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'Visionary' Educator to retire Without hesitation, Bob Meyenn gives a firm yes when asked if he would take up teaching if he had his time again. It is with this lasting passion for the profession and a firm belief in the value to society of a public education that the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Professor Bob Meyenn is now looking ahead to his retirement from CSU at the end of 2005. After 19 years as Dean and a quarter of a century at the University and its predecessor institutions, Professor Meyenn maintains it is high time someone else takes over.
Contemplating his retirement years, Professor Meyenn says he has had the “best life” made up of “fabulous experiences”. The classroom experiences began in 1963 when the then 18 year old Bob Meyenn started his career at a small country school at Somerton on the banks of the Peel River in the north west of NSW. He went on to teach mathematics in the Solomon Islands under the Australian Volunteers Abroad scheme and then later at Bankstown Boys High School in Sydney. After a second stint in the Solomon Islands as headmaster of Goldie College in the western province, Professor Meyenn travelled to England where at the University of Aston in Birmingham, he was awarded a PhD in the Sociology of Education in 1979. Describing himself as “a true creation of Charles Sturt University”, Bob Meyenn started lecturing at the University’s predecessor, the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education in 1981. “I believe I have been fortunate because I found a job that really suits what I enjoy and what I think I am good at,” said Professor Meyenn. While conceding there have been tough spots in his 19 years as Dean, the retiring academic states, “I can honestly say I can’t ever remember driving to work not wanting to go”. While he may well be “a creation of the University”, CSU has blossomed under his leadership and the University is now a clear leader in the field of teacher education. Bob Meyenn has overseen the growth of teacher education to encompass four schools across the CSU’s campuses in Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga. About 100 CSU academics are now involved in research and lecturing in early childhood, primary and secondary education, vocational education and training as well as recreation and human movement programs. "Education without Bob Meyenn (left) is an unthinkable thought ..."
More recently, the tentacles of CSU have reached to Ontario in Canada where about 500 applicants competed for a little over 100 places to undertake the University’s Bachelor of Primary Education Studies. Professor Meyenn said the process to get permission to deliver the CSU program and become one of the first foreign institutions to receive consent to operate as a University in the province, has been one of the biggest challenges in his career. “The University is able to offer the students in Ontario the opportunity to stay in their local area and study because CSU is always looking for opportunities and responding to a changing education environment,” he said. Professor Bob Meyenn is blunt when it comes to the contribution the University has made and continues to make to the education of teaching professionals. “The education system west of the Blue Mountains would collapse without CSU,” stated Professor Meyenn. “It is a tribute to the University’s regional connection and presence in regional Australia that our graduates are the main source of supply of teachers.” Professor Meyenn attributes his Faculty’s success to several factors. “The Faculty of Education has not been subject to the restructuring and amalgamation which occurred elsewhere,” he said. “Our two Vice-Chancellors have had a commitment to teacher education and believe a strong Faculty is an important part of the University profile. We have a strong heritage in teaching teachers and we also concentrated on delivering good courses and continual curriculum development. We have turned out good graduates, our courses are cutting edge and we have had very, very good relationships with the major employers and a real connection with our profession.” Another crucial feature of the Faculty, according to the retiring Dean, is the quality and mix of the staff. “There is a very good blend of staff from careful recruitment from the outside and really supportive development from the inside,” he said. “The Faculty attracts academics of the highest calibre in the likes of Professor Stephen Kemmis who is one of the top professors of education in the world,” said Professor Meyenn. Others with international reputation and status in teacher education include Professor Bill Green, Associate Professor Joanne Reid, Professor Robyn Zevenbergen, Associate Professor Tom Lowrie and Associate Professor Frank Marino. “It has been my privilege to watch the Faculty, and the individuals within, grow, develop and shine.” While Bob Meyenn is reluctant to expand on how his leadership and reputation has carried the Faculty of Education, his colleague Professor Stephen Kemmis is more forthright. “He has been inspiring and visionary and his close working relationships with the NSW Department of Education and Training have helped CSU and the Faculty to stay abreast of many unfolding developments in education over the years,” said Professor Kemmis.
“He has contributed to social justice and education, particularly the needs of rural students as well as helped new staff to see possibilities for making a difference to education through their work in teacher education,” Professor Kemmis added. Professor Meyenn concedes he has “established, maintained and enjoyed marvellous connections” with a succession of Ministers for Education in NSW, Director-Generals as well as Regional Directors of Education. “I’ve always had really good personal and professional relationships with them,” he said. He has been on a number of ministerial advisory councils, including the NSW Public Education. He was also hand-picked by the NSW Government to lead the five year study into class sizes in the early, formative years of primary education. The study has already seen kindergarten classes in NSW reduced to 20 with the class reduction program being rolled out until 2008. With publications and conference papers on a range of education issues dating back to the 1970s, Bob Meyenn has in recent years examined the issue of boys and masculinity in schools. “My earlier work co-authored with Wayne Martino started with a frustration that much of the reaction to boys failing at school involved a ‘come on let’s band together to reclaim territory’ which established binary positions,” said Professor Meyenn. So the authors produced a book highlighting the fact that the lack of success of boys at school wasn’t due to the success of girls or vice versa. “Good teaching involves good school experiences for boys and girls,” he stated. Among those to serve on the NSW Public Education Council with Professor Meyenn was former Chancellor of the University of NSW and former Australian of the Year, Dr John Yu. “Education without Bob Meyenn is an unthinkable thought for those concerned about education and especially about public education,” said Dr Yu.
Another organisation to also praise the Dean is the NSW Teachers’ Federation which has described Bob Meyenn as a “friend of public education”. It is a viable and robust public education system which Bob Meyenn believes is the crucial basis for our successful Australian society. “There is something important about going to school where you have Buddhists and Muslims, Hindus and Christians learning to understand each other, live with each other, grow up together,” reflects Bob Meyenn. “It is important that kids learn to get on with others and a comprehensive public education system is crucial to that experience.” Expressing serious concerns about the effects of successive Federal Government funding of private schools, he claims it is making our education system more compartmentalised. “I think it is a real pity,” he said. “We should be creating a much better funded public education system. My strongest and most fervent hope for education is that we really do not let it continue to fragment. I think we will lose a lot as a society and as a robust democracy.” Bob Meyenn is also passionate about the funding of education in Australia from early childhood right through to the tertiary level. “There is a lack of importance placed on the funding of education at all levels. If we are going to improve education we need to spend more,” he said. What advice would Bob Meyenn then give the next generation of teachers? “We must teach our graduates that they will never know everything but they have always got to know how to find out,” said the retiring Dean. “They have got to have the ability to really set themselves up in partnership with their students rather than positioning themselves as the experts. And they have to break down that barrier with their students so they are learning together and establishing a learning environment.” After being associated with teaching and classrooms in Australia and internationally for more than four decades, Bob Meyenn is planning to spend his retirement on his farm in the central west of NSW. He looks forward to the prospect of having more time to milk the cow, read the newspaper and sleep. There are also building projects being put forward by his children. “Everyone thinks they are going to get a piece of me,” laughs Bob Meyenn. Dig a bit further about how this effective leader and advocate for education will spend his time and Bob Meyenn highlights his on-going work as Chair of the Board of Directors for Australian Volunteers International – an association which he began as a 21 year old volunteer teacher in the Solomon Islands. Then there is a book due out within 12 months further examining male teachers and further research to be done into class sizes in NSW. While the Dean believes it is high time someone else takes over his role at CSU, the wider education community may not yet have lost Bob Meyenn to the farm and are likely to be amongst those queuing to get a piece of him. ends Author: Fiona Halloran
Editor's Note: Professor Bob Meyenn completed his first New York Marathon on Sunday 6 November 2005 in 4:39:22. He competed with CSU teaching student and paralympian Kurt Fearnley to raise money for a new CSU student scholarship. The scholarship will be in memory of former CSU lecturer, Dr Kyle Tarpenning. Further information about Charles Sturt University’s Faculty of Education can be found here. Media Note: Print quality versions of photos in this story are available from the CSU Media. Professor Meyenn is available for interview. Related Images:  |
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