CONDITIONS OF SERVICE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLMASTERS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1891-1951, WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE WORK OF THE ASSISTANT MASTERS ASSOCIATION. by GE01-1-REY WALKER Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education, University of London Institute of Education. 1995 Abstract This thesis examines to what extent and by what means the Assistant Masters Association (AMA) was able to influence provision in relation to conditions of service for the secondary schoolmaster in England and Wales in the 60-year period from the AMA's foundation in 1891. A thematic approach is adopted with chapters devoted to the specific issues of tenure, salaries, superannuation, registration and training. Within each chapter there is a necessary concentration on the earlier period of the AMA's history when the impetus to create acceptable conditions of service was at its most imperative. The thesis draws upon much previously unused material from the Assistant Masters Archive, lodged at the University of London Institute of Education Library. The study builds upon and extends the earlier research of Baron, Tropp and Gosden, and provides an alternative interpretation to the more recent work of Lawn, Ozga, Grace, and others, which presents the behaviour of organized teachers in terms of employer- employee conflict. The strike, confrontational stratagem and the coercion of its membership are seen as alien to the AMA's philosophy. The AMA's participation with Joint Four, and its interaction with other teacher unions, are fully explored. The significant contribution of the AMA to enhanced provision across the spectrum of teacher employment is shown to be primarily the result of the Association's persistent, professional dialogue with government - both central and local - via carefully researched data and targeted argument. - 2 - Acknowledgements It behoves me to thank Professor Peter Gordon, who, until his retirement in 1993, was head of the Department of History, Humanities and Philosophy, Institute of Education, University of London. Professor Gordon both initiated my research and guided me for the six-year period from 1987. Dr Richard Aldrich, Reader in the History of Education section at the Institute of Education, has overseen the final stages of the research, giving generously of his time and experience. Michael Humby, Head of Reader Services at the Institute of Education Library until his retirement, ensured ready access to the IAAM Archive; a role fulfilled thereafter by Stephen Pickles. This thesis could not have been undertaken without the willing support of my wife, Barbara, and family. 3 Terminology used in reference to the Assistant Masters Association The Assistant Masters Association was founded in July 1891 and incorporated in November 1901. To be pedantic the Association should be referred to as the Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters from its incorporation but, to do so, would be inappropriate in that the original and less formal title was that that remained in common usage amongst its members. The AMA Circular to Members, November 1901, p.85, had this humorous comment to make on the change of title: 'At last we are incorporated: our style, the Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools. The old symbols A.M.A. will do, however, for a short title, better than such a group of letters as I.A.A.M. which from long experience of a sister society we well know are hard for human tongues to pronounce.' For the purposes of this thesis the abbreviation AMA will be generally used in reference to the Association. The Association's Archive and its annual reports, however, will be referred to as the IAAM Archive and the IAAM Annual Reports. - 4 - Contents Introduction Page 6 Chapter 1 The Assistant Master in the context of the AMA's foundation Page 34 Chapter 2 Tenure Page 57 Chapter 3 Salaries Page 128 Chapter 4 Superannuation Page 221 Chapter 5 Registration and Training Page 263 Conclusion Page 311 Appendices Page 331 Bibliography Page 342 CONDITIONS OF SERVICE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLMASTERS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1891-1951, WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE WORK OF THE ASSISTANT MASTERS ASSOCIATION. INTRODUCTION FOCUS AND ORGANIZATION OF THESIS The Assistant Masters' Association (AMA) was founded in 1891 to represent and promote the interests of the secondary schoolmaster. (1) The chief focus of this thesis will be to examine to what extent, and by what means, the AMA was able to influence institutional provision in relation to conditions of service for the secondary schoolmaster in England and Wales in the period 1891-1951. For clarity of treatment it is essential at the outset to define the terms 'conditions of service' and 'secondary education'. Conditions of service are conditions of employment and in the context of this thesis are liberally interpreted to embrace tenure, salaries, pensions, registration and training. (2) The question of nomenclature in relation to the term 'secondary education' taxes every historian of this period. (3) The writer considers a secondary schoolmaster to be one teaching pupils in the 11-18 age group. The study is confined to England and Wales in that employment conditions in Scotland in many regards were noticeably different, often, in fact, superior to those prevailing south of the border. The AMA's membership has never included the Scottish schoolmaster although many members have always been recruited in Northern Ireland. - 6 - The time-span of the thesis is wide, covering some 60 years. There is, it will be noted, an imbalance to the chapters if viewed chronologically. On each of the major issues addressed, the coverage is greater in the earlier period of the Association's history (and hence in the earlier part of each chapter) when the impetus to create acceptable conditions of service was at its most imperative. It will be observed, too, that a thematic approach has been adopted. The rationale for this approach is purely for clarity of analysis and presentation: the issues covered, though obviously interrelated, by their intrinsic complexity demand separate treatment. (4) Chapter I, therefore, sets the scene for the subsequent analysis by outlining the background to the formation of the AMA, giving the aims of the Association and explaining why a distinct representation of the secondary schoolmasters' interests was considered necessary. Later chapters cover tenure, salaries, superannuation, registration and training. Scant attention paid to research topic An official history of the AMA has not been written, and few scholars have, for whatever reason, been interested in the historical development of teaching as a profession in England and Wales. Concomitant research into conditions of service, embracing tenure, salaries, pensions, registration and training, and the setting up of the teachers' associations whose initial and essential aim was to further and protect those conditions of service, has been minimal. This study, therefore, deals with an area in the history of education which has received scant attention, a fact reflected in the paucity of literature in this field. The writer has found no thesis - apart from that of Sinclair (1940) which is concerned solely with the issue of tenure (5) - that explores the AMA's role in relation to institutional provision. Scholars have concerned themselves in writing sweeping general histories of educational development with scarcely a passing reference to the role of the schoolmaster, to his training and the conditions of service he experienced, nor to the - 7 - professional associations - of which there was a proliferation in the last quarter of the nineteenth century- which he frequently joined. A perusal of the standard histories of education gives positive proof that reference to the study of teachers as an occupational group is either omitted or marginalized. In Curtis' collaborative study with Boultwood (1966, 4th edn.), the following sentence suffices to describe the development of the teachers' associations: 'Before 1868 the teaching profession in England had been unorganised, but, because of ties of common interest, various associations had been formed'. (6) In the same work, the year of the foundation of the AMA is incorrectly given as 1892, the Association, in fact, being founded the previous year. Earlier general histories of education by Archer (1921), (7) Adamson (1930), (8) and Barnard (1961, 2nd edn.) (9) give only fleeting consideration to the professional standing of teachers. Adamson, almost as an addendum, wrote a final chapter on The Schoolmaster's Profession', but dealt principally with teacher-training and not with the wider concerns of tenure, salaries, and superannuation. He made only one reference to the AMA with no further elaboration: 'In 1891 the Assistant Masters' Association (incorporated 1901) began a vigorous life'. (10) Armytage (1970, 2nd edn.) (11) refers to the foundation of the AMA but gives no account of the association's contribution to the improvement in conditions of service. Roach (1986, 1991) in his respected two-volume history of secondary education in England, (12) covering the period 1800-1902, aimed to reverse the balance of earlier histories which, to his perception, had failed - largely owing to the lack of available research material - to give much substance and reality to their accounts. He wanted to look at schools of many different kinds and to examine as closely as possible the ways in which they actually worked...what the masters and mistresses thought and felt....There was a lot to investigate...about individual personalities...many heads of grammar and private schools...have been largely forgotten by later generations. (13) Roach's underlying aim was to 'put much more flesh on to the skeleton of generalities than was formerly the case'. As for his treatment of the assistant master, however, 8 Roach's work adds little to scholarship. He gives high praise to T.E.Page, sixth-form master at Charterhouse 1873-1910 - and national chairman of the AMA, 1903 - describing him as 'probably the greatest pure scholar' amongst schoolmasters, (14) but, that apart, he offers no further information on the personae of the period.