Blackburn, Jean Edna (1919-2002)

Field of activity
Feminist and Educator
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-775099

Biographies

Jean Blackburn was a feminist, socialist and staunch advocate of the critical importance of good quality teaching and resources in shaping childrens' lives. After completing an economics major at the University of Melbourne in1940 she became a research assistant for the Department of Economics. A mother who experienced the isolation of suburban living, she worked with Winifred Mitchell in organising the New Housewives' Association to help overcome this isolation. She later completed a Diploma in Education and began her teaching creer. In 1969 she was seconded as a consultant to the Committee of Enquiry into South Australian Education issuing the Karmel Report in 1973. This was the first of several such appointments. In 1983 she conducted a public enqury into Victorian senior secondary education, issuing the Blackburn Report in 1985.

Jean Blackburn took pleasure in the fact that she was born Jean Muir on 14 July, Bastille Day. The great democratic values of freedom, equality and solidarity inspired her ideas and values, and shine through her writings. She was born in 1919 in Melbourne and was educated in the public school system. The fact that, by the age of 21, she had graduated as a BA with Honours in Economics was largely a tribute to her own determination and thirst for knowledge. At the University of Melbourne, Jean joined the Labor Club and then the Communist Party.

She worked as a young woman with the War Office of Industry, before marrying Dick Blackburn and moving to Adelaide. Her work there as a secondary school teacher, while raising her family of three children, led her on to a public career in education policy. She left the Communist Party after the invasion of Hungary in 1956.

After working as a consultant to a 1969-70 Committee of Enquiry into Education in South Australia headed by Prof. Peter Karmel, she was appointed Deputy Chair of the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission in the early 70s, and a full-time member of the Commission for 7 years from 1974 to 1980. Her strong commitment to public values, her capacity for intellectual rigour and engagement with a range of views and her ability to express significant ideas in a lucid and inspiring way meant that she had a profound influence on Australian education. She was also one of the most profound feminist thinkers of her time.

From 1983 -85 Jean Blackburn chaired the Ministerial Review of Post-compulsory Schooling in Victoria. She was the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Canberra from 1990-91, chaired the Victorian State Board of Education from 1991-92 and was founding chair of the State Suffrage Centenary Committee in South Australia from 1992-93. She was awarded honorary doctorates from three Australian Universities. She died in Adelaide in December 2001.

As well as this record of distinguished service and influence, it is Jean Blackburn's personal qualities and strength of character that explain her place as one of our most loved and revered leaders in education.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Australian Women's Register

Resources for Jean Edna Blackburn

Selected resources (17)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Interview with Jean Blackburn
  2. Report. Volume 1 /Ministerial Review of Postcompulsory Schooling
    Blackburn, Jean
    [1985]
    Published: Ministerial Review of Postcompulsory Schooling
  3. Title I and the Disadvantaged Schools Program
    Blackburn, Jean
    [1979]
    Published: Schools Commission
  4. Changing approaches to equality in education : lecture given at the Australian National University on Nov. 19, 1986
    Blackburn, Jean
    [1986]
  5. Australian Wives Today
    Blackburn, Jean
    [1963]
    Published: Victorian Fabian Society
  6. The Study of Work in Society : A Curriculum Proposal
    Blackburn, Jean
    [1987]
    Published: Curriculum Development Centre
  7. Changing Approaches to Equality in Education
    Blackburn, Jean
    [1986]
    Published: Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University
  8. Passionate for Schools Equity : Jean BlackburnThe Canberra Times 15 : Passionate for Schools Equity : Jean Blackburn
    Hannan, Bill
    [2001]
  9. Who's who in Australia 2002
    Herd, Margaret
    [2002]
    Published: Crown Content
  10. State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana: Interview with Jean Blackburn [sound recording] Interviewer: Kirstin Marks (1993)
    Recorded on 13 December 1993. 50 minutes
    OH 210/16
  11. National Library of Australia: Interview with Jean Blackburn, educator (sound recording), interviewer: Tony Ryan (1994)
    4 sound tape reels, 120 minutes.
    ORAL TRC 3291/1
  12. National Library of Australia: Interview with Jean Blackburn, former member of Schools Commission (sound recording), interviewer: Wendy Lowenstein (1 July 1994)
    1 digital audio tape, 120 minutes.
    ORAL TRC 3111/27
  13. National Library of Australia: Interview with Jean Blackburn, economist, educationalist and Chancellor, University of Canberra (sound recording), interviewer: Peter Read (21 July 1988)
    1 sound cassette, 90 minutes. Blackburn speaks of the division between the Adelaide Aborigines who followed Dr Duguid and those wanting to manage their own affairs; help given to the Progressive Association; the hostility of the Aborigine Advancement League; Dr Duguid's attitude to Aborigines; the Advancement League's attitude of assimilation; demands made on leading Aborigines; Perkins' role as intermediary; Aboriginal boys and girls from government-run Homes being bound for trades and domestic service; the need for a hostel; the welfare work of the Advancement League; protectionist attitude of the Advancement League; difficulties for white people in allowing Aborigines to manage their own affairs; the lack of black people on the executive of the Advancement League; Laurie Bryan's role in the Advancement League; difficulties faced by organisations; Aborigines' political drive; Perkins as leader.
    ORAL TRC 2303/17
  14. National Library of Australia: Interview with Jean Blackburn, economist, educationalist and Chancellor, University of Canberra (sound recording), interviewer: Peter Biskup (1990)
    5 analog sound tape reels, 196 minutes and 86 page transcript.Blackburn speaks of her parents' backgrounds which modelled her socialist & feminist views, how the contrast between her early public school & her later experience at a selective high school has lead her to advocate the critical importance of good quality teaching & resources in shaping childrens' lives, why she was dissatisfied as a primary school teacher completing her matriculation at night school, her involvement in the Melbourne Univ. Labour Club later joining the Communist Party, how she majored in economics in 1940 becoming a research assistant for the Dept. of Economics, her work for the War Organisation of Industry as an economist giving her experience in policy advice, married in 1943 leaving work and had a child in 1945 moving to Adelaide, her involvement with Winifred Mitchell in organising the New Housewives' Association to overcome isolation of housewives, how she educated herself as a feminist through the Public Library, her rejection of communism how she completed her Dip. Ed. in 1964 & wrote a book, seconded in 1969 by Peter Karmel as a consultant to the Committee of Enquiry into South Australian Education issuing the Karmel Report in 1973, appointed Vicechair of the Schools Commission established by Whitlam to improve govt. funding of schools, later retired from the Education Commission in 1980, how she in 1983 conducted a public enqury into Victorian senior secondary education issuing the Blackburn Report in 1985, current educational issues.
    ORAL TRC 2654
  15. State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana: Interview with Jean Blackburn [sound recording] Interviewer: Allison Murchie (1994)
    Recorded on 26 March 1994. 1 hour
    OH 256/9
  16. State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana: Interview with Jean Blackburn [sound recording] Interviewer: Allison Murchie (1994)
    Recorded on 14 May 1994. 1 hour
    OH 253/8
  17. State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana: Launch of the Barbara Hanrahan Memorial Exhibition [sound recording] (1994)
    A recording of the launch of the State Library of South Australia's Barbara Hanrahan Memorial Exhibition by the Governor, Dame Roma Mitchell, in the Function Room of the Institute Building. Fran Awcock, the Director of the State Library, chairs the launch, and introduces in turn Des Ross, Chair, Libraries Board of South Australia; Dr Jean Blackburn, Founding Chair, Women's Suffrage Centenary Committee; Mary Wilson, Chair, Friends of State Library Exhibitions Committee; Dame Roma Mitchell; and Sydney Buttrose, President, Friends of State Library. Recorded on 21 April 1994. 30 minutes
    OH 142/16

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  1. TEA PARTY.
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    ... TEA PARTY. An enjoyable afternoon tea party was held in the reception lounge of the Hotel Carlton last Saturday, when Miss Edna Blackburn entertained a number of guests in honour of Miss Jean Blackburn. The hostess receiv- ed her guests wearing an ensemble of pale green velvet, with a hat to tone, ... 123 words
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  2. HOCKEY TEAMS Gladstone Visit
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  3. Kilkenny Competitions
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