The Sydney Teachers College was a tertiary education institution that trained school teachers in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It existed from 1906 until the end of 1981, when it became the

Sydney Institute of Education The Sydney Teachers College was a tertiary education institution that trained school teachers in Sydney, Australia. It existed from 1906 until the end of 1981, when it became the Sydney Institute of Education, a part of the new Sydney College o ...

, a part of the new Sydney College of Advanced Education (Sydney CAE). On 1 January 1990 Sydney Institute of Education was amalgamated with the University of Sydney eventually becoming a part of the then Faculty of Education at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

History

The college was established in at the urging of newly appointed director of public instruction Peter Board, with Alexander Mackie appointed principal in November of the same year. Mackie firmly believed that the college could aspire to a partnership with the

. Prior to that there was a pupil-teacher system in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, followed by two training colleges, Hurlstone Residential College for women and

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, New South Wales government run, Mixed-sex school, co-educational, Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective, secondary school, secondary day school, ...

for men. Public dissatisfaction with the pupil-teacher system led to the establishment of a non-residential, co-educational training college in part of

Blackfriars Primary School Blackfriars Primary School was an Australian state school established in 1884 in what is now the Sydney suburb of Chippendale. It became a Teachers' College in the early years of the 20th-century and 90 years later became the University of Technol ...

Parramatta Road Parramatta Road is the major historical east-west artery of metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, connecting the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD with Parramatta. It is the easternmost part of the Great Western Highway. S ...

(now Broadway). In 1905 men moved from Fort Street to Blackfriars, and in 1906 women moved from Hurlstone College to Blackfriars. In the first year there were 189 students (of these, 178 were serving teachers). Mackie was appointed Lecturer in

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

at the University (while continuing as Principal of the Teachers' College) in 1909. In 1910 he also became Professor of Education and Principal of the Teachers' College (positions held also by his successor, Christopher R. McRae). In the same year the University Senate approved a Diploma in Education, taught jointly by the university and the teachers' college. An Act was passed in 1912 for construction of a new teachers' college in the grounds of the

. However, the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

delayed construction, and the foundation stone was not laid until 1917. Welsh emigrant May Marsden was employed for the Sydney Teachers' College by Mackie as an art lecturer. She was an inspiring teacher believing that artists need to be left alone. She filled the corridors of Sydney Teachers' College with copies of art by the great masters and prints of contemporary work including work by Eleonore Lange. She would persuade her students to gather around a piece of art in the corridor where she would inform and entertain her students, One of her earliest students was

Portia Mary Bennett Portia Mary Bennett (28 January 1898 – 1 May 1989) was an Australian artist. The daughter of William Albert Bennett, a harbour pilot from London, and Portia Bohannah Booth, born in Australia, she was born in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney. He ...

. The building was officially opened in 1925 (but students moved to the partially completed building in 1920). By 1933 course offerings had become fixed: (a) 2-year ordinary course: to prepare teachers for primary and

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 cen ...

work, science teaching in junior technical and domestic science schools, manual training, commercial work, agricultural and general instruction; (b) 4-year course and graduation from the university or a 3-year course (2 years at the university and 1 at college) for high school specialist teachers; (c) 5th year of study for some students (mostly honours students in science). A short course was devised in 1938 to prepare tradesmen to teach trades within the Technical Education Branch of the Department of Public Instruction in this eventually expanded into a division within the college and later into an Institute of Sydney CAE. The 1940s also saw an expansion of in-service training and post-college refresher courses for practising teachers; special courses offered for officers of the Child Welfare Department, the Health Department and the Housing Commission; courses developed in broadcasting, visual education, counselling, librarianship and religious education. This obviously led to a dramatic increase in the size of the college. A temporary Annex established in the Enmore Public School as the total number of students in 1951 was 2339. But in 1954 the Enmore Annex closed and its functions were transferred to North Newtown Intermediate High School in Carillon Avenue. An additional campus was established for Technical Teacher Education in the GAZAL Building, Bulwarra Road, Ultimo and a further campus for Primary Teacher Education at Salisbury Road, Newtown. The 1970s saw the college go through many changes. In September 1971 Sydney Teachers' College became a

College of Advanced Education The College of Advanced Education (CAE) was a class of Australian tertiary education institution that existed from 1967 until the early 1990s. They ranked below universities, but above Colleges of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) which offer ...

within 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 ...

. The Higher Education Act (1969) was replaced by the Colleges of Advanced Education Act (1975) which determined the operations of the Teachers' College from that date. Bachelor of Education course was established in 1975 for students intending to become Industrial Arts of Home Economics teachers. A few years later the Bachelor of Education course extended to include the Humanities, Sciences and Mathematics. The Teachers' College continued to offer: (a) Diploma of Teaching; (b) Graduate Diploma in Education; (c) Graduate Diploma in Educational Studies; (d) Graduate Diploma in Adult Education; (e) Diploma Conversion courses in Technical Teacher Education. College staff worked with staff from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) to develop basic nursing and post basic nursing education programs, and participated in RPAH’s existing basing nursing training program. By 1981, the college had established centres in specialist fields. By that year, they included: (a) Research Centre; (b) Sydney Human Performance Laboratory; (c) Audio Visual Centre; (d) Sydney Educational Museum Centre; (e) Curriculum Centre; (f) Multicultural Education Project. On , the college ceased to exist. It was succeeded by the Sydney Institute of Education which was part of

Sydney College of Advanced Education The Sydney College of Advanced Education was a tertiary education institution in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It existed from 1982 to 1989.

and, in 1990, the

became part of the

References

{{Coord missing, New South Wales Universities and colleges established in 1906 Educational institutions disestablished in 1981 Teachers colleges in Australia University of Sydney Defunct universities and colleges in Australia 1906 establishments in Australia 1981 disestablishments in Australia Universities and colleges disestablished in the 20th century

History

See also

References