Online Store

DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY is a study by historian, Barbara J. Smith, of the remarkable foundation in post-war Britain of one of the nation's teacher training colleges, which is now part of a modern university. It is the account of planning in 1942, in the grimmest time of war, for a solution to the foreseen serious shortage of teachers after hostilities. The government planners created a scheme of Emergency Teacher Training Colleges, which would recruit demobilised servicemen and servicewomen for specially designed courses of further education and training in schools. In a period of severe post-war austerity, encouraged by a doughty Principal working with a responsive local authority and a specially recruited lecturing staff, these ex-servicemen and women not only eased the teacher supply problem, but enlivened the local town and countryside with their enthusiastic presence and a wealth of practical activities. They have left a legacy for today's university students, who live and learn in their college premises.