Research on universities of education: Office of Strategic and Academic Planning
The creation of mass schooling in the 19th century, first in Europe, then in North America and gradually around the world, engendered the need for a large number of teachers, who could inculcate the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic into their young students. The institutions created to train these teachers, in France, the United States and the United Kingdom, were called ecoles normales, normal schools or teachers’
schools. These institutions provided the model upon which Asian countries established their own teacher training schools and colleges. Irrespective of their locations, these normal colleges carried the following characteristics and emphases:
• Pedagogical training and practice
• Integrated learning areas
• Morally directive approach to knowledge
• A nurturing environment with strong mentorship ties between teachers and students
(Apprenticeship)
• A craft orientation towards high standards of practice
• Action oriented and field-based knowledge
• State control and professional accountability
With advances in education over the 20th century and the movement to mass higher education from the 1960s onwards, normal schools and colleges began to upgrade themselves into universities. Teachers were demanding an academic and professional formation equivalent to that of the other professions, law and medicine for example, which have been part of the university scene for a much longer time. The paths that different teacher training institutions took in the upgrading process varied, depending on the context of individual countries.
