Schooling Memories: Educating the Adolescent, 1930s -1970s

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A collection of oral history interviews with former teachers, students, curriculum personnel and guidance officers and school counsellors who were at school in the decades from the 1930s to the 1970s. There are more than 80 interviews, with teachers and students from all walks of life and from various parts of Australia. While most are now living in Victoria, many were educated and worked elsewhere. There is a special focus in the 1970s interviews with students and teachers involved in progressive and community schooling during that time.

These interviews were conducted as part of the Educating the Adolescent project, a cultural history of educational reforms and influential ideas about how Australian schools could best educate adolescents and prepare them for future citizenship. Combining documentary and oral history research, it examines social values and curriculum, and adolescent psychological guidance, investigating their local and international contexts during three decades of educational upheaval – 1930s, 50s, and 70s. It will provide historical perspectives on current concerns about school values and student wellbeing, enrich theories of citizenship and ethics, create an oral history archive, deepen understanding of transnational educational ideas and policy drivers, and contribute new knowledge about Australia's education history.