Religion and the rise of teacher training colleges in England, 1839-1852

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the influence of the ‘religious difficulty’ on the early history of English teacher training colleges. It is concerned with the sectarian attitudes and actions which, in 1839, prevented the inauguration of a national normal school and which, in the period 1839-52, firmly established the pattern of state-aided voluntary colleges for training elementary school teachers. It is particularly concerned with the Nonconformist role, in both its inhibitive and promotional aspects; with the significant Wesleyan part in thwarting the 1839 Government Minute; with anti-government ‘Voluntaryism’; with the inception of the Nonconformist training colleges, Westmister and Homerton. Any endeavour to delineate the conflicting politico-religious forces affecting the development of the first training colleges entails a survey of: the place of religion in society and education, in early Victorian Engliand; the extent of the Established Church’s control of elementary education and privileged position; the disunity of Protestantism; the educational fervor of some denominational bodies; the paucity of secondary education and consequent low standards of teachers; the lack of training; the example and influence of Stow’s Glasgow Academy; the setting up of the secular Committee of Council on Education, with Kay-Shuttleworth as secretary; the 1839 Whig National Normal School proposal with its clauses concerning Religious Instruction; the resultant reaction; the deadlock of Church and State which impelled the private foundation of ‘Battersea’, the first real training college; the stimulation of denominational training colleges by the failure of the projected national normal school; the changing religious affiliations through the 1840’s; and Kay-Shuttleworth’s 1846 Minutes, which drew almost every denominational body into co-operation with the State in provision of teacher training, setting the pattern which, basically, still exists.