Hawke Research Institute
CSLPLC: The Schooling Australia ProjectBasic course statements for the subject English were published in the Education Gazette by the Education Department of South Australia during the years 1900-1920 and published separately in The Course of Instruction for the Primary Schools for the years 1924, 1929 and 1938. They are available below by year as a transcript or as a PDF file of the scanned original document. Download Adobe Acrobat.
1900 Course of Instruction (PDF 49kb)
Original scan p.1-2 (PDF 189kb)
1907 Course of Instruction (PDF 81kb)
Original scans p.1-2 (PDF 157kb)
p.3-5 (PDF 231kb)
1908 Course of Instruction (PDF 85kb)
Original scan p.1-4
(PDF 278kb)
1909 Course of Instruction (PDF 77kb)
Original scans p.1-2 (PDF 174kb)
p.3-5 (PDF
248kb)
1912 Course of Instruction (PDF 130kb)
Original scans p.1-2 (PDF 193kb)
p.3-5 (PDF 194kb)
p.5-6 (PDF 232kb)
p.7-8 (PDF 156kb)
p.9-10 (PDF 106kb)
1913 Course of Instruction (PDF 139kb)
Original scans p.1-3 (PDF 209kb)
p.4-6 (PDF 267kb)
p.7-9 (PDF 236kb)
p.10-12 (PDF 144kb)
1914 Course of Instruction (PDF 147kb)
Original scans p.1-3 (PDF 196kb)
p.4-6 (PDF 218kb)
p.7-9 (PDF 205kb)
p.10-12 (PDF 134kb)
p.13-14 (PDF 103kb)
p.16-19 (PDF 167kb)
p.20-22 (PDF 139kb)
1916 Course of Instruction (PDF 50kb)
Original scan p.1-2 (PDF 172kb)
1917 Course of Instruction (PDF 144kb)
Original scans p.1-3 (PDF 223kb)
p.4-6 (PDF 202kb)
p.7-9 (PDF 191kb)
p.10-12 (PDF 145kb)
p.13-14 (PDF 147kb)
1918 Course of Instruction (PDF 46kb)
Original scans p.1-2 (PDF 165kb)
p.3-4 (PDF 174kb)
1920 Course of Instruction (PDF 129kb)
Original scans p.1 (PDF 571kb)
p.2-6 (PDF 182kb)
p.7-12 (PDF 276kb)
1924 Course of Instruction (PDF 149kb)
Original scans p.1-2 (PDF 782kb)
p.3-6 (PDF 189kb)
p.7-10 (PDF 232kb)
p.11-14 (PDF 145kb)
1930 Course of Instruction (PDF 221kb)
Original scans p.1-3 (PDF 152kb)
p.4-7 (PDF 165kb)
p.8-10 (PDF 136kb)
p.11-14 (PDF 149kb)
p.15-18 (PDF 132kb)
p.19-21 (PDF 134kb)
1938 Course of Instruction (PDF 188kb)
Original scans p.1-5 (PDF 191kb)
p.6-11 (PDF 187kb)
p.12-16 (PDF 216kb)
Teaching English by Rational Methods (J.S. Gold and J.C. Noack, 1919)
The Exercises for Scholars' referred to in The Teacher's Manual, Weekly Programme of Work are listed below by page.
In addition to the official curriculum publications such as the Courses of Instruction, and the supplementary materials shown above, the Education Department of South Australia produced a variety of materials which could be seen as related to the conduct of the curriculum. These materials were relayed to teachers via the Education Gazette, the official publication of the Department which was produced and distributed monthly. The Education Gazette was edited and largely written or collated from other sources by the Chief Inspector (later Director) and the Inspectors. Each month teachers in the school were required to initial the school copy of the Education Gazette to show that they had read it. The Education Gazette was used to make official announcements and outline regulations which had the force of law in South Australia, also, up to 1918, the primary school ‘Course of Instruction’ was included. However, beyond these more formal texts, there were other materials included that were designed to educate, cajole, inspire or influence teachers thinking and practice in relation to the curriculum. The list below provides a sample of the most typical of such texts grouped by type.
Each year, the report of each District Inspector, and the senior Inspectors were reproduced in the Education Gazette. As the number of Inspectors grew, they began to be extracted rather than being reproduced in full. The Inspectors were clearly aware of this wider more ‘public’ readership for their reports and used them to attempt to shape policy and practice in curriculum. The three examples here show the way that the English curriculum could be highlighted by the Inspectors.
One of the major modes of communication in education in the early twentieth century was the speech, or lecture. A key annual event was the Conference of the SA Public School Teachers Union. These were typically addressed by the then Director of the Education Department with some Inspectors also being included. Also university professors, educational leaders such as the principal of the teacher training college, political leaders such as the Education Minister or state Premier could be included. Such occasions were used to define and defend policy and curriculum as the following examples show.
Another kind of text were speeches and records of meetings by Union, as opposed to Departmental, officers. In the early twentieth century it was typical for the President or other union leaders to become Inspectors. The first of these speeches is by Alfred Williams, then Union President, who would be appointed Director of the Education Department in the next year.
Post World War I, there was a move towards texts written for publication, rather than speaking. These are examples of Inspectors, Teachers College staff and teachers who wrote on the English curriculum for the Education Gazette.
Occasionally the Education Gazette featured an article or extract from a speech that the editors decided to include. These could come from publications in professional journals, other education systems (e.g. the English Board of Education) or even from the popular press. The following is a sample of the kinds of materials used in relation to the English curriculum.
The editors of the journal also wrote reviews of commercial materials produced by (mainly British) publishers. This meant recommending the text as suitable for the English curriculum but also guiding the way it was to be used or thought about.
One of the most interesting categories of texts was that of the short quotations, aphorisms, news items, extracts and commentaries that were sprinkled throughout the Education Gazette. These were more than space fillers, for they seemed designed to speak directly to the teacher and engage their interest in, and even passion for their work. Over some periods, these were gathered together under the heading of ‘From a teacher’s commonplace book’, at other times these extracts could be placed between other more official or lengthy texts.
The basic course statements for the primary school English curriculum were analysed from 1878-1929 to indicate the modifications that were made to them between publications. Revisions to subjects were tracked for both the content required (eg. the examination standard, texts used, statements of content), and for the introductory and explanatory notes in which teachers were given guidance in how to teach that content. The analysis of statements of content was conducted on the Class V (1878-1915) and Grade VII (1916-1939) course content statements, this being the curriculum aimed at students around 12 years old.
Because course content and introductory statements were revised from version to version it has been possible to visually mark the revisions that were made, signalling what changed in each edition, and what remained the same. In our analysis, any words that were added to the curriculum from the previous version are shown as underlined. On the other hand, any that were deleted are shown as struckthrough text.
Thus each analysis script shows the changes, if any, that were made from the previous version of the curriculum. The exception to this is those years in which the text was completely rewritten. In such cases this is noted in the heading and the complete new text is shown without underlining or strikethrough.
The links below will take you to the analysed course statements grouped under subject headings. In some cases subject labels changed over time. For ease of access, the subject labels used for the links are consistent. Select the document below to see an overview of the actual subject labels and how they have been grouped under the headings used here.
Primary English subject labels 1878-1939 for Class V/Grade VII (Word 71kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 18kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 40kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 39kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 118kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 27kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 59kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 50kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 36kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 33kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 50kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 46kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 33kb)
Analysis of course content (PDF 21kb)
Analysis of course notes (PDF 39kb)
