“Willing enthusiasts” or “lame ducks”? Issues in teacher professional development policy in England and Wales 1910–1975

Abstract

Though there is a well-established body of research in the field of teacher professional development, it is characterised by a real dearth of any detailed historical analysis. This paper seeks to address this gap, by offering a new historical analysis of a case study of the evolution of organised teacher professional development in England and Wales during the twentieth century. Its approach is hoped to open up the wider debate and to contribute to a fuller understanding of the basis for those questions and dilemmas about teacher professional development that have long exercised teachers, professional educators and policy-makers – questions which turn on fundamental issues of priorities and purpose, funding, scale of teacher engagement, control and reach. The paper is in three main parts. Firstly, the scope of the case study is outlined with key stages in the evolution of teacher professional development in England and Wales identified. Secondly, four themes from the data which characterised this evolution are discussed. These include the restricted engagement of teachers relative to the whole teacher population; limited funding; the highly centralised control over provision for teacher professional development through Her Majesty’s Inspectorate (HMI); and a highly selective and restrictive access to provision by teachers. It is argued that these key characteristics helped to shape a particular culture and ideology of teacher professional development which was dependent on a select cadre of elite teachers for the dissemination and modelling of what was regarded as good practice, so as to improve their colleagues’ performance – the elite excelled while the majority needed to be saved from mediocrity. The particular ideology underlying this model is conceptualised as one of ‘excellence and salvation’. Finally, it is argued that the key issues identified in this story (the restricted engagement of teachers; limited funding; highly centralised control; and ideologies of excellence) raise important generic questions for the field of teacher professional development more widely as well as framing future historical analysis of teacher professional development.

Keywords:

• teachers
• professional development
• professional identity
• teacher quality
• history
• conceptual models of teacher professional development

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the British Academy for its Research Development Award, “Revisiting Teacher Professional Development: Past and Present Models, 1920-2008”, which enabled the original research for this paper.

Notes

¹See for example: H. Bocko, “Professional Development and Teacher Learning: Mapping the Terrain,” Educational Researcher 33, no. 8 (2004): 3–15, for a discussion of the US context; V.D Opfer, D. Pedder. and Z. Lavicza, Schools and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in England – State of the Nation Research Project: A Report for the Training and Development Agency for Schools (London: TDA, 2008), for a recent English perspective; H. Timperley, Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (Brussels: UNESCO/International Bureau of Education, 2008) for a comprehensive review of practice in the US, New Zealand, Australia, The Netherlands and Israel; P. Musset, “Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Training Policies in a Comparative Perspective: Current Practices in OECD Countries and a Literature Review on Potential Effects” (OECD Education Working Papers, No. 48, OECD Publishing, 2010).

²J. Neufeld, Redefining Teacher Development (London: Routledge, 2009), preface.

³See for example: L. Darling-Hammond and G. Sykes, eds., Teaching as the Learning Profession: A Handbook of Policy and Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005); C. Day, Developing Teachers: The Challenges of Lifelong Learning (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 1999); C. Day and J. Sachs, International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 2005); L. Evans, “What is Teacher Development?,” Oxford Review of Education 28, no. 1 (2002): 123–37; A. Hargreaves and M. Fullan, Understanding Teacher Development (London: Cassell, 1992); E. Hoyle and P. John, Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice (London: Cassell, 1995).

⁴OECD, Staying Ahead: In-Service Training and Teacher Professional Development (Paris: OECD, 1998); OECD, Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers (Paris: OECD, 2005); OECD, Teaching and Learning International Study (Paris: OECD, 2009); OECD, Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons From Around the World, (Paris, OECD, 2011).

⁵For general historical studies of teaching see for example: H. Dent, The Training of Teachers in England and Wales 1800–1975 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977); P. Gardner and P. Cunningham, Becoming Teachers: Texts and Testimonies 1907–1950 (London: Woburn Press, 2004); P. Gosden, The Evolution of a Profession (Basil Blackwell, 1972); L. Jones, The Training of Teachers in England and Wales: A Critical Survey (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1924); M. Lawn, Servants of the State: The Contested Control of Teaching 1900-1930 (London: The Falmer Press, 1987); W. Robinson, Power to Teach: Learning through Practice (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004); W. Robinson, “Teacher Education in England and Wales,” in T. O’Donoghue and C. Whitehead, eds., Teacher Education in the English Speaking World: Past, Present and Future (Charlotte: Information Age, 2008), 45–61; M. de Vroede, “The History of Teacher Training,” History of Education Society Bulletin 10, no. 1 (1981): 1–8; R. Rich, The Training of Teachers in England and Wales During the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1933); A. Tropp, The School Teachers (London: William Heinmann Ltd, 1957).

⁶Recent exceptions include: D. Crook, “In-Service Education and Professional Development for Teachers in England: Historical Perspectives from the Late Twentieth Century,” History of Education Researcher 87 (2011): 4–12; W. Robinson, “Revisiting Teacher Professional Development: Past and Present Models 1920–2008,” History of Education Researcher 85 (2010): 28–34.

⁷See W. Robinson, “‘That Great Educational Experiment’ The City of London Vacation Course in Education 1922–1938: A Forgotten Story in the History of Teacher Professional Development,” History of Education 40, no. 5 (2011): 557–75 and W. Robinson, A Learning Profession: Teachers and their Professional Development in England and Wales 1920–2000 (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, in press).

⁸House of Commons, “Education in England and Wales, being the report of the Board of Education for the School Year 1924–1925,” 1926, Cmd. 2695, X. 33.

⁹Board of Education, Report of the Departmental Committee on the Training of Teachers for Public Elementary Schools (London: HMSO, 1925), 119.

¹⁰Board of Education, Teachers and Youth Leaders: Report of the Committee appointed by the President of the Board of Education to Consider the Supply, Recruitment and Training of Teachers and Youth Leaders (London: HMSO, 1944).

¹¹House of Commons, “Education in 1954, being the Report of the Ministry of Education and the Statistics of Public Education in England and Wales,” 1955–1956, Cmd. 9521, XIV.403, 39–40.

¹²Department of Education and Science, Course of Further Training for Teachers, Circular 7/64 (London: DES, 1964).

¹³House of Commons, “Education in 1964 being the Report of the Department of Education and Science,” 1964-65, Cmnd. 2612, XIII.287, 70.

¹⁴Department of Education and Science, Teacher Education and Training: A Report by a Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science under the Chairmanship of Lord James of Rusholme (London: HMSO, 1972), 5.

¹⁵Dent, Training of Teachers, 151; House of Commons, “Education: A Framework for Expansion,” 1972–1973, Cmnd. 5174, VII.1013.

¹⁶United Kingdom National Archives, Kew (hereafter NA), ED 86/379.

¹⁷NA, ED 86/380.

¹⁸The statistics used to compile the figures presented in this paper have been collated from the Annual Reports of the Board of Education, the Ministry of Education and the Department for Education and Science, issued between 1927 and 1965: these are available as House of Commons Command Papers. For the period 1966–1975, the statistics used here were collated from annual volumes of Statistics of Education (London: HMSO, 1966–1976).

¹⁹V. Carpentier, “Quantitative Sources for the History of Education,” History of Education 37, no. 5 (2008): 701–20.

²⁰NA, ED 86/380.

²¹V. Carpentier, “Public Expenditure on Education and Economic Growth in the UK, 1833–2000,” History of Education 32, no. 1 (2003): 1–15.

²²R. Aldrich, D. Crook, and D. Watson, Education and Employment: the DfEE and its Place in History (London: London University Institute of Education, 2000).

²³NA, ED 23/449.

²⁴Aldrich, Crook, and Watson, Education and Employment, 59. NA ED 22/449.

²⁵NA, ED 86/111.

²⁶NA, ED 86/222.

²⁸NA, ED23/449.

²⁷NA, ED 86/222.

²⁹G. Partington, Women Teachers in the Twentieth Century in England and Wales (Windsor: NFER, 1976).

³⁰NA, ED 86/379.

³¹NA, ED 28/117.

³⁵NA, ED 22/226.

³²NA, ED 22/45.

³³NA, ED 22/103.

³⁴NA, ED 22/109; ED 22/226.

³⁷NA, ED 22/175.

³⁶NA, ED 82/126.

³⁸NA, ED 86/380.

³⁹NA, ED86/223, memo describing teachers on elementary supplementary courses in the early 1950s.

⁴⁰NA, Ed 86/222, memo describing candidates for the special course for experienced serving teachers in 1951: “We want these courses to attract the cream of the teaching profession. We should be training a small elite”.

⁴¹NA, ED 86/378, memo describing the quality of teachers already engaged in in-service training, July 1962.

⁴²NA ED 10/204, memo describing candidates on a short course for Welsh teachers, 1926.

⁴³NA, ED 22/176.

⁴⁴NA, ED 86/111.

⁴⁵NA, ED 86/380.

⁴⁶NA, ED 86/378.

⁴⁷NA, ED 86/222.

⁵¹NA ED 86/380.

⁴⁸NA, ED 86/378.

⁴⁹NA, ED 86/378; ED 86/379; ED281/18.

⁵⁰NA, ED 86/378.