‘A little child shall lead them’: Tasmanian and Victorian School Readers and National Growth

Authors

  • Jane McGennisken University of Tasmania, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2008vol18no1art1177

Keywords:

School readers, Tasmania, Victoria

Abstract

Reading, one of the ‘three Rs’ still fundamental to educational theory and reconceptualisations of literacy teaching and learning, is a complex socio-cultural practice. Recent attacks on critical literacy approaches to teaching English reveal that what children are taught to read, and how they are taught to read it, is value-laden and contentious (Slattery 2005, p.31). Critics argue for a ‘back to basics’ approach to teaching a love of reading, a reaction to the ‘postmodern literary theory [that] has infiltrated our schools at the expense of comprehension and expression’ (ibid). Yet these same critics appear unaware that the link between children’s literature and ideology was both recognised by, and institutionalised in, Australian school textbooks of nearly 80 years ago. Indeed, in the 1928 preface to the eighth book, the first of the Victorian Readers to be published, the editorial committee was explicit in its intended literary production of young Australians.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

  • Jane McGennisken, University of Tasmania, Australia

    Jane McGennisken is a PhD student in the School of English, Journalism and European Languages at the University of Tasmania. Her thesis examines encoded and encoding themes of national growth in early twentieth century Australian School Readers.

References

Aries, Philippe (1962) Centuries of Childhood. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Baynton, Barbara (1965) ‘The Chosen Vessel’, Bush Studies. Sydney, Angus & Robertson.

Bean, C.E.W. (1930) ‘The Youngster’, Fifth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Bradford, Clare (2001) Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children’s Literature. Melbourne: Melbourne UP.

(1933) ‘A Brave Australian Girl’, The Tasmanian Readers Grade IV. Melbourne, Education Department Tasmania.

Bruce, Mary Grant (1933) ‘A Rescue’, Fifth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Carter, Samuel (1930) ‘An Adventure with the Blacks’, Fifth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Clarke, Marcus (1933) ‘Pretty Dick’, The Tasmanian Readers Grade V. Melbourne, Education Department Tasmania.

Coveney, Peter (1967) The Image of Childhood. rev.ed. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Fullerton, Mary (1930) ‘The Old Bush School’, Fifth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Grant Bruce, Mary (1930) ‘A Rescue’, Fifth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Higgonet, Anne (1998) Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. London, Thames and Hudson.

Hillel, Margot (2003) ‘He was ready to prove himself a man: the Heroic in Australian Children’s Literature’, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Summer: 73-90.

Hillel, Margot (1930) ‘Lost in the Bush’, Fourth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Mack, Louise (1929) ‘Sunrise in the Blue Mountains’, Sixth Book, Victorian Readers. Melbourne, Government Printer.

Natov, Roni (2003) The Poetics of Childhood. New York, Routledge.

Pearce, Sharyn (1997) ‘Literature, Mythmaking and National identity: the Case for Seven Little Australians’, Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 7.3: 10-16.

Pierce, Peter (1999) The Country of Lost Children: An Australian Anxiety. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

(1911) ‘Preface’, Fifth Reader, The Pacific Readers. Auckland, Whitcombe & Tombs.

(1928) ‘Preface’, Eighth Book, The Victorian Readers. Melbourne: Government Printer.

Schaffer, Kay (1998) Women and the Bush: Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition. Cambridge, Cambridge UP.

Slattery, Luke (2005) ‘Words without meaning’, Weekend Australian. 23-24 July: 31.

Steedman, Carolyn (1995) Strange Dislocations: Childhood and the Idea of Human Interiority 1780-1930. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press.

Turner, Ethel (1933) ‘Poppet’s Visit to the school’, The Tasmanian Readers Grade IV. Melbourne: Education Department Tasmania.

—— (1994) Seven Little Australians. Camberwell, Penguin.

Downloads

Published

2008-06-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“‘A little child shall lead them’: Tasmanian and Victorian School Readers and National Growth” (2008) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 18(1), pp. 5–12. doi:10.21153/pecl2008vol18no1art1177.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 82

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.