Preparing Teachers to Remake Society - New College at Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932-1939

Oct 15, 2026

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Experimental undergraduate teacher education program New College, founded in 1932 at Teachers College, Columbia University, and closed eight years later, is examined through its founders and philosophical framework. The study highlights community education, the predominantly middle-class students enrolled, and the program’s marginalization amid 1930s social, political, economic, and international pressures. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, it connects the curriculum to social reconstructionist critique, exploring debates about schooling and indoctrination and lasting teacher-education reform questions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Social Reconstruction and Teacher Education

Debates on Schooling and Indoctrination

Preparing Teachers to Remake Societyi: New College at Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932-1939 Sonia E. Murrow, Brooklyn College—CUNY The teachers college of the future…calls for radical modification of our present institutions for the training of teachers. New College founders (1930, p. 1) To those who have devoted their lives to the training of teachers, this educational experiment will come with something of a thrill. Dean William F. Russell (1930, p. 23) Introduction New College was an experimental and demonstration undergraduate teacher education program, founded in 1932 at Teachers College Columbia University, only to be shut down by the administration eight years later. Described as an “unorthodox venture,” New College promised to be an alternative route to teacher education at a time when the nation was in the throws of economic and social devastation (Cremin et al, 1954, p. 222) . This dramatic backdrop,“wedged between a past war and perhaps a coming war,” shaped how the program was executed and eventually became marginalized (New College Yearbook, 1939, p. 6) . This essay aims to illuminate New College’s founders, the philosophical framework behind the program, including its strong emphasis on community education,ii the mostly middle class students who enrolled in it, and finally its closing in the context of social, political, economic, and international events that held the attention of professional educators and others in the 1930s. Constructed with the help of primary and secondary sources (Cremin et al, 1954; Daughtery-Mix, 1968; Zeichner and Liston, 1991), this study also aims to characterize and analyze social, economic, and political realities that shaped higher education discourse about education at a time when progressivism dominated at Teachers College, and because of its influence, many programs nationwide (Tyack and Hansot, 1983) . New College aimed to prepare empathetic and knowledgeable teacher-leaders, informed by a social reconstructionist critique of American capitalism, to work for social change in a community context. Though the program eventually could not garner the financial and ideological backing it needed to survive, it still provides a compelling example through which to contemplate complex and significant teacher education reform questions in the past and present. New College was developed in the early 1930s within the context of professional debates about the nature of education. That is, scholars and practitioners debated the necessity or inevitability of a connection between schooling and indoctrination. In 1934, at a meeting of the National Education Association, John Dewey suggested three roads education could take vis-àvis indoctrination. “1) It can go on dwelling in the past; 2) it can set up ideal pictures for the future and strive to educate on the basis of that picture; 3) or we can strive through our schools to make pupils vividly and deeply aware of the kind of social world in which they are living”(p. 754) . Dewey himself advocated for the last choice. He worried that the first was static and old, and that the second centered on an ideal that did not exist, and therefore could not adequately prepare students to analyze problems and make informed choices, a skill necessary for democracy. He believed the second choice was indoctrination in action. In many ways New College represented Dewey’s second and third choices simultaneously. For instance, the program presented ideal versions of education and society to students, and encouraged them to envisage and work toward such representations. Equally important to New College’s founders was the need for students to understand the social order as it existed, and so students were expected to probe real life examples. Providing a helpful perspective from which to view New College, Zeichner and Liston (1991) suggest that one of the most notable characteristics of contemporary social reconstructionism in t

FAQs

What was New College’s purpose in teacher education?

New College aimed to prepare empathetic, knowledgeable teacher-leaders through a social reconstructionist approach, working for social change in a community context.

Why was New College shut down after eight years?

The program eventually failed to secure the financial and ideological backing it needed to survive, in a wider 1930s backdrop shaped by social, political, economic, and international events.

How did John Dewey’s ideas relate to New College’s approach?

Dewey proposed education routes regarding indoctrination, and the text explains that New College reflected both idealized visions of education and efforts to make students deeply aware of the social world they were living in.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni