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The New Education and the Institute of Education, University of London, 1919–1945

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 4-5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00309230903100882

1477-674X

Richard Aldrich,

Religious Education and Schools

Abstract The London Day Training College (LDTC), founded in 1902, soon became the leading institution for the study of education and for the training of teachers in England. In 1932 it was transmuted into the Institute of Education of the University of London. Its title and pre‐eminence have continued to this day. In the period 1919–1945 it was closely, but by no means solely, identified with elements of the New Education. This article covers both the interwar period and the Second World War itself. It begins with a general introduction and then focuses upon the substantial contributions of four of the Institute’s principal exponents of the New Education: John Adams, Percy Nunn, Susan Isaacs and Fred Clarke. Conclusions drawn demonstrate the complexities of the relationship between the New Education, the transformation of knowledge and the Institute of Education in this period. These were both individual and institutional and changed over time. For example, both Nunn and Clarke were advocates of freedom in education, and in society more broadly, but their concepts of freedom were construed in significantly different ways and contexts. Keywords: New EducationInstitute of EducationAdamsNunnIsaacsClarke Notes 1See Richard Aldrich, The Institute of Education 1902–2002: A Centenary History (London: Institute of Education, University of London, 2002) and Richard Aldrich, “The Training of Teachers and Educational Studies: the London Day Training College, 1902–1932,” Paedagogica Historica XL, nos V & VI (2004), 617–31. 2The Consultative Committee of the Board of Education, chaired by Sir Henry Hadow, 1920–1934, produced three influential reports on The Education of the Adolescent (1926), The Primary School (1931), and Infant and Nursery Schools (1933). For Burt, who was a part‐time member of LDTC staff, 1924–1932, see Aldrich, Institute of Education, 68–72 and Leslie S. Hearnshaw, Cyril Burt, Psychologist (London: Hearnshaw, Hodder & Stoughton, 1979). 3See Aldrich, Institute of Education, 20–21 and 70–79 and C. von Wyss, “Nature Study as an Approach to Biology,” The New Era 13, no. 1 (1932), 13–16. 4I am most grateful to Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly for the invitation to take part in the seminar and to them and to William J. Reese, Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon for comments on an earlier draft of this article. 5See for example Richard Aldrich, Lessons from History of Education: The Selected Works of Richard Aldrich (London: Routledge, 2006), 3–4 and the framing of such works as Richard Aldrich, Education for the Nation (London: Cassell, 1996) and Richard Aldrich, ed., A Century of Education (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2002). 6Aldrich, Lessons from History of Education, 170. This article was first published in 1984. 7For example, the first chapter of John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: Macmillan, 1938) is entitled “Traditional vs. Progressive Education”. 8See, for example, three special issues: Kevin J. Brehony, ed., “Progressive and Child‐Centred Education,” History of Education 29, no. 2 (2000); William J. Reese, ed., “American Education in the Twentieth Century: Progressive Legacies,” Paedagogica Historica XXXIX, no. IV (2003); Rita Hofstetter, Charles Magnin & Marc Depaepe, eds, “New Education: Genesis and Metamorphoses,” Paedagogica Historica, XL, nos I and II (2006). 9Richard J.W. Selleck, The New Education: The English Background, 1870–1914 (London: Pitman, 1968) and English Primary Education and the Progressives, 1914–1939 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972). 10Peter Cunningham, Curriculum Change in the Primary School since 1945: Dissemination of the Progressive Ideal (London: Falmer, 1988). 11See chapter three in William J. Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) which is entitled “The ‘New Education’” and encompasses the second half of the nineteenth century. 12See, for example, Selleck, English Primary Education and Adrian Wooldridge, Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England c.1860–c.1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 13See, for example, C. Willis Dixon, The Institute: A History of the University of London Institute of Education 1932–1972 (London: Institute of Education, University of London, 1986) and Aldrich, Institute of Education. 14See, for example, Dorothy E.M. Gardner, Susan Isaacs (London: Methuen, 1969) and Frank W. Mitchell, Sir Fred Clarke: Master‐Teacher, 1880–1952 (London: Longmans, 1967). 15Melanie Phillips, All Must have Prizes (London: Warner Books, 1996), chapter 7. 16Mental measurement and IQ testing, much associated with Cyril Burt, provide examples within this context. 17See Richard Aldrich and Peter Gordon, Dictionary of British Educationists (London: Woburn Press, 1989), 119–21. 18Edmond Holmes, What Is and What Might Be: A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular (London: Constable and Company, 1911), 3, 195. 19Ibid., V. 20Le Corbusier, “L’Esprit Nouveau Programme,” L’Esprit Nouveau, 1 (Paris, 1920), 3. 21Quoted in Christopher Wilk, ed., Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939 (London: V&A Publications, 2006), 149. 22See, for example, William Boyd and Wyatt Rawson, The Story of the New Education (London: Heinemann, 1965) and Kevin J. Brehony, “A New Education for a New Era: The Contribution of the Conferences of the New Education Fellowship to the Disciplinary Field of Education 1921–1938,” Paedagogica Historica, XL, nos V & VI (2004), 731–55. The archives of the World Education Fellowship (including those of the NEF and ENEF) are housed in the Institute of Education Library. 23Brehony, “A New Education,” 751. 24Percy Nunn, “The Principles of the New Education,” The New Era 10, no. 4 (1929), 205–08. 25The content of these articles by Nunn, Isaacs and Clarke is considered under subsequent sections. For a perceptive comment on Clarke’s attitude to vocational education see Peter Kallaway, “Fred Clarke and the politics of vocational education in South Africa, 1911–29,” History of Education 25, no. 4 (1996), 353–62. 26For the work of Hamley, Lauwerys and Mannheim see Aldrich, Institute of Education, chapters 5 and 6. 27Boyd and Rawson, New Education, 88, 121. 28Ibid., 120. 29Adams’s major academic works included: The Herbartian Psychology applied to Education: being a Series of Essays applying the Psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart (London: Macmillan, 1897), Exposition and Illustration in Teaching (London: Macmillan, 1909), The Evolution of Educational Theory (London: Macmillan, 1912), The Student’s Guide (London: London University Press, 1917), Education and the New Teaching (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1918), Modern Developments in Educational Practice (London: London University Press, 1922), Errors in School: their Causes and Treatment (London: London University Press, 1927), Everyman’s Psychology (London: London University Press, 1929), The Teacher’s Many Parts (London: London University Press, 1930). See also, Peter B. Ballard, “Sir John Adams,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, V (1935), 1–9 and Robert R. Rusk, “Sir John Adams: 1857–1934,” British Journal of Educational Studies, X, no. I (1961), 49–57. 30Rusk, Adams, 54. 31Ballard, Adams, 1–2. 32Ibid., 5. 33Adams, Herbartian Psychology, 16. 34Ibid., 111. 35“The Child, the School and the World,” “Standards and Mental Tests,” “Scales of Attainment,” “The Psychology of the Class,” The Knell of Class‐teaching,” “The Dalton Plan,” “The Gary Contribution,” “The Play Way,” “The Project Method,” “Psycho‐analysis in Education,” “Free Discipline”. 36Although a Scot and the product of Scottish education, Adams frequently used the term “England” rather than “Britain” in his writings. 37Adams, Modern Developments in Educational Practice (London: University of London Press, 2nd ed., 1936), 1. The New Children: Talks with Dr Maria Montessori (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1920) was the title of a recent book by Sheila Radice. 38Adams, Modern Developments, 3. 39Ibid., 16–17. 40Peter Gordon, ed., The Study of Education. A Collection of Inaugural Lectures (London: Woburn Press, 1980), Vol. 1, 45. 41Rusk, Adams, 50. 42Ballard, Adams, 5. 43Nunn, “Principles of the New Education,” 208. 44Percy Nunn, Education: Its Data and First Principles (London: Edward Arnold, 2nd ed., 1930), 5, 11. 45Ibid., 237. 46Ibid., 238. 47Ibid., 242. 50J.W. Tibble, “Sir Percy Nunn: 1870–1944,” British Journal of Educational Studies X, no. I (1961), 72. 48Lydia A.H. Smith, To Understand and to Help: The Life and Work of Susan Isaacs (1885–1948) (Cranbury: Associated University Presses, 1985), 53. 49Nunn, Education, 10. 51See Aldrich, Institute of Education, 100–07 for these appointments. 52Quoted in Aldrich, Institute of Education, 100. 53Wooldridge, Education and Psychology, 111. 54Ibid., 115. 55Quoted in Gardner, Isaacs, 73. 56Selleck, English Primary Education, 111. 57 The New Era 19, no. 1 (1938), 18. For an account of the tour see Gardner, Susan Isaacs, 116–18 58Susan Isaacs, “Some Reflections on Corporal Punishment,” The New Era 8, no. 3 (1929), 172–78. 59Susan Isaacs, “Personal Freedom and Family Life,” The New Era 17, no. 8 (1936), 238. 60Susan Isaacs, “The Uprooted Child,” The New Era 21, no. 3 (1940), 59. 61Susan Isaacs, “Fatherless Children,” The New Era 26, no. 7 (1945), 159–66. 62For an overview see Mitchell, Sir Fred Clarke, which includes a 25‐page bibliography of his writings. 63Fred Clarke, Freedom in the Educative Society (London: University of London Press, 1948), 63. Clarke was a devout Christian and this book concludes with a five‐page “Note on Original Sin”. 64Fred Clarke, “The Reconstruction of Discipline,” The New Era 13, no. 2 (1932), 44. 65Fred Clarke, “New Education in Africa,” The New Era 8, no. 3 (1927), 86. 66Fred Clarke, Education and Social Change: An English Interpretation (London: Sheldon Press, 1940), 4–5. 67Clarke, Freedom, 10. 68Ibid., 35. 69Quoted in Aldrich, Institute of Education, 91. 70Aldrich, Institute of Education, 123. Chairs in sociology of education and comparative education were instituted in 1946 and 1947 respectively, but the history of education chair was provided by King’s College until the retirement of Kenneth Charlton in 1983. 71Quoted in Boyd and Rawson, The Story of the New Education, 68. 72“For the Understanding and Defense of Democracy,” The New Era 20, no. 1 (1939), 28. 73“For the Defence and Strengthening of Democracy,” The New Era 20, no. 2 (1939), 54. 74 The New Era, 20, 2 (1939), 96. 79Clarke, Freedom, 62. 75Clarke, “New Education in Africa,” 86. 76Fred Clarke, “The Reconstruction of Discipline,” The New Era 13, no. 2 (1932), 44–47. 77Fred Clarke, “The State: Master or Servant?,” The New Era 17, no. 3 (1936), 65. 78Fred Clarke, “Planned Freedom,” The New Era 21, no. 9 (1940), 222. 80Phillips, All Must Have Prizes, 203. 81Peter Gordon and Denis Lawton, A Guide to English Educational Terms (London: Gordon and Lawton, 1984), 126. 82Wooldridge, Education and Psychology, 60. The others were Ballard, Spearman, Thomson, Valentine and Winch. 83Clarke, Freedom, 64. 84Clarke, Education and Social Change, preface.