Froebel College of Education was one of five colleges in Ireland which was recognised by the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

for the training and education of national school teachers. It was located at Sion Hill, Cross Avenue,

Blackrock, Dublin Blackrock () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, northwest of Dún Laoghaire. Location and access Blackrock covers a large but not precisely defined area, rising from sea level on the coast to at White's Cross on the N11 national primary road. ...

and was run by the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

. Froebel College, along with

Coláiste Mhuire Marino Institute of Education (Irish: ) is an Irish College of Education, an associated College of Trinity College Dublin. It is located on Griffith Avenue, Dublin 9. Marino Institute of Education is focused on providing education courses. Its ...

of Marino and the

Church of Ireland College of Education The Church of Ireland College of Education or C.I.C.E. as it was more commonly known ( ga, Coláiste Oideachais Eaglais na hÉireann) was one of five Irish Colleges of Education which provided a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree, the qualific ...

Rathmines had been associated with

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, which both awarded the degree of Bachelor in Education (B.Ed.) and the Higher Diploma in Education (Primary Teaching). The college also ran a BA degree in Early Childhood - Teaching and Learning (NUIM) and a one-year Post-Graduate Diploma in Special Education (NUIM). From September 2010, incoming students of Froebel College were being accredited by

Maynooth University The National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann Mhá Nuad), commonly known as Maynooth University (MU), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It w ...

(MU).

History

The college was established in 1943 by the Congregation of Dominican Sisters Sion Hill, who also ran the

St Catherine's College of Education for Home Economics St. Catherine’s College of Education for Home Economics, was set up by the Dominican Order in 1929 for the training of secondary school teachers of Domestic Science. The college was known more colloquially as either ‘St Catherine’s’ or ...

from 1929 to 2007, in Sion Hill, Blackrock. The 1970s saw the college's qualifications attain B.Ed. status, when Froebel had its degrees accredited by the University of Dublin. In 2008 a refurbishment of the buildings in Blackrock was completed. In April 2010 plans for Froebel College to move to Maynooth University were announced. In October 2016 Froebel College moved to a new permanent home, a purpose built facility on the

campus. Froebel Education is associated with progressive child-centred education. It seeks to foster quality teaching and learning, creativity, integration and sound practical classroom management in whatever situations teachers work with children. In 2008 Marie McLoughlin was appointed President of the college up until the merger with Maynooth University. Other presidents have included Sr. Darina Hosey OP and Sr. Simeon Tarpey OP.

Name

Froebel College of Education took its name from the 19th-century German educator, and founder of

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique need ...

(1782 - 1852). He advocated reverence for the child, learning through activity, exploration of the environment, enjoyment of beauty in all its manifestations and acceptance of the gifts of each individual.

Move to Maynooth University

Since September 2013, the Froebel College of Education course is located at

. The university established a "Froebel Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education" and is the first Irish university campus to offer a full-time B.Ed. degree course to enable students to qualify as primary teachers.The Irish Times, 22 April 2010 School of Education Maynooth

References

External links

Froebel College of Education Official site

NUI Maynooth official site

Trinity College Dublin, Official site

{{NUI Maynooth University St Patrick's College, Maynooth Former universities and colleges in the Republic of Ireland Former education schools in Ireland Catholic universities and colleges in the Republic of Ireland Blackrock, Dublin