ABSTRACT
The aim of this book is to discuss the role of documents of different kinds in the study of education, history and the social sciences. I hope to explore their established uses and limitations, and also to examine some of the new possibilities that are opening up in documentary-based studies of education and society. Documents are literally all around us, they are inescapable, they are an integral part of our daily lives and our public concerns. In our personal, private dealings, documents are basic and indispensable requirements. As Plummer notes, the world is crammed full of human, personal documents: ‘People keep diaries, send letters, make quilts, take photos, dash off memos, compose auto/biographies, construct web sites, scrawl graffiti, publish their memoirs, write letters, compose CVs, leave suicide notes, film video diaries, inscribe memorials on tombstones, shoot films, paint pictures, make tapes and try to record their personal dreams’ (Plummer 2001, p. 17).
