Joseph Lancaster

Tom Duggett (Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University, China)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University), Emily Rohrbach (University of Durham)

Dates

Born 25 Nov 1778
Died 23 Oct 1838
Activity 1798-1838

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Educationalist

Resources

Lancaster's Works

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Joseph Lancaster was the inventor of a system of mass instruction that was central to the education debate in the early nineteenth century. The so-called “Lancasterian” system broke new ground in its use of pupil-tutors, in its cultivation of “public spirit” in school, and in its ecumenical approach to religious instruction (Lancaster,

Improvements in Education

, 34, 94-6, 162). Lancaster’s system was adopted as the basis of a planned national education system by the Grenville ministry of 1806-7, and it was subsequently backed by a diverse group of philanthropists who constituted themselves as the Royal Lancasterian Association in 1810 and as the British and Foreign School Society in 1814.

Lancaster opened his first school for poor boys in Southwark in early 1798. Around 1800, he

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989 words

Citation: Duggett, Tom. "Joseph Lancaster". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2604, accessed 23 November 2024.]