Changing Society: Some Underlying Assumptions of the Karmel Report

Abstract

The concept of planning social change through education has grown popular since 1945 though with varying aims. Here the assumptions underlying Schools in Australia, 1973 (the Karmel Report) are examined by isolating five models, namely, of society, of man, of change, of directions of change and, finally, of the methods for bringing about change. Two main possible weaknesses in the strategy of the Report are suggested, namely the lack of openness and the under-emphasis on the general political activity needed to bring about change, both of which direct attention to the need for a well-informed public opinion on educational matters; means towards achieving this are suggested. “If administrators and politicians are going to play God with other peoples' lives … they ought at least to get clear what the divine intention is to be”. (Moynihan, D. P. Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding. Free Press: New York, 1968, 168.)