Women's History Month Heritage Walk Civic Square, March 2022

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this Heritage Walk contains images and names of deceased people.

Edna Hopkins (1920-1996)

Educator and Leader

Edna Hopkins dedicated her life to teaching English to migrants and to helping people from other cultures settle into a new life in Australia.

Born in Queensland in 1920, Edna earned a Bachelor of Arts and a teaching qualification. In 1938, as an University undergraduate, she had her first experience of teaching English to migrants when she volunteered to assist Jewish refugees arriving from Europe.

In 1941 Edna married Lister George Hopkins (1910-2008) in Jerusalem. She spoke neither Arabic nor Hebrew and never forgot the pain of being unable to express herself and of having to shop just by pointing at things while she learned the languages. In 1965 Edna began teaching remedial English to new students at the Australian National University. In 1968 she was appointed as Canberra’s first permanent, full-time teacher of English as a second language in secondary schools.

In 1974 Edna went to England on a Commonwealth Overseas Study Award to develop her skills. On her return she launched her major initiative, a centre where newcomers of secondary school age could have full-time intensive training in English before entering mainstream classes. The Secondary Introductory English Centre (SIEC), set up in 1976, continues at Dickson College.

During the 1970s Edna advocated for training ESL teachers at the Canberra College of Advanced Education where she tutored. She founded the ACT Branch of the Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Edna served on the National Committee for Multicultural Education, the Immigration Review Panel, and the Australian College of Education to which she was elected Fellow in 1981 and helped to establish the Cambodian English Language Training project of Quaker Service Australia.

Edna retired from full-time work in 1978 but continued with CIT part-time until late 1996, producing teaching material for use in all Australian states and in southeast Asia. In 1981 she went to Thailand to establish an English program for refugees at the transit centre at Phanat Nikhom. Edna was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in 1971, made the 1980 Canberran of the Year, and in 1993 made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Select Bibliography

Canberra Citizen of the Year

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_{Header photograph: March by Women's Employment Rights Campaign from the ACT Health Authority to the CES building, 2 December 1977.  ACT Heritage Library, Canberra Times Collection, 006515}