From idealism to realism: the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria 1920-1941.

Dadswell, Gordon

On 21 March 1941 the Council of the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria (WEAV), voted itself out of existence. This article discusses how a shift in a philosophical paradigm that took place in the 1920s and 1930s in Australia created one of the opportunities for an intellectual, a person who is involved, 'in the production, transmission and adaptation of ideas about society and culture', (1) to close down the WEAV in 1941. At the heart of this discussion is the shift in the definition of, 'the worker' that resulted from the shift in paradigm. It is proposed that one of the major reasons for the change in definition of the worker was as a direct result of a philosophical change from the idealism of New Liberalism to the realism wrought through changing economic conditions in the 1920s and 1930s.

There are three reasons for placing the destruction of an adult education provider within a paradigm shift. The first concerns the rationale provided by writers for the failure of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) in Australia to maintain education to workers. Commentators such as Bob Boughton, Tim Rowse, and Lucy Taksa, all of whom are historians, have advanced a rationale that is based on the concept of social class. (2) The article considers that a shift in paradigm rather than a class-based model has as much validity.

The second is a response to the almost complete absence from the literature about the work of the WEAV. The only significant work is a master's thesis of Alfred Wesson. The content of his thesis relating to the WEAV spans two thirds of his research and is written exclusively from the viewpoint of the University of Melbourne. (3) The other writer is Colin Robert Badger who in 1960 employed Wesson as the Director of the Council's Discussion Group service. As Badger is one of the major protagonists critical of the WEAV, he can scarcely be seen as a reliable source of information in regard to the WEAV. The article can therefore be seen as an initial attempt to re-write the history of a voluntary adult education provider.

The final reason is to address the role of an intellectual, Badger, in the closure of an adult education provider. The article specifically considers that the major reason used by him to close the WEAV was an unwavering belief in the realist paradigm. He also assumed that the WEAV should have been delivering adult education to adults who were defined by their mode of employment rather than their desire to learn.

There are two other protagonists in this story; Meredith Atkinson and William Keith Hancock. Atkinson, an adult educator and idealist intellectual, shifted the definition of the worker away from an employment-based definition to one that more closely identified a worker as anyone who works in any capacity. Hancock, an historian and also an intellectual, re-established the idea of social class in Australia. Badger translated this concept into an adult education framework as a result of studying with Hancock.

The article briefly covers the establishment of the Workers' Educational Association in both England and Australia. The development of the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria is discussed in the context of the work of Atkinson. The idealism paradigm as exemplified in the writings of Atkinson is described and the relationship between the paradigm and adult education is made explicit. The development of realism is then discussed including the role of Hancock where his conceptualisation of social class is made explicit. Next the reaction by Badger to the concept enunciated by Hancock and applied to adult education is described. The article concludes by discussing the role of Badger in seeking to remove the WEAV as a major provider of adult education in Victoria.

Workers' Educational Association

The development of the WEA is well known. It was formed in England by Albert Mansbridge and his wife who initiated the Association to Promote the Higher Education of Working Men (apparently not working women) which became the Workers' Educational Association in 1905. The founders of the WEA had as their main purpose, 'the provision of a university education for working-class people'. (4)

The model developed by Mansbridge was the tutorial class that was to be organised through the WEA in conjunction with a university. The WEA itself was to be managed by a Central Council consisting of representatives of affiliated groups, particularly the trades unions. Also the control of the content and the engagement of tutors were to be managed by a Joint Committee drawn equally from a university and the WEA. In Australia the universities of Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide had all become affiliated with the British WEA by 1911. (5)

In 1913 Mansbridge was invited to visit Australia by James Barrett who was a significant member of the Council of the University of Melbourne. During this visit the first Australian branch was established in September 1913 in a Melbourne cafe. (6) Mansbridge brought with him the model noted above. Although he considered the new organisation as being principally for the working man, he also certainly recognised that the tutorial class system would attract the already educated general public. He acknowledged that the WEA would be 'a replica in miniature of English life'. (7) This acknowledgment that the worker could also include non-manual labouring people was also the message Mansbridge brought to Australia.

Workers' Educational Association of Victoria

In Victoria James Barrett, an ophthalmologist, and William Harrison Moore, Professor of Law, effectively dominated the development of the movement. Both men understood the underlying rationale of the Mansbridge WEA, however, they, and particularly Barrett, ensured that the model for Victoria was to promote an educated populace with the aim of improving their sense of citizenship. They were not overly concerned about the Mansbridge 'working-class', they wanted to see an educated Australia. Therefore the worker became much more than someone who was a manual labourer but was in fact anyone who, 'works or does work of any kind'. Indeed Moore described workers as 'every one of us in whatever capacity we work'. (8)

This shift in definition away from an exclusively manual worker basis was a reflection of the New Liberalism philosophy supported by Barrett and Moore. In terms of education Barrett articulated New Liberalism as: 'an attempt to better educate the mass of the people, to increase their efficiency, and to mould their character by imparting ideas of thoroughness and accuracy in their daily work'. (9)

This connection of education and efficiency along with Moore's definition of workers was a major concern of the New Liberals in Australia: to interpret class differences as a prejudice rather than as a group that needed to be suppressed. To advance this ideal Barrett and Moore ensured the engagement of Atkinson as the first Director of Tutorial Classes at the University of Melbourne.

Meredith Atkinson

Atkinson came to Melbourne in early 1918 bringing with him a controversial past from Sydney where, as a disciple of Mansbridge, he had been recommended to the University as a suitable Director of Tutorial Studies. (10)

Much more importantly he also brought various publications that outlined his philosophy in relation to the worker; specifically his definition of the worker as someone who is a member of the 'people'. His publications also reinforced the relationship between the efficiency movement and education, 'there is only one solution-the higher education of the people in all matters of civic duty and public concern'. (11) Atkinson was also quite clear that the most effective organisation to deliver such education was the WEA. All attempts in the past made by the Universities to reach the people have failed, because they did not actively interest the people in running the system for themselves. We have avoided that error. The W.E.A. organises the demand amongst the people. (12)

He also knew who 'the people' were as well: 'all grades of people engaged in all kinds of avocations'. (13)

In 1919 Atkinson published a collection of lectures he had given to students in WEA tutorial classes and public lectures around Australia. The New Social Order: A Study of Post-War Reconstruction, can now be read as a final optimistic view about the future Australia where the idealism that flowed from New Liberal principles could still be achieved. Atkinson refers almost consistently throughout the publication to the worker as a wage earner, as a member of the wage-earning class, and as citizens. He recognised that the social situation at the end of the First World War was going to impose severe strains on these definitions and that the success of any government to ensure harmony between capital and labour would be challenged. He was also only too well aware of what was happening internationally in terms of economics and how this was going to impact on Australia. (14)

However at the heart of his concern, as it was for Barrett, was the requirement to 'educate the mass'. In order to achieve this, the relationship between the WEA and the universities needed to change; that is the idea of the Tutorial Class as a methodology, and the Joint Committee as a management model, had to change. He recognised that the two organisations were intrinsically different in terms of their understanding about the learning needs of adults or indeed how adults learn. (15)

The New Social Order: A Study of Post-War Reconstruction explicitly outlined the objectives of the New Liberals as well as the role of the Workers' Educational Association. Atkinson clearly articulated that if the efficiency and citizenship philosophy was to develop, an organisation was required that was untrammelled either by the epitome of the capitalist class, the university, or by the epitome of the working class, the Trades Unions. Therefore he had to move from Mansbridge's position where education was managed through joint committees at the universities, targeted at a particular group of people and delivered using a particular methodology. He wanted a position whereby the delivery of adult education was placed in an unaffiliated organisation, and was available to anyone through a variety of delivery methods.

Atkinson had attempted to implement this change in Sydney. However what he did not achieve was the wholesale shift of responsibility for the delivery of adult education from the University to the WEA. His second attempt was to be in Melbourne where Barrett and Moore supported him. They not only supported, but indeed manipulated the University Council on Atkinson's behalf so that his objectives could be achieved. (16)

Atkinson went to work to ensure the growth of the WEAV. The University Council agreed to the merging of the Joint Committee and the Extension Board, and ensured that the Director of Tutorial Classes was to be the Chairman of the revised Extension Board. The Council amended the relevant Statute so that there would be parity of membership on the Extension Board between the University and the WEAV, a model that underpinned the idea of a Joint Committee. The Statute also provided for a Secretary whom it appears would also have a vote. The Extension Board engaged the General-Secretary of the WEAV as the Secretary of the Extension Board. Atkinson realised that the attendance at Extension Board meetings by the university representatives was at best minimal and frequently non-existent. He had ensured that the WEAV would effectively dominate the Board, and therefore policy and delivery of provided adult education. (17)

The WEAV responded by developing new methods of delivery. It organised public lectures, conferences, weekend schools, combined meetings of interested groups, guided lectures, as well as retaining tutorial classes and Extension lectures to rural Victoria. The attendance at all of these activities was considerable.

Other changes were critical to the shift away from the Mansbridge model. The tutorial class system was formally disbanded in 1920. Of greater significance however, was an action that occurred in the same year when the WEAV noted that although their aim was still to attract workers', their main responsibility was to not target the delivery of adult education to any specific group, particularly the Trades Unions. This issue passed without undue comment, but it meant that the WEAV lost the support of organised labour.

Atkinson had moved the WEAV from being an 'organiser' of a specific type of program to a provider of a range of learning options. He had recognised that all adults are learners who sought their own sources of learning. During his time at the University of Melbourne he was acutely aware that the adults who attended WEAV programs included women: students who identified themselves as involved in Home Duties represented at least 15 per cent of the student body. He would also have been aware that there were women represented in other occupations but who did not identify themselves as female. He was also unequivocally aware that 25 per cent the Council of the WEAV were women. (18) Atkinson was simply more able than the University of Melbourne to recognise changes in Australian society and to translate these changes into an adult learning perspective. It is suggested that this move was made in recognition of the fact that; the vast majority of participants were wage-earners. Atkinson however may not have realised that his New Liberalism idealist philosophy was no longer valid in the post-First World War environment. His ideas of a classless society and the achievement of a higher ethical world have been shown to be out of step with the return to political conservatism and the strength of the capitalist economy. Atkinson's understanding about the strength of the voluntary nature of the WEA and more importantly a recognition that adult education should be available to all, encouraged him to ensure that it was the WEAV rather than the University that dominated the delivery of adult education in Victoria. (19)

Atkinson had effectively changed both the definition of the worker to include all adults, and he had also broken the nexus of co-operation between the university and the WEA. The definition of the worker had been changed from an employment-based concept to one that included all wage earners. These changes effectively established the WEAV as a highly significant provider for adult learners in its own right. (20)

Idealism versus realism

Atkinson's views about the future development of Australia were discussed in two books published in 1919 and 1920 respectively. (21) In both of these publications Atkinson still saw the role of the WEA as significant, particularly in encouraging workers to develop an understanding of the importance of citizenship and efficiency. This position has been viewed as, 'the last wave of (WEA) idealism'. (22) Possibly what is meant by this is that the role of the WEA as a place of intellectual thought was over. This is an oversimplification of the situation. What also may have been meant was that it was the last hurrah for a specific way of viewing the world: idealism versus realism. A more appropriate view would be that the work of the WEAV retained the idealism of providing learning opportunities for adults in spite of the move towards realism that occurred in Australia at the end of the 1920s.

The move away from the idealism of New Liberalism was reflected in the structure of the Australian political environment. From 1917 through to 1939 the country was dominated by a Liberal ideology. The titles of the parties varied, Nationalists, United Australia, however their underlying paradigm was that they were parties that represented the national interest. This was opposed to the Australian Labor Party that was viewed as a party of special interest: the maintenance and well-being of the workers. (23) Throughout the period covered in this article the moral values that were associated with the Liberal position were clearly identified in class terms. The middle class values were ones of independence of judgement, loyalty to the Empire, and the substitution of self-interest for the national good. These were compared with those of the working class who were seen to be exclusively self-interest over the national interest. (24) This moral position ensured that when economic restraint was forced onto the Australian economy the middle class could justify the restrictions whereas the workers were the ones who had to make sacrifices to a larger degree: they lost their jobs.

The period of the 1920s and 1930s was one of political conservatism. It was a period of leaving things as they were on the basis of ensuring that the country was run on the principle of Sanity, Safety, Stability. (25) This left no room for dissenters such as the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Atkinson's view that labour and capital would co-operate, and that both would be influenced by scientific management principles, had vanished. He was just as concerned with educating the worker as educating the manager. The opportunity however to implement his vision was gone. Australia was absolutely dependent on the growth in business activity, most notably in any activity that would generate sufficient export earnings to allow payment of the interest owed to Britain. Initially this fell on agriculture but with world surpluses at record levels Australia was unable to compete against other countries. A system of tariffs was instituted to allow Australia to dump products in Britain. Britain also imposed preferential tariffs for Australian agricultural product. With British enthusiasm for importing Australian manufactured goods waning Australian manufacturers maintained their profits by reducing wages. The economic imperative for this was highly questionable as 'Foreign Countries' such as the USA and Japan were taking much of Australia's manufactured product. It would appear that the real reason was that manufacturers saw an increase in unemployment from state infrastructure projects. They realised it was now a 'buyers' market and that the unemployed would accept lower wages and conditions simply to remain employed. Needless to say labour reacted negatively and there was an increasing level of strike action undertaken. (26)

The control of dissent, on the pretext of 'protecting' Australia was significant during the 1920s and also reflected an increasing conservatism within the country. Censorship was high, particularly against writing, art, drama, and the press. This control ensured the repression of intellectual thought as well as exerting some control over the increasing 'Americanisation' of the country. This growth in the influence of a 'foreign culture' was considerable with the advent of moving pictures, music, and worse, dance! The Americanisation of Australia was being strongly encouraged by industrial interests in the USA who saw the country as a vast untapped market. (27)

Political conservatism in Australia was expressed through censorship, legislation banning strikes and gatherings, immigration policies such as the White Australia Policy, and health and wellbeing, the whole underpinned by an adherence to a British ideal. This ideal suggested that the British colonies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were to be bastions against unwanted and undesirable social influences. They were also an example to the rest of the world as to how a colonial empire could work successfully. The fact that it was really a hegemony practised by the initiating power, Britain, was not of major concern to the dominions as the colonies had now become. Of all the countries Australia was seen as the 'purest' example of a clean, white, chaste, young, sane, and wholesome country. Some of these aspects were slightly tarnished with the advent of Spanish flu and venereal diseases brought to Australia by soldiers returning from the First World War, but the ideal was strenuously maintained. The fact that workers were increasingly unemployed and that Britain was refusing to loan further monies to the country only went to reinforce the ideal. (28)

The shift from idealism to realism was a reaction to the conservatism discussed above that saw a move away from welfare and social reform to 'safe' business principles. It was a reflection of the international economic situation. In 1929 the Bank of England insisted that Australia demonstrate economic restraint, and reduce wages even further than what had already been done. The bank held the view that Australia's standard of living was far too high and therefore unsustainable. To ensure Australia got the message the Bank also indicated that no further loans would be made until the short-term debt had been repaid. This message was reinforced at a Premiers' meeting in 1931 when State governments agreed to reduce their public works, to devalue the currency, further reduce wages, increase taxes, and to reduce interest payments to local bond holders. The net result was that for a large part of the population, particularly workers employed by each State and the Commonwealth on infrastructure projects, there was further unemployment. Any resistance to these measures was ruthlessly repressed. (29)

Hancock and Badger

In 1926 Hancock returned to Australia to the University of Adelaide as Professor of History. Between 1927 and 1929 he wrote a report card on his home country, the result, Australia was published in 1930. Hancock tested and evaluated the idealism of the first decade of the twentieth century. The conclusions he made were a rebuttal of the sociology of the New Liberals, particularly that of Atkinson. (30) The sociology of Atkinson was one of pluralism that saw the devolution of authority and the autonomy and subsequent strength of individuals. It was also a sociology that saw social efficiency as a solution to potential struggles between workers' and capital with the role of industry taking precedence over that of the state. Hancock however was clearly writing within the social context that was impinging on Australia during the 1920s, that was, a collapse of the economic structure between Britain and Australia that threatened to negate the assumed value of the British relationship. Nevertheless in the report card Hancock addressed several of the issues that concerned Atkinson. Both were concerned that Australian democracy was typified as the State existing purely for the benefit of the greatest number of people. They both saw Australia as being immature, and also that being British, was critical for Australians sense of nationalism. Where they parted company was in the way Australia was to achieve maturity, Hancock; and consensus, Atkinson. They also disagreed about the definition of the worker. (31)

Hancock's views about the worker and social class were strangely ambivalent. By citing Alexis de Tocqueville and that authors commentary about the USA, he seemed to recognise that there is 'no class except in an economic sense' (32) in Australia. He does however refer throughout his work to; 'the working class', 'middle class, workers', 'labouring classes' and the 'comfortable classes'. (33) It appears that he is actually disturbed that there aren't more clearly defined distinctions between Australians. He suggested that there was envy felt by all Australians towards each other as a result of an intrinsically class-less system. He described the situation as one where everyone drank watered wine, whereas he perceived that, 'the majority of men want honest beer. A very small minority prefer rare vintages'. This minority would finally prevail because it 'recognises true standards [and] will know how to make them respected'. (34) In other words, those who want honest beer, all men apparently, were the workers from the 'working and labouring classes', and more specifically unable to recognise true standards. Hancock therefore clearly identified that there were at least two classes, and that this was indeed not only desirable but also essential to the smooth functioning of the economic and political system.

Greg Melleuish, a lecturer in politics, and Rowse have suggested that Hancock was torn between idealism and realism. (35) This can only be sustained if we view Australia through the Whig perspective of history. If this is the case then we can accept that the Hancock ideal of social justice is attainable, however the actions taken by Australia up to 1929 were not proving to be successful in achieving this ideal. Hancock reinforced this view, 'This is precisely the danger of credulous idealism, that its disillusioned victims console themselves with an equally credulous cynicism'. (36) In other words Hancock was a realist because he challenged the disillusioned victims to look at their country, as it appeared to be to him. However his version of realism was clearly based within the British Imperialist model of a dominion state beholden to a mother country and not simply the recording by an historian about his perceptions about the failings of New Liberalism as has been suggested. (37)

Colin Robert Badger

One of Hancock's students was Badger who clearly articulates that his original missionary zeal and responsibility was to, 'save the souls...of the educationally lost and succour the underprivileged. I thought it [adult education] had a special duty and obligation to serve the working classes and trade unionist'. (38) However as a result of working in Western Australia and with Hancock he resolved that his business would not be with the lost souls and trade unionists; he would work with people who were, 'already reasonably well educated'. (39) His ideal environment was further elaborated when he described a community centre in a country town. The centre he noted contains all the facilities for this clientele. A library, lecture hall that housed a collection of art from the National Gallery and was also used to stage theatrical productions, there were lecture rooms, gymnasium, and craft rooms. The main responsibility of the centre was to provide education for citizenship and, 'self-training for intelligent use of leisure'. The centre is clearly aimed at the already educated with sufficient time to conceive of leisure. Nothing described above would be accessible to the lost souls. (40)

Hancock had confirmed for Badger that education, in his terms adult education, was to maintain high culture for the educated. He saw this as absolutely imperative so that Australia could rise above the, 'gobbets of synthetic stuff which ruins the digestion and sickens the palate', to a country which, 'will prefer the divine music of Bach and Haydn to the shoddy syrup of Bing Crosby, will choose the paintings of Fra Angelico to the daubs of Mr X'. (41) He clearly had shifted his definition of the worker to that suggested by Hancock and away from the Atkinson definition. Badger saw adult education as being provided for people who appreciate rare vintages rather than strong beer. Definitely not for those favouring watered wine! This lesson he learned from Hancock who saw Australian's as intellectually lazy, leisure loving, and, 'content with a "middling standard"-in manners, morals, knowledge, and the arts'. (42)

The return by Badger to a definition of the worker based on their employment status had a negative effect on the WEAV. The model for the Workers' Educational Association in Victoria was articulated by Atkinson's idealism and dramatically changed by Hancock's realism through Badger at the end of 1939.

The death of the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria

When Badger arrived at the University of Melbourne in 1939 he had prepared himself to be a main player in Australian adult education. He had been in an enviable position as the Director of Adult Education in Western Australia, untrammelled by the WEA or indeed any other major provider of adult education. He was to be the major player with the University as the most significant vehicle to deliver adult education in Victoria. There was no room for an idealistic adult education provider that laboured under the delusion that adult education was for all adults.

In 1941 Badger and Thomas Coates, General Secretary of the WEAV, attended the Tutors Conference of the New South Wales Workers' Educational Association. Following the conference both participants presented reports to their respective organisations. However their reports were significantly different. To the University Extension Board, Badger described the administrative arrangements and program delivery by the University of Sydney Extension Board, the Tutorial Classes Department, and the WEA in New South Wales. To the WEAV on the other hand, Coates described what happened at the conference. Of particular note was a paper, A New Approach to Adult Education that was delivered by Badger. In a nutshell Badger believed, 'that the Association in N.S.W. had in fact become a general adult educational association of students, and was a class movement only in name'. (43)

According to Coates, Badger went on to suggest that the Movement needed to consider which path it wished to follow. Either back to a genuine movement that was based on the concept of social class or recognition that the circumstances had changed and to accept these as positive. Coates then indicated the direction he would recommend to the Victorian Association: To promote the higher education of the workers may be a satisfactory aim of a specifically working class body, or of a philanthropic middle or upper class body. It is doubtful whether this is the best way of stating the educational policy of a body which is composed not of a social class, but of people drawn from all walks of life and interpreting their activities rather in terms of social unity. (44)

What is clear from these reports is that Badger and his General Secretary were pushing Badgers' West Australian model of the WEA as a students' association, and more importantly the conservative realist position that identified the worker as someone who was defined by the nature of their employment. What is also clear is that these quotations demonstrate how extraordinarily single-minded both men were in their attempt to discredit another adult education organisation on the basis of social class. It is almost as if neither man was in the slightest bit aware of all that had happened in Victoria or New South Wales in regard to the directions taken by the WEA in those States. Actually there is a reason for their approach: both men were intrinsically interested in the idea of a single provider that was to emanate from the University of Melbourne. This situation has been addressed elsewhere. (45) However the attempt to discredit the WEA in both States bore fruit in Victoria.

Following the conference and the reports made back in Melbourne, Badger tabled a report to the WEAV Council in 1941. Is the Association however, the appropriate body to continue and to extend Adult Education throughout the State? Is it fitted by its constitution and aims to undertake this work or has the time come when the Association should take stock of the present position and consider reversing its present trend? Should it reconsider the problems of workers' education, which was its original function and begin to prepare to vacate the field of Adult Education to a body specially constituted for this purpose? (46)

To add weight to the 'work' needed, Badger described the growth required in the current programs as well as indicating that adult education work must encompass a broader field of activity, something of course that the WEAV had been doing since 1920! (47)

Following discussion the Council adopted a critical recommendation: The Association as at present constituted is not the best organisation to coordinate and expand the work of adult education. What is needed for this is a specialised Adult Education Institute, similar to the British Institute of Adult Education, with which the WEA and the L.E.A.'s (Local Education Authorities) work in close co-operation. (48)

The Workers' Educational Association of Victoria was dead. With the adoption of this recommendation, the WEAV effectively wrote itself out of any significant future. To ensure that this was clearly understood the 1941 Annual Report of the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria concluded: The chief aim of the Association is to make itself unnecessary-in other words, to make "Educational " activities so much a normal and necessary part of life that there is no longer a WEA in the community, but the community is a WEA. (49)

This amazing double-speak was written by Coates who was also the editor of the Annual Report, appears to reflect the reason he was appointed to the Secretaryship of the Extension Board and the WEAV: his views about the WEA were also one of conservative realism.

Conclusion

There are four conclusions that can now be drawn. The first concerns the impact of the shift from idealism to realism. The second relates to the roles played by the protagonists in Australian adult education history. The third has to do with the model developed by Atkinson and removed by Badger, and the fourth the need to re-consider the history of adult education in Victoria in the period 1917 to 1941.

It is clear that there was a shift from idealism to realism in the 1920s and 1930s. The result of this shift was two-fold one relating directly to this article and a second that provides another way to consider adult education history in Australia. The model arising from the research demonstrates that changes within a specific philosophical paradigm can be influenced by a shift in social paradigms.

In regard to the article the shift in paradigm provides a valid rationale to demonstrate that there was no failure by the WEAV to deliver learning to workers. The shift in paradigm had a major impact on the way the worker was identified as well as the way in which the delivery of adult education was to be made to adults.

The WEAV provided the majority of government funded adult education in Victoria between 1920 and 1939. The history of the work of the University Extension Board has yet to be written, but it is clear that if the WEAV had not taken such a strong position there would not have been much funded adult education delivery through the University. This situation was a source of enormous contention between the WEAV and the University of Melbourne that has been discussed elsewhere. (50)

The WEAV was the major provider of adult education in Victoria between 1915 and 1940. Badger was so concerned about this situation that it was imperative for his own future that he had to discredit the work of the WEAV, even if there was little evidence. The major reason was philosophical. Badger described the WEAV as having: ... no vital connection with the trade union movement ...; indeed it had incurred the active hostility of the Trades Hall council. It was in no sense a working class movement and its interests in the later years of its existence were in the field of general adult education, rather than in that of workers' education. (51)

His real position was: 'I think the old pattern--WEA--Tutorial Classes Department is about washed up. I don't want to worry about the workers as such any longer'. (52)

Badger clearly saw the workers' in the Workers' Educational Association as those who were members of a particular social class. This was the main criticism that he made about the WEAV: that it wasn't delivering adult education to the working class. He also clearly did not identify these people as being 'educated', and therefore not in need of adult education as provided through the WEAV. The regret was that although the WEAV had also recognised this cultural change and had modified their operations in 1920 they were not strong enough to resist a determined professional, nor against a society that valued realism above idealism.

The role of the protagonists in adult education history was considerable. The impact of Hancock and his writings on Badger were such that the latter became convinced that his original ideas about education required revision. Hancock had nothing specific to say about adult education in Australia but the realist model that underpinned that book was sufficient to encourage Badger to apply the model to adult education. The place of Badger as an intellectual has not been fully investigated, however Peter Rushbrook, an adult education historian, has suggested that he was an example of, 'the capacity of an individual to author historical change'. (53) This was certainly true in the way in which he ensured the removal of the WEAV from its role in adult education in Victoria. It cannot be sustained however in relation to the model he developed for regional adult education centres in 1961 as Director of Adult Education at the Council for Adult Education, and which is given by Rushbrook as an example of Badgers' capacity to author historical change. The model he used was clearly that of the WEAV. He prided himself as being an intellectual and this was reinforced most forcibly in 1944. His later writings however abandoned philosophy and instead tended towards justification for the closure of the WEAV. (54) Atkinson on the other hand was clearly an intellectual. His model for adult education quite explicitly developed from his writings. These lectures and documents demonstrate that his idealist principles underpinned his model.

The article can be seen as providing a non-class based assessment of why idealism ceased to be the dominant intellectual paradigm for adult education in Victoria. The model developed by Atkinson that established a significant role for a voluntary adult education provider that worked for all adults as opposed to any specific class-based group was seen to be inappropriate in the realist period from 1920. The model was however resurrected in 1961 but is now a dying species in the Australian adult education environment of the twenty-first century Finally there is a conclusion that relates to the history of the WEAV. The current histories of adult education in Victoria are seriously in error. A revision must include the WEAV perspective, particularly the role of voluntary organisations in the delivery of funded adult education in the period 1920 to 1940 in Australia.

(1) B. Head and J. Walter (eds), Intellectual Movements in Australian Society, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 1.

(2) B. Boughton, Educating the educators: the Communist Party of Australia and its influence on Australian adult education, PhD. thesis, La Trobe University, 1997; T. Rowse, Australian Liberalism and National Character, Melbourne, Kibble Books, 1978; L. Taksa, 'Education "from the working class viewpoint" versus "instruction in civic efficiency": the Workers' Educational Association, the Australian quest for national efficiency and struggles over citizenship', in B. Bowden and J. Kellett (eds.), Transforming Labour: work, workers, struggle and change. Proceedings of the Eighth National Labour History Conference held at College of Art, Griffith University, South Bank, Brisbane, 3-5 October 2003, Brisbane, Brisbane Labour History Association, 2003.

(3) A. Wesson, Formal adult education in Victoria 1890 to 1950, M.Ed. thesis, University of Melbourne, 1971.

(4) R. Fieldhouse, 'The Workers' Educational Association' in R. Fieldhouse (ed.), A History of Modern British Adult Education, Leicester, NIACE, 1996, p. 166.

(5) R. Fieldhouse, 'An overview of British adult education in the twentieth century', in Fieldhouse, A History, p. 47; E. Williams, 'The beginnings of the Australian university extension movement', in R. Selleck (ed.), Melbourne Studies in Education, 1972, p. 207.

(6) L. Leathley, 'The beginnings of the WEA in Victoria', Australian Journal of Adult Education, vol. 111, no. 1 July 1963, p. 32.

(7) A. Mansbridge, University Tutorial Classes. London, Longmans Green, 1913. p. 55.

(8) W. Moore, 'National efficiency and government', in National Efficiency, Melbourne, Public Works Department, [1915]; M. Roe, Nine Australian Progressives: vitalism in bourgeois thought 1890-1960, Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1984, p. 64.

(9) J. Barrett, The Twin Ideals: an educated commonwealth, London, H.K. Lewis, vol. 1, p. 253.

(10) McFarlane to Moore, 10 October 1917, Tutorial Classes, Government Grant, Negotiations Mr. Meredith Atkinson, Appointment: Alteration of Regulations re Status, 1917/362, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Atkinson to Moore, 17 October 1917, Tutorial Classes, Government Grant, Negotiations Mr. Meredith Atkinson, Appointment: Alteration of Regulations re Status, 1917/362. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.

(11) M. Atkinson, 'Introduction', in M. Atkinson (ed.), Trade Unionism in Australia, Sydney, Workers' Educational Association of New South Wales, 1915, p. 17.

(12) M. Atkinson, 'Democracy and efficiency', in National Efficiency, Melbourne, Public Works Department, 1915, pp. 29-30.

(13) Atkinson, 'Democracy and efficiency', p. 31.

(14) M. Atkinson, The New Social Order: a study of post-war reconstruction, Sydney, Workers' Educational Association of New South Wales, 1919, pp. 32,37,125.

(15) Atkinson, Introduction, p. 16; Rowse, Australian Liberalism and National Character, p. 51.

(16) F. Alexander, 'Sydney University and the WEA', Australian Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 4, 1955, pp. 50,51,54-55; Barrett, Twin Ideals, pp. 163-165, 398-450; Moore, National Efficiency, pp. 35-45; R.J.W. Selleck, The Shop: the University of Melbourne 1850-1939, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2003, p. 552; Wesson, 'Formal adult education', p. 135.

(17) Atkinson to Registrar, 19 April 1919, Amalgamation of University Extension Board and Tutorial Classes, UM312 1921/169, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Minutes, 16 May 1921, University of Melbourne Council, UM174 94/86, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.

(18) G. Dadswell, A paradigm shift: the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria 1913-1941, M.Ed. thesis, University of New England, 2006, Appendix 4.

(19) S. Alomes, 'Intellectuals as publicists 1920s to 1940s', in B. Head and J. Walter (eds), Intellectual Movements in Australian Society, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 77, 83; H. Bourke, 'Social scientists as intellectuals: from the first world war to the depression', in Head and Walter, Intellectual Movements, p. 55; Rowse, Australian Liberalism, pp. 75-76.

(20) Minutes, 30 July 1920, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; Eight Annual Report 1921, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

(21) M. Atkinson, The New Social Order: a study of post-war reconstruction, Sydney, Workers' Educational Association of New South Wales, 1919; M. Atkinson, (ed.), Australia, economic and political studies, Melbourne, Macmillan, 1920.

(22) Alomes, 'Intellectuals as publicists', p. 71.

(23) J. Brett, Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: from Alfred Deakin to John Howard, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 11.

(24) Brett, Australian Liberals, p. 57.

(25) Brett, Australian Liberals, pp. 79, 83.

(26) Clark, 'A closed book? The debate on causes', in J. Mackinolty (ed.), The Wasted Years? Australia's Great Depression, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp. 10-26; B. Fitzpatrick, The British Empire in Australia: an economic history 1834-1939, Melbourne, Macmillan, 1969, pp. 312-315; R. White, Inventing Australia: images and identity 1688-1980, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, p. 18.

(27) M. Atkinson, 'The Australian outlook', in Atkinson Australia, economic and political studies, pp. 7-8; White, Inventing Australia, pp. 143-144.

(28) S. Macintyre, 'The succeeding age, vol. 4, 1901-1942', in G. Bolton (ed.), The Oxford History of Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 183, 188, 192-201; White, Inventing Australia, pp. 140-144.

(29) S. Alomes, Reasonable men: middle class reformism in Australia 1928-1939, PhD thesis, Australian National University, 1979; White, Inventing Australia, pp. 140.

(30) G. Melleuish, Cultural Liberalism in Australia: a study in intellectual and cultural history, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 118.

(31) L. Foster, High Hopes: the men and motives of the Australian Round Table, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1986, p. 212; W. Hancock, Australia, Sydney, Australasian Publishing Co., 1945; Rowse, Australian Liberalism, pp. 91-92.

(32) Hancock, Australia, p. 224.

(33) Hancock, Australia, pp. 157, 158, 176.

(34) Hancock, Australia, p. 238.

(35) Melleuish, Cultural Liberalism, p. 116; Rowse, Australian Liberalism, p. 123.

(36) Hancock, Australia, p. 229.

(37) Melleuish, Cultural Liberalism, p. 117; R. Trotter, 'At the round table', in D. Low (ed.), Keith Hancock: the legacies of an historian, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2001, p. 149.

(38) C. Badger, Who Was Badger? Aspects of the life and work of Colin Robert Badger Director of Adult Education Victoria 1947-1971, Melbourne, Council of Adult Education, 1984, p. 44.

(39) Badger, Who Was Badger?, p. 45.

(40) C. Badger, Adult Education in Post-War Australia, Melbourne, Australian Council for Educational Research, 1944, pp. 3-9.

(41) C. Badger, Maecenas or Moloch: the state and adult education being the John Smyth Memorial Lecture, Melbourne, Cheshire, 1947, p. 16.

(42) Alomes, Reasonable Men, p. 203; Badger, Adult Education, p. 20; Hancock, Australia, pp. 225-226. movement only in name'.

(43) Report to Extension Board, March 1941, 93/21, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Secretary's Report of the N.S.W. Tutors' Conference held at WEA Week-End School, Newport, 28th February to 2nd March, 1941, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, Manuscript Collection, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

(44) Secretary's Report of the N.S.W. Tutors' Conference held at WEA Week-end School, Newport, 28 February to 2 March, 1941, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

(45) G. Dadswell, 'The killing of the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria: a myth challenged', Studies in the Education of Adults, vol. 36, no. 2, Autumn 2004, pp. 265-282.

(46) The WEA and Adult Education in Victoria, 8 March 1941, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

(47) The WEA and Adult Education in Victoria, 8 March 1941, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

(48) Minutes, 8 March 1941, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria, Workers' Educational Association of Victoria Papers, uncatalogued manuscript, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

(49) Adult Education in Victoria: Report of the 28th Year's Work of the Workers' Educational Association of Victoria and the University of Melbourne Extension Board, Melbourne, University of Melbourne Extension Board, 1941, p. 13.

(50) G. Dadswell, 'The Workers' Educational Association of Victoria and the University of Melbourne: a clash of purpose,' Australian Journal of Adult Learning, vol. 45, no. 3, 2005, pp. 331-351.

(51) C. Badger, 'Who killed the WEA?' The Australian Highway, vol. 40, no. 7, 1959, p.182.

(52) Badger to Higgins, 16 June 1943, Higgins Papers, Set 740, item 13, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

(53) P. Rushbrook, "'My business was not with lost souls and the underprivileged": the contribution of Colin Badger (1906-1993) to Adult Education in Victoria, Australia', Adult Education Research Conference, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 1-3 June, 2001

(54) C. Badger, 'A new deal for adult education in Victoria'. The Australian Highway, 1947, vol. 29, no. 4, p. 5; C. Badger, Adult education in Victoria', The Australian Highway, 1950, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 51-53; Badger, 'Who killed the WEA in Victoria'?, pp.178-182.

Gordon Dadswell is a past student in education at the University of New England. He is currently an independent historian. His research interest is with the Victorian Council of Adult Education. He is currently preparing a history of that organization. Email: gdadswell@dcsi.net.au