Date of Award

1-1-1985

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

Historical research methods are used to investigate three types of professional development opportunities available to practicing public school teachers in the Dakota Territory and the state of North Dakota until 1911. The purpose of the project is to describe the origins, purposes, organization, practices, and content of teachers' institutes, the Teachers' Reading Circle, and regional educational journals as they developed in Dakota.Two categories of primary source materials form the base for much of the research: (1) the reports submitted to the legislatures by the Superintendents of Public Instruction; and (2) issues of two journals, The Dakota Educator, published in Scotland, Dakota Territory, and The Westland Educator, published in Lisbon, North Dakota.The historical context includes information on the settlement, politics, and economy of Dakota, on the growth and ethnicity of the population, and on the development of the public school system.Dakota's Teachers' institutes, Reading Circles, and educational journals are described in detail, and influences of prairie politics and remoteness are discussed. As in other parts of the country, these three modes of professional development were makeshift efforts to provide some training for teachers who otherwise would have had little or none. The practices were adaptations of those implemented by reformers in the common school movement, which began earlier in the East and Midwest. In Dakota, teachers' institutes, Reading Circles, and journals were instruments of a network of Dakota educators, working in a remote setting where education was desirable not only for its popularly accepted benefits, but also for presenting a facade of civilization to attract settlers, and thus, provide economic growth. These specific modes of professional development for teachers were later replaced by other means of teacher education, but their histories provide information for studying issues of optimum conditions and loci for future professional development of teachers.

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