ABSTRACT
Growth through English – and the particular view of the subject being thought through by John Dixon in his representation of the 1966 Dartmouth conference – had its key ideas taken up enthusiastically in Australia. Here we present curricula and curriculum debate from the 1970s from two Australian states (New South Wales [NSW] and Western Australia [WA]), along with writings on English that appeared in the national journal English in Australia in one selected year, to demonstrate the nature of vernacular inflections in Australia of what Dixon called the ‘Personal Growth’ model. The two curricula discussions are different and, we hope, more comprehensive because of that. Wayne has focused on the detail of the relevant NSW Years 7–10 Syllabus in the 1970s in that state and Cal has ranged more broadly over curriculum debates in WA in roughly the same period. We hope this gives readers some sense of both breadth and depth in relation to Australia’s institutionalised versions of Personal Growth in the years following Dartmouth, as well as its representation in curricular debates.
