35 years of memories

Deirdre Russell-Bowie has been at UWS for 35 years. Here, Deirdre looks back on her UWS journey and the changes that have occurred at UWS during this time.

On 1 February 1980, I moved from Tasmania to take up a position as Music Education Lecturer at the Milperra College of Advanced Education. This had been set up in the Whitlam era to provide students in south-west Sydney the opportunity to study Teacher Education locally and then added Social Work and Community Welfare to its suite of courses. Things have certainly changed in tertiary teacher education over the past 35 years.

As part of the undergraduate Bachelor of Education course at the time, students were required to complete 56 hours of music education (compared with four hours currently). I taught all my students to play keyboard and guitar as well as how to teach music in the primary classroom. Students attended lectures and tutorials four full days a week and spent the fifth day practising teaching in a local primary school, which we supervised each week.

We offered Leisure Exploratory Experience Program weeks, where staff led groups of students on all sorts of exciting adventures – the rationale was that students needed to learn how to fill the leisure time that would be so much part of their future! I remember going horse riding and teaching aerobics, as well as taking the students for their yearly experience in the snow – a week of skiing and bushwalking.

Back in the 1980s, we had secretaries who worked on manual and then electric typewriters … and then the computer revolution took over! As the Macarthur Institute of Higher Education developed (1982 – 1989) our Dean purchased user-friendly Apple computers so we were introduced to the seemingly miraculous word processing and printing procedures – and never looked back!

Still teaching music and then creative arts education, in the 1990s I completed my PhD in 26 months. I took on the role of Head of Program for the Bachelor of Education program, introducing a range of specialised electives in a variety of areas. As initially there weren't any Australian music or arts education textbooks, I pioneered a series of successful resource books for pre-service and in-service teachers covering music education, creative arts education, integrated arts and literacy texts. I also started and ran the Creative and Practical Arts Association that offered workshops all over the state for primary school teachers, filling a much-needed gap in teachers' professional development.

In the 2000s, we moved into a more unified University. The Teacher Education course moved from an undergraduate four-year program to a one-year Masters program. Over the years, our Australian students found the challenge of full-time University work plus home commitments and earning a living an increasing challenge, but many have gone on to become excellent teachers and leading educators in the region.

In 2001, I was the first UWS academic to win the prestigious national Australian Award for University Teaching. I was appointed Chair of the School of Education's Learning and Teaching Quality Forum and made significant innovative changes to streamline procedures in this area. As UWS began its innovative Community Service programs, I was involved with our students, bringing arts education into local schools. As a result, I won two UWS Community Engagement awards as well as the Director General's Award for Excellence for Banksia Road Public School in the area of University and Community engagement, the only primary school to win such an award.

Recently I won two UWS teaching awards and was promoted to Professor.

As I look back over the past 35 years I can see how a small teacher education college has grown into being part of a world-renowned university – which would not have been possible if it weren't for the people, the passion and the vision of those who started Milperra College of Advanced Education.