Mary Ann Eliza Agnew (6 November 185714 June 1940) was a kindergarten teacher and advocate in Queensland, Australia. She had a significant influence on infant schooling in Queensland.

Biography

Mary Ann Eliza Agnew was born on 6 November 1857 in

Openshaw Openshaw is a suburb of Manchester, England, about three miles east of the city centre. Historically part of Lancashire, Openshaw was incorporated into the city of Manchester in 1890. Its name derives from the Old English ''Opinschawe'', which me ...

, near Manchester, England. Her father, Hugh Agnew, was a chain producer and her mother was Eliza (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Byrom). She began her career as a teacher in November 1870, and worked at the Liverpool Training College from January 1876 to December 1877. Beginning in 1878, she was headmistress of St Francis' Girls School in West Gorton, Manchester. In August 1890, Mary Agnew arrived in Queensland, Australia, and joined the Department of Public Instruction. She began teaching at Ipswich North Girls' and Infants' School on 22 September 1890, but contracted typhoid fever the same year. Agnew subscribed to the pedagogy of Friedrich Fröbel and upon her appointment as kindergarten instructor in August 1891, she began introducing Fröbelian teaching methods to schools in Brisbane. However, she believed that schools were interpreting Fröbel incorrectly. While she returned to teaching proper after being relieved of her instructor duties in July 1893, Agnew continued to submit recommendations to improve the quality of infant education in Australia. In 1910, Agnew was appointed as head teacher at Dutton Park Girls' and Infants' School. Her advice began to bear fruit especially after a teaching conference in July 1911. Agnew retired from teaching in 1920 and spent her final years in Ingleston, Wynnum South. She died on 14 June 1940, aged 82, at Mater Misericordiae Hospital in South Brisbane and was buried with Catholic rites in Nudgee cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes, Mary Ann Eliza People from Queensland Australian schoolteachers 1857 births 1940 deaths 19th-century Australian women educators 20th-century Australian women educators 20th-century Australian educators British emigrants to the Colony of Queensland 19th-century Australian educators