Teacher Training in England and Wales, 1833–1994

Abstract

The development of teacher formation in England and Wales from the early 19th century until 1994 is traced. Throughout the period there has been oscillation between treating teaching as a craft best learned in practice and as a discipline requiring university based academic study in education. The apprenticeship schemes of the early 19th century were gradually replaced by colleges dedicated to teacher training and university departments of education, themselves somewhat distinct in emphasis. By the mid 1970s a university degree and a state teaching certificate had became mandatory for teachers in state schools. But following much canvassed dissatisfaction with teaching in state schools, by the 1990s there were moves back to a school-based system of teacher training.