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Solving “The Retardation Problem” in Primary Education: The Case of South Australia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
Extract
Historical study of the age-grade efficiency movement which took firm root in North America and the Antipodes during the early 1900s, in particular the preoccupation of education authorities with “the retardation problem” (the number of scholars over-aged for grade in consequence of their failure to make “normal” annual progress through the course of instruction), importantly contributes to understanding the age-grade homogeneity of modern elementary schools. The following account of mid-twentieth century developments in South Australia seeks to provide comparative insights into measures adopted to reduce retardation in the interests of preserving school order, enhancing pedagogical and bureaucratic “efficiency,” improving access to secondary courses, and alleviating the costs of “laggards” to the state.
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- Copyright © 1999 by the History of Education Society
References
1 For an overview of North American developments that gave form and impetus to the South Australian Education Department's quest to achieve a close age-grade fit, see Otto, H.J. and Estes, D. M. “Accelerated and retarded progress“ in Encyclopaedia of Educational Research. 3rd edition, ed. Harris, C. (New York: MacMillan, 1960), 4–11; Tropea, Joseph L. “Bureaucratic order and special children: Urban schools, 1890s–1940s”, History of Education Quarterly 27:1 (Spring 1987), 29–53; Callahan, R. E. Education and the Cult of Efficiency (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Angus, David L. Mirel, Jeffrey E. and Vinovskis, Maris A. “Historical development of age stratification in schooling,” Teachers College Record 90:2 (Winter 1988), 211–36.Google Scholar
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