Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The hidden historiography of migration and Australian schooling

The hidden historiography of migration and Australian schooling Despite Australia’s history as an exemplary migrant nation, there are gaps in the literature and a lack of explicit conceptualisation of either “migrants” or “migration” in the Australian historiography of schooling. The purpose of this paper is to seek out traces of migration history that nevertheless exist in the historiography, despite the apparent silences.Design/methodology/approachTwo foundational yet semi-forgotten twentieth-century historical monographs are re-interpreted to support a rethinking of the relationship between migration and settler colonialism in the history and historiography of Australian schooling.FindingsThese texts, from their different school system (state/Catholic) orientations, are, it is argued, replete with accounts of migration despite their apparent gaps, if read closely. Within them, nineteenth-century British migrants are represented as essentially entitled constituents of the protonation. This is a very different framing from twentieth century histories of migrants as minority or “other”.Originality/valueInstead of an academic reading practice that dismisses and simply supersedes old work, this paper proposes that fresh engagements with texts from the past can yield new insights into the connections between migration, schooling and colonialism. It argues that the historiography of Australian schooling should not simply be expanded to include or encompass the stories of “migrants” within a “minority studies” framework, although there is plenty of useful work yet to be accomplished in that area, but should be re-examined as having been about migration all along. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png History of Education Review Emerald Publishing

The hidden historiography of migration and Australian schooling

Proctor, Helen
History of Education Review , Volume 48 (2): 14 – Nov 11, 2019
Download PDF
14 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/the-hidden-historiography-of-migration-and-australian-schooling-h0FRPT3w9z
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0819-8691
DOI
10.1108/her-08-2019-0032
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Despite Australia’s history as an exemplary migrant nation, there are gaps in the literature and a lack of explicit conceptualisation of either “migrants” or “migration” in the Australian historiography of schooling. The purpose of this paper is to seek out traces of migration history that nevertheless exist in the historiography, despite the apparent silences.Design/methodology/approachTwo foundational yet semi-forgotten twentieth-century historical monographs are re-interpreted to support a rethinking of the relationship between migration and settler colonialism in the history and historiography of Australian schooling.FindingsThese texts, from their different school system (state/Catholic) orientations, are, it is argued, replete with accounts of migration despite their apparent gaps, if read closely. Within them, nineteenth-century British migrants are represented as essentially entitled constituents of the protonation. This is a very different framing from twentieth century histories of migrants as minority or “other”.Originality/valueInstead of an academic reading practice that dismisses and simply supersedes old work, this paper proposes that fresh engagements with texts from the past can yield new insights into the connections between migration, schooling and colonialism. It argues that the historiography of Australian schooling should not simply be expanded to include or encompass the stories of “migrants” within a “minority studies” framework, although there is plenty of useful work yet to be accomplished in that area, but should be re-examined as having been about migration all along.

Journal

History of Education Review – Emerald Publishing

Published: Nov 11, 2019

Keywords: Catholic and state schooling; Historiography of Australian education; Migration and colonialism; Settler colonialism

References

  • Histories of migrants and refugees in Australia
    Balint, R.; Simic, Z.
  • The historiography of Australian education: the production and reception of four Major texts, 1951-1978
    Bannister, H.
  • Victorian liberalism and the effect of sovereignty: a view form the settler periphery
    Boucher, L.
  • History of education: the possibility of Survival
    Campbell, C.; Sherington, G.
  • Brother Ronald Fogarty FMS
    Dwyer, E.
  • Brother Ronald Fogarty FMS – Part 2
    Dwyer, E.
  • Austin, Albert Gordon (Bon) (1918–1990)
    Falk, B.
  • Ceaselessly circling the centre
    Herbert, J.
  • ‘After the manner of the Irish schools’: the influence of Irish national education in the British Empire
    Lougheed, K.
  • A genealogy of the secular versus religious schooling debate in New South Wales (part I): terror and suspicion
    Low, R.
  • A genealogy of the religious versus secular schooling debate in New South Wales (Part II): populism and patriotism
    Low, R.
  • The modernization of colonialism and the educability of the ‘Native’: Transpacific knowledge networks and education in the interwar years
    McLeod, J.; Paisley, F.
  • British migrants – Instant Australians? Immigration Museum, Melbourne
    McShane, I.
  • ‘The system of compulsory education is failing’: assimilation, mobility and Aboriginal students in Victorian state schools, 1961-1968
    Marsden, B.
  • Rethinking borders and boundaries for a mobile history of education
    Myers, K.; Ramsey, P.; Proctor, H.
  • Colonialism, education and social change in the British Empire: the cases of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ireland
    O’Donoghue, T.
  • History of education research in Australia: some current trends and possible directions for the future
    O’Donoghue, T.
  • Knowledge and racial violence: the shine and shadow of ‘powerful knowledge’
    Rudolph, S.; Sriprakash, A.; Gerrard, J.
  • Gender: a useful category of historical analysis
    Scott, J.W.
  • Passengers of memory: constructions of British immigrants in post-imperial Australia
    Wills, S.
  • Settler colonialism and the elimination of the Native
    Wolfe, P.