Teacher Training and Changing Professional Identity in Early Twentieth Century England

Abstract

The character of courses of initial teacher training in the past had an important place in the formation of professional identity and status as well as in the development of practical competence. This was particularly so during moments of fundamental change in the overall pattern of training itself. This historical account focuses on one such period in the early twentieth century, when the institutional emphasis in initial training was moving in a direction wholly opposite to that of today; that is to say, when the predominant site of training was shifting from school to training institution. The account seeks to explore some of the ways in which this change influenced the professional perceptions of training held by those who were entering teaching in the years following the First World War. The study draws principally upon data derived from oral interview with former elementary and secondary school teachers born between 1888 and 1917