The Report of the Working Committee on College Proposals for the Australian Capital Territory (Campbell Report, 1972) led to far-reaching changes in senior secondary education. Hawker College, opened in 1976, is one of eight resulting government secondary colleges. The writer, a member of the Committee, has been Assistant Principal (Curriculum) at Hawker since its inception. This field study examines the dynamics, nature and achievements of curriculum change at Hawker, from the planning year in 1975, to 1980. Data includes student surveys and interviews; discussions with teachers, administrators and counsellors; college curriculum documents; and the writer's own observations. The Campbell Report's educational philosophy was eclectic, and "progressive". Strengths and weaknesses of the Working Committee's analyses and recommendations are assessed. Seven curriculum aims "clusters" are synthesized: four concerned with individual development, and three with the student as an effective, contributing member of society. ACT systemic strategies and structures fostered and sustained purposeful curriculum innovation, despite some problems and shortcomings. In the optimistic, idealistic climate of 1975, enthusiastic, pre-identified teachers planned Hawker's curriculum, often co-operating with staff of other colleges. Course writers' aims were highly congruent with those of the Campbell Committee. Teachers of some subjects used course models from overseas and interstate. Others developed ideas quite innovative for Australia as a whole, and sometimes without known precedent anywhere. Almost all the curriculum aims espoused by the Campbell Report are reflected in written or "unwritten" course aims. In content, a core of basic subjects are very similar to those offered for the NSW HSC. Others offer students either greater breadth or depth than does the NSW curriculum, or attend to the affective and psychomotor domains. Most teachers had modified their pedagogy, moving to a more progressive style. Hawker has had significant success in promoting students' individual 'development. It has been markedly less successful in preparing students to function within, and contribute to, society. The opening of ACT secondary colleges coincided with widespread social innovation and with changes in educational administration, funding, staffing structures and teacher education. All these created a favorable milieu for curriculum innovation. By the early 1980s, teacher weariness, some disillusionment, and social, political and administrative changes were apparent. These have slowed the rate of educational change and caused Hawker teachers to re-evaluate their aims, course content, and methods.

In 1976, following the recommendations of the Campbell Report, school-based course development and assessment replaced the New South Wales Higher School Certificate courses and public examinations. Under the auspices of the A.C.T. Schools Authority, the A.C.T. Accrediting Agency took control of administering the new system. Nine years after the system was introduced, the benefits of the new system were very clear in the area of English curriculum at Years 11 and 12 level. To a considerable degree, the hopes of the Campbell Report have been fulfilled in terms of providing students with greater freedom of choice and flexibility in the selection of options in an English course composed of a number of term or term equivalent units. Assessment instruments have become much more wide-ranging. Teacher/student relationships have become less authoritarian. Teaching strategies and learning approaches have generally made students more active participants in the learning process. The field study drew heavily on English course documents in the senior secondary colleges, presenting an overview of the workings of the English curriculum. Because courses are being continually reaccredited, it was necessary to set the curriculum overview at a particular time, in 1984. As the A.C.T. is a small education system in Australian terms, it was possible to gain some concept of the whole picture, although 428 term units is not an inconsiderable number. The field study, because of its significant data base, poses more questions than it answers. It does, to a degree, present "what is", or rather "what was" in the 1984 English curriculum at Years 11 and 12 level in A.C.T. colleges. And it points directions for further research.