Richard Willis – författare

This book chronicles the history of the struggle to promote a self-governing body for the teaching profession from its early problems at the start of the twentieth century right through to the establishment of the General Teaching Council of England in 2000. It also explores the interest groups and policy makers who impeded its achievement and the attitude of teacher unions and the teachers themselves to the establishment of such a body.The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and historians, as well as postgraduate students.

This book chronicles the history of the struggle to promote a self-governing body for the teaching profession from its early problems at the start of the twentieth century right through to the establishment of the General Teaching Council of England in 2000. It also explores the interest groups and policy makers who impeded its achievement and the attitude of teacher unions and the teachers themselves to the establishment of such a body.The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and historians, as well as postgraduate students.

This book chronicles the history of the struggle to promote a self-governing body for the teaching profession from its early problems at the start of the twentieth century right through to the establishment of the General Teaching Council of England in 2000. It also explores the interest groups and policy makers who impeded its achievement and the attitude of teacher unions and the teachers themselves to the establishment of such a body.The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and historians, as well as postgraduate students.

The book draws upon substantial archival data to present a biographical account of the life and career of Frances Mary Buss (FMB). Unlike earlier biographies, written at a different time and for different reasons, I provide a critical and interpretative analysis, applying a research methodology given in Gary McCulloch’s Documentary Research in Education, History and the Social Sciences, McCulloch and William Richardson’s Historical Research in Educational Settings and Louis Cohen and Lawrence Manion’s Research Methods in Education. I investigate FMB’s legacy, nationally and internationally. I present her background, family and raison d’être, including her crucial time at Queen’s College, London. I give an account of the North London Collegiate School she founded in 1850, and her second school, the Camden School for Girls: their functions, the impact of examinations and relationships with teachers, other schools, inspectors and parents. I also engage in her professional inner circle, including Emily Davies, Dorothea Beale, Sophie Bryant, Beata Doreck, W.B. Hodgson, Joseph Payne, David Laing and others. I examine the part played by the Schools Inquiry Commission in the 1870s and FMB’s submission of evidence. I specify her contribution to the College of Preceptors, the Head Mistresses’ Association, the Teachers’ Registration Movement, the Teachers’ Guild, the Cambridge Training College, and the Kensington Society.