(1893 –1976)
A
portrait of Alice Hoy by Chris White hangs in the building on Monash
Road which bears her name, a tribute to a woman who did much to shape
the future of teacher training in Victoria, and through one of her books
— Civics for Australian Schools, published in 1925 and revised almost
annually for the next 20 years — much to shape Victorian children’s
knowledge of their political and social environment.
Alice Hoy was born in Ararat, the youngest of 11 children, moving to
Kensington in 1903. She was educated at Kensington State School and
University High School from which she proceeded to the University of
Melbourne, taking her BA in 1914, Dip. Ed. in 1915 and MA the following
year.
Alice Hoy was the first person appointed to teach History Method at
the Melbourne Teachers’ College in 1924, combining this with an attachment
from 1926 to 1958 as Senior Lecturer in the University’s School of Education.
After a study tour of Britain and North America in 1938, she was appointed
in 1949 as Principal of the newly-established Secondary Teachers Training
Centre (later College) at the University. Relations between the University’s
Department of Education and the College were not always free of strain,
perhaps understandable in the light of Hoy’s comments on ‘the lack of
clear and orderly presentation in some of our University teaching’.
Alice Hoy was nonetheless a force in almost all aspects of education
training and research for almost 50 years and a notable member of the
comparatively small number of women who have shaped the University.
She served on the councils of University Women’s College, the Australian
College of Education and Monash University.
