Problem or Solution? A Secondary Teacher Training Initiative for a New Era

Division D was one of a number of post‐primary teacher preparation initiatives introduced to address a severe staffing shortage in New Zealand which, by 1960, had reached crisis point. This paper explores the origins of the problem of teacher supply and locates the establishment of Division D within the ideological and practical context within which the problem was posed and confronted. It suggests that, because the students entered the profession without the university qualifications which had traditionally defined eligibility to teach in New Zealand secondary schools, the course presented contradictions as both a solution to the Department’s problem of supply, and a problem for status within the profession.