I visited our Faculty archive for a conference we’re holding next year to mark the centenary of Democracy and Education.
I wanted to explore when and how Dewey entered the syllabus, but it turned out
his entrance was painfully slow. What caught my attention was a tortuous
trajectory of course content, as generations over the first half-century of
university-based ITET were introduced to ‘history and theory’. Engaged for years in
teacher education and CPD, over the last four years in Kazakhstan, I have a
particular interest in the uses of history for critical thinking about
pedagogy. Syllabuses found in the archive stirred my
passion for good history with professional relevance, challenging historical
imagination to understand why they were delivered and how they were received. J.H.Higginson, J.B.Thomas and Wendy Robinson have
been here before, but the territory’s ripe for re-visiting.
What paradigm shifts, what contingencies, negotiations and compromises, move from this in 1892 …
… to this in 1919 …
To these trains of thought was added the surprise and pleasure of meeting unexpected friends. Unsurprising was the pre-eminent J.W. Adamson, communiting from King's College London to teach history and advise on education courses generally. But in the archive I met names unknown to me, names not normally linked with the history of education.
Albert
Cock, philosopher and writer on Christian thought,
was Professor of Education and Philosophy in the University College
of Southampton 1916–39, and Principal, St John’s Diocesan Training
College York, 1939–45. He published widely
on education, literature and the history of Christian thought.
Henrietta
Dent, Principal of Cambridge Training College for
Women 1933-45 was a first class History graduate from Girton who gained
Distinction in her London University Diploma in Education. An accomplished
linguist with a powerful and lively mind, and an exceptionally good lecturer, she
impressed on her students a sympathetic and imaginative approach in the
classroom. She advocated dynamic pedagogy, seminars, tutorial groups and
individual work, as better suited than routine lectures to the needs of
trainees.
Albert
Victor Murray was Professor of Education at Hull 1933-45,
President of the Training Colleges Association 1940–42, and President of
Cheshunt Coll., Cambridge, 1945–59. He travelled and taught in Africa, wrote on
religious education in schools, on natural religion, Christian theology and
church history.
The Cambridge Teachers’ Certificate was
widely offered throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Between 1887 and 1935, 41
Training Colleges from Aberystwyth and Bangor to Waterford and Wantage were
recognized by the Cambridge Syndicate, including 8 in London, 2 in Edinburgh and 3 in Dublin,
though meantime some such as Bristol and Reading gaining independent university
status.
Through the interwar years however,
periodic rumblings from the colleges led to debate and modification of the
syllabus. In 1922 the historical period
was updated from 1400-1660 to the 19th century, and the following
year was confined English education. In 1928 complaints about the lack of
options and calls to reduce the period still further to 1860-1902 were made.
Four years later, on 6 January 1934, Harriet
Dent, called a meeting in London at which 10 colleges were represented. Her
objections were that History loomed too large, occupying a fourth of the whole education
exam, and that shortening the period had necessitated much greater attention to
detail, making it more difficult for students to appreciate the general
historical background. She proposed that the ‘Principles of Education’ Paper could
include historical reference, that alternatives to the History paper should be
permitted, and that independent historical work could be considered for
assessment.
Albert Cock from Southampton, and
J.W.Adamson, were asked to observe and report to the Cambridge Syndicate on the
1934 meeting. Cock recorded general agreement that the period should be
extended back to 1800, and especially that more modern reference beyond 1902
should be allowed. The heavy burden of detailed knowledge demanded was also
criticised. One concrete suggestion was for an optional section entitled
‘Rousseau to Dewey’, the greater classics of education in the last 150
years. There was no suggestion that
history of education was not important and one or two spoke with great emphasis
on its necessity and value. Cock reports approvingly on Miss Dent’s proactive
and reflective representation of the discontents widely felt by history teachers
in training colleges. (We should note
that the Cambridge Teachers’ Certificate was a prestige qualification acquired at
considerable expense to the colleges and their students, a source of income
that kept the Cambridge UDE afloat!)
I’ll leave the last word to Victor Murray. On the outbreak of war, Hull University College’s education department was evacuated to Cambridge, so he was close at hand. On retiring as examiner in 1941 repeated his conviction that the History of Education should be studied as part of social history. He was convinced that many lecturers in the colleges failed to observe ‘this very salutary rule’ and dealt with education in far too great isolation.
I’ll leave the last word to Victor Murray. On the outbreak of war, Hull University College’s education department was evacuated to Cambridge, so he was close at hand. On retiring as examiner in 1941 repeated his conviction that the History of Education should be studied as part of social history. He was convinced that many lecturers in the colleges failed to observe ‘this very salutary rule’ and dealt with education in far too great isolation.
There is no value, educational or practical, in candidates knowing, as many often do know, the precise amounts of attendance under the Revised Code or the recommendations of some dead and gone Commission, and insistence on such matters has gone far to bring this subject into disrepute among the Training Colleges and Departments.
References
J.W.Adamson (1920) A guide to the history of education. (Helps for students of
history) London
J.W.Adamson (1930) English Education, 1789–1902
(Cambridge, CUP)
J.B.Thomas (1979) ‘The Curriculum of a Day
Training College: The logbooks of J.W.Adamson’, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 18, 2, 24-33
J.H.Higginson (1980) ‘Establishing a
history of education course: the work of Professor Michael Sadler 1903-1911’, History of Education, 9, 3, 245-255
Wendy Robinson (2003) Pupil Teachers and their Professional Training (Lewiston, NY: E.
Mellen)
