Barbara Bell (educationalist)

Barbara Bell (26 July 1870 – 18 September 1957), was a Catholic educationalist and later a religious sister who made a significant contribution to teacher training in Australia.

[1] She was invited by Mother Mary Gonzaga Barry to come to Australia to instruct the Loreto Sisters in Ballarat in new methods of teaching and to establish a college of teacher education.

[1] From 1905 to 1909, she was mistress of studies at the new Central Catholic Training College, with Mother Mary Hilda Benson as founding principal.

[2] Bell by this time had been appointed a member of the board of examiners of the first Victorian Teachers’ Registration Committee.

[1] She had made a significant contribution to the training of Catholic female teachers over many decades, introducing new developments in the theory and practice of education.