英治香港對中小學教師培訓方式可分為四種：1、私人傳授2、官立師範學校3、在職教師進修班4、大專課程，當中第二種的師範學校，可追溯至第八任港督軒尼斯（John Pope Hennessy, 1834-1891）所辦的學校─官立師範學堂（1881），設立原因有二：一是考慮華人教師需求，二是聘請遠洋教師的成本高昂，遂在本地設立學校。
本文透過政府文件、校刊、畢業刊物、報章、課程手冊、校友刊物及口述資料等一手史料，加上對殖民地教育和香港教育制度等先行研究探討羅師從建校到合併的成長與變化。 ;There are four ways for teacher education in British Hong Kong: private tutoring, normal school, professional development programme and diploma programme. The emergence of normal school can be traced back to the establishment of Government Normal School (GNS) by the Hong Kong authorities under the governorship of John Pope Hennessy (1834-1891). It is because of 1) the rising demand of the Asian teachers and 2) the high cost of hiring teachers from aboard.
Among the institutes for teacher education in British Hong Kong, Northcote College of Education (1939-1994), the oldest one among the institutes for teacher education under the Hong Kong authorities, with 55 years throughout the development and turmoil of the Hong Kong society during and after the Second World War. Furthermore, the history of the institute organised by the Hong Kong authorities reveals the change of the teacher education demand in British Hong Kong.
By utilizing the primary and secondary source materials, including government documents, student publications, graduation publications, newspapers, programme handbooks, alumni publications and interviews etc., and comparing the education systems throughout the years from British Hong Kong to nowadays, the paper investigates the development of Northcote College of Education.
