Conceptualizing Modernity through Colonial Encounters: Educational Challenges and Experiments in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1934-1950

In 1934, a new Teacher's Training College was established at Bakht er Ruda (White Nile), which marked the beginning of a multifaceted process of educational experimentation in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. By 1950, the small training centre had evolved into a full-fledged Institute of Education active in the fields of teacher training, curricula experiment, textbook production, schools inspection, literacy campaigns, rural work, and boys' clubs. Its aims and policies were largely shaped by the joint efforts of two leading educationists, Vincent L. Griffiths (the Institute's founder and first Principal, 1934-1950) and ʿAbd al-Raḥman ʿAli Ṭaha (Vice-Principal 1936-1948). Supervising mixed teams of British and Sudanese teachers and pedagogues, these colonial officials perceived themselves as spearheads of social change. How did they conceive modern schooling in theory and practice? What were the educational challenges and dilemmas arising from the diverging cultural backgrounds of those in charge of state education in colonial Sudan? How did Griffiths put up with the ambiguity of being at once a member of the foreign colonial elite and a progressive educationist facilitating Sudanese criticism of British imperial rule