Texts and Contexts: International Sources and Universalistic Discourse in Australian Teacher Education 1900-1950

Abstract

Australia has a long history of what has been pilloried as "cultural cringe", and of bemoaning its isolation from "overseas" developments. In recent years, the valuing of ideas and practices from elsewhere has been transformed under the rubric of "world best practice" within a global economy and culture, both in political discourse generally, and in a raft of reports on the need for reform of teacher education in particular (see Vick, 2006a). Here, I document overseas borrowings in the form of texts in teacher education during the first half of last century, focusing on teachers colleges in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. On the one hand, I seek to show that Australian teacher education has always sought to establish itself in relation to international rather than merely local practice. On the other hand, I aim to demonstrate that this was neither a "cultural cringe" nor a desperate bid to conform to other parts of the world, but a consequence of an understanding that proper practice was derived from universal truths and principles, independent of any geographic reference points (Vick, 2006a).