Chapter 3: The Nation Expands and the Teaching Profession Grows

The early history of teacher education in the US began with the assumption that if you were educated to a degree beyond that of your “scholars,” and if you could control their behavior, you were qualified and prepared to teach. If you had finished the eight grades of “grammar school,” you were seen as a prospective teacher of the very young; high school graduates were deemed ready to teach the older grammar school children. College students often taught school during summer breaks, or until a better job opportunity opened up (Labaree, 2008). When teachers themselves realized that the work required planning and technique, they formed associations and held summer institutes to exchange ideas, institutes that were later supported by district superintendents and state educational leaders like Henry Barnard of Connecticut. As Chapter 2 recounts, in light of the rapid growth of public common schools, the growing body of knowledge of pedagogy, and the influence of European teacher education programs, by mid-century many states had established “normal schools” to prepare teachers, first in the Northeast, then in the Midwest and West, and eventually, throughout the country. This chapter traces that expansion as it reflected the growth of the profession and new ideas about how best to offer teacher education: under whose aegis, with what structure and content, and for whom. These developments and changes in teacher preparation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century occurred in the context of expanding public schools and higher education, the birth of the progressive education movement and, perversely, regressive racial policies that institutionalized inequity but that also spawned creative resistance from oppressed communities and their teachers. In academia, the fields of psychology and sociology grew to include new theories of child development, learning, and motivation; a deeper understanding of the impact of class, social institutions, and social change on individuals and communities; and new ideas and expectations about the role of public schools and the work of teachers. Teacher education varied across geographical settings, populations, and the boundaries of state law. One wide structural change brought the incorporation or transformation of state normal schools into comprehensive public colleges and regional state universities, a change with arguably both positive and negative long-term impact on the status of teacher education within higher education in general.