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ABSTRACT
Over the course of the twentieth century, Ontario teacher education underwent substantial transformations in terms of policy, jurisdiction and design, which shifted authority from provincially controlled normal schools to more semi-autonomous teachers’ colleges and finally to faculties within university campuses. In looking at these top-level political decisions, a sense of inevitable momentum emerges, leading to a rather oversimplified interpretation of rapid, universal acceptance of these decisions. The present case study argues that behind this rhetoric of change, there seems to have been more of a desire for constancy, reinforced by individual normal-school staff members themselves at each location. Who was hired, their initial belief systems at the time of their appointment, the durability of their philosophies, the roles they understood they were playing, and their enduring motivations all impacted the rate of development of teacher-education programme in the province. The emerging picture is of a socially constructed group of teacher educators held together by their strong shared convictions, culture and social connections, while also acting as part of a wider, hierarchical education network. It was through these perceptions that the institution under study tempered radical changes put forward by any outside forces, leading to a more gradual rate of reform.
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Notes
1 A simple comparison between the 1909 North Bay Normal School programme and its successor, the 2022 Nipissing University teacher-education programme, would show very similar course offerings: a series of subject-based courses including Mathematics, English, Science, History, and so on, as well as courses focusing on classroom management and pedagogy.
2 In Canada, many journals provide extensive outlets for knowledge mobilisation of educational history, including Historical Studies in Education and, to a lesser extent, the Canadian Journal of Education and the Alberta Journal of Educational Research. With a growing excitement in this field beginning in the 1960s, academics from this period set the pattern for future research: Robert S. Patterson, “The Establishment of Progressive Education in Alberta” (doctoral thesis, Michigan State University, 1968); Alison Prentice and Marjorie R. Theobald, eds., Women Who Taught: Perspectives on the History of Women and Teaching (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1991); and Nancy M. Sheehan, J. Donald Wilson and David C. Jones, eds., Schools in the West: Essays in Canadian Educational History (Calgary, AB: Detselig Enterprises Limited, 1986).
3 See Paul Axelrod, “Academic Freedom and Its Constraints: A Complex History”, Canadian Journal of Higher Education 51, no. 3 (2021): 51–66; Paul Stortz and E. Lisa Panayotidis, eds., Historical Identities: The Professoriate in Canada (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2006); Glen A. Jones, ed., Higher Education in Canada: Different Systems, Different Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 1997); Robin S. Harris, A History of Higher Education in Canada 1663–1960 (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1970); and A. Brian McKillop, Matters of Mind: The University in Ontario 1791–1951 (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1994).
4 Ashley Forseille and Helen Raptis, “Future Teachers Clubs and the Socialization of Pre-Service and Early Career Teachers, 1953–2015”, Teaching and Teacher Education 59 (2016): 239–246; and Robert M. Stamp, “Through the Eyes of Students: A Learner-Centred Approach to Educational History”, History of Intellectual Culture 2, no. 1 (2002): 1–11.
5 Eleanor Campbell, Reflections of Light: A History of the Saskatoon Normal School, 1912–1953 and the Saskatoon Teachers’ College 1953–1964 (Saskatoon, SK: College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, 1996); Robert D. Gidney and Wynne P.J. Millar, How Schools Worked: Public Education in English Canada, 1900–1940 (Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012); and Tom O’Donoghue and Clive Whitehead, eds., A Comparative Analysis of Teacher Education across Ten Countries (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2008).
6 Frances Helyar, “Thwarted Ambitions: Teacher Education in New Brunswick”, in The Curriculum History of Canadian Teacher Education, ed. Theodore Christou (London: Routledge, 2017); Kelvin Anthony Hollihan, “Willing to Listen Humbly: Practice Teaching in Alberta Normal Schools, 1906–44”, Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation 9, no. 2 (1997): 237–250; David W. Booth and Suzanne M. Stiegelbauer, Teaching Teachers: The Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, 1906–1996 (Toronto, ON: Caliburn Publishing, 1996); and Robert M. Stamp, Becoming a Teacher in 20th-Century Calgary: The Calgary Normal School and the Faculty of Education, University of Calgary (Calgary, AB: Detselig Enterprises, 2004).
7 Julian Kitchen and Diana Petrarca, “Teacher Preparation in Ontario: A History”, Teaching & Learning 8, no. 1 (2013/2014): 56–71.
8 Peter P. Grimmett, “The Governance of Canadian Teacher Education: A Macro-political Perspective”, in Engaging in Conversation about Ideas in Teacher Education, ed. Fiona J. Benson and Caroline Riches (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), 22–32; Peter P. Grimmett and Laura D’Amico, “Do British Columbia’s Recent Education Policy Changes Enhance Professionalism among Teachers?”, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy 78, no. 1 (2008): 1–35; and Judith Walker and HsingChi von Bergmann, “Teacher Education Policy in Canada: Beyond Professionalization and Deregulation”, Canadian Journal of Education 36, no. 4 (2013): 65–92.
9 Adriana Morales-Perlaza and Maurice Tardif, “Pan-Canadian Perspectives on Teacher Education: The State of the Art in Comparative Research”, Alberta Journal of Educational Research 62, no. 2 (2016): 199–219; Christopher DeLuca, Jill Willis, Bronwen Cowie, Christine Harrison, Andrew Coombs, Andrew Gibson and Suzanne Adele Trask, “Policies, Program, and Practices: Exploring the Complex Dynamics of Assessment Education in Teacher Education across Four Countries”, Frontiers in Education 4 (2019): 1–19.
10 Carl Berger, The Writing of Canadian History (Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press, 1976); Michael Gauvreau, “Philosophy, Psychology, and History: George Sidney Brett and the Quest for a Social Science at the University of Toronto, 1910–1940”, Historical Papers 23, no. 1 (1988): 209–236; Catherine Gidney, Long Eclipse: The Liberal Protestant Establishment and the Canadian University, 1920–1970 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004); A. Brian McKillop, A Disciplined Intelligence (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1979); and Samuel E.D. Shortt, The Search for an Ideal: Six Canadian Intellectuals and Their Convictions in an Age of Transition 1890–1930 (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1976).
11 For example, John Calam, “A Life in Education: Neville Scarfe and Teacher Education”, Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation 18, no. 1 (2006): 75–83.
12 Rebecca Coulter, “Getting Things Done: Donalda J. Dickie and Leadership through Practice”, Canadian Journal of Education/Revue Canadienne De l’éducation 28, no. 4 (2005): 669–699.
13 Susan Gelman, “Stratford (Normal School) Teachers’ College, 1908–1973”, Historical Studies in Education 14, no. 1 (2002): 113–120; Nancy M. Sheehan and J. Donald Wilson, “From Normal School to University to the College of Teachers: Teacher Education in British Columbia”, Journal of Education for Teaching 20, no. 1 (1994): 23–37; and Robert M. Stamp, Becoming a Teacher in 20th Century Calgary: A History of the Calgary Normal School and the Faculty of Education, University of Calgary (Calgary, AB: Detselig, 2004).
14 Thomas B. Greenfield, “The Man Who Comes Back Through the Door in the Wall: Discovering Truth, Discovering Self, Discovering Organizations”, Educational Administration Quarterly 16, no. 3 (1980): 27.
15 Ivor F. Goodson, Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics: The Selected Works of Ivor F. Goodson (London: Routledge, 2005), 1.
16 See: Robert E. Stake, The Art of Case Study Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995).
17 Based on an initial Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant provided by the federal government, this project has led to some fruitful comparative research. See: Lynn Lemisko and Kurt Clausen, “Born of cooperation? Teacher Education Curriculum in Saskatchewan, 1905–1975”, in The Curriculum History of Canadian Teacher Education, ed. Theodore Christou (London: Routledge, 2017). As well, the team has examined other individual institutions using related methods. See Lynn Lemisko, Gemma Porter and Kurt Clausen, “Community and Teacher Education, Convergence or Divergence? Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Normal School, 1930–1950”, Alberta Journal of Educational Research 67, no. 4 (2021): 397–420.
18 This is done in sympathy with the works of: Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of Social Revolutions in Russia, France and China (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1979); Louise M. Fitzgerald and Sue Dopson, “Comparative Case Study Designs: Their Utility and Development in Organisational Research”, in The Sage Handbook of Organizational Research Methods, ed. David Buchanan and Alan Bryman (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2011), 465–483; James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Comparative Historical Analysis of the Social Sciences (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
19 Carl F. Kaestle, “Standards of Evidence in Historical Research: How Do We Know When We Know?”, History of Education Quarterly 32, no. 3 (1992): 360–366.
20 George J. Bryjak and Michael P. Soroka, Sociology: Cultural Diversity in a Changing World (Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1997), 8.
21 J.M. McCutcheon, Public Education in Ontario (Toronto, ON: T.H. Best, 1941), 213. See also Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, Mark Ingham and Tylor Burrows, “Reconciling 170 Years of Settler Curriculum Policies: Teacher Education in Ontario”, in The Curriculum History of Canadian Teacher Education, ed. Theodore Christou (London: Routledge, 2017).
22 While second-class certification would allow candidates to teach in elementary schools, only a first class could lead to teaching in the grammar or later high schools. See Charles E. Phillips, Development of Education in Canada (Toronto, ON: W.J. Gage, 1957), 561–562. By the 1870s, teacher tests were employed to gain certification. See Ruth A. Childs and Barbara Bower, “Teacher Testing and Certification: An Historical Perspective from Ontario”, Journal of Educational Administration and History 38, no. 3 (2006): 279–291.
23 William G. Fleming, Ontario’s Educative Society, Volume V: Supporting Institutions and Services (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1971), 18.
24 Fleming, Ontario’s Educative Society, Volume V, 18. Fleming paraphrases a letter written by Egerton Ryerson to Alexander Mackenzie, then Provincial Treasurer, on 12 October 1872.
25 R.S. Harris, Quiet Evolution: A Study of the Educational System in Ontario (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1967), 73–74. Harris notes that by 1880, there were 47 county model schools throughout Ontario.
26 See Report of the Minister of Education, Province of Ontario for the Year 1907 (Toronto, ON: L.K. Cameron, 1908), 583. This quotation is made by Inspector J.J. Tilley in a report he submitted concerning county model schools.
27 Report of Minister of Education for 1907, viii.
28 Toronto Globe, 14 July 1906.
29 See Toronto Globe, 1 March 1912. Of course, the person so critical of the normal school’s location was the Liberal MPP whose riding had lost its bid to North Bay.
30 See note 27 above.
31 See: William H. Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
32 This information may be found at: Toronto Normal School: Turn of the Century (2014), http://canada.yodelout.com/toronto-normal-school-turn-of-the-century/.
33 Report of the Minister of Education, Province of Ontario for the Year 1930 (Toronto, ON: Herbert H. Ball Printer, 1931), 22–23.
34 See J.C. Norris in North Bay Normal School Yearbook, 1930–1931, The Nineteenth Annual Year Book (North Bay, ON: Published by the Students of NBNS, 1931), 9.
35 North Bay Normal School Yearbook, 1939–1940, The Thirty First Annual Year Book (North Bay, ON: Published by the Students of NBNS, 1940), 5.
36 Polaris: North Bay Teachers’ College Yearbook, 1959–1960 (North Bay, ON: Published by the Students of NBTC, 1960), 12.
37 Ibid., 12.
38 Report of Minister of Education for 1907, 589.
39 Report of Minister of Education for 1906, 572–573.
40 Oxford Historical Society, vol. 45 (1904), 111.
41 See note 39 above.
42 See his biography written by Danielle Ferchoff (August 2013) at: https://www.edmonton.ca/sites/default/files/public-files/assets/PDF/Eagleson_James_Norman_Bio.pdf.
43 See file “Staff Minutes (1969–70) Fonds F001 – North Bay Teachers College”, Nipissing Archives, North Bay Ontario.
44 Report of Minister of Education for 1915, 27.
45 L.J. Dupuis, “A History of Elementary Teacher Training in Ontario” (Master of Arts thesis, Ottawa University, 1952), 88.
46 These appeared year after year as appendices to the Minister of Education Annual Reports. A good example may be found in the 1912 version (146–174).
47 See, for example, Ontario. Department of Education, Ontario Teachers’ Manuals: Literature (Toronto, ON: The Copp Clark Company, 1916), 21. It states that “one of the most valuable means of securing an appreciation of literature is the memorization of fine passages of prose and poetry. Pupils from the primary grades upward should be required to memorize systematically several lines of prose and poetry every week of the school year”.
48 Existing timetables may be found in the Nipissing Archives, Fonds F001-057. The courses mentioned in this study have been pieced together through these timetables, the Report of Minister of Education for Ontario (1909–1959) and the North Bay Yearbooks from 1914 to 1959.
49 Report of Minister of Education for 1914, 154.
50 This course finally disappeared off the calendar by the late 1960s, only to reappear as a core course in Nipissing University’s programme once again in 2020.
51 Over their long history, “Science of Education” and “Classroom Management” were taught by subject-specific masters as a second course: J.C. Norris (Mathematics) taught both courses off and on from 1919 to 1932; Grace Morgan (English) also taught both on a few occasions in the 1920s; F.S. Rivers (Social Studies) taught “Science of Education” from 1932 to 1941; and J.D. Deyell (Mathematics) from 1941 to 1951 when the course was eliminated. “Classroom Management” became more of a revolving door of masters over the years: J.A. Bannister (Reading) took the course until 1929 when he left; then Mrs L. Skuce (Reading) until 1931; W.J. Neale (English) until 1941, with a few others replacing him in various years; Deyell took on this duty until 1947 when E.C. Beacom, the incoming principal, taught the latter until his retirement in 1958. From here on there was a new instructor every other year until the course was phased out (see NBNS/NBTC, Yearbooks, 1909–1973).
52 These began as early as the Report of the Minister of Education (1907), 203. Speakers during the term were listed and described every year in the North Bay Yearbooks.
53 Toronto Normal School, 1847–1947 (Toronto, ON: School of Graphic Arts, 1947), 58.
54 C. Gunning, North Bay’s Homefront, 1939–1945: The City, Its Citizens and World War II (North Bay, ON: Beatty Printing, 2004), 21.
55 Gunning, North Bay’s Homefront, 1939–1945, 242.
56 Polaris: The Forty-Fifth Annual Yearbook, 1953–1954 (North Bay, ON: Published by the Students of NBTC, 1954), 3.
57 A.C. Casselman (principal, 1909–1930); J.C. Norris (Mathematics Master, 1909–1932); Charles Ramsey (Art instructor, 1909–1934); J.E. Chambers (Manual Training instructor, 1910–1946); Herbert Wildgust (Music instructor, 1913–1923); and H.E. Ricker (Science Master, 1915–1943).
58 Report of the Minister of Education for 1921, 305–306; and Report for 1922, 341.
59 North Bay Normal School Yearbooks, 1926–1928. When student numbers rose, women such as Miss Edna Johnson (1925–1927) and Mrs Skuce (1927–1928) were brought in as instructors. However, this was only for short stints as instructors.
60 The gendered classroom and the role of women teachers in the Canadian school system before the 1970s are discussed in detail by: Kristina R. Llewellyn, Democracy’s Angels: The Work of Women Teachers (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012); Prentice and Theobald, Women Who Taught; Alice Collins and Patricia Langlois, “‘I Knew I Would Have to Make a Choice’: Voices of Women Teachers from Newfoundland and Labrador”, Newfoundland Studies 11, no. 2 (1995): 308–328; and Dianne M. Hallman, “Telling Tales Out of School: Twentieth-Century Women Teachers in Saskatchewan”, Saskatchewan History 49, no. 2 (1997): 3–17.
61 North Bay Normal School Yearbook (1935), 23; and Report of the Minister of Education for 1962, 25.
62 The double standard of gender endured even at the college and university level well into the post-war period, as detailed by E. Lisa Panayotidis and Paul Stortz, eds., Women in Higher Education, 1850–1970: International Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 2016).
63 Even after she had retired and moved to a Toronto suburb, Grace Morgan organised a new chapter of the CFUW for members who could not travel to the University of Toronto downtown campus to attend meetings. Details are mentioned by the Club’s fund named in her honour at https://uwcnorthyork.ca/grace-morgan-fund/.
64 Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario [The Hope Report] (Toronto, ON: B. Johnston, Printer to the King, 1950), 579.
65 Jeffrey A. Keshen, Saints, Sinners and Soldiers: Canada’s Second World War (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004), 275.
66 See North Bay Teachers’ College fonds (F001), Nipissing University and Canadore College Archives and Special Collections, North Bay, Ontario.
67 A Historical Sketch of N.B.N.S. – N.B.T.C., 1909–1959 (n.d.), 6. Kept at North Bay Teachers’ College fonds.
68 North Bay Normal School Yearbook (1935), 7.
69 This concern for the practicalities of the running of the school, as well as the maintenance of Departmental standards and carrying out policy, is noted in minutes of staff meetings lasting up to the end of the collection of the Nipissing Archives in 1970. Whether serious or not, an apt quotation of this sentiment may be found from the mathematics master W.J. Neale’s flip comment that “I’d Wear Half Sleeves in My Dress before I’d Lose My Job over It”, in North Bay Normal School Yearbook (1935), 29.
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Notes on contributors
Kurt W. Clausen
Kurt W. Clausen is a professor in the history of education and curriculum studies at Nipissing University, Ontario. His doctoral work from the University of Ottawa examined the various uses of curriculum integration in the provincial programme of studies over an eighty-year period. He has since studied the development of pedagogical innovation and teacher education across Canada. His most recently co-edited publication, The Future of Action Research in Teacher Education: A Canadian Perspective (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), analyses the ongoing professionalisation of teachers.
Lynn Lemisko
Lynn Lemisko is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and serves as Department Head of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan. Her concentration on the history of philosophy and education has led her into a great deal of collaborative work with scholars and practitioners interested in exploring promising practices in educating for social justice that included projects related to approaches to pre-service and in-service teacher education.