Dr. Donald E. EdgarOAM (born 1936) is the Foundation Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies. Under his leadership the Institute had a profound influence on the Government of Australia regarding family policy, family and work, welfare policy and family law. He continues to contribute to Australian thinking in these areas through his own consulting practise and as an occasional columnist and commentator in the Australian media, particularly The Age and The Australian.
Career
Edgar had been professor in sociology and education at the University of Chicago, reader (assistant professor) in Sociology at La Trobe University and adjunct professor with RMIT University's Centre for Workplace Culture Change. He has been a member of the Victorian Children's Council since 1996, and is an Ambassador for NARI, the National Ageing Research Institute.
His topics of interest include:
Australian national identity in a globalised world
Business partnerships and community networks
Children, schools and the knowledge economy
Men as fathers and managing work-family responsibilities
Social class differences and the structure of education, 1976
Schools Commission and rural disadvantage, 1975
Preparing teachers for change, 1975
Adolescent competence and sexual disadvantage, 1974
Competence for girls?, 1972
Examination marks: their use and interpretation, 1964, Hall's
School organization and colleague relationship, nd
Australia and Her Northern Neighbours, Hall's, 1962
Jointly
The New Child: In search of smarter grownups, 2008, with Patricia Edgar, Wilkinson Publishing
' PEAK: Reinventing middle age', with Patricia Edgar, Text Publishing, 2017
Today's child care, tomorrow's children!, with Gay Ochiltree, c1995, AIFS
Songs of innocence: a child's view of family life: a discussion paper and study guide, with Annemaree O'Brien, c1994, ACTF
Family-friendly front: a review of Australian and international work and family research, with Kate Spearritt, 1994
Families in the 1990s: a challenge for future policy approaches (background paper prepared by Don Edgar and staff of the Australian Institute of Family Studies for the Social Policy Directorate), 1993
Introduction to Australian society, with Leon Earle, Rodney Fopp, c1993, Prentice-Hall
Family change and early childhood development, with Gay Ochiltree, 1983, AIFS
Children's participation in divorce, with Margaret Harrison, c1983, AIFS
One-parent families and educational disadvantage, with Freya Headlam, c1982, AIFS
Family change and early childhood development, with Gay Ochiltree, 1982, AIFS
Changing face of childhood, with Gay Ochiltree, c1981, AIFS
Family and the pre-school child, with Gay Ochiltree, 1980, AIFS
First year out teaching with Patricia Edgar and Dave McRae, 1973
'The New Child: In search of smarter grown-ups', with Patricia Edgar, Wilkinson 2008
Editor
Competent teacher, edited by Donald E. Edgar, 1974, Angus & Robertson
Social change in Australia: readings in sociology, ed Don Edgar, 1974, Cheshire
Sociology of Australian education: a book of readings, editor, 1975, McGraw Hill
