Purpose

Soon after its establishment in 1863, the Board of Education – “the body responsible for administering public education in Victoria – determined that a system of universal mixed (coeducational) schooling would be adopted in the colony. Existing single-sex departments were “encouraged”, or compelled, to amalgamate, and no new separate schools were established. Although administrators and officials endorsed coeducation, primarily on the grounds of efficiency and economy, opposition from some teachers and parents persisted for many decades. Those opposed to the mixing of children within the schools expressed particular concern about the moral well-being of female pupils, and wished to protect them from what they perceived as corrupting influences. Nevertheless, once decided upon, the policy of universal coeducation prevailed, and when Victoria's first state secondary schools were established in the early 20th century, they too were coeducational.

Design/methodology/approach

Documentary evidence, primarily the records of the various boards responsible for the administration of the public schools, evidence provided to several royal commissions, and various contemporary sources, have been examined to discover how the policy of universal coeducation was developed and implemented, and to examine what arguments were offered in favour of and against such a system.

Findings

The colony of Victoria implemented a system of universal coeducation within the public education sector well in advance of its adoption by other Australian colonies, and before it was generally accepted by similar societies elsewhere. The purpose of this paper is to examine why, how and by whom the policy of coeducation was formulated and implemented, and what opposition it faced.

Originality/value

Although reference is often made to coeducational schooling in histories of education in the 19th century, the information provided is usually of a general nature, without providing specific information about the process by which separate schooling was superseded by coeducation – how and when one type of educational provision came to be replaced by another.

中文翻译：

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19 世纪维多利亚公立学校的单一性别与男女同校教育

目的

在 1863 年成立后不久，教育委员会——“负责管理维多利亚州公共教育的机构——决定在该殖民地采用普遍混合（男女同校）教育系统。现有的单一性别部门被“鼓励”或被迫合并，并且没有建立新的独立学校。尽管行政人员和官员主要以效率和经济为理由支持男女同校，但一些教师和家长的反对持续了几十年。那些反对将儿童混入学校的人特别关注女学生的道德福祉，并希望保护她们免受他们认为的腐败影响。然而，一旦决定，普遍男女同校的政策就占了上风，当维多利亚的

设计/方法/方法

文件证据，主要是负责公立学校管理的各个委员会的记录、提供给几个皇家委员会的证据以及各种当代来源，已被审查，以发现普遍男女同校政策是如何制定和实施的，并审查支持和反对这种制度的论据是什么？

发现

维多利亚殖民地在被其他澳大利亚殖民地采用之前，以及在其他地方的类似社会普遍接受之前，就在公共教育部门内实施了普遍男女同校制度。本文的目的是研究男女同校政策制定和实施的原因、方式和实施者，以及它面临的反对意见。

原创性/价值

尽管在 19 世纪的教育史上经常提到男女同校，但所提供的信息通常是一般性的，没有提供关于男女同校取代单独学校的过程的具体信息——一种教育类型如何以及何时规定被另一个取代。