The Slow Evolution of Foster Care in Australia: Just Like a Family? (Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood)

This book draws on archival, oral history and public policy sources to tell a history of foster care in Australia from the nineteenth century to the present day. It is, primarily, a social history which places the voices of people directly touched by foster care at the centre of the story, but also within the wider social and political debates which have shaped foster care across more than a century. The book confronts foster care's difficult past--death and abuse of foster children, family separation, and a general public apathy towards these issues--but it also acknowledges the resilience of people who have survived a childhood in foster care, and the challenges faced by those who have worked hard to provide good foster homes and to make child welfare systems better. These are themes which the book examines from an Australian perspective, but which often resonate with foster care globally.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction: There Is No Typical Story of Foster Care (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 1-24 Front Matter ....Pages 25-25 Did Anybody Care? The Death of John Wood Pledger (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 27-50 Making and Breaking Families (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 51-86 Remembering and Forgetting Foster Care (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 87-126 They’re Just Doing It for the Money (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 127-155 Front Matter ....Pages 157-157 Foster Care—Philosophies, Rhetoric and Practices (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 159-195 Rediscovering Foster Care (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 197-219 Writing to Heal—The Emergence of Foster Care in Literature (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 221-257 Are We Getting Better at This? (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 259-292 Conclusion—What Can History Tell Us About the Future of Foster Care? (Nell Musgrove, Deidre Michell)....Pages 293-306 Back Matter ....Pages 307-314