Fulfilling a Vision: The Contribution of the Church of Scotland to School Education, 1772-1872

Education has contributed enormously to the Scottish national character. The emphasis has always been on making a good education available to all and on giving those with talent every opportunity of advancement. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, it was clear that the provision of schooling was failing to meet the needs of an expanding population and the growth and diversification of the economy. In 1824 the Church of Scotland began an ambitious program to tackle the problem. In setting up new schools and the first teacher training colleges, the Church saw itself as supplementing an existing system of national education for which it shared a statutory managerial responsibility. This book offers an account of the struggles and achievements of the Church of Scotland over some fifty years as it sought to control and strengthen school education throughout the country. In so doing, it furthered the model of education for which Scotland became famous. Readers interested in current debates about the curriculum and standards in school education, the involvement of parents, the place of religious education, and the desirability or otherwise of faith schools will recognize their beginnings in these pages.

John Stevenson is a retired Church of Scotland minister. He was awarded a PhD by the University of Edinburgh in 2005. As a minister he served in three parishes before being appointed as General Secretary in the Church’s Department of Education, which is responsible for the Church’s interest in state education and religious education in schools. He has been chairman of the Association for the Teaching of Religious Education in Scotland (ATRES) and of the Religious Education Movement in Scotland. For a number of years Stevenson represented the Church of Scotland on the European Forum for the Teaching of Religious Education (EFTRE); on the Scottish Inter Faith Association; and on the UK Council of Christians and Jews. In 2000 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Educational Institute of Scotland (FEIS) for his services to school education.