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Book Review
| Peter Crocker et al, Tech Voices: Recollections of the Technical Teachers Association of Victoria, Australian Education Union, Victorian Branch, Abbotsford, 2005. pp. x + 328. $33.00 paper.
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| Tech Voices is an interesting and informative account of a fairly turbulent period in the history of teacher unionism in Victoria, a period which saw the demise of technical high schools and the emergence of post secondary TAFE colleges. It tells the story of Victoria's technical (tech) teachers, who, in 1967, broke away from the conservative Victorian Teachers Union (VTU) due mainly to frustration with their lack of autonomy within the VTU. This had made it impossible for them to pursue their issues in an effective way. Following the split, they formed a new union, the Technical Teachers Association of Victoria (TTAV). Because this union was based on grass roots activism and was much more militant than the VTU, it was successful in winning both educational and industrial campaigns and, according to the writers, had an influence way beyond its size. |
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The principle issues facing the union were equal pay, permanency, class sizes, accommodation, teacher registration and the move towards comprehensive education. Women in the teaching service were paid less than men for doing the same work; married women were denied the right to permanent jobs; classes were bursting at the seams with up to 52 students; accommodation was temporary and inadequate; the Department was employing unqualified teachers to cope with a serious shortage of qualified teachers. Some of these problems resulted from the Government's lack of planning and funding to deal with post-war immigration and the baby boom. A conservative teachers' union, not prepared to take militant action, was never going to succeed in bringing about the changes needed to achieve the high quality public education system society has a right to expect. |
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The book claims to be more of an extended memoir than a history and is largely based on interviews with those who were involved in the struggles. It succeeds in providing the reader with an insight into the campaigns waged by the tech teacher union as well as the struggles within the teacher unions. The TTAV took up educational issues as enthusiastically as industrial issues. It had an active education committee and was involved in the reform of the technical curriculum. This is a great strength of teacher unions generally and reflects the social responsibility of their members. The enthusiasm and dedication of the teachers especially in the early days of the TTAV comes through strongly in the interviews. |
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The book is divided into two parts. The first part consists of a narrative account of the formation and history of the TTAV. This is interspersed with extracts from the interviews which make up the second part. The extracts of interviews in Part 1 make the narrative rather disjointed and reading the extracts again in Part 2 tends to be repetitious. If the first part of the book had been written purely as a narrative, leaving the oral history to the second part, or if the extracts had been better integrated, the narrative would have flowed better. |
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Part 2 contains 33 interviews, 29 of male and only four of female teachers. This is unfortunate as it could be seen to support accusations of a 'boys club' referred to in the book. Despite the gender imbalance, the interviews are enjoyable reading. While they cover the same period, they provide different perspectives and personalities and, because people were involved in different issues, the amount of detail varies considerably. |
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As a teacher and union activist in New South Wales and a member of the Adult Migrant English Service Teachers Association, a minority group within the New South Wales Teachers Federation, I was particularly interested in the experiences of the Victorian tech teachers, another minority group in the teaching service. Despite having campaigned around similar issues, I found that my lack of familiarity with the Victorian education system made the book confusing in places, but by the time I had read all the interviews most things had fallen into place. |
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I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in education or labour history. It is an inspiring account of unionists prepared to fight the battles they encounter in their daily working life and a good reminder of the progress that has been made in the last 50 years, but also of the necessity to continue fighting. A lot of battles which have been fought and won in the past have had to be fought again thanks to tendering of funding, attempts to deskill the profession by reducing teachers to mere trainers and looming teacher shortages due to high rates of retirement. |
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| University of Sydney |
SHELLEY GREER | |
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