| Description | Records of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf and predecessor organisations. Including minutes and meeting papers, 1885-2014; account books, 1885-1940; examination results, 1885-1907; registers of teachers; general correspondence, 1885-1916; Joint Examinations Board correspondence, 1902-1920; miscellaneous items, 1887-1917 and publications, 1885-2024.
Publications include: The Teacher of the Deaf, Journal of the National College of Teachers of the Deaf, 1947-1976 (complete from volume 48, 1950); Journal of the Society of Teachers of the Deaf, 1968-1976; Journal of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, 1977-2004 (titled 'The Teacher of the Deaf', 1977-1983; 'Deafness and Education', 1997-1998; 'Deafness & Education International', 1999-2004 and 2018-2019) and incorporating the Association magazine up to 1987 (an incomplete sequence); the magazine of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, 1988-2024 (an incomplete sequence); the newsletter of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, 2013-2014; also various printed reports, memoranda, programmes, leaflets etc 1912-2001. |
| Administrative History | In the late nineteenth century there was little formal education provision for hearing-impaired children. The education available, largely through the work of charitable organisations, was often limited in content and difficult to obtain. Dr Richard Elliott (1836-1923), a pioneer in the education of the hearing-impaired, believed that the academic potential of deaf children was consequently not being fully realised and that it was necessary to 'ensure a supply of teachers of knowledge, experience and ability' if the situation was to be vastly improved. Although some teachers of the deaf at that time held specialised qualifications, these were generally unrecognised by the government and the wider teaching community. Thus in 1885, Elliot founded the College of Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb (CTDD) in order to establish and administer an officially recognised diploma for teachers, generally based in schools, of hearing-impaired children. The CTDD was not the only institution to award this type of diploma. In 1907, therefore, following negotiations between the CTDD, the Society for Training Teachers of the Deaf and for the Diffusion of the German System, and the Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, the Joint Examination Board was formed. The three colleges remained as separate entities, but a single, unified diploma was introduced. In 1918 the CTDD merged with the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf and was renamed the National College of Teachers of the Deaf (NCTD). After a split in 1959 when a break-away group formed the Society of Teachers of the Deaf (STD), the two bodies reunited in 1976 to become the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD).
1885 College of Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb founded
1894 Association of Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb formed
1895 National Association of Teachers of the Deaf formed from amalgamation of the Committee of a 'Conference of Head Masters and Others' held in London, July 1895 with the Association of Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb, and other representatives
1907 Joint Examination Board created
1918 National College of Teachers of the Deaf formed from merger of the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf with College of Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb
1959 Society of Teachers of the Deaf formed as a breakaway group from the National College of Teachers of the Deaf
1979 British Association of Teachers of the Deaf formed through merger between National College of Teachers of the Deaf and the Society of Teachers of the Deaf
Source: the minutes; deposit file papers |