ABSTRACT
Much is made in the North American educational histories about the disciplining of students-both in a positive, curricular context, and, more often, in a negative context of corporal, psychological, and other forms of punishment and control. By contrast, much less mention has been made of the ways in which teachers, from the very inception of state schooling systems, have also been subjects of regu lation, supervision, and control. This disciplining has emanated from a number of sources, ranging from inspectors and school trustees to parents and even students. Further, while these forms of control have existed throughout the length of individual teachers’ work lives, they have also operated strongly during teacher training pro grams. This paper attempts to describe some of the conditions and events pertaining to the supervision and disciplining of teachers in nineteenth-century Ontario, and to examine these controls within the context of the overall raison d’etre of the schooling system.
