Inaugural Hedley Beare Oration

Inaugural Hedley Beare oration

The inaugural Hedley Beare oration was delivered in Darwin on November 7 by Professor Emeritus Alan Reid on the issue of equity in education.

The Northern Territory branch of ACE established the oration in honour of Professor Emeritus Hedley Beare, who shaped schools, education systems, national education policy and management as well as the profession of teaching in his 55 year education career.

Professor Reid paid tribute to Professor Beare saying "if you were compiling a list of the dozen most influential educators in Australia in the 20^th century, Professor Hedley Beare would be one of the first selected."

"He was a giant of Australian education and dominated the educational landscape for about the last third of the century. He was not only a great administrator having been the Foundation Director of two education systems (the Northern Territory and the ACT), but also a wonderful teacher - first  in schools in South Australia, then in higher education - and education scholar during his long period at Melbourne University as Professor of Education."

The oration addressed the issue of equity in education from the perspective of the national education agenda which has equity as one of its dominant themes.

In his oration, Professor Reid critically analysed that agenda, assessing it against its equity aspirations.  He argued that, far from advancing equity, many of the policy directions and associated strategies that have been developed are likely to be more counterproductive to equity goals than they will be to their realisation.

Professor Reid provided a historical review of the development of equity policy in Australian education and concluded that the debate about equity has been over simplified in recent times. He was critical of the role being played by non educators in the education debate, including News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch, who offer policy advice and solutions to problems when they may directly profit from the solutions they propose. 

Professor Reid criticised the 'transparent accountability' agenda adopted by the Rudd/Gillard governments which has been borrowed from the New York school system.  In arguing that this was a failed agenda, he asked:

• Why not borrow from successful countries?; and


• Why not take account of the research from the USA and the UK which demonstrates the failure of such 'accountability' regimes?

In his conclusion Professor Reid said he was thankful that equity has been brought back to centre stage in the national education agenda. However, it is a "narrow, emaciated and individualistic version of equity. Such a version is characterized by simplistic understandings of the nature and causes of educational disadvantage; and policy processes which are counterproductive to the achievement of equity."

He called for government policy processes to:

• Be based on a developed and articulated view of equity and social justice;


• Be thorough and systematic and recognize the complexities involved in achieving better educational outcomes for equity groups;


• Be based on research and inquiry, and be deeply appreciative of the contexts in which educational practice operates;


• Allow for trial and evaluation before being spread widely;


• Avoid the trap of reinforcing the very inequities that polices and strategies are designed to address;


• Trust the profession and make it a central partner in the decision making process; and


• Be wary of hyper inflated claims about 'closing the achievement gap.'

Alan Reid is Professor Emeritus with the School of Education at the University of South Australia. His research interests include educational policy, curriculum change, social justice and education, citizenship education and the history and politics of public education. He has been published widely on these subjects and is also involved in policy development at state and national levels.

The inaugural Hedley Beare oration took place at the Crown Plaza Hotel Darwin on November 7 with an audience of around 60 people.