All creatures great and small?

ABOUT THE EVENT

God and godlessness in the nature study classroom 1884–1952

Children's nature education has long been intertwined with moral and religious teaching. The nature study movement which blossomed around the turn of the twentieth century was celebrated as a way to encourage respect for God's creation and to foster proper Christian behaviour in young citizens, but also as a means of inculcating a properly scientific attitude which some later practitioners argued ran counter to religious or 'superstitious' beliefs. There were disagreements about the precise roles religion and science should play in the nature study classroom, particularly in Australia's nominally secular system. But the belief that the study of the environment could, and should, offer something morally uplifting and transcendent to students, was strikingly consistent. To explore these complex histories of religious belief, atheism, science, and education between 1884 and 1952, Ruby…

From the organiser’s listing · catalogue updated Mon, 5 Oct