ABSTRACT
This book is a contribution to the challenge of the ‘new’ women’s history. In spite of the fact that, throughout the first half of the twentieth century, three-quarters of the teachers in elementary schools in England and Wales were women,2 the residential colleges which trained them have received scant attention from historians.3 Moreover, studies on teacher training as a whole, notably L. Jones’ The Training of Teachers in England and Wales, published in 1923,4 and H. C. Dent’s The Training of Teachers in England & Wales 1800-1975, published in 1977,5 were not only largely concerned with administrative matters and government directives, but were also written from an entirely patriarchal perspective. Neither book, for instance, cites women or their training colleges as separate subjects in their indexes. The central focus of my book, on the other hand, is the experience of women living together in a particular form of community which was both residential and educational. The book’s particular focus precludes it becoming a comprehensive history either of training colleges as a whole, or of women’s training colleges in particular. Areas which would, for instance, be of central importance in a comprehensive history of the colleges, e.g. buildings, administration, or finance are covered only if they are germane to my central thesis. Likewise, the formal curriculum, although it is discussed briefly as part of the historical context in Chapter 1, and also forms the background to Chapter 4, nevertheless does not receive the extended coverage which would be warranted in a comprehensive history.
