ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, the Rev. R.H. Quick's Essays on Educational Reformers is regarded as the earliest British textbook in the subject. In the early twentieth century, most textbooks were in psychology, such as R.R. Rusk's Introduction to Experimental Education. This chapter describes how academic studies and texts reflected and represented changes in the field during the post-war period. The range of published studies emanating from within the field of education studies began to reflect growing state priorities and interests. The most sustained project to map the field came from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Registers produced over four large volumes between 1973 and 1980. Most importantly for funding agencies, the register became an instrument that was intended to help prevent allocating resources to preexisting projects. The project was designed to create a comprehensive and standardized register of all educational research across the UK and was convened by the NFER and chaired by Professor John Nisbet.
