The churches and the training of teachers in England and Wales

Book section : Chapter

This article traces the different types of involvement of the three main church groupings [Church of England, Roman Catholic Church and the Free Churches] in teacher education in England and Wales from the early 19th century to 1987. The Roman Catholic Church had always been clear that the task of its colleges was to train Catholic teachers for Catholic schools. The Church of England, as the established church, had operated on a more complex and changing set of interrelated principles and motives which were closely linked with the national development of the educational system as a whole. The Free Churches had never really wished to provide its own educational system and saw the development of a state system as the most effective way of countering the educational power of the Church of England. A substantial part of the article focuses on the colleges as they were in the 1980s and makes use of the results from the Church Colleges Research Project. The final section speculates on their futures. There is a substantial bibliography.

Authors: Gay, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Host title: Christian Education in a Pluralist Society
• Pages: 207-233
• Chapter number: 11
• Publication date: 1988-08-04
• Edition: 1
• ISBN: 041500540X
• Language: English
• Keywords: Roman Catholic Church; teachers; Church of England; colleges of education; Church Colleges Research Project; Free Churches; teacher training
• Subtype: Chapter