Conference Paper

Conference Abstract: DOMUS Abstract

Helen Proctor

In the 1970s an array of new organisations and associations appeared on the educational policy landscape across the globe, aimed at reshaping contemporary schooling, one way or another. Although their activities and campaigns occurred in living memory, some have disappeared from public historical view. Others produced journals or newsletters that survive in the public domain, offering rich insights not only into their aims and rationales, but also, sometimes sub-textually, into their organising practices and strategies. This paper examines the periodical publications of two very different Australian groups, founded in 1972 and 1976 respectively, the ultra-conservative Christian ‘Society to Outlaw Pornography’ (STOP) and the anti-capitalist ‘Radical Education Group’ (RED G). The paper particularly focuses on how these organisations explained their legitimacy to speak out about schooling, and how they aligned themselves with and against international ideological movements of the contemporary ‘right’ and ‘left’. 

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