Nautical Teacher Training Colleges Proceedings at the Distribution of Prizes 1890, 1892 and 1893
The Institute of Education Library has an extensive collection of education institutional histories (approximately 2,500 books). These include school, college, and university histories. Related to the colleges and universities histories collection, are the training college prospectuses from the 1930s that are also housed in the IOE Library’s Special Collections.
For the joint ICHRE (International Centre for Historical Research in Education) and FNLA (Friends of the Newsam Library and Archives) symposium on ‘Writing Institutional Histories’, I have chosen to focus on the histories of teacher training colleges. Many of these histories were written in the 1970s and 1980s, following the publication of the James Report in 1972, which recommended the closure of some independent teacher training colleges or the merger of others with higher education institutions.
Changes and Continuities in the Teacher Training
The student magazine of the Institute of Education
Institutional histories are especially useful because they detail the often invisible administrative and organisational aspects of running a college, such as student numbers and the pressure or lack of resources that impact training, timetabling and which courses were deemed important at any given time including the differences in training for female and male teachers and how students were assessed in their practical teaching (More, 1992, Robinson 2004) as well as highlight the connection with policy and its implementation. Many of these histories make use of student records, student/alumni magazines, and or collate or contain oral histories or correspondence which brings out students’ voices and provides insight into an institution’s ethos (see Dent, 1977, Robinson, 2004 and Whitehead, 2012 for instance). These also draw out the student experience and study the impact of the pedagogical methods on classroom teaching practice (Robinson, 2004).
Images as Evidence
Institutional histories include images of the external grounds and building(s), as well as internal shots of lecture rooms, dining rooms, gyms, and libraries, as well as student quarters in residential colleges, all of which give a sense of the size and financial status of the colleges. Students are frequently photographed, usually in groups with their tutors. These images can reveal a lot about the male/female student ratio in any given year, and their nationalities (some colleges offered places to students from the colonies and the dominions – later the Commonwealth). They are, though, to be considered in the context of ‘staged’ evidence.
Comparative Research
Comparing histories of similar institutions in any given period can also enhance our understanding of the changes and continuities from the past to the present to comprehend the historical context of issues concerning teacher education (Beckett, 2007). This includes the ongoing need to professionalise teaching and elevate teachers’ status, as well as track how teacher training evolved to include education studies or the reverse (Robinson, 2004, 2006). Furthermore, one can gauge the themes that were prevalent at a given time. For example, between 1925 and 1928, the Burnham Committee recommended a consolidation of the routes to training and the establishment of an examination process to qualify for teaching. By studying these histories, one can compare how they dealt with these changes which would have, inevitably, impacted the administration, lecturers, and students.
Critical Evaluation of Information Sources
When using these teacher-training college histories as research sources, it is critical to evaluate them by understanding the author’s background and considering any biases s/he may have, why the history was written, and who published the history. Malcolm Tight (2003, pp. 141-2) claims that university histories share the following characteristics:
They typically focus on the steady, chronological expansion and successes …presenting their history as inevitable progress towards the glorious present (almost as if other outcomes were impossible). They tend to stress the [institution’s] uniqueness while ignoring or downplaying the achievements of other similar institutions. The tone of writing is usually one of measured, factual and quietly enthusiastic reportage. While many aspects of [institutional] life may be discussed, the dominant perspective tends to be that of … management…. Such histories also tend to lack a critical perspective, particularly when they come to deal with more recent periods; that is, the period in which the sponsors of the history work.
There is much truth in this, and many older histories can be and often are biased because they are frequently written by ex-students, staff, management or governing body members. They attempt to portray the positive aspects of an institution because many are ‘official’ anniversary editions that focus on the institution’s successes while ignoring any difficulties the institution may have faced – except perhaps financial ones imposed by central or local government.
Despite these shortcomings, as Dr Barry Blade has demonstrated with his use of the school histories collection, there is much to be gained from using these as historical sources themselves. Furthermore, these histories provide information that may not be available to scholars outside the institution, particularly if the original records no longer exist, exist only in part, or a researcher is unable to travel to the institution to access the archive.
If you want to use the collection, please contact the UCL Institute of Education Library via email at ioe.lib-enquiries@ucl.ac.uk or nazlin.bhimani@ucl.ac.uk.
NB: The title of this post is from the Cheltenham Teacher Training College by Charles More (see reference below).
SOURCES
Beckett, L. (2007). City of Leeds Training College: Continuity and Change 1907-2007. Leeds: Leeds Metropolitan University.
Blades, B. (2015). Roll of Honour: Schooling and the Great War 1914-1919. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military
Dent, H.C. (1977). The Training of Teachers in England and Wales, 1800-1975. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
More, C. (1992) A Splendid College: An Illustrated History of Teacher Training in Cheltenham, 1947-1900. Cheltenham: Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education.
More, C. (1992). The Training of Teachers, 1847-1947: A History of the Church Colleges at Cheltenham. London: Hambledon Press.
Robinson, W. (2004). Power to Teach: Learning Through Practice. London: Routledge.
Robinson, W. (2006). ‘Teacher Training in England and Wales: Past, Present and Future Perspectives’. Education Research and Perspectives, 33 (2), 19-36.
Tight, M. (2003). Researching Higher Education. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
Whitehead, K. (2012). ‘Transnational Connections in Early Twentieth-Century Women Teachers’ Work’. Paedagogica Historica, 48 (3), 381-3.
Newsam News 