ABSTRACT

Visual evidence offered by a set of previously unexamined photographic images taken at Stanmore Public School in Sydney, Australia in 1919 informs this paper which considers the images’ purpose, construction, content, use, and reception. It endorses arguments that visual evidence combines with other sources to tell a richer history, and that images have potential to reveal history that otherwise might remain hidden. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Australian educators participated enthusiastically in the worldwide movement for educational reform known as New Education. The state of New South Wales introduced new curricula and fresh methods of teaching. The Department of Education was proud of its achievements, and the photographs taken at Stanmore reflect, affirm, and promote the changes which had taken place during a period when educators were enthusiastic about making New Education available to all children in the state schools and not just to those in small private progressive schools. This situation would shift in the 1920s and 1930s. The photographs, in conjunction with other sources including archival school files, allow an approach to the school experience of small children in the Infants Department at Stanmore. The School, with the support of influential educators, consciously introduced Kindergarten and Montessori methods into newly refurbished classrooms and an expanded playground. The photographs represent both educational achievement and optimism for the future and fit well into a recently argued genre called “the progressive image”.

摘要

1919 年在澳大利亚悉尼斯坦莫尔公立学校拍摄的一组先前未经检查的摄影图像提供的视觉证据为本论文提供了信息，该论文考虑了图像的目的、结构、内容、使用和接受。它支持这样的论点：视觉证据与其他来源相结合可以讲述更丰富的历史，并且图像有潜力揭示否则可能隐藏的历史。二十世纪头二十年，澳大利亚教育工作者热情参与了被称为“新教育”的世界范围教育改革运动。新南威尔士州引入了新课程和新的教学方法。教育部对其取得的成就感到自豪，在斯坦莫尔拍摄的照片反映、肯定了 并促进在教育工作者热衷于向公立学校的所有儿童而不仅仅是小型私立进步学校的儿童提供新教育的时期所发生的变化。这种情况在 20 年代和 1930 年代发生了转变。这些照片与包括学校档案在内的其他来源相结合，可以了解斯坦莫尔婴儿部幼儿的学校经历。学校在有影响力的教育家的支持下，有意识地将幼儿园和蒙特梭利方法引入新装修的教室和扩建的操场。这些照片代表了教育成就和对未来的乐观态度，非常适合最近争论的“进步图像”流派。