File: Teacher Training (inc. McNair Report)

Scope and Content

Miscellaneous correspondence and papers relating to the University's involvement with teacher training. The papers deal with formulation of policy on this subject from the late 1930s up to the establishment of the University's School of Education in 1948. The papers reflect the attempts by the universities to take a more direct interest in teacher training issues from the late 1930s in order to improve standards. This culminated in the McNair Report Teachers and Youth Leaders (1944), which recommended a greater supervisory role for the universities in teaching training. The Committee chaired by Arnold McNair (the vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool) arose out of concerns about teacher training against the background of the ambitious plans for educational reconstruction in post-war Britain (set out in the 1944 Education Act). The papers include some correspondence between McNair and Sir John Stopford, as well as correspondence and memoranda by members of the Department of Education on the issue, both in terms of teacher training directly undertaken by the Department and its relations with independent training colleges.

Related Material

See also VCA/7/345 and VCA/7/372.