1.12 THE WOMEN'S STORIES

Within this chapter, we have focused on those people recognized as most prominent historically in the field of educational technology. However, another group of people worked with the field as well, also aspiring to bring educational technology into the mainstream of the educational environment. These are the women of educational technology, and here are some of their stories....

1.12.1 Introduction

Audiovisual education and ultimately educational technology was permanently inscribed in schools and training institutions because of its presence in World War II. A small group of men did not allow the World War II years, that specific moment in time when there was a powerful confluence of theory, pedagogy, and technology, to go unnoted.
Charles F. Hoban, Jr., James Finn, Walter A. Wittich, Charles F. Schuller, Kenneth Norberg, Edgar Dale, Lee Cochran, Amo DeBernardis, Frances Noel, John Guy Fowlkes, William Johnson, W. W. Charters, and Robert Gagne, these and other names represented the growth and development of educational technology preceding, during, and after World War II. In the eclectic Division of AudioVisual Instruction of the 30s that was peopled by teachers, artists, librarians, filmmakers, principals, and others, women's names were present in the rolls of leaders. The military adventure, however, was almost exclusively male, and audiovisual women were present only as helpmates. Gerda Lerner's insight applies to this era:

Women have been the one group in history longest excluded from political power, and they have, by and large, been excluded from military decision-making" (Lerner, 1979, p. 154). The position of women in the academic realms of educational technology after WWII was no different from the position of women in other educational fields, such as educational psychology. Historically, although women in audiovisual education played major roles, they were often overlooked and/or assigned minor ones. Therefore, we will inform you about some of these prominent women and answer this question: What contributions did women make to the development of the field of educational technology before, during, and after WWII?

1.12.2 Oral and Written Histories

In the 1950s and early 60s, the Archives Committee of the National Education Association, Department of AudioVlsual Instruction, sponsored a series of oral history interviews with audiovisual pioneers in the United States. Recorded on reel-to-reel audiotapes, the interviews follow similar formats. Although no prepared lists of questions have been found for these interviews, all conform to a similar style, taking the interviewee through his or her early days in the visual and/or audiovisual field and into the present 50s and early 60s. Questions asked include: "Didn't you dispute the very term visual education?" (Aughinbaugh, 1954); "Well now, just how far back does your interest in visual education go?" (McClusky, 1955); "How far back do you trace your interests in the motion picture?" (Milliken, 1954); and "As a former student of yours, I was always impressed with your ability to relate audiovisual materials to all levels of instruction. What factors or experiences have contributed to this ability?" (Wittich, 1959).

In all, seven interviews are available from this series: Rita Hocheimer, retired acting director of the Bureau of Visual Instruction of the Board of Education, City of New York (1955); B.A. Aughinbaugh, retired head of the Slide and Film Exchange of the Ohio State Education Department (1954); Ellsworth Dent, vice-president of Coronet Films (1961); F. Dean McClusky, professor of education and head of Audio-VIsual Education and Extension, UCLA (1955); Bruce Mahan, retired dean of the State University of Iowa Extension Division (1961); Carl E. Milliken, head of Teaching Films Custodian Incorporated (1954); and Walter A. Wittich, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1959).

Additionally, in the mid- to late 1970s, the Educational Communications and Technology Foundation (ECT), which is part of the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), supported an oral history project. Young educational technologists interviewed and taped leaders from the early days of the formation of the field. An interview schedule was prepared to provide structure to the sessions, but both interviewers and interviewees strayed from the prepared list. The audiotapes consequently are quite rich. Some of the prepared questions were: What sorts of media/materials were predominant in the period prior to World War II? Who were some of the "big names" in the AV field at that time? What were some sources of professional information-textbooks, journals, etc.? Prepared questions concerned with World War II included: What was the name of your (military) position? Principal duties? Was military utilization of training films usually exemplary? Is it true that many of our current practices in film utilization were developed via military research and practice? Post-World War II questions included: Do you know of individuals who received their principal introduction to the media field in the military and later entered school or college AV work after the war? Who were some prominent names in ETV at that time?

The tapes of I woman and 12 men were available. Among those interviewed were Elizabeth Golterman, formerly of the St. Louis, Missouri, city school system (1976); Floyde Brooker, former director of the Division of Vlsual Aids for War Training of the U.S. Office of Education during the World War II years (1975); James W. Brown, San Jose State University (n.d.); Edgar Lee Dale, retired from Ohio State University (1977); C. Louis Forsdale, Teachers' College, Columbia University (1979); L. C. Larson, retired from Indiana University (1977); F. Dean McClusky, former school administrator and director of the Department of Vlsual Instruction (1980); Kenneth Norberg, retired professor of education at California State University in Sacramento, California (1977); Mendel Sherman, Indiana University (1976); Charles F. Schuller, retired director of the Instructional Media Center at Michigan State University (1978); Warren Stevens, Indiana University (1977); I. Keith Tyler, Ohio State University (1977); and Walt Wittich, professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii (n.d.).

The interviewees were immersed in the culture of their era: pre-World War II, the war years, and post-World War II, and were prominent, in the field of educational technology, over a wide time span, from approximately the 1930s through the 1960s. Social, political, and economic forces of these decades influenced the founders' attitudes, actions, and concerns about men and women and educational tech nology; women's equity in the workplace was not yet a focus of attention. In some cases, the comments of these founders reflected the position of women in the larger society; in other cases, they recognized and made space for the contributions of women to the formation of the field.

Additionally, we obtained information on early women in the field from a variety of reference books, educational technology textbooks, early audiovisual periodicals, DVI (Department of Vlsual Instruction, National Education Association) and DAVI (Department of Audio-VIsual Instruction, National Education Association) publications, and other print sources.

1.12.3 Women in the Workplace During and After WWII

Although World War II did not revolutionize gender and race relations, it provided many more women, in industry and the military, with high-paid and skilled employment. While World War II was a "milestone" forAmerican women in terms of career and employment, the 1950s found these same women fighting discrimination and sex segregation. Jobs they held during the war were often taken by men coming home. Housework was glamorized in magazines and finally television; women were ambivalent about losing their paid employment (Hewitt, 1990; Baxandall, 1976). The 50s, a period of apathy for many women, were also a time of general malaise in many parts of the U.S. educational community-until 1957. (Sputnik's launch in 1957 encouraged Americans across the nation to support improvement of the nation's education, especially in science, languages, counseling, and media services. Federal funds became available and audiovisual materials were introduced into the curriculum [Hopkins & Butler, 19911). Women's ambivalence, as the "second sex," was captured during the following decade. The advent of the 1960s found many U.S. women in turmoil; an ideological shift highlighting their equity encouraged women to again work outside the home (Davies, 1974). Within educational technology, these decades were a period of growth for all involved in the profession. When viewed through women's eyes, these decades raise as many questions as they do answers.

1.12.4 Prominent Women: Oral Histories

1.12.3.1. Rita Hocheimer: A former president of the Department of Visual Instruction of the National Education Association and retired assistant director of visual instruction for the New York City Public Schools, Rita Hocheimer was one of the "old-timers" in the field of audiovisual instruction (Golterman, 1976; Lembo, 1970). Interviewed by Alfred E. Devereux, president of IBA House, Inc., Hocheimer states on the audiotape that she began teaching at Washington Irving High School in New York City in 1913. When World War I broke out, she went to France: "In those days, there was no USO. I asked for leave from the school system, which was granted. During the next few months, I lived with various units of the United States Army... we opened a lemonade stand. This was much appreciated by the men..." (Hocheimer, 1955). Hocheimer returned to the United States in 1918. Because of her work with slides and films, as well as her knowledge of French and German, she was assigned part-time to the New York City Schools' Bureau of Visual Instruction and part-time as a language teacher. Within a short period, she became a full-time employee of the Bureau and " . . . began going from school to school actually giving lessons in auditoriums on a weekly schedule" (Hocheimer, 1955). The filfns she used were commercial ones that she could obtain only by picking them up at 5 a.m. after theaters were through with them. Hocheimer continued in the Bureau of Visual Instruction in New York City, eventually becoming assistant director, a position she held for 25 years. For 20 of those years, she was also acting director. During this 25year stint, she was active in a number of audiovisual organizations including: the Academy of Visual Instruction, the New York Metropolitan Visual Instruction Association, and DAVI. People she worked closely with in the audiovisual field included: F. Dean McClusky, Grace Ramsey, and Irene Cypher. Hocheimer's expertise in the field of audiovisual materials was-in her own words- films, first silent and then also sound. Although retired from the New York City schools, Hocheimer was teaching a class in motion picture appreciation at New York University's New School at the time of her interview (Hocheimer, 1955).

1.12.3.2. Elizabeth Golterman: Elizabeth Golterman was one of two females, according to the AECT archives, interviewed during the ECT Oral History Project. She was also the only nonacademic in the group. (She and Professor L. C. Larson were the only two interviewees without Ph.D.s.) Involved in early audiovisual services for the St. Louis, Missouri, city school district, Golterman began in the St. Louis Audiovisual Center (a department specializing in audiovisual materials within the St. Louis school system) in 1930, and always viewed herself as a teacher first and an audiovisual person second. More than any other interviewees of the Oral History Project, Golterman named early women in the profession: Amelia Meissner, Alma Rogers, Lelia Trolinger, Camilla Best, Wanda Daniels, Margaret Devizia, Helen Rachford, Caroline Guss, Anna Hyer, Mickie Bloodworth, Emily Jones, Rita Hocheimer, Etta Schneider, and Bea Harding, among others. Her interviewer asked her how it felt to be a woman in a male-dominated profession:

Interviewer: "Certainly as a young woman in education, and 1 hope my male chauvinism doesn't show too much by asking the question. How did you relate to the early administrators who were probably in the mainstream, at the upper level, male? And how do you anticipate the feminist movement for the future?"

Golterman: "Well, I think . . . I certainly didn't feel we were part of any feminist movement back in the 30s when I began here. It is true that our staff had begun as a staff that was headed by a woman and staffed by women, and it continued this. I think largely, because we always had sought outstanding teachers of certain kinds. And the teachers in the St. Louis School System at that period were women teachers, except in the high schools.... my answer is that we tried to know our job. We cared a great deal for the teachers, and for the boys and girls, and I think that was the important thing, whether we were men or whether we were women. May I say, I am grateful and think that it is long overdue, to be recognizing some of the blocks that traditionally women have had in many fields. But fortunately, in St. Louis, I think that we had recognition, and we had good support as a department that was staffed by women. And there were some fine ones. I think that it was a privilege to have worked with Amelia Meissner; then the next generation of our associates that included teachers like Nelly Jenkinson, Dorothy Blackwell, Margery Fleming, Gertrude Hofstan, Harriet Bick. These were peop]e that were tops. And I think that the department grew with them and through them" (Golterman, 1976).

Interviewer: "What are some names that you can recall from your experience-women nationally-that have made contributions to education, specifically media?"
Golterman: 'Well, Cal, when you told me that the most recent AECT convention had had over 9,000 people, I thought back to the days when NEA Audiovisual Department was really held together by just a few loyal people, and when the first meeting I ever attended in St. Louis at the time of an NEA superintendents' meeting, mid-winter meeting, they met in our building. And I don't believe that there could have been more than 40 or 50 people there. In those early years, that I remember it, I think that it was held together by Lelia Trolinger from the University of Colorado; by Camilla Best, who was the New Orleans audiovisual head; by people like the elder Charles Hoban from the state of Pennsylvania; supported by a young Ohio State University man, Edgar Dale....
" . . . Let me run down some of the women that I have had memories and associations with, certainly Miss Trolinger and Miss Best. Wanda Daniels up in Grosse Point, I think was one of the fine ones. Margaret Devizia in Los Angeles; Helen Rachford in Los Angeles County, who was killed in that tragic plane crash on her way to an audiovisual convention up in Minneapolis; Caroline Guss at the University of Indiana; at NEA, Anna Hyer and Mickie Bloodworth; Emily Jones at FWA; Rita Hocheimerr was one of the really old-timers. She headed up the services in New York, when first I came into this picture. Etta Schneider, and then the people here in our own area. Alma Rogers, certainly, and the members of our staff I think I've mentioned.... "

Interviewed in 1979 as part of the ECT Foundation Oral History Project, Margaret Devizia is probably best known as the first female audiovisual specialist in the military during World War II. Devizia began, in the 1930s, as an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles City Schools, later becoming an audiovisual coordinator for the system. With the advent of World War II, she was approached by Francis Noel who had joined the Navy to direct an audiovisual services unit. Noel asked her to join this unit:

Devizia: " . . . the War came along and Francis Noel, who was in Santa Barbara, was invited by the Navy to come into the Navy to become an audiovisual . . . and I was invited by Francis to join that unit, and I was the only woman. There were 120 people, 120 men in the unit, and I was the only woman in the unit!"

Interviewer: "Where was the unit stationed?"

Devizia: "I went to Washington. Well, first of all, I went to Smith College for six weeks of training, and then I was sent to Washington for another six weeks of training . . . in the central unit there with Francis and the captain of training, and then I was allowed, which was almost unheard of, I was allowed to choose the place where I would work. Since they had only one woman, and some of them didn't know what in the world to do with her in a man's Navy and a man's world, really. l was asked . . . where l would like to go, so I was sent on a trip to a number of cities and was allowed to choose from that trip where l worked. So I decided to go to New York to work, because the captain of training in New York was very enthusiastic about having WAVEs, and that was not always true in the beginning when WAVEs were . . . first inducted into the Navy. So then I went to New York.... I had charge of the land schools in New lersey and Connecticut and New York.... I was (the) audiovisuals materials officer. (In addition to the men's schools), I always had the women's training schools. We provided the (audiovisual) material" (Devizia, 1979).

After the war, Devizia returned to Los Angeles and the school audiovisual field. Eventually, she became head of the audiovisual section for the Los Angeles Public Schools and designed and operated a new citywide instructional materials center, which opened in 1962. Both before and after the Second World War, she was active in various audiovisual organizations at the state and national levels. (Elizabeth Golterman spoke of the fact that in early DAVI, she was the only woman until Margaret Devizia came into the picture [Golterman, 1976]). Devizia's strongest media interests were in the realms of educational film and television. "We had so much hope for television. We went into it with so much enthusiasm on the part of everyone as I said" (Devizia, 1979). At the end of her interview, Devizia's interviewer asked her to "... Iook into the future a little bit and predict some things or make some observations (about what in AV) we still have to look forward to" (Devizia, 1979). Devizia's reply was: "That'll be the day!" (Devizia, 1979).

1.12.4 Prominent Women: Written Histories

Even though little is recorded about women in educational technology, they played a significant role in the establishment of the field, particularly in the years surrounding World War II. Nine prominent women whose careers are recorded elsewhere are Amelia Meissner, Anna Verona Dorris, Etta Schneider, Fannie Dunn, Elizabeth (Betty) Noel, Helen Rachford, Frieda Hennock, Anna Hyer, and Carolyn Guss.

1.12.4.1. Amelia Meissner: Mentioned by Elizabeth Golterman as one of the people who most influenced her in educational technology, Amelia Meissner began the St. Louis School Audiovisual Center in 1904. At that time, it was called the "Educational Museum." The Educational Museum was a result of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 ( Ille World's Fair). St. Louis school superintendent, Dr. Soldan, appropriated $1,000.00-a large sum of money at that time-to purchase exhibits from the fair to be kept in St. Louis and used by teachers and students in the public schools. The subsequent large collection of realia was housed in one room and the corridors of one of the city schools, and Meissner, a former upper-grade teacher, was placed in charge of it. She was chosen by Soldan because of a shared hobby in photography (the two had first met on a train and later on a tour of Germany). In 1905, Meissner compiled the first printed catalog of visual materials. It was composed of object collections, sets of lantern slides and stereoscopic view sets. Golterman considers Meissner to be the first audiovisual pioneer in the United States (Golterman, 1976).

1.12.4.2. Anna Verona Dorris: Paul Saetder in The Evolution of American Educational Technology first mentions Dorris in a listing of early visual education bureaus in American city schools. He states that she was the director of visual instruction in Berkeley in 1922. Saettler later places her (also in 1922) at San Francisco State College, where she surveyed provisions made for teacher education across the nation in visual instruction. Dorris is also documented as having developed one of the earliest visual instruction course outlines and having written a book (published in 1928) entitled, Vsual Instruction in the Public Schools (Saettler, 1990, pp. 137, 149, 153, 166). This text, along with an earlier book of Dorris's: Visual Instruction: Course of Studyfor the Elementary Schools, Including the Kindergarten and First Six Grades (1923), was documented and referenced by almost every other published visual or audiovisual textbook author through the 50s. Both are considered benchmarks in the field. In addition to this information, Leaders in Education (1941) places Dorris as president of the Department of Visual Instruction of the National Education Association (NEA) from 1927 to 1929.

1.12.4.3. Etta Schneider: We found very little biographical information on Etta Schneider (of Teachers Col1ege, Columbia University), other than the fact that she, along with Edgar Dale, Charles, F. Hoban, Jr., and Fannie Dunn (also of Teachers College), wrote the 1937 book, Motion Pictures in Education: A Summary of the Literature: Source Book for Teachers and Administrators. This text consists of nonevaluative summaries of articles and books written about educational films. According to its foreword, Schneider was involved in " . . . the bibliographical compilation, digesting and editing of a large amount of the material contained in this volume . . . " (Dale et al., 1937, 5). Schneider is mentioned by Gp1terman as one of the prominent women in the field (Golterman, 1976).

1.12.4.4. Fannie Dunn: Fannie Dunn was one of the coauthors of Motion Pictures in Education: A Summary of the Literature: Source Bookfor Teachers and Administrators. Along with Etta Schneider, she compiled and wrote three sections of the book: the administration of visual aids, teaching with the motion picture and other visual aids, and teacher preparation in visual education (Dale et al., 1937, pp. 7-8). Like Dorris's books, Motion Pictures in Education was often referenced in educational technology books through the 50s.

1.12.4.5. Elizabeth Goudy (Betty) Noel: Another early woman pioneer in educational technology was Elizabeth Goudy (Betty) Noel. One of (Elizabeth) Noel's publications (coauthored with J. Paul Leonard), Foundationsfor Teacher Education in Audio-Vsual Instruction (published in 1947), she describes as a " . . . guide for administrators and instructors in colleges and universities planning to include work in audiovisual education in their preservice and in-service teacher education program, and for administrators, supervisors, and directors of audiovisual departments in local school systems in planning in-service education programs" (Noel, 1947, p. iv). Here Noel refers to audiovisual education as

" . . . the carefully planned and integrated use of a wide range of teaching materials from the kindergarten through college . . . [which] includes the use of field trips or excursions, sound and silent motion pictures, television, objects, models, specimens, dioramas, slides, filmstrips, stereographs, study prints, posters, radio programs, recordings, maps, the bulletin board.

Instruction was improved by the use of these materials, she said, and by "life experiences which supplement and clarify the printed word" (Noel, 1947, p. 1). (This supports the life adjustment curriculum discussed previously in this chapter.) Although Noel's husband, Francis, is more well known in educational technology circles, this publication shows that Beny also influenced the field. As with other branches of education, educational technology textbooks were important for both college students and practitioners.

1.12.4.6. Helen Rachford: A former president of the Audiovisual Association of California and of the Fllm Council of America, Helen Rachford, was also active in DAVI and AECT (she was to assume the vice presidential office at the time of her death), and in several California educational and library organizations. Rachford, a contemporary of Margaret Devizia's (see above), was the Los Angeles County Schools director of the division of Audio-Visual Education. She was killed in a plane crash on her way to the 1958 AECT convention. The AECT Memorial Scholarship Fund, formerly the Helen Rachford Memorial Scholarship Fund, was established in her honor that sarne year.

1.12.4.7. Frieda Hennock: As first female member of the Federal Commumications Commission (she was appointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1948), Frieda Hennock "... had a vision of a national educational television system and played a significant role in the movement toward educational television" (Saettler, 1990, p. 388). Although at first she knew little about broadcasting, Hennock learned rapidly, and was the only FCC commissioner in 1949 to protest the fact that no portion of the television spectrum had been set aside for education. Later, Hennock would be the one to suggest to 1. Keith Tyler and Belmont Farley that they retain General Telford Taylor, chief prosecutor of the Nuremburg Trials, as lawyer in their quest to reserve television channels for education [see above] (Tyler, 1977). "She . . . became a kind of Joan of Arc, leading the campaign to reserve television channels for noncommercial educational use . . . [and] . . . she had a good relationship with [President] Harry Truman, which was helpful as well" (Robertson, 1993, pp. 61, 63).

1.12.4.8. Anna Hyer: Considered by Charles Schuller as "One of the great women in our business" (Schuller, 1978), Hyer is probably best noted as executive secretary of DAVI in the mid50s. Before her tenure at DAVI (post-World War II), she served as assistant in administration at Indiana University under L. C. Larson. Later, she went to Syracuse, where she " . . . became involved in the internationa1 areat' (Larson, 1977). When DAVI ceased being a part of the National Education Association (NEA), Hyer left DAVI and continued working for NEA. In 1977 she was awarded the AECT Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her contributions to the field (Larson, 1977).

1.12.4.9. Carolyn Guss: Carolyn Guss, according to various volumes of Who 's Who in American Education, was (1960s) a professor of education at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she taught administration of media and research. She was also active in the Audiovisual Department of NEA and various other audiovisual organizations, holding several administrative posts within these groups. In addition, she is one of the authors of the 1961 book Guide to Newer Educational Media.