The UCL Institute of Education. From Training College to Global Institution

This was a book I wanted to read, being alumni of the Institute of Education and the History of Education MA Course, which was a programme led by Richard Aldrich in the 1990s. Richard Aldrich was the original author of this book which Tom Woodin as co-author has now revised and extended. I was taught by Aldrich, Dennis Dean and David Crook in the mid-1990s. Aldrich had also helped me with my successful ESRC Scholarship application which allowed me to progress to my PhD at Keele University (England) in 1994. Overall, I had a very good idea how rewarding Aldrich’s teaching, research and writing could be (Aldrich et al, 2000; Aldrich, 1982, 1988,1996, 2004; Crook and Aldrich, 2000; Gordon et al., 1991). The festschrift presented to Aldrich can also give the reader a better understanding of his reach and influence beyond his role as a respected domestic and international educational historian (Crook and McCulloch, 2007).

The strengths of this UCL history are multiple, but I want to focus on three issues. Firstly, the book is more than an educational odyssey from training college to global institution as highlighted in the title. It is a book about the politics of education and how not only the early leaders of the London Day Training College like John Adams, Margaret Punnett and Percy Nunn navigated their own times, but how local and national policy issues can be underlined with more generic issues of accommodation and classroom resources. This became even more complicated as the need for teachers in both primary and an emerging secondary school sector grew in England in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1948, the Institute of Education was tasked with serving as the training body for the whole of the London area. Fred Clarke, G.B Jeffery, Lionel Elvin were all Directors of the Institute.

Secondly, this book examines the relation between research and teaching. The development of funded research in the 1970s and 1980s: ‘ … further marked out the Institute as a unique institution among university departments of education … [This research focus] had few connections with the fundamental purpose of the London Day Training College and the Institute of earlier days – namely the initial training of teachers for London schools’ (178). On reflection, the contestation between teaching and research in higher education has been going on much longer than my twenty-five-year career but reading this book, I can see where and how long it has existed in the academy. I was advised by Pat Mahony that teaching informs research and research informs teaching within education which in turn makes the academic. However, that equation – although one I still advocate – seems naïve when reading this book, individual subjectivities, the evolving education market politics in England, let alone London, since 1979 and the division of the majority of academic contracts in higher education into teaching or research in the twenty-first century also have impact. It was important to read that Becky Francis as the first female Director in the 2010s, when promoting social justice: ‘ … attempted to incorporate research time intotheir [Initial Teacher Educators] workloads … a move to bolster professionalism and defend the university-led teacher training being directly informed by research, a bond that was fracturing in many universities where teaching only contracts were becoming the norm’ (304).

Finally, the merger of the Institute with University College London (UCL) in 2014 has to be discussed. The Directorships of Geoff Whitty and Chris Husbands are highlighted as important political players in this process. The growth areas of Undergraduate Degrees and the opening up and economic exploitation of international education markets has seen the environment of IOE, UCL change. I didn’t realise that I walked into an almost new Newsom Library in 1993, until reading the earlier edition of this book during my MA studies, and I contrast that with receiving a card on the library desk I was working on when trying to find books in the Institute Library, saying my laptop and books would be removed within a short timeframe because of sheer demand for working space in 2020. From a new, comfortable library – the best education library in England or even Europe – to one in thirty years that now has capacity issues. This is not a new issue as the book highlights with continued growth within the Institute to work to accommodate current educationally political constraints, the systems of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

This is an excellent book and will give the reader a greater understanding how not only the IOE, UCL, but education in the widest sense has evolved over the last 120 years. Both authors should be praised for their work. Aldrich wrote the first eleven chapters covering 1902–2002 while Woodin contributes two chapters chronicling events from 2002–2020. Aldrich (1997, pp. 27–28) suggested in his inaugural lecture at the Institute: ‘For nearly a century, the Institute of Education of the University of London, and its predecessor until 1932, the London Training College, have been a central force of education, both nationally and internationally. This situation continues’ (1997: 27–28). However, we can see how much has changed within not only education and the Institute specifically within the last twenty-five years as is revealed by the subsequent comment: ‘It is my earnest hope that this Institute will take full advantage of current opportunities to continue and to enhance its role as the foremost postgraduate centre in the intellectual world of education, and that such leadership will have a direct bearing upon education policies and practice in the twenty-first century’ (1997:29). Woodin’s more recent words are perhaps more apt. He highlights in the final section of the book: ‘At the Institute, teacher training, professional development and research have been held together in an active and productive tension’ (309–310). It is that political and educational tension that the current Director, Li Wei, and his successors in the next hundred years, will have to manipulate, shape and develop to keep the IOE, UCL at the forefront of research and teaching within undergraduate and postgraduate education not only in London but globally.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.