarding the Commonwealth role inregard to literacy and numeracy.

The suggestion of 'a public statement' was an indication that theCommonwealth Government was moving towards developing apolicy on the extent of its responsibility for adult literacy and numeracyprograms. However, the Prime Minister made it clear that there wouldbe no significant developments:

7556

Background Readings

In this regard I would see it as important in the present climate ofbudgetary restraint for the working party to address itselfprimarily to the co-ordination of existing programs and ways inwhich such programs can, within presently available resources, bemade more responsive to the needs of adult illiterates.

A national survey in 1980 (Dymock, 1982) revealed that the number ofadult literacy schemes in Australia had grown from two to more than180 in a decade, that almost half were the responsibility of departmentsor divisions of TAFE, with about one-third community based, and thatan overwhelming number of adult literacy teachers were volunteertutors, with only about four per cent full-time professionals. Thediversity of provision was seen as both an advantage for students interms of access and types of tuition, and a disadvantage for theproviders in terms of co-ordination and co-operation. Attempts toprovide more support at State level for tutors and teachers includedestablishment of the Adult Literacy Information Office in New SouthWales and the Access Resource Centre at the Council of AdultEducation in Victoria.

The eightiesThe early 1980s were characterised by an increasing number of adultliteracy programs and of full-time professional staff across Australia,and more national reports; the second half of the decade saw the mostsignificant post-war developments in adult literacy in terms of federalgovernment policy and increased research.

In 1983, the NSW Board of Adult Education urged the CommonwealthGovernment to strengthen its role in adult literacy through theprovision of extra funds, and called for an assessment of theeffectiveness of adult literacy programs. That same year, with anational adult literacy campaign as part of Australian Labor Partypolicy, the Hawke Government took office. At the request of theFederal Government, the TAFE Council of the CommonwealthTertiary Education Commission (CTEC) in 1984 made a number ofrecommendations in relation to a joint Commonwealth-Statecampaign to combat illiteracy, including additional funding of $7.5million over the following three years (CTEC,1984, 101-2).

A Federal Senate Standing Committee also produced a report, ANational Language Policy, (Colston, 1984, 65-73) which urged theGovernment to accept the TAFE Council proposals and recommendeda 'national committee on adult literacy'. A report on adult literacyneeds and provisions assessment, commissioned by the thenCommonwealth Department of Education and Youth Affairs (Grant,

57


1987, 35), also supported the TAFE Council recommendations.However, the $2 million recommended for adult literacy provision in1985 became $2 million among 'disadvantaged groups' and the adultliteracy share dwindled to $0.5 million (Grant 1987, x). White (1985, 32)observed that 'even fifteen years down the track, the extent of adultilliteracy in Australia is still largely unrecognised' it was not yet 'asignificant community concern'.

It was 1987 before the Commonwealth Government announced a firmpolicy on adult literacy by endorsing the National Policy on Languages(Lo Bianco, 1987), with funding of around $4 million over twofinancial years for what became the Adult Literacy Action Campaign(ALAC). The Commonwealth Government had finally come tosupport adult literacy directly in a significant way. Lo Bianco (1987, 18)claimed that 'the idea of a campaign appealed because it contains thesuggestion of inbuilt obsolescence but also because it tends to invest theproblem with a high solveability quotient a much admired quality inpolicy'. If this is true, it indicates a limited understanding at that timeby the Federal Government of the nature of adult literacies.

A report on the Adult Literacy Action Campaign (Ernst & Young, 1990,77) concluded that ALAC funds were successfully used in each Stateand Territory to improve the social and economic participation ofindividuals in society. One of the significant features of ALAC was thatit generated much-needed research twelve national activities andnumerous State research projects that, in the words of Lo Bianco (1990,20), 'have greatly expanded the knowledge base which planners have attheir disposal and for practitioners they provide a rich source ofdocumented experience'. Some of the latter was collected in a series on'Good practice in Australian adult literacy and basic education', whichhas become an ongoing publication. The most notable ALAC researchproject was a survey of Australian adult literacy, published as Nosingle measure (Wickert, 1989), which not only provided the firstreliable statistics since Goyen's 1974 study, but also drew considerablemedia attention, helping to make literacy a more public issue, andtherefore potentially a more political one.

Despite the success of ALAC, Simpson (1990, 11), writing in 1989,suggested that gains made by ALAC are severely at risk. Victoria hasnow joined New South Wales in having a reasonable, recurrent basefor adult literacy provision but development in the other states andterritories is still embryonic'. This view was borne out by a review ofCommonwealth/State adult literacy expenditure in 1989 (Coopers andLybrand, 1990, 3) which noted uneven expenditure levels within Statesand Territories and among the Commonwealth's various programs, as

Background Readings

well as 'considerable variation as between States and Territories as toconceptions of the extent of responsibility for adult literacy provision'.

Into the ninetiesIn view of those concerns, International Literacy Year (ILY), 1990,arrived in Australia at a propitious time, because it was able tomaintain the focus which had been generated by the Adult LiteracyAction Campaign. Against some opposition and apathy (Simpson,1992, iv-v), the Commonwealth Government committed $3 million ofnew policy funding and over $2 million from existing sources for ILYpurposes in 1989/90. A further $750,000 was made available into 1991.The National Consultative Council (NCC) for ILY decided on fourpriority areas: adult literacy (40% of funding), child and communityliteracy, international activities, and public awareness (20% each)(DEET, 1992, 39). Because of the limited period of funding, the NCCchose to fund projects which potentially had long-term benefits, ratherthan support expanded literacy provision, which had no guarantee ofonaoino. fundinoongoing funding.

Over the period 1989-91, ILY funding supported 51 national adultliteracy projects, ranging from establishment of competency ratingscales for adult literacy and numeracy to investigating the pedagogicalrelationship between adult ESL and literacy (DEET, 1992, 99-103). 67smaller projects included research into the literacy needs of theAboriginal community in Gnowangerup, Western Australia, and anaction plan to enhance the literacy skills of the Australian deafcommunity. In addition there was a number of public awarenessactivities and international projects, as well as those concernedprimarily with children's and community literacy. There were alsoliteracy activities in 1990 generated by State ILY committees,community organisations such as the Bible Society and the RiverinaRegional Council of Adult Education, and CommonwealthGovernment departments other than Employment, Education andTraining.

There were immediate and ongoing outcomes (DEET, 1992): ILYgenerated considerable public awareness of the incidence of literacy andnumeracy inadequacy in the community and of its social and economicimpact; within the adult literacy community it generated substantiallyincreased research, professional development opportunities andoccasional heat over some of the research outcomes e.g. the AdultLiteracy and Numeracy Scales proposed for the assessment of studentcompetencies (ACAL, 1992). The breadth of ILY activities also meantthat adult literacy began to move into the literacy mainstream, as links

5978


were made with literacy developments in the school and in theworkplace.

The momentum established by ALAC and continued by ILY activities,coupled with a review in 1990 of Commonwealth language and literacyprograms (DEET,1992, 97), led the Federal Government to issue aDiscussion (Green) Paper, in late 1990. Following receipt of publiccomment, and endorsement by the States and Territories (through theAustralian Education Council) of a draft national literacy strategy(DEET,1992, 97), the Minister for Employment, Education and Training,John Dawkins, in August 1991 released a Policy (White) Paper entitledAustralia's language: the Australian language and literacy policy(DEET, 1991). At last adult literacy had become an issue of communityconcern significant enough for it to be the subject of a major Federaleducation policy.

The Australian Language and Literacy Policy (ALLP) built on the 1987National Policy on Languages. It has four goals, three of them relatingto languages other than English, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderlanguages, and language services provided by interpreters andtranslators, respectively. The fourth goal is about English language andliteracy (DEET, 1991, 4):

All Australian residents should maintain and develop a level ofspoken and written English which is appropriate for a range ofcontexts, with the support of education and training programsaddressing their diverse learning needs.

In respect of adult literacy, the Government committed a total of morethan $130 million between 1991 and 1995 for provision by the TAFEand community education sectors, and for curriculum and teacherdevelopment and similar purposes. It pledged substantial additionalfunds for the training of teachers in TAFE, industry and thecommunity, and for labour market and workplace literacy programs.The adult literacy component of the ALLP also provided for assistanceto jobseekers, a television literacy teaching series, and collaborationwith the States and Territories through the AEC and Ministers ofVocational Education, Employment and Training (MOVEET).

The Commonwealth Minister for Education, Employment andTraining has also established the Australian Language and LiteracyCouncil (ALLC) within the National Board of Employment, Educationand Training to advise him on the implementation of the ALLP. TheALLC investigates language and literacy issues that are relevant to suchareas of education and training as award restructuring, development of

7900

Background Readings

key competencies, and transference of skills, as well as monitoringprogress of the policy (Literacy Update, 1992, 8). Professional support forthe field is partly provided by the National Languages and LiteracyInstitute of Australia, which is largely funded by DEET under theALLP.

Apart from the proliferation of acronyms, it is too early to assess thelong-term impact of the Australian Language and Literacy Policy . Forpractitioners, two immediate results were an influx of clients referredby the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES), and theintroduction of new courses funded by the Department ofEmployment, Education and Training through the CES (Literacy Link,1992, 7). The research thrust, initiated by the National Policy onLanguages, and stimulated further by International Literacy Year,continues and is likely to result in more considered policy and moreeffective practice, as well as a better prepared literacy workforce.However, adult literacy research seems to have a lower priority underthe ALLP than.it had under ALAC and ILY.

As Pearse (1976, 78), Grant (1987, xi) and Simpson (1990, 11) noted, theStates and Territories have responded in different ways to theprovision of targeted Federal funds for adult literacy not all arecommitted to the cause. The continuation of funding under the AdultLiteracy and Language Policy is likely to be the key to how the Statescontinue to respond, as well as a measure of the extent to which theCommonwealth Government has developed its understanding of thebroad implications of inadequate literacy for adults.

Changes in postwar adult literacy policy and provisionIn a paper of this length, it is not possible to mention all of thesignificant adult literacy developments and research projects,particularly those that have happened at State and Territory level, inthe past twenty years. It is possible, however, to discern several changesand trends that have emerged in adult literacy policy and provision inthe postwar period.

Attitude to the studentsThe attitude to the students is aligned with beliefs about the purposesof literacy. In the two decades after the war, adult literacy provision wasseen largely in remedial terms - the army wanted soldiers who couldread maps and routine orders, Duncan referred to 'the handicap ofgrossly defective schooling' (under the sub-heading 'Education for thehandicapped'), and the TAFE colleges wanted to prepare students forother TAFE courses. Even the 1975 Richardson Report regarded lack ofliteracy skills as primarily a barrier to further education. But, as White

61


(1985, 32) has observed, early developments in the seventies aroseprincipally from the concern of individuals rather than fromgovernment policies. And they were concerns 'not simply to provideskills to cope with the written word in everyday life but to enablepeople to gain greater freedom to make choices' (CAE, 1974, 4).Wickert's study (1989) established (or confirmed)that there is not onestandard of literacy to which all should aspire, but a range of literaciesfor different contexts. Mention also needs to be made of the greaterattention being given to numeracy, which formerly tended to besubsumed by 'literacy'.

The social justice theme continues strongly amongst adult literacyproviders in Australia, and a 1989 report (Hartley) drew attention tothe wider social costs of inadequate literacy. It is a theme that alsopermeates Federal Government policy, but the eighties and ninetieshave also seen the emergence of government driven economic andvocational imperatives. The linking of literacy and employment firstappeared strongly in Skills for Australia (Dawkins and Holding, 1987)and continues with the Australian Language and Literacy Policy.Although the ALLP acknowledges the needs of the individual, it isfirmly grounded in the Government's preoccupation with awardrestructuring and employment strategies (DEFT, 1991, e.g. 1-2, 7).

The result has been an upsurge of labour market and workplace basiceducation programs, virtually unheard of in the seventies and earlyeighties. Education initiatives in the workplace have undoubtedlyhelped to address the problem of reaching many who have not soughthelp from institutionally based programs, and exemplify the adulteducation principles that link effective adult learning to theexperiences of the learners and the need for immediate application.The concern here is that employers and policy makers may be lookingfor quick solutions (which presumably lead to improved productivity).As Grant (1985) and Wickert and Zimmerman (1991, 197) have pointedout, any belief in a simple 'cause and effect' link between literacy andemployment does not recognise that lack of literacy skills is usuallyassociated with other personal and social factors which may need to beaddressed in the long term. Come in Cinderella, a Senate StandingCommittee's report on adult and community education (Aulich, 1991,90), acknowledged Wickert and Zimmerman's argument, recognisingthat 'there are important perspectives on literacy which are notnecessarily present in current thinking about labour market programs'.

A move into the education mainstreamAnother legacy of increased Government support is that adult basiceducation has moved from the margins to the mainstream. Kirner

62

Background Readings

(1984, 153) warned in 1984 of the marginalisation of the adult literacy

movement because of its individual focus, its volunteer nature, its lack

of clear integration with 'system wide' equal opportunity programs,

and 'its preoccupation with the part, adult literacy/basic education,

rather than with the whole, equal outcomes'. Things have changed:

the use of volunteers is diminishing and those that continue are

generally being trained to standards set by wider educational systems,

and group work is becoming more the norm (Black, 1990, 6).

But the mainstream position of adult basic education has not come

through a commitment to equal opportunity or equal outcomes

(although those features are there). In International Literacy Year,

Black (1990, 6) identified two of the reasons: the impact of No Single

Measure and the economic implications for individuals and industry

of limited literacy skills. As noted above, the latter is also very

prominent in ALLP. The third reason is that adult literacy has been

clearly linked with language in Federal Government reports,

beginning with A national language policy (1984), followed by the

National policy on languages (1987), and finally the Australian

language and literacy policy (1991). ILY activities (1990) also fostered

interaction between adult literacy and language development. The

recommendations in An emerging national curriculum: English

literacy for adults (TAFE, 1992) served only to cement the relationship.

In addition, the broad scope of activities in International Literacy Year

brought the adult literacy movement into closer contact with other

agencies and with literacy education in the primary and secondary

schools systems. This has helped to encourage a more coherent

approach to language and literacy teaching and to provide greater

legitimacy for such provision in the post formal education sector. One

of the outcomes of this collaboration has been the development of the

Australian Literacy Foundation, bringing together such organisations

as the Australian Council for Adult Literacy and the Australian

Reading Association. ACAL itself appears to have become more

influential in the development of government policy.

Increasing professionalisationThe move from 'marginal status to centre stage' (Black, 1990, 6) has

meant not only a higher profile for adult basic education, but also

pressure for professional development and accreditation of teachers

and tutors, for core curricula, for comparable assessment across

programs and States. There is no doubt that moves for a more

professional and consistent approach to adult literacy and numeracy

provision were overdue. Concerns for individual development and

confidentiality often meant that 'adhocery' prevailed in teaching and

63


record keeping, and the students were not always offered the mosteffective tuition. One of the reasons for this was the lack of researchdata with which to support practice. This deficiency has been and isbeing addressed.

As with any development based on increased government funding,greater accountability is required. This too is only proper. However, asNelson (1984) and Wickert (1990) have pointed out, one of thepotential dangers is that adult literacy provision becomes tooorganised, too institutionalised and regulated - that government policymakers set the agenda because they control the funds and that'professionals' take over practice and everything is neatly packaged. Inthe enthusiasm to spend the funds and to satisfy the requirements ofthose who fund research and provision, and in the currentpreoccupation with competencies for teachers and students, we needcontinually to consider whose interests are being served. Being in themainstream also means swimming with the tide we need to bewilling to go in the direction the tide is carrying us or be strong enoughto swim against the current when we believe the occasion warrants it.

I am not suggesting that government policy makers and professionalteachers and administrators do not have a legitimate say in howprovision is developed, but that educators should not be sooverwhelmed by the appeal of a systematic approach, so enmeshed inthe funding and accountability process, that they forget how complexan issue adult literacy is, or that literacy and numeracy are not ends inthemselves. To emphasise this point, I can do no better than toconclude with the words of Arch Nelson, the first chairperson of theAustralian Council for Adult Literacy (1989, 34):

...our involvement in the literacy movement should, and oftendoes, lead us to see the broader problems of which widespreadilliteracy and inadequate literacy are a part. Nor is it enough toadd simply that, in the future, a higher level of literacy will benecessary if we are to function satisfactorily as individuals and ascommunities. It is, in my view, much more important thatpeople who work together on literacy problems are likely todevelop the intelligent and compassionate attitudes andrelationships that we must have if the technologicallydeveloped society of tomorrow is to be also a sane and humanesociety: a society which tries to give a 'fair go' to all.

'Intelligent and compassionate attitudes and relationships' have been ahallmark of adult literacy and numeracy policy and provision in

B ckground Readings

Australia in the past twenty years, and we must be careful to keep thosefeatures in balance with our desire for a more 'professional' approach.

8q

. 05


References

Aulich, T.G. (chair). 1991. Come in Cinderella: the emergence of adult and communityeducation. Australian Parliament, Canberra.

Australian Association of Adult Education. 1976. Working party report on adultliteracy provision in Australia.

Australian Council for Adult Literacy. 1977. First national conference on adult literacy. 16-20May.

Australian Council for Adult literacy. 1992.The adult literacy and numeracy scales: the ACALview. Melbourne.

Black, S. 1990. Adult literacy: from marginal status to centre stage. Australian Journal ofReading. vol. 13, no. 1, March, 5-6.

Cadman, A.G. (chair). 1976. Learning difficulties in children and adults. AGPS,Canberra.

Coates, T.H. 1948. Education in the Australian Army, 1941-46. MEd thesis, University ofMelbourne.

Colston, M. (chair). 1984. A national language policy. AGPS, Canberra.Commonwealth Department of Education. 1979. Report of the interdepartmental

working party on literacy and numeracy. Canberra.Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission. 1984. Report for 1985-87 triennium. voll, part

5. AGPS, Canberra.Coopers & Lybrand Consultants. 1990. A strategic review of Commonwealth/State adult

literacy expenditure. Department of Employment, Education and Training, Canberra.Council of Adult Education. 1974. The way out: a pilot project in adult literacy.

Melbourne.Cunningham, K. S., McIntyre, G. A., Radford, W. C. 1939. Review of education in

Australia, 1938. Melbourne University Press.Dawkins, J. and Holding, C. Skills for Australia. 1987.Department of Employment, Education and Training. 1991. Australia's language: the

Australian language and literacy policy. (Policy paper and Companion volume),AGPS, Canberra.

Department of Employment, Education and Training. 1992. Putting literacy on the agenda.Canberra.

Department of Technical and Further Education, NSW. 1977. TAFE 77. Sydney.Duncan, W.G.K. 1944. Adult education in Australia. White lock, D. (ed.). 1973. The vision

splendid. Adult Education, University of Adelaide.Dymock, D. 1982. Adult literacy provision in Australia: trends and needs. Australian Council

for Adult Literacy, Armidale.Ernst & Young. 1990. Report on the evaluation of the adult literacy action campaign. DEET,

Canberra.Falkenmire, G.W. 1976. Operation literacy: research and action among adults in New South

Wales. Literacy Discussion. vii, 3, Autumn, 33-61.Fitzgerald R.T. 1976. Poverty and education In Australia. (5th main report). AGPS,

Canberra.Goyen, J. D. 1977. Adult illiteracy in Sydney. AAAE, Canberra.Grant, A.N. 1987. Opportunity to do brilliantly: TAFE and the challenge of adult

literacy provision in Australia. AGPS, Canberra.Hartley, R. 1989. The social costs of inadequate literacy. AGPS, Canberra.International Bureau of Education and Unesco. 1964. Literacy and education for adults. Geneva.Kangan, M. (chair). 1974. TAFE in Australia: report on needs in technical and further education.

AGPS, Canberra.

Background Readings

Kirner, J. 1984. A campaign for what? Address to 8th national ACAL conference. Grant, A. 1987.Opportunity to do brilliantly: TAFE and the challenge of adult literacy provision inAustralia. AGPS, Canberra

Literacy Link. 1992. vol. 10, no.2, Winter.Literacy Update. 1992. No.1, September.Lo Bianco, J. 1987. National policy on languages. AGPS, Canberra.Lo Bianco, J. 1990. Alas poor ALAC..? An overview of the Adult Literacy Action

Campaign. Australian Journal of Reading. vol.13, no.1, March, 16-22.Nelson, A.J.A. & Dymock, D.R. (eds.) 1985.Adult literacy and community development.

University of New England, Armidale,Nelson, A. J. A. 1989. My dear ministers: a letter on literacy. Continuing Education, University

of New England, Armidale.NSW Board of Adult Education. 1983. Adult literacy in New South Wales. Sydney.Pearse, E.J. 1976. Adult literacy education in Australia: a survey of provision. Literacy

discussion, vii, 2, Summer, 77-92.Richardson, E. (chair). 1975. TAFE in Australia: second report on needs in technical and further

education. AGPS, Canberra.Simpson, N. 1990. From ALAC to ILY and beyond: facingup to human resource development in

the 1990s. Australian Journal of Reading, vol. 13, no. 1, March 1990, 8-15.Simpson, N. 1992. Preface. Department of Employment, Education and Training, Putting

literacy on the agenda. Canberra. iv-v.TAFE Commission, NSW. 1992. An emerging national curriculum: English literacy for adults.

Sydney.Warburton, J.W. (ed.) 1964. Handbook of Australian adult education. Australian

Association of Adult Education.White, K.A. 1980. Adult literacy provision in Australia. Adult Literacy Information Office,

Sydney.White, K.A. 1985. Influences on adult literacy practices in Australia. Nelson, A.J.A. & Dymock,

D.R. (eds.) Adult literacy and community development. University of New England,Armidale, 32-39.

Whitelock, D.A. (ed.) 1973. The vision splendid. Department of Adult Education,University of Adelaide.

Wickert, R. 1989. No single measure. Department of Employment, Education and Training,Canberra.

Wickert, R. and Zimmerman, J. 1991. Adult basic education in Australia - questions ofintegrity. Tennant, M. Adult and continuing education in Australia. Routledge, Londonand New York.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

67

Towards a ? ;istcry of Adult Literacy in Australia

James A. Draper"A selected chronology of events"inMaurice C. Taylor and James A. Draper Eds. Adult LiteracyPerspectives (1991)

1792 Appearance of the first newspaper, The Upper Canada Gazette, inNewark (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario).

1800 (June 8.) First circulating library in Upper Canada (Niagara-on-the-Lake).

1810 The first Common School Act was passed in Upper Canada. (Some adultstook advantage of the opportunity to learn reading, writing and arithme-tic.)

1825 - *The Mechanic's Institutes were established in England.

1831 - The first Mechanic's Institutes in Canada began in Upper Canada(Ontario) and Nova Scotia.

1844 *Founding of the Danish Folk High School by Bishop N.F.S. Grundtvig(a school for young adults to help farm people cope with change).*Social/University Settlements were established, Toynbee Hall, England.

1850's - Various school boards in Upper Canada established evening classes foradults.

1853 - First Y.M.C.A. (the "Y") opened in Toronto (later offering eveningclasses for adults).

1870's "Y" tents were established (with libraries, writing table and lectureseries) and became an integral part of summer militia camps.

1876 - Y.M.C.A. sets up a special "Railway Department" to handle its educa-tional and social activities in railroad construction camps.

1882 - Free Libraries Act passed in Ontario.

1891 - The Government of Ontario authorizes school boards to provide eveningclasses for anyone over the age of 14 who was unable to attend regularday school classes.

1897 - The First Women's Institute was established at Stoney Creek, Ontario(devoted to the education of rural women and to improving the quality ofrural life).

1899 - The Canadian Reading Camp Association began working in frontiercamps and communities in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada.

1900's Beginning of concentrated educational programs for immigrants toCanada.

1912 Formation of the Extension Department at the University of Alberta (laterestablishing its own radio station in 1925).

1917 - The Khaki College was established for the Canadian Army in England(became a prototype for army education in many other countries).

68

Background Readings

The Workers' Education Association (W.E.A.) of Canada was founded(initially established in England). (By 1924, there was W.E.A.) activity inseven Ontario cities, in addition to Toronto.)

1919 - *United Kingdom Report on Education (a political program for democ-racy and the concept that every adult needed continuing education).Frontier College was incorporated, to replace the Canadian Reading CampAssociation.

1928 The St. Francis Xavier University (Antigonish, Nova Scotia) establishesits Extension Department (later focusing on the development of coopera-tives and becoming the Antigonish Movement).

1929 *World Conference on Adult Education, Cambridge, England, sponsoredby the World Association of Adult Education )to encourage internationalcooperation in adult education).

1935 First survey of adult education in Canada.Founding of the Canadian Association for Adult Education (C.A.A.E.),Toronto.

1941 National Farm Radio forum organised (through the cooperation of theCanadian Association for Adult Education; Canadian BroadcastingCorporation; Canadian Federation of Agriculture).

1946 - Founding of UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific andCultural Organization.

1949 - *First UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education, Elsinore,Denmark (focussing on education for leisure; education for civicresponsibility;intemational cooperation)

1953 *UNESCO conducts a world survey of illiteracy.

1955 World Literacy of Canada was incorporated (Toronto) to pursue workwith the undereducated and illiterate in other countries and later Canada.

1958 A graduate program in adult education began at the University of BritishColumbia; 1966 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education(O.I.S.E.), University of Toronto.

1960 *Second UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education held inMontreal (placed literacy on the international development agenda; linkedadult education and peace; was the first adult education conference whereAsia, Africa, Latin America, and the communist Block were represented).*Beginning of the United Nations first Development Decade.A Dominion Bureau of Statistics report shows that 92% of all unemployedadults had not finished secondary school.The Technical and Vocational Training Assistance Act (T.V.T.A.) waspassed (permitted agreements between the federal and provincial govern-ments); followed by the Basic Training and Skill Development (B.T.S.D.)Program.

1961 Census of Canada. Reports that over one million Canadians over the ageof 15 had no schooling or less than grade 4. (Statistics also revealed that

b9


the typical functional illiterate adult was Canadian born.)

1962 - *The Italian Association for the Eradication of Illiteracy sponsored thefirst international literacy conference.

1965 - *First World Conference of Minister of Education, to discuss adultliteracy , Tehran, Iran.The "War on Poverty" (government programs to deal with the problemsof poverty and inequality in Canada).*Beginning of the Decade Experimental World Literacy Programme(E.W.L.P.) in 11 countries, sponsored by UNESCO.

1966 - *The First Conference on Comparative Adult Education (Exeter, NewHampshire, U.S.A.).Seminar on Adult Basic Education (Toronto). (Sponsored by theC.A.A.E. (Canadian Association for Adult Education) and FrontierCollege, in association with The Technical Vocational Branch, Depart-ment of Citizenship and Immigration.)

1967 - Publication of Functional Literacy and International Development (AStudy by J. Roby Kidd, of Canadian Capability to Assist with the WorldCampaign to Eradicate Illiteracy.)Adult Occupational Training Act (A.O.T). (Increases federal assistance toreduce unemployment and increase productivity of Canadian workers,with a greater focus on training; recognized the value of the B.T.S.D.Program.) (Replaces the Technical and Vocational Training Act of 1960.)*September 8 is designated by UNESCO as International Literacy Day.Creation of the federal government's NewStart Program. (Designed forthe purposes of establishing action research centres in participatingprovinces; aimed at providing solutions to the problems of educationaland socio-economical development for Canada's disadvantaged; andrepresented one aspect of the country's anti-poverty drive.) (By 1969, sixprovinces were participating in the NewStart Program, consisting of basicliteracy and upgrading programs from grades 1 to 10.)

1968 A National Seminar on A.B.E. was held at Elliot Lake, Ontario.the first life skills course was planned by Saskatchewan NewStart. (Also,out of the Saskatchewan program' came B.L.A.D.E.) Basic Literacy forAdult Development; and L.I.N.C. Learning Individualized for Canadi-ans.)

1969 - The first Adult Day School was established as a Metropolitan TorontoDepartment of Social Services volunteer project; later, the Toronto Boardof Education assumed the financial responsibility for teacher salaries andschool supplies.

1970 - *Founding of the International Institute for Adult Literacy Methods(Iran). Publishes: Literacy Methods/Work/Review.

1971 - Publication of Adult Basic Education (the first major book on A.B.E. inCanada). (Edited by Michael Brooke.)

1972 *UNESCO International Commission on the Development of Educationpublishes, Learning to Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow.Third UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education, Tokyo, out

70

89

ackground Re dings

of which came the International Council for Adult Education (I.C.A.E.).

1974 "Special Issues on Adult Literacy in Canada", published in Literacy Discussion. (Summer : editors:James A. Draper, J.Roby Kidd and Barbara Kerfoot; Winter: editors Michael Brooke and GerardClam.)Annual meeting of World Literacy of Canada, focus on adult illiteracy in Canada (Ottawa). (Out ofwhich came the "Canada Literacy Project".)The Canada Manpower Industrial Training Program is introduced (replacing a number of previousprograms).

1975 - *Beginning of the B.B.C./T.V. (British Broadcasting Corporation) program on adult literacy. (On theMove: to create awareness of the problem of illiteracy; to refer persons who wished assistance withliteracy skills to appropriate resources.)* World Conference of the International Women's Year (Mexico).*Second International Conference of Ministers of Education, on adult literacy (Persepolis, Iran).(Declaration of Persepolis.) (Focus on the needs of women; the needs for social development;education for liberation.)

1976 *N.G.O. (I.C.A.E.) Conference on Adult Literacy (Toronto), jointly sponsored by W.L.C., theC.A.A.E., Conference on Adult Education Development (Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania)(Nongovernmental organizations.)National conference on Adult Literacy (Toronto), jointly sponsored by W.L.C., the C.A.A.E., and theI.C.A.E. (Release of the publication, Adult Basic Education and Literacy Activities in Canada, byAudrey Thomas, published by W.L.C.)The B.T.S.D. federal government journal on adult basic education becomes Adult Training.Manpower Training at the Crossroads conference (Ottawa). Sponsored by the C.A.A.E. and theI.C.E.A. (Institut canadien d'education des adultes).*Adoption of the Recommendation on the Development of Adult Education by the 19th Session ofthe U.N. General conference, Kenya.

1977 - National Conference on Adult Literacy (Ottawa). (Convened by the W.L.C. Canadian Project forAdult Basic and Literacy Education.) Out of this conference was formed the Movement for CanadianLiteracy.

1979 *The Mexican Declaration on the Decisive Role of Education in Development. (Sponsored byUNESCO with the cooperation of the U.N. Commission for Latin America and the Organization ofAmerican States. Spoke of the role of education as an integral part of economic, social and culturalplanning.)

1980 - *Conference on professional aspects of literacy work. (Arusha, Tanzania). (Sponsored by the interna-tional Institute for Educational Planning and UNESCO.) (A second conference was held in Madras in1982.)

Celebration by Metropolitan Toronto Library Board of 150 years of the founding of the Mechanic'sInstitute. (The M.I. was one of the predecessors of the Metropolitan Toronto Library, with its readingrooms, as well as courses in arts and sciences.)

1981 - *International Seminar on Adult Literacy in Industrialized Countries (England). (Promoted by theInternational Council for Adult Education, and supported by UNESCO, the British Council, and U.K.Department of Education and Science.) (Organized by the National Institute of Adult Education andthe Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit of England and Wales.)

1982 *Udaipur (India) "Declaration: Literacy for All by the Year 2000" (initiated by the German Founda-tion D.S.E.).

71

Towards a History of A ult Literacy in Australia

*N.G.O. (I.C.A.E.) Conference on Adult Education and Authentic Devel-opment (Paris).

1983 *International Seminar: Cooperating for Literacy (Berlin). (An overview ofthe World Literacy situation and major issues.) (Sponsored by the I.C.A.E.and the German Foundation for International Development.)

*U.S.A. campaign to combat adult illiteracy.

1984 - First Collective Consultation of International Non-Governmental Organiza-tions on Literacy (UNESCO, Paris).

1985 *Fourth UNESCO International Conference on Adult Education (March,Paris). (Declaration: "The Right To Learn.")

- *N.G.O. (I.C.A.E.) Conference on Adult Education, Development andPeace (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

*Conference: Reflection on the Decade of Women (Nairobi, Kenya).

UNESCO: Resolutions on Literacy, General Conference of the twenty-thirdsession (Sofia, Bulgaria). (October.)

Publication of The Right To Learn . (Report of the Work Group on AdultLiteracy, the Board of Education for the City of Toronto.) (October.)

1986 *The first international conference on the History of Adult Education(Oxford, England).

*Workshop of Specialists in Europe on Prevention of Functional Illiteracyand Integration of Youth into the World of Work. (Sponsored by theUNESCO Institute of Education, Hamburg.) (Included an overview ofilliteracy in industrialised countries.)

1987 *Founding of the Commonwealth Association for the Education andTraining of Adults (CAETA) in India. Mandate to support training pro-grams in the Commonwealth, professional development and internationalsharing.

*Second International conference on Literacy in Industrialized Countries,Toronto (sponsored by the I.CA.E.)

1990 * Declared by the United Nations as International Literacy Year.

*Indicates International Events

e

AppendixKey Dates in the History ofAdult LiteracyWhen thinking about the history of adult literacy in Australia one of the things thatpeople tried to do was remember dates of significance in the field. This was attempted acouple of times during the weekend and it was decided to ask around for further contri-butions. These accounts reflect the variety in perceptions and recollections of majorevents in the history of adult literacy. We include these accounts as a trigger for others to

add to and develop.

Technical and Further Education in NSW- Some of the Major Developments

1833 Sydney Mechanics School of Arts founded.

1865 First 'technical' class conducted by the School of Arts - in MechanicalDrawing, taught by Norman Selfe.

1878 The Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts was established in the WorkingMen's college in several buildings scattered around the fringe of the city'sbusiness district. The college soon became known unofficially as theSydney Technical College.

1883 The NSW government assumed financial responsibility for SydneyTechnical College, placing its administration in the hands of an appointedBoard of Technical Education. Technical classes began to spread tosuburban and country areas.

1889 The NSW government assumed full responsibility for the administrationof technical education, establishing the Technical Education branch of theDepartment of Public Instruction.

1891 The first classes moved to Sydney Technical College's permanent home inUltimo. Most moved the following year. It served as the head office of thestate's technical education system until 1959.

1913-15 The Technical Education Branch's courses, awards and administrationunderwent major reorganisation.

1918-22 The Repatriation Vocational Training Scheme trained thousands ofreturned service personnel for civilian careers.

1935 The report of the Technical Education Commission, established by theNSW government, made recommendations that influenced the develop-ment of technical education for the next thirty years.

WW 2 Sydney Technical College and the larger country and suburban collegesbecame training centres for service personnel and civilian war workers,whilst continuing with their normal functions. The CorrespondenceTraining Division (which has developed into the Open College) enrolledsome 100,000 Australian and 43,000 American students from the armedservices serving in the Pacific region.

7 3


1944-58 The Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme (C.R.T.S.) trainedmany thousands of returned service personnel.

1949 The Department of Technical Education was established as a separatedepartment. The NSW University of Technology (now the University ofNSW) was founded at Sydney Technical College. By stages it took overresponsibility for the diploma (professional level) courses taught previ-ously by the technical colleges.

1950s The 1950s saw the development of certificate (technician level) courses.

1965 The NSW Institute of Technology was established within the TechnicalEducation Department to conduct new diploma (professional level)courses. It became an independent College of Advanced Education in1971, and is now the University of Technology, Sydney.

1975 Following publication of the Kangan Report in 1974, the Department ofTechnical Education became the Department of Technical and FurtherEducation. This was more than just a change of name. From 1914 themain aim of technical education had been to meet the workforce needs ofindustry; it now became the development of individual students. Feeswere abolished from 1974, leading to a dramatic increase in enrolments.

1980s The 1980's saw the flowering of numerous special programs to meet theneeds of groups of people who had been unable to take advantage ofTAFE courses previously.

1989 The introduction of an Administrative Charge saw a significant decline inenrolments.

1990 The Scott Report recommended a major restructuring of TAFE. Thisrestructuring began, and the Department of TAFE became an authority,responsible to the Director General of the Department of Further Educa-tion, Training and Employment (FETE).

1991 The Technical and Further Education Commission replaced the Depart-ment of TAPE.

FromNorm NeillHead, TAFE History UnitJuly 1991.

9 3

Appendix

Division of Further Education, Ministry of Education, Victoria

Pre-1973 No adult literacy programs generally available.

1973 Council of Adult Education begins provision of adult literacy.

1975 Involvement of curriculum and research personnel from the EducationDepartment.

1976 Adult literacy working party established at the Australian Association forAdult Education Conference.Full time adult basic education course (workforce retraining) begins atFootscray College of TAFE.

1977 Establishment of Australian Council for Adult Literacy (ACAL).First national conference in Canberra.Expansion of program provision, eg. Outer Eastern Community AdultLiteracy Program, Prahran College of TAFE.Establishment of Access Resource Centre, Council of Adult Education.

1978 ACAL National Conference in Melbourne.Formation of the Victorian Adult Literacy Council (VALC)

1979 Newsletter Adult Literacy News produced by VALC becomes Fine Print.

1983 International Literacy Day marked by VALC sponsored celebration atPrahran.First three regional adult literacy co-ordinators appointed.Publication of booklet Signpost, a disabilities resources guide.

1984 Executive officer for VALC employed.ACAL National Conference held in Melbourne.

1985 VALC office located at the Council of Adult Education.Five more regional adult literacy co-ordinators appointed on annualCommonwealth funding, some half-time.

1986 Myer Foundation Grant of $10,500 for VALC survey of programs avail-able, across Victoria, for the report Literacy Matters.VALC changes its name to the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Educa-tion Council (VALBEC).Policy documentation prepared for the TAFE Board.

1987 First State Adult Literacy Conference organised by VALBEC, funded bythe TAFE Board. Held in Geelong and 270 people attended. Conferenceaddressed by Hon. Ian Cathie, Minister for Education.ALBE Unit of TAFE Board established with two staff. Advisory commit-tee to Unit established.Lobbying by VALBEC to obtain recurrent State funding for adult literacybecomes part of the 1988 budget initiative submission.

1988 Establishment of the Division of Further Education.State budget: first allocation specifically for adult literacy and basiceducation, $2.5m in 188-89, $3.4m in 1989-90.Consultant, Vin D'Cruz appointed to look at needs of adult literacy and

94


basic education. Report written.National Policy on Languages (NPL) projects established: VALBECmini-conferences, small groups project: student worker; La Trobe Univer-sity spring and summer schools; student writing weekends; materialsresourcing strategy.Regional Further Education Councils appointed.

1989 Permanent adult basic education senior consultant employed by theDivision of Further Education.Ten regional Councils of Further Education funded for a permanentregional ALBE officer.Adult literacy and basic education project team employed by the Divisionof Further Education.Twenty-four major adult literacy and basic education project teamemployed by the Division of Further Education.NPL and State funds used to support professional development activitiesthrough the Division of Further Education (conference strategy).

From:Bradshaw, B., Evans, D. et. al. (1989) Adult Literacy and Basic Education intothe 1990s Volume 2 Ministry of Education Victoria; pg 10-11.

Some Themes of ACAL Conferences

ACAL conference highlight something of the theoretical and methodological positionsin the field over the period of 1978 to 1994.

1978 Language Experience1979 The place of theories in Adult Reading Programs- Brennan1980 Spoken and Written Language1981 Language Experience1982 Language Experience1983 Authentic Materials1984 Language Experience1985 Functional for whom - Lankshear1986 Where do written texts come from?1987-1990 Genre1990 Literacy Rating Scales

Skill Formation Agenda for 90sReport on Strategic Review Commonwealth State Literacy Expenditure

1992 PolicyCompetency AgendaIndustry Service Provider PerspectiveWorkplaceCritical Literacy

1994 Critical Issues: Essential Priorites

ppendix

NSW Adult Literacy and Numeracy Council

May, 1977

June 1977

100 delegates from all over Australia attended the first National Confer-ence on Adult Literacy, sponsored by the Australian Council for AdultLiteracy.

At a public meting in Sydney, a steering committee was formed toprepare a constitution for establishment of the NSW Adult LiteracyCouncil.

August 1977 The Council was formally inaugurated. Since its formation the Councilhas regularly published its newsletter, Literacy Exchange, which reportson activities state-wide.

October 1978 The Council prepared four half-hour video programs, presented onChannel 7 in November. A large public response for tuition, and offers ofhelp from volunteers paved the way for the increase, in the followingyears, of Adult Literacy provision with NSW. This response instigated theestablishment of a state-wide referral service which is now operated underthe auspices of NSW TAFE as the Adult Literacy Information Office.

May 1979 The NSW Council organised the Third National Conference on behalf ofthe A.C.A.L., at Wesley College, University of Sydney. Over 200 del-egates attended from all over Australia.

7 7 96


BibliographyBradshaw, B., Evans, D. et al 1989, Adult Literacy and Basic Education into the1990s Volume 2, Ministry of Education, Victoria, pp10-11.

Department of Employment Education and Training 1991, Australia's Language :The Australian Language and Literacy Policy, Australian Government PublishingService, Canberra.

Draper, James A. 1991, 'Selected Chronology of Literacy Events'. in AdultLiteracy Perspectives. eds. C. taylor and J.A. Draper, Culture Concepts Inc.,Ontario, pp. 15-23.

Dymock, Darryl R. 1993, 'An Issue of Significant Community Concern: thepostwar development of adult literacy policy and provision in Australia', in Voicesof Experience: Changes and Challenges, eds. S. McConnell and A. Treloar,Department of Education, Employment and Training, 1993, pp. 3-11.

Dymock, Darryl R. 1993, " 'Fall Out the Illiterates' - Lessons from a World War IIAdult Literacy Program". Open Letter. Vol. 3, No 2, pp. 53-66.

Dymock, Darryl R. 1982, Adult Literacy Provision in Australia: Trends and Needs,University of New England, Armidale.

Green, B. Hodgens J. and Luke, A. 1994, Debating Literacy in Australia: ADocumentary History, 1946-1990. Australian Literacy Federation, Melbourne.

Hodgens, J. 1994, 'How Adult Literacy Became a Public Issue in Australia', OpenLetter , vol. 4, No. 2, pp 13-24.

Lo Bianco, J. 1987, National Policy on Languages, Australian GovernmentPublishing Service, Canberra.

Neill, N. 1991, The Origins of TAFE Adult Literacy Programs . NSW Board ofAdult Education.

Tyler, D. and Johnson, L. 1991, 'Helpful Histories?', History of Education Review,Vol 20, No.2, pp. 1-8.

97

7E

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

The National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia

23

Fiz

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research and Improvement (OERO

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)

NOTICE

REPRODUCTION BASIS

®

ERIC

This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release(Blanket)" form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing allor classes of documents from its source organization and, therefore,does not require a "Specific Document" Release form.

This document is Federally-funded, or carries its own permission toreproduce, or is otherwise in the public domain and, therefore, maybe reproduced by ERIC without a signed Reproduction Releaseform (either "Specific Document" or "Blanket").

Documents

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 412 361 · DOCUMENT RESUME. ED 412 361 CE 074 881. TITLE Towards a History of Adult Literacy in Australia. A Record. of the History of Adult Literacy Weekend (Armidale,