The Rise and Demise of the Inspector of Schools in Queensland Geoffrey James Swan O.A.M. FACE B.Ed., M.Ed. Administration, M.Ed.Studies, Ph.D. University of Queensland Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) Division of Research and Commercialisation Queensland University of Technology 2014 KEYWORDS Director General, education, Inspector, inspection, Queensland, schools, teachers. ii Abstract The colony of Queensland, established on 10 December 1859, passed its first Education Act in 1860. This enabled the government to provide for the education of all children from six to twelve years of age. The Board of General Education appointed its first Inspector of Schools in 1863, and he was followed by over 400 men — and later women — to inspect schools and teachers to guarantee conformity and efficiency. In 1875, education became a ministerial responsibility and the Department of Public Instruction was established. Teachers never seemed to enjoy a friendly working relationship with inspectors, and with the establishment of the Queensland Teachers Union, hostility increased. Eventually, in 1989, the Inspector of Schools position was abolished. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Keywords ii Abstract iii Table of Contents iv Statement of Original Authorship v Acknowledgements vi INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………… 1 PERSONAL ODYSSEY ...................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1: SOURCES AND RESOURCES ................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 2: OUTPOST OF EMPIRE ............................................................................ 32 CHAPTER 3: THE COLONY OF QUEENSLAND 1859‒1901 ..................................... 38 CHAPTER 4: REFORM AND EXPANSION OF EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF QUEENSLAND 1901‒1951 ....................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 5: TURBULENT TIMES AND THE DEMISE 1952‒1990 ……………. 101 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………………. 128 Bibliography 131 iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature QUT Verified Signature Date 23 May 2014 v Acknowledgements Many thanks to my supervisor, Dr Keith Moore, for his continuing support in this project. His availability and willingness to help keep me on task during a difficult time in my life was much appreciated. My thanks also to Melody McIntosh of the Research Students Centre for her assistance with matters bureaucratic and Carody Culver for her proofreading of this thesis. It is with gratitude I remember with affection and admiration the staff of the Kelvin Grove Teachers College 1944‒1945 for their inspiration. My late wife and constant companion, Doris, a fellow student at Kelvin Grove, is forever remembered for her love and encouragement in all my endeavours. She was a kind and insightful critic of the early stages of this work. vi Introduction This study, ‘The Rise and Demise of the Inspector of Schools’, examines the role of the Inspector of Schools; firstly employed in 1860 by the Board of General Education, which was replaced in 1875 by the Department of Public Instruction until 1954, when it became the Department of Education. ‘A Personal Odyssey’ sets the scene for the study, recalling my experience as an inspector, a student, a teacher and principal over half a century. Queensland occupies almost a quarter of the continent: with an area of 1,727,000 square kilometres, it lies within 10 and 29 degrees latitude and 134 and 154 degrees east longitude. From north to south, the greatest distance is 2,100 kilometres, and from east to west, 1,450 kilometres. Most of the population lives in the south-east corner. Providing education for a population spread across such a large country presents a formidable task. The early inspectors travelled by horse or coach and made use of the coastal shipping until the railways were constructed. Travel was a hazardous and occasionally dangerous business. For many of these men, the Queensland country was alien, coming as they did from closely settled and civilised parts of Great Britain. Most would have seen a church steeple on a daily basis in their earlier lives. Inspectors wore jackets, and generally the expectation was that they would be exemplars of dress and decorum very much in a northern hemisphere tradition. The very nature of their task as Inspector of Schools did not allow them the luxury of what modern parlance considers a supervisory position: non-judgemental, non-penalising and non-threatening. The very nature of their task was judgemental, which brought with it penalties and threats. This put inspectors on a collision course with teachers, many of whom were poorly trained and incompetent. During their annual visit, inspectors had the impossible task of trying to correct these shortcomings. Pressures on inspectors were considerable; they too signed their official letters with ‘I have the honour to be Sir your obedient servant’, just as teachers had done. They were the teachers’ only human contact with the employing authority and were the enforcers of rules and regulations. Little wonder the inspector‒teacher 1 relationship became abrasive and as the Teachers Union became stronger, inspectors became a target at Union meetings, being accused (often rightly so) of being overbearing and unsympathetic. As teachers moved away from the pupil teacher ‘on the job’ training to departmental-controlled teachers’ colleges and eventually independent training in Colleges of Advanced Education and universities, they became more independent and confident in their task. Inspectors too had improved their education, being drawn from the teaching ranks. What was missing in the overall improvements was teachers’ willingness to accept criticism in a positive way. This seems never to have been resolved. Chapter 1, ‘Sources and Resources’, draws on several sources and discusses the inspectors’ origins and the administration’s part in shaping inspectors’ work to service the developing bureaucracy. The early Inspectorate was recruited from the teaching force and many had already some experience in Queensland schools. The inspectors were all born overseas and brought with them a wide experience of school systems and training. Chapter 2, ‘Outpost of Empire’, refers to the Moreton Bay District before the separation of Queensland from New South Wales (N.S.W.) on 10 December 1859. There was some attempt to make school provision for the small number of children in the colony administered for the first thirty-five years from Sydney. Schooling was not high on the list of things to do. As a frontier society with erratic contact with Sydney, providing shelter and food had almost the total attention of the workforce, which was drawn from convicts and the soldiers who guarded them. The provision of some schooling for the children of convicts and soldiers was remarkable. As chapter 3 reveals, how great was the feeling of independence when the colony of Queensland, with just 23,500 people, mostly of European origin, was declared. With its unmade roads and dependence on horse transport, the colony was a challenge for the first inspectors. Their responsibilities were many and they were the eyes and ears of the developing bureaucracy. In 1875, education was made a ministerial responsibility and the Department of Public Instruction replaced the earlier Board of Education. With the new century, the Commonwealth of Australia was established and Queensland had a population of nearly half a million. Chapter 4, ‘Reform and Expansion of Education in the State of Queensland 1901‒1951: Two World Wars 2 and Depression’, sets out the challenges facing the provision of free, compulsory and secular education under the 1875 Act. With the population moving away from the south-east corner of the state, schools were established in most settlement centres, where 12 children of school age could expect school provision. It was an era of expanding education services with appropriate supervision by the school inspectors. Chapter 5,‘Turbulent Times and the Demise’, covers the final period, not only of the study but also of the Inspectorate. Apart from occasional changes to the method of appraising teachers and the presentation of reports, the entrenched animosity towards inspectors never abated. Attempts to reform the Inspectorate disappeared with a change of government and the response to ‘Have your say!’ 3 Personal Odyssey I became one of them! One day in August 1973, when I was Principal at what was then known as the State School for Spastic Children at New Farm in Brisbane, I received a phone call from Patrick Doherty, the Staff Inspector, Special Education in the Queensland Department of Education. Without any polite preliminaries he enquired, ‘How would you like to act in my position until the end of the year? I am going to sit in George Berkeley’s chair (Director of Special Education Services) while he is going further up the corridor’. Somewhat flattered to be asked and never really having a smooth relationship with the bureaucracy, I wondered about several things. If I did not accept, who would? Having always maintained a ‘them and us’ attitude with the Inspectorate,