IN keeping with the different stances of their sponsoring churches, Anglican church colleges have always sought to equip their students to serve as teachers both in church schools and in mainstream schooling, while Catholic colleges were founded primarily to ensure a supply of teachers for Catholic schools. These Catholic schools were originally set up as a protective measure, in the face of what was then (in the nineteenth century) seen as a hostile society. A fortress church mentality led to an inward-looking and clearly distinctive approach to Catholic education. This required a fully Catholic staff, usually an overwhelmingly Catholic pupil population and an all-pervasive Catholic atmosphere. Anglican schools, starting from their links with an established and confident national church, have had a double focus: in particular, the nurture of Christian faith and, more generally, to provide an educational service to the nation. The balance between these two priorities has shifted from time to time and in different places. Despite this, it has been a constant feature of Anglican church colleges to address both priorities, with varying degrees of success. Therefore, many former students from such colleges have worked in church schools, while many have taught in other schools; some, of course, have worked in both sectors.

The gap between Catholic and Anglican education in this respect is rather less marked in practice than in theory. Even in theory, there appears to be not much of a gap over the guiding principles. First, the vast majority of teachers currently working in Catholic schools have not been educated or received their professional preparation in Catholic colleges, but in secular universities. Furthermore, many teachers who have trained at Catholic colleges decide to work outside the Catholic system. This state of affairs is paralleled in the Anglican sector. Second, for all forms of teacher education, strictly enforced national ground-rules exist constraining the curriculum and competencies that must be covered. These national requirements ensure severe restrictions on the degree to which any additional Christian perspectives, whether Anglican, Catholic or ecumenical, can receive much attention in state-funded teacher education and training, whether at initial, inservice or more advanced levels.