Rules and Rule Breaking in Teacher Training Colleges

Abstract

Chapter three, ‘Rules and Rule Breaking in Teacher Training Colleges’, taps into the rich and virtually unused archives of seven training colleges in England and Scotland to show how tremendously liberating these institutions could be in practice despite their oppressive rules and infinitesimally detailed timetables. For instance, teachers-in-training reacted to bans on romantic relationships by creating a cult of the romantic. They celebrated courtship and more casual flirtation in poems, paintings, and short stories of their real-world exploits, all of which they circulated widely in ‘friendship albums’ and college ‘literary magazines’. This defiance became the basis of lifelong friendships—and a professional culture that pushed back against the imposition of policies.