Telling tales: an oral history of Kelvin Grove College 1942-1990

.In 1991 Kelvin Grove is in the throes of another major change, and the anticipated scale of the change prompted this book. The main aim was to capture the personal recollections of people who had been associated with Kelvin Grove; either when it was a Teachers' College, or Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education, or as a campus of Brisbane College Advanced Education up until 1989. The people interviewed here give fascinating insights into an institution that has been the most important of its kind in Queensland for over half a century. It is an oral history that is readable, informative and enjoyable. The views of the informants vary considerably, from 111 reflections Kelvin Grove that are principally nostalgic to those that arc a little cynical. It is evident in all of them, however, that Kelvin Grove has impact on the lives of a great many people. Now, as one informant points out, Kelvin Grove has gone full circle, returning to an institution, Queensland University of Technology, with which it was initially associated, at another site, early this century. The process of programme diversification, begun over a decade ago zuitlzin Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education, which later became Brisbane College of Advanced Education, has become even more obvious. The predominant concern with teacher education has shifted. Kelvin Grove now become part of a more broadly based, large University, developing on five sites in the northern corridor of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. The current change is probably the most significant of the many changes that have transformed the Campus in the post-war period. More than any other change, it places Kelvin Grove squarely in the higher education sector as part of a major University with expanded opportunities for study beyond its previous preoccupation mainly with teacher education and training. Although there are many challenges and prospects ahead, there are also valuable insights and experiences to be derived from reflecting on the past, hence the decision to embark on this book when amalgamation with QUT was imminent, in late 1989. Some preliminary recorded interviews were undertaken by Denis Crylc in 1989. More concerted work on the oral history spanned the whole of 1990. Susan Pechey was employed and we planned together the nature of the history, the range of informants, and decided on the format of the recordings. Susan then conducted some fifty more interviews, and has undertaken the enormous task of editing the final manuscript. We have worked closely in refining the development and final version of this book. It was decided in 1989 that an oral history would be undertaken because in 1981 Norm Anderson had completed a more traditional historical record of Kelvin Grove as the College became a Campus of Brisbane College of Advanced Education. Whilst that is an important factual record, it was felt that an oral history might complement it, and begin to tap the views of some significant people or "characters" in the life of Kelvin Grove up to 1990, conveying some of the more human dimensions of the history of an institution which has always primarily concerned itself with people. As has been alluded to already, most graduates, not surprisingly, subsequently became associated with education in one form or another, but some have left education and become famous in other fields. For example, television personalities George Negus and Bernard King were educated at Kelvin Grove. Of course, the great majority of people who have been associated with Kelvin Grove have remained teachers. There are probably more teachers in the State from Kelvin Grove than from any other teacher education institution. Kelvin Grove has been pre-eminently important in influencing, through teacher supply, the nature of education in Queensland for half of this century. What emerges from the interviews, as with most oral histories, is a mixture of reminiscences, romantic reconstructions, humour, nostalgia, cynicism, and so many other human emotions and perspectives. Some respected the institution and its teachers, some didn't. Some found what they learned valuable, others found they disregarded much of it. Some regret the changes. Some believe them overdue. The range of views emphasises that there is no simple truth, and that history is made up of a multiplicity of views; standpoints recreated by individuals whose views are significantly influenced by time and place and their positions in systems. It was for this reason felt to be important to record the powerful as well as the more ordinary or obscure views of people who have been important in their own areas in their own ways at different times. The sample of informants is highly subjective and was chosen from a long list of suggestions from staff Personal views of events are expressed and what results is not a comprehensive history, but an attempt to reflect the rich store of memories of the College. There are interesting contradictions in the interviews: it sometimes appears that everything has changed and much been lost, at other times that little has changed and that an inherent conservatism has pervaded the institution up to and including its amalgamation with Queensland University of Technology. Other interviews indicate a gradual and consistent series of changes for the better. Readers will no doubt have their own views about the scale and impact of change. The changes at Kelvin Grove have been fairly frequent, and there are recurring themes in the interviews. Let me give some examples. Apart from the occupation of the current site at Kelvin Grove in 1942, probably the first major change occurred in the early 1970s when the Teachers College disappeared and was replaced by Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education, autonomous and independent of the State Education Department. The implications of having been an institution within the ambit of the State Education Department is evidenced in a number of the interviews. Recruitment practices for lecturers then would be considered bizarre today, as Clare Van Homrigh, Clarrie Diefenbach and Gordon Jones make very clear. Entry points for students, the lengths of courses, and the placement in schools were equally difficult to understand and infinitely varied, seemingly at the discretion of the successive Principals of Kelvin Grove and perhaps reflecting the crisis-management methods of the State Department in times when teacher supply was problematic. The decade of autonomy in the 1970s was a period of considerable change but a continuing preoccupation with teacher education. Gordon Jones, Peter Batsman, and others have a good deal to say about this period of growth and diversification. In 1981 a Commonwealth decision was made to form the Brisbane College of Advanced Education and Kelvin Grove was the largest of the four constituent campuses when that amalgamation became a reality in 1982. The remainder of the eighties was a further period of growth although it was also one of some unrest as the institution attempted to deal with its multi-campus identity following an amalgamation which many people felt had been forced on them and which some resented. Ten years later, no such force or precipitate action was evident, as BCAE (minus Mt Gravatt Campus, which had merged with Griffith University) voted strongly to become part of the new Queensland University of Technology in "a partnership of equals". The merger occurred on 1 May 1990, with major structural alterations being in place for January 1991. One of the significant changes at Kelvin Grove itself was that for the first time in its history, Kelvin Grove would not have an academic as head of the campus community. A campus identity was not regarded as important. Promoting a broader QUT corporate image was considered vital and with new faculty structures and the halving of the BCAE Schools of Education, the Education Faculty was no longer the largest professional programme, as it had always previously been. The institutionally dominant position of teacher education had gone.A major recurring theme in the interviews relates to the relative isolation of student teachers from the rest of the higher education community, and it is interesting to speculate whether this has been beneficial or detrimental. Some of the points about the institutional setting are interesting in this respect. For example, whilst Kelvin Grove was within the direct jurisdiction of the State Department of Education, at least up until the late sixties, there appears to have been a deeply conservative regime at the College. There are some wonderful examples of ritual, rule-breaking, fun and drudgery provided in the interviews with Clarrie Diefenbach, Phil Cullen, Peter Wilson and Betty Grulke. Forms of addressing supervisors, clothing codes and discipline are often mentioned as more reminiscent of a military establishment than a higher education institution. "A Block", particularly the restricted use of its front stairs, and the parades, had enormous significance. Yet in this inflexible environment some regarded the rules as necessary and normal and made the appropriate adaptations to conform. Some reflect on the environment with nostalgia for the warmth and professionalism that was also evident. Cec Falvey and Coll Portley provide some examples of this. Tom Dixon and Bob Leach perceived Kelvin Grove's environment differently, critical of a "ghetto mentality" or its "farcical culture". But with Principals such as "Rocks" Robinson not too many staff or students stepped out of line at the time, and there are hilarious examples of dire warnings extended to potential hooligans. There has always been, it seems, little agreement about what constitutes good teacher "education", or "training". Are successful school teachers good lecturers? What is the best range of subjects? How important is curriculum as opposed to discipline knowledge? Are resources important? What is the place and form of practice teaching? Answers to these questions are almost as many as the sample who addressed them, usually indirectly, in interviews. Yet these issues remain perennially important, not least in a new education framework in a new institution with markedly competing interests. The book, however, is not a systematic examination of such issues and its major appeal is the treatment of everyday concerns that are personal and anecdotal. Another theme relates to recruitment patterns and limitations on staff development. Staff at Kelvin Grove, at least until the early seventies had few opportunities for professional development and career advancement. Cec Falvey's trip to Paris was rare. Many teachers reached a point in the State Department and were then promoted/transferred out of schools into Kelvin Grove, which for a long time was little different from a high school, according to Peter Wilson. Gordon Jones' and then Nan Durrans' interviews also illuminate the transfer system. Once in Kelvin Grove, staff were locked into a system which did not provide incentives for study leave nor a promotion system with many rungs on the ladder. Many talented people were constrained within that system, and could further their own education only at their own expense of time and money. Real dangers of inertia were exacerbated by the relatively small size of the institution and its lack of contact with the world outside teacher education. Until the 1970s the system at Kelvin Grove was not the subject of careful planning based on projections of supply and demand. The immediate postwar years seem almost ad hoc, with a profusion of emergency schemes, based more on desperation than on inspired conceptualisation of the needs of the teaching profession. Graham Shipstone's interview, for example, highlights some of these problems. It seems that passing exams was fairly predictable - if students were "warm and vertical" they had difficulty failing! Change has worried some people and some early retirees say about 1991 that they could not face another amalgamation, whilst younger members of staff see new opportunities opening up. Perceptions of the changes vary so much. Frequently, the depersonalisation associated with becoming larger is mentioned. Yet in the same period others, such as Mike Lannen, saw Kelvin Grove as more friendly and supportive than other local higher education institutions. In the period of rapid growth that occurred in the late seventies both the Director and the institution became more visible and subject to community criticism or praise. Peter Batsman, as Director, was occasionally subjected to intense political pressure but pursued actions which changed irrevocably the nature of Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education within, and also the nature of its relationships without. The period was seen by informants as highly significant although degrees of criticism or acclaim vary. The appearance of Brisbane College of Advanced Education in 1982 occurred suddenly, with a loss of identity for Kelvin Grove as a separate institution, and introduced a period of destablisation and staff unrest. The relatively deferent staff of the fifties was replaced by the more vociferous group of the eighties - staff had changed as the institution had changed. BCAE spent an extravagant amount of time attempting to arrive at an appropriate multi-campus organisational form. The significance of campus identity was felt strongly by Mt Gravatt, Carseldine and Kedron Park as well as Kelvin Grove, and was at the heart of much BCAE unrest. Whether campus identity should be resisted or encouraged was never satisfactorily resolved and contributed to the break-up of BCAE in 1989. In 1990 QUT decided the matter for the remaining campuses and individual identity was to be diminished in favour of central control, with new faculties assuming day-to-day academic control. The administration of dispersed multi-campus institutions has perplexed many staff, and it figures significantly in BCAE staff perceptions as an explanation of the ills of the 1980s. Most people feared the degree of control exercised by central authorities in the large organization and the problems of the 1960s are a salutary reminder of how important human beings remain in their effective functioning of big institutions. If the human dimension is not addressed, meticulously developed theoretical plans can be undermined quite easily, as was evident in the history of BCAE. However one views these recurrent themes, they were important in the perceptions and lives of people at Kelvin Grove, and the informants look back as students, lecturers or simply with a general interest in the campus.Kelvin Grove has a long and fascinating history. I hope you enjoy reading about it through the words of some of the people who created that history. As the last of the line of institutional principals, I read with mixed emotions the insights the interviews provide. I would like to thank all those informants who gave their time to this data collection. They make Kelvin Grove come alive. Finally, Susan Pechey has been a committed, personable, and perceptive researcher. I have enjoyed working with her and believe that with the limited financial resources provided by the School of Teacher Education, Kelvin Grove, she has accomplished a major task, that others might wish to take further at some later date. Certainly there is a great deal of material that warrants further investigation and Susan is a strong advocate that it happen. My sincere thanks to her for the outstanding work she has achieved, on behalf of all of those who have been part of Kelvin Grove.

Paul Thomas Kelvin Grove February 1991