In 1937, the New Education Fellowship, an organisation with branches in many countries, held a major educational conference in Australia, with international speakers who travelled to each of the Australian capitals. Several days of lectures and associated activities in each city were attended by thousands of teachers, lecturers and others interested in the potential of education and the need for reform. In the 1920s and 1930s, many educationists remained interested in continuing the momentum of reform which had occurred in the first decades of the new century in Australia. Yet the interwar decades have also been characterised as an overall reactionary period for educational policy and practice. This paper explores ideas relating to the education of children along with those individuals who advocated and agitated, formed associations, and introduced progressive practices in schools.