In October 1929, the Ministry of Education established ma‘had al-tarbiya—a new department of pedagogy at Fuad I University in Egypt. The purpose of the department was to replace training facilities that had previously been set up to serve Egypt’s nascent public school system thereby effectively taking over the enterprise of teacher training in the country. The department’s curriculum included mandatory courses in psychology, theories of pedagogy, the history of education, experiential learning/education, library research methods, art and physical education. Most striking was the founding of so-called “experimental classrooms” which were attached to the department and in which teachers could test out “modern” teaching methods on the ground. In short, the department was a bastion of what historians of education call “progressive/modern” pedagogy in that it placed an emphasis on child-centered learning, relied on child-psychology, believed in freedom in the classroom and in the eradication of rote memorization. The purpose of this paper is to unpack the relationship between ma‘had al-tarbiya and progressive pedagogy from 1929-1952. Most historians have tied the story of education in Egypt—and the larger Middle East—to that of the nation-building project thereby omitting the richness of the pedagogical innovations espoused by ordinary teachers. In contrast, this paper seeks to look at educational ideas and practices in their own right by zooming in on one of the most important training institutions for teachers and examining the ways in which it sought to train them. The paper asks three inter-related questions: Why and in what ways did Egyptians develop progressive practices at ma ‘had al-tarbiya? Were such practices an exception or were they part of a local/regional trend? Finally, how do these practices relate to questions of modern subjectivity and transnationality? Drawing on a multitude of primary materials including teacher training manuals, pedagogy magazines, and student magazines produced by the department, this paper argues that ma‘had al-tarbiya was by no means unique in its espousal of progressive methods. In fact, it belonged to a long line of activists, teachers and bureaucrats who became champions of progressivism in Egypt. The sources suggest that the department was part of a growing network of transnational and international pedagogues whose belief in “modern/progressive” methods helped shape state-sponsored schooling world-wide. Finally, the paper highlights that Egyptian pedagogues were not docile recipients of an Anglo-American theory of progressive education in a diffusionist relationship, they were active co-creators of progressivism—through ma‘had al-tarbiya.