Reel Schools: Schooling and the Nation in Australian Cinema

297 Pages·2013·3.419 MB·English

by  Josephine May

R J Reel Schools
o
s
eel Schools takes a fresh look at the history of Australian e
p
schooling through the lens of Australian cinema from the silent era until
h
2010. In exploring the relationship between cinematic representation
i
and educational history, Josephine May shows how numerous Australian n
feature and documentary films offer access to powerful vernacular im- e

aginings about school education in Australia.
M
May argues that the cinematic school is a pervasive metaphor for the a
Australian nation. She demonstrates that, while Australian films about y
schooling have consistently commented on the relationship of school-
ing to the Australian class structure, they also increasingly explored
gender, race and ethnicity at school, especially after the 1970s.
From then on the egalitarian dream of school education and the nation’s
capacity to generate meaningful futures for the young became in-
creasingly contested. R
e
e
l

S
c
h
o
o
l
s
Dr Josephine May is Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Hu-
Schooling and the Nation
manities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia,
where she gained her PhD. Her research interests include Australian
in Australian Cinema
educational history, childhood and youth history, and history and film.
Josephine May
www.peterlang.com
ISBN 978-3-0343-0632-4
Peter LANg
R J Reel Schools
o
s
eel Schools takes a fresh look at the history of Australian e
p
schooling through the lens of Australian cinema from the silent era until
h
2010. In exploring the relationship between cinematic representation
i
and educational history, Josephine May shows how numerous Australian n
feature and documentary films offer access to powerful vernacular im- e

aginings about school education in Australia.
M
May argues that the cinematic school is a pervasive metaphor for the a
Australian nation. She demonstrates that, while Australian films about y
schooling have consistently commented on the relationship of school-
ing to the Australian class structure, they also increasingly explored
gender, race and ethnicity at school, especially after the 1970s.
From then on the egalitarian dream of school education and the nation’s
capacity to generate meaningful futures for the young became in-
creasingly contested. R
e
e
l

S
c
h
o
o
l
s
Dr Josephine May is Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Hu-
Schooling and the Nation
manities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia,
where she gained her PhD. Her research interests include Australian
in Australian Cinema
educational history, childhood and youth history, and history and film.
Josephine May
www.peterlang.com
Peter LANg
Reel Schools

Reel Schools
Schooling and the Nation
in Australian Cinema
Josephine May
PeteR LANg
Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · Frankfurt am Main · New York · Oxford · Wien
Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet
at ‹http://dnb.d-nb.de›.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record
for this book is available from the British Library, great Britain
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
May, Josephine, 1950-
Reel schools : schooling and the nation in Australian cinema / Josephine May.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-0343-0632-4
1. Schools in motion pictures. 2. education in motion pictures.
3. Nationalism in motion pictures. 4. Motion pictures–Australia–History and
criticism. I. title.
PN1995.9.S253M39 2013
791.43'6558–dc23
2012044441
Cover illustration: Appleyard College in Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Lobby Card, copyright permission kindly provided by James Mcelroy.
Still provided by National Film and Sound Archive, title Number 429236-12.
Cover design: thomas grütter, Peter Lang Ag
ISBN 978-3-0343-0632-4 pb. ISBN 978-3-0351-0443-1 eBook
© Peter Lang Ag, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2013
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the
permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
this applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and
storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in Switzerland
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements vii
List of Figures ix
CHAPTER 1 Introduction: The Cinematic Vernacular of
Australian Schooling 1
CHAPTER 2 The Silent Era: ‘A School of Sentiment’ 15
CHAPTER 3 High Tide of Nationalist Portrayal 1930s–1960s 45
CHAPTER 4 Nation and the Girls’ Boarding School in the 1970s 73
CHAPTER 5 Nation and the Boys’ School in the 1970s 95
CHAPTER 6 State High School Blues in the Early 1980s 119
CHAPTER 7 The School Film in the Late 1980s 149
CHAPTER 8 Multicultural Nation at School in the 1980s–1990s 183
CHAPTER 9 Private School Fantasies in the 2000s 217
CHAPTER 10 Conclusion 243
Bibliography & Filmography 249
Index 273

v

Preface and Acknowledgements
This book is the result of an obsession. I wouldn’t go so far as to call
it a ‘magnificent obsession’ but it has certainly been a constant one
now for a number of years. In looking for an interesting research pro-
ject in the History of Australian Education utilising visual evidence, I
thought of the many fine Australian films featuring schools, one of the
first among them, Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir, 1971). This started
speculation about the meaning and purpose of the school in the nu-
merous quality school films of the 1970s Australian film revival. I
then began to look at other decades and to make a list – a sure sign of
obsession taking hold. I noticed the ubiquity of schools in Australian
films either as main or ancillary components. What could this pres-
ence mean? How far back in Australian film making history did it go?
I turned to the historical and critical literature to help me understand
the role of the school and schooling in Australian cinema, to find that
the topic was not addressed in any sustained manner. There was an
absence at the heart of this almost continuous presence of the school
film. This absence of scholarly investigation was particularly the case
for historians of Australian education who had not systematically en-
gaged with the visual realm as evidence until recent years. So there it
is – something interesting was going on in Australian film regarding
schools and schooling. Reel Schools is my answer to the question:
what does it mean when filmmakers represent the Australian school,
and its essential personnel of teachers and students, on film?
Some of the material in this book has been drawn from journal ar-
ticles published over the years as the project developed. Three articles
were published by Taylor & Francis Ltd (http://www.tandf.co.uk/
journals): ‘A Field of Desire: Selected Images of Education in Austra-
lian Silent Film’ (Pedagogica Historica 2010) utilised in Chapter 2;
‘The disenchantment of childhood: exploring the cultural and spatial
boundaries of childhood in three Australian feature films, 1920s–
1970s’ (Pedagogica Historica 2007) in Chapter 3; and ‘A challenging
vii
vision: the teacher-student relationship in The Heartbreak Kid’ (Jour-
nal of Australian Studies, 2009) in chapter 8. Two articles were pub-
lished in History of Education Review (Emerald Publishers): ‘Imagin-
ing the Secondary School: the “pictorial turn” and representations of
secondary schools in two Australian feature films of the 1970s’ (His-
tory of Education Review 2006) in Chapter 4; and material from ‘Pu-
berty Blues and the Representation of an Australian Comprehensive
High School’ (History of Education Review 2008) is included in
Chapter 6. I also reproduced some material in Chapter 5 from my arti-
cle, ‘Insistent bodies versus the Rule: the representation of male sexu-
alities and gender identities in The Devil’s Playground’ in Journal of
Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (2006). Full details are in the bibli-
ography.
Thank you to my colleagues in the Australian and New Zealand
History of Education Society, the most generous of scholarly groups,
who helped to clarify my thinking about film and schooling. A special
thank you to my university colleagues: especially to Dr Jill Bough,
Professor Lyndall Ryan, and Dr Wendy Michaels. Emma Hamilton is
the best research assistant anyone could ever have. Thanks to the Ac-
cess to Collections staff of the National Film and Sound Archive in
Canberra and Sydney, as well as the generous copyright holders of the
images reproduced in this book. I am also very grateful for the support
of Professor John Germov, Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Education
and Arts, and to Associate Professor Roger Markwick, Head of School
of Humanities and Social Sciences, for supporting the publication of
this book.
Finally I want to thank the shining stars in my firmament: my
husband Graham for his unflagging support for all of my endeavours,
our daughter Johanna and son Chris, always inspirational. Special
thanks to Chris for editing and indexical help above and beyond the
call. Any errors or omissions in the text yet to be found are entirely
mine.

Dr Josephine May,
Newcastle, Australia, 2012.

(cid:90)
viii