ABSTRACT

Bagley, William Chandler (1874-1946). American educationist. Born in Detroit, Michigan, son of a hospital superintendent, Bagley was educated at an elementary school in Worcester, Massachusetts and high school in Detroit. He studied at Michigan Agricultural College, 1891-5, gaining a BS degree. After teaching at a small one-teacher school at Garth, Michigan, Bagley raised enough money to attend the University of Wisconsin, 1897-8, receiving an MS degree. From there Bagley entered Cornell University to study psychology and education, being awarded a PhD, 1900. Principal, Meramec Elementary School, St. Louis, Missouri, 1901-2, then moved to Montana State Normal College, Dillon, combining the posts of vice-president, superintendent of the Dillon public schools and professor of Psychology and Pedagogy, 1902-6. Superintendent and professor of Methods, State Normal School, Oswego, New York, 1906-8. Professor of Education, University of Illinois, 1908 and director of the School of Education, 1909-17, where he established the high reputation of the School. Bagley’s final post was professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1917-40. His early interest was in developing a scientific theory of education through the use of psychological and biological research, as seen in his books The Educative Process (1905) and Classroom Management (1907), and he was one of the five founders of the Journal of Educational Psychology in 1910. Within a few years, however, Bagley concluded that teaching was an art rather than an applied science and devoted himself to improving practice. He had already written a highly regarded book, Classroom Management (1907) and there followed Craftsmanship in Teaching (1911), School Discipline (1915) and An Introduction to Teaching (with Keith, J.A.H., 1925), and he edited School and Home Education, 1912-21, Journal of the National Education Association, 1921-5, and School and Society, 1939-46. He also co-authored many school textbooks. Bagley expressed his scepticism on progressive education which searched for new practices rather than concentrated on language and arithmetical skills. Education for citizenship was to be promoted through studying the social heritage of a country, as demonstrated in The Teacher of the Social Studies (with Alexander, T, 1937). Bagley strongly believed in equality of opportunity in education, regardless of colour, class or religion. His book Determinism in Education (1925) argued against the use of intelligence tests as restricting educational opportunity. Bagley died in New York in 1946, aged 72. See Kandel, I.L., William Chandler Bagley (1961); Johan-ningmeier, E.V., ‘William Chandler Bagley’s Changing Views on the Relationship Between Psychology and Education’, History of Education Quarterly, Spring 1960.