Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives Upon successful completion of this subject, students should have developed knowledge and understanding of some of the major changes which have taken place in the primary and secondary administrative structures from the time when schools were independent private ventures; the pressures which were instrumental in leading to these changes including the background to federal funding; the administrative and political pressures which contribute to these changes. Students should have developed skills which will enable them to analyse and interpret historical documents; place today's administration structures and suggested changes to it in an historical context; develop new educational administrative strategies with an awareness of what has been tried in the past. Students should have developed values or attitudes in: an awareness that forces outside the schools, for example, governments, business groups, and unions, can deeply affect the day-to-day work of educational administration in Australia; an ability to analyse and interpret the theoretical explanation offered for administrative change; a sense of the similarity of the changes made in the different Australian states and territories.
Synopsis The aims of this subject are (1) to develop an historical understanding of systems of educational administration in Australia; (2) to apply this understanding to the analysis of present-day administrative structures. The subject will study schools from the time in which they were independent private ventures, through varying degrees of state financial intervention to the growth of large centralised bureaucratic systems. The changing administration of those systems, of schools within them and of schools outside them, will be examined. The beginning of federal funding, and the administrative and political issues which that has raised, will receive particular attention.
Assessment Review (limit 1500 words): 15% + Class Presentation (10 minutes): 10% + Essay: (limit 6000 words): 75%