Abstract:
This paper assesses the impact of overseas experiences of Australian educators selected for travel grants by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the 1930s. These were awarded on recommendation by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), itself an organisation funded initially by the Carnegie Corporation. Impacts are assessed in the context of explicit and implicit purposes behind American foundation activity at the time (Lagerman, 1989; Arnove, 1980; Berman 1983; Glotzer 1990), a published history of the ACER (Connell, 1980) and a study of Carnegie Grants to Australian libraries (Horrocks 1980), as well as a detailed personal examination of the filed correspondence, held in the Carnegie archives, between those selected for grants, the Carnegie leadership and Australian authorities concerned. Differing assessments by I.L. Kandell and Frederick Keppell, and James Russell (former Dean of Teachers' College Colombia University) and his son, John, are also canvassed. The study opens a new window to a unique phase in Australian education, and may be of interest in the context of the internationalisation of university education in the Asian region in recent decades.