Date of Award:

5-1934

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Department name when degree awarded

Education

Committee Chair(s)

Dean E. A. Jacobsen

Committee

Dean E. A. Jacobsen

Committee

C. E. McClellan

Committee

Joel E. Ricks

Abstract

The chief purpose of this work is to trace the development of the curriculum of the Utah State Agricultural College from the establishment of the institution to the present time with emphasis upon the forces shaping it. These forces have been active since colonial times, and in them lies the explanation for much of what the college is today.

The Utah State Agricultural College is a part of a much larger system, which has developed parallel to it in many respects, and which has in other respects been a force in determining the direction in which the college was to develop.

With the purpose in mind of gaining a view of the college in relation to its larger setting and an understanding of its development through a knowledge of the forces which brought it into being and shaped its development, the writer feels justified to include a brief discussion of the movement toward federal aid for education, which culminated in the establishment of the land-grant colleges and universities with their powerful stimulus to the democratization of education and to the liberalization of higher learning.

The treatment of the organization of the college and the early years of its existence is general, but later sections consist of the analysis of the changes within the various schools and departments. In this analysis these changes are noted which have had a bearing upon the evolution of courses. Minor changes and developments, which have had little effect upon the trends under consideration in this paper, have not been considered.

The historical method of research has been used in the selection and organization of the material used in this discussion. The material has in the main been secured from secondary sources, but in so far as possible it has been substantiated by parallel writings from different sources. Doctor A. C. True's "History of Agricultural Education in the United States", has been used largely as a source of material for the part of this work dealing with nation-wide movements. The book is valuable for such a purpose because of the extensive direct quotations embodied from original documents, many of which have been incorporated into this paper.

The material used from Doctor True's work has been compared with the writings of Fletcher Harper Swift, who is an authority on the relations of the federal government to public school finance, and the two are in strict agreement.

The writings of Doctor Paul Monroe have been used as source material and also for the substantiation of other material relating to national movements. The "Survey of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities" directed by Arthur J. Klein has also been consulted, and it substantiates the materials used.

The chief sources of material for the portion of this account dealing specifically with the curriculum of the Utah Agricultural College have been: The Biennial Reports of the Board of Trustees, The Catalogues of the College, The Bulletins of the College, The Report of the Utah Survey Commission of 1925, and other publications of the college and state as listed in the bibliography. This material is in the main reliable but it has the limitation which characterizes most sources of historical data, that of being fragmentary. Comparisons have been made where sources are parallel and the authentic account presented as nearly as it could be determined.

Checksum

bdd86619b40c75d0fc293a690a475294

Download

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .