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Educational History and Educational Change: The Past Decade of English Historiography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Peter Cunningham
Peter Cunningham*
Affiliation:
Curriculum Change in the Primary School Since 1945: Dissemination of the Progressive Ideal (London, 1988)
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Extract

Commenting primarily on American and German educational historiography, Konrad H. Jarausch lamented that the “initial excitement” of the “new history of education” had abated and that education was no longer in the forefront of discussion in social or cultural history. Was this perception based upon an assumed coherence of the various trends which he described? Characteristic of the “new history,” according to Jarausch, had been, first, a radical criticism of the prevailing Whig tradition; secondly, a shift of focus from pedagogical ideas to social context; and thirdly, the adoption of social scientific techniques and quantification. All three features have contributed significantly to the development of research in British educational history, yet it would be artificial to postulate a unitary movement. Rather, various trends are visible, which reflect the institutional infrastructure within which history of education is produced in Britain. Changing priorities in and approaches to research in the history of education cannot be understood apart from the ties between the study of educational history and the institutional and research environments in which British historians and educationists work, as well as the wider context of contemporary educational politics.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Spring 1989 , pp. 77 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the History of Education Society 

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References

1 Jarausch, Konrad H., “The Old ‘New History of Education': A German Reconsideration,“ History of Education Quarterly 26 (Summer 1986): 225–41.Google Scholar

2 The need to take account of the institutional context of research has been mentioned in passing in Herbst, Jurgen, “The New History of Education in Europe,“ History of Education Quarterly 27 (Spring 1987): 55–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Recent examples include the official History of the University of Oxford, a planned series of eight volumes, which began publication in 1984; Bush, Sargent Jr., and Rasmussen, Carl J., The Library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1584–1637 (Cambridge, 1986); and for education beyond the formal institutions of learning, Nicholas Orme, From Childhood to Chivalry: The Education of the English Kings and Aristocracy, 1066–1530 (London, 1967); Morgan, John, Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning, and Education, 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1986); and Chaney, Edward, “Quo Vadis? Travel as Education and the Impact of Italy in the Sixteenth Century,“ in International Currents in Educational Ideas and Practices: History of Education Society Conference Papers, 1987 (Leicester, 1988).Google Scholar

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11 The term most commonly used in Britain to mean education of physically and mentally handicapped, or “exceptional children.” A substantial study recently produced by a historian of considerable repute is: John Hurt, Outside the Mainstream: A History of Special Education (Batsford, 1988).Google Scholar

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