The grand regulator : the miseducation of Nova Scotia's teachers, 1838-1997 / George D. Perry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Perry, George D. (George Douglas), 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teachers--Training of--Nova Scotia--History.

Teachers--Training of--Government policy--Nova Scotia.

Teachers--Training of--Social aspects--Nova Scotia.

Teachers--Training of--Social aspects.

Teachers--Training of.

Teachers--Training of--Government policy.

History.

Nova Scotia.

Physical Description:

xix, 384 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Montréal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Schools of education with utilitarian goals and strict standardization - often called "Normal Schools" - have been widely criticized by both the academy and the general public. In a story that resonates across Canada, The Grand Regulator examines an educational system that failed to inspire great teachers and produce imaginative, thinking citizens. Drawing on an array of archival materials, government publications, and firsthand accounts of former students, George Perry provides a rich reconstruction of the intellectual, social, economic, and political foundations of teacher education in Nova Scotia, and the methodological preoccupations that have hampered its development. He shows how a supposed science of education based on child psychology, in concert with the province's regulation of public schooling, justified low expectations for the education of most children and how standardized training programs de-emphasized teachers' general liberal education and intellectual curiosity. The most complete study of Canadian teacher education to date, The Grand Regulator presents an analysis of perennial issues regarding the improvement of education that continue to concern us, and illuminates ways of raising the level of instruction in schools today. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Teacher Training as "Grand Regulator": Establishing a Provincial Normal School, 1838-69

1 "The Grand Regulator": The Normal School Idea in Nova Scotia 25

2 "A Humiliating Defeat" and a Pyrrhic Victory: The Normal School Bill of 1854 48

3 "Several Pounds in Arrears": Training Begins at the Provincial Normal School 64

4 "The Scylla and Charybdis of Politics and Denominationalism": The Normal School and Its Critics 88

Part 2 Beyond "The Mere Giving of Knowledge": The Elusive Balance Between Scholarship and Training, 1870-1926

5 "A Democracy of Education": Schooling and Teachers for the Children of the "Labouring Masses" 109

6 The Normal School's "Duality of Function": Pedagogy and Teachers' General Education 131

7 "The Chloroforming Effect" of Popular Education: Training for Rural Teachers 156

Part 3 Training as a Woman's Story, 1870-1961: The Licensing, Training, and Education of Women Teachers

8 "A Concession to Circumstances": An "Unlimited Supply" of Women Teachers 185

9 "You Took What You Could Get": Why Women (and Men) Taught 214

10 "The Household Life of the Normal School": The "Normalization" of Teaching 241

Part 4 Conclusion: 1961-97

11 Haunted by Its Origins: Provincial Teacher Training after 142 Years 277.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780773541467

0773541462

9780773541818

0773541810

OCLC:

818414751