Abroad Thoughts from Home: Reflections on an Academic Visit to Australia

The more it changes, the more it stays the same. This was the thought which launched this comparison of 1950s and 1990s Australian educational administration. It arose from the visit of this English academic to Australia in 1992 and the apparent contrast between what is happening now and the views of the seminal study made in 1955 by the American,Freeman Butts. Then, centralization was the dominant mode and Australia was much criticized for this. Freeman Butts proposed devolution to improve educational decision‐making. His views are once again topical as Australian states and other countries move to devolution.