Papers of Dorothy Gardner (1900-1972)

Small group of papers including annual reports of the Child Development Department, Institute of Education, University of London, 1933-1958 and notes on its establishment and functioning; newsletters of the Child Development Society, 1950-1992; pamphlets relating to child development issues, 1945-1960; correspondence and papers relating to reading skills, c.1962-1963; correspondence and papers re Dorothy Gardner's memorial meeting and fund, 1972-1976.

Dorothy Ellen Marion Gardner (1900-1992) had a long career as a nursery and primary school teacher, lecturer and researcher in education and child development. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College where she took a Froebel course in child development. After a short period of teaching in Edinburgh she came to London and worked at the Rachel Macmillan Nursery School, the Norland Institute and the Francis Holland School in Baker Street. She was then appointed as a lecturer in infant and junior school education at Bishop Otter College, Chichester. She was among the first intake of students to the new Department of Child Development at the Institute of Education, University of London from 1934 to 1936 where she became a close personal friend of Susan Isaacs (1885-1948). She then moved to the City of Leeds Training College as a lecturer in methods of education before succeeding Susan Isaacs as Head of the Department of Child Development in London in 1943. She lectured widely both in the United Kingdom and abroad and was vice-chairman of the Nursery Schools Association. Her publications included Testing Results in the Infant School (1942), Longer Term Results of Infant School Methods (1950), Education of Children Under Eight (1949), The Role of the Teacher in the Infant and Nursery School (1965) and Experiment and Tradition in Primary Schools (1966). Dorothy Gardner retired in 1968 and completed a biography of Susan Isaacs which was published in 1969.

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See also the papers of Susan Isaacs (SI) and Nathan Isaacs (NI) and the records of the Institute of Education (IE). The Records of the Child Development Society hold records about the Dorothy Gardner Memorial Lectures and newsletters with contributions from Gardner.