Eleanor Schonell had been a doctoral graduate in the field at the University of Birmingham, and with her husband produced standardized ways to test children’s academic attainment. Her work in special education continued in Queensland. Eleanor and Fred Schonell were leaders in the Queensland Spastic Children’s Welfare League. The Schonells lived in Indooroopilly.

Impact On Brisbane Society

Eleanor Schonell’s educationist work in Queensland had largely been overshadowed by the partnership with her husband. Prof. Fred Schonell became Foundation Professor of Education at the University of Queensland in 1950, and Sir Fred Schonell was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland (1960-1969). However, Eleanor Schonell’s book, Educating Spastic Children (Edinburgh, 1956), found a receptive audience in the United States, as well as in Commonwealth countries. She initiated educational and psychological testing of children with cerebral palsy, and wrote a chapter on the subject in Recent Advances in Cerebral Palsy (London, 1958), edited by R. S. Illingworth.

Citations

John Elkins, ‘ ‘Schonell, Sir Fred Joyce (1900–1969)’ and ‘Schonell, Florence Eleanor (1902–1962)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/schonell-florence-eleanor-12104/text20779, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed online 3 November 2017. This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, (MUP), 2002.

Clarke, Eddie; Watson, Tom. (ed.) Soldiers of the Service, Volume 3: Mid Twentieth Century Queensland Educators, History of Queensland Education Society, QUT Printing Services, 2006.

Schonell, Fred J. (Joyce); Schonell, F. Eleanor. ‘The Slow Learning Child,’ Australian Journal on the Education of Backward children, Vol. 9, No.3, March 1963.

Image Citation

Like little Audrey, I just laughed—-and laughed Joyce Stirling’s RADIOPINION. Sunday Mail, Sunday 28 November 1954, p. 28. NLA Trove