Alexander Mackie is recognised as one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century Australian education. Previous accounts of Mackie’s life have concentrated on his years at Sydney Teachers’ College, where he was the founding principal – an office he held for over thirty years – and his term as the inaugural professor of education at the University of Sydney.1 This study of Mackie is more transnational and focuses on the emergence of education as an academic discipline associated with the profession of teaching.

Mackie’s career as an academic began in Scotland and continued in Sydney. He was part of a Scottish diaspora seeking to influence the Empire. Frustrated by the Australian bureaucracy, he became attached to American progressivism and the belief that classroom teachers should initiate educational change. These beliefs influenced Mackie’s own family; he and his wife, Annie, homeschooled their children, Margaret and John, who also became academics.

The intellectual tradition and ideal of the academic arises from the Academy of Plato, founded in the fourth century BC to educate the young in Platonic doctrines. The original academy disintegrated in 87 BC, but the prestigious title of ‘academic’ lived on in the intellectual and religious traditions of the West.2 In Epistles, Horace is quoted as stating ‘Seek Truth in the groves of Academe’.3 In Paradise regained, John Milton wrote ‘Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts … See there the olive

viiigrove of academe’.4 The idea of the academy as a centre of scholarly engagement has persisted over the centuries. The British Academy was founded in 1900 to recognise the many scholars in the humanities and social sciences who had contributed new knowledge to their fields.

The academic ideal has become entwined with the concept of the university. In Europe, universities emerged in the Middle Ages as communities of study and learning. Academics became scholar–teachers in this new institutional setting. Universities were associated with professions such as the law and provided support to the Church and state. From the thirteenth century, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in Britain were collegiate in form, with liberal humanist curricula educating the elite on how to govern through Church and state.

From the eighteenth century, universities were transformed in various ways. In particular, under the influence of the European Enlightenment, they became increasingly secular; religious orders gave way to lay teachers.5 Progressively, universities became associated with the study of and training for old and new professions. While older disciplines were reframed, new academic disciplines, such as education, emerged as foundations for professional practice. Research became just as important in the education of professionals as in the ‘pure’ disciplines of the sciences and humanities. While professional accreditation differed depending on local contexts, the ideals and practices of research created and united transnational academic and professional communities.

In Britain, Scottish universities were at the forefront of the engagement between universities and the professions, extending opportunities for men and women in teaching and other areas.6 Universities in Scotland were particularly important due to their longstanding relationships with European universities and their focus on professional education and training in areas such as medicine – a focus that extended into fields such as engineering and education. Scotland was also instrumental in finding ways for universities to co-operate with teachers’ colleges – a foundation for the professionalisation of teaching. Closely aligned with European intellectual traditions, Scotland adopted the German ideal of the

ixresearch scholar and incorporated the American aim of transforming teaching into a university-based profession. As part of the British Empire, Australia slowly embraced these changes, particularly under the influence of members of the Scottish diaspora such as Alexander Mackie.7

Born into an age that was redefining academic life, Mackie saw his mission as promoting teaching as a profession and education as an academic discipline. His views on how this could be achieved were formed in late nineteenth-century Edinburgh. His efforts to promote change took place in Sydney, but his influence spread across Australia and into the Empire. Mackie’s academic life encompassed both the public and private domains. In the public domain, he was an aspiring young academic before becoming principal of Sydney Teachers’ College and professor of education at the University of Sydney. In private life, his family was shaped by his academic values. His wife, Annie Duncan, was his student and a lecturer at Sydney Teachers’ College; she resigned after their marriage to become a mother and co-teacher of their children. Through their daughter, Margaret, and son, John, Alexander and Annie passed on specific academic values.

Intended principally as a study of Mackie’s academic life, this book is divided into three parts. Part one examines how a young Alexander Mackie was attracted to academic life. Part two illuminates his strategies for implementing changes in teaching and incorporating education as an academic discipline in Sydney. Part three describes the Mackies as an academic family located in Sydney but linked to a transnational community. It also details Alexander’s private and family life, including his passion for walking and climbing and his exploration of nature.

Research for the book was principally based upon the extensive papers of the Mackie family held in the University of Sydney Archives. The papers were deposited there by Margaret Mackie. I never met any of the Mackie family, but I am indebted to them for this rich archival source. Originally catalogued by the Archivist Tim Robinson, the Mackie papers are an important holding of the University of Sydney Archives. I am grateful for the friendship and collegiality of the archives’ staff in making this project work. In particular, I thank Tim Robinson, Nyree Morrison and Karin Brennan for helping me to undertake my journey into the Mackie family’s past.

xOther colleagues have helped in various ways. John Hughes and Bill Green supported the project by providing perspectives on Mackie as a philosopher and progressive educator. Ruth Watts in Birmingham kindly read early parts of the typescript, providing commentary on aspects of teacher education in Britain. Joyce Goodman asked me to include the study in a wider project. Tom O’Donoghue in Perth encouraged me to continue the project to the end. In Sydney, Julia Horne, Tamson Pietsch, Deryck Schreuder and Hannah Forsyth have all been sources of encouragement and ideas for improvement. I appreciate the contributions of the members of the History of University Life seminar, which has met at St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney since 2007. I have also enjoyed regular meetings of an academic lunch group – Ros Pesman, Peter Cochrane and Douglas Newton – whose conversation and ideas kept me going throughout this project. Chelsea Sutherland’s assistance has been invaluable, and Jenny Browne compiled the index. Publication of this book was funded from the Gerald and Gwenda Fischer Bequest.

I began writing books in the 1970s, while living at Austinmer, south of Sydney, and working at the University of Wollongong. My wife, Lisa, was looking after our three-year-old son, Gregory, who is now married to Philippa – and they have Lucinda and Henry. I thank all my family for their love and support over four decades. And I promise them that this will be my last publication.

Geoffrey Sherington

Emeritus professor

University of Sydney

2019