The history of education: A curious case?

Overviews of international history of education journals at moments of transition to new journal editors have charted both the substantive foci of journals and methodological and theoretical approaches employed (Goodman and Martin, 2004; Depaepe and Simon, 1996; Lowe, 2004; Coles, 2008; Fitzgerald and Gunter, 2008). While assigning content categories to journal articles is not straightforward, key themes around the history of UK education by UK authors in UK-located journals between 2004 and 2008 can be identified.2 Prominent themes in History of Education (HoE) include education for women and girls and the activities of women educators (Chiu, 2008); history of higher education (Aiston, 2005); religion, morality and citizenship (Wright, 2008); pedagogy – including the ideas of progressive educators (Nawrotzki, 2006); secondary education (Goodman, 2007; McCulloch, 2006a, 2006b); disability (Brown, 2005; Dale, 2007; Armstrong, 2007); colonialism and empire (Oldern, 2008); popular and non-formal education (Woodin, 2005); health and welfare (Sheldon, 2007); elementary education (Middleton, 2005); teachers and teacher training (Gardner, 2007); curriculum (Soler, 2006); and psychology (Hirsch, 2005). While the focus of some UK writers is on education overseas, the majority of UK writers concern themselves with England, with some coverage of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Chronological coverage in HoE runs from the sixteenth to the

twentieth centuries, though authors predominantly focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (for an example of eighteenth-century research, see Dick and Watts, 2008). The introduction of a feature on sources and interpretations in HoE in 20043 fostered a focus on historiography and methodology. UK authors have contributed particularly to methodological work around visual (Grosvenor, 2007) and biographical approaches (Martin, 2007). Interest in theory and methodology has also been fostered by special issues of the journal (Burke, 2005d). Key themes in the Journal of Educational Administration and History (JEAH) are identified by Janet Coles as national policy, changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, national and local reformers and interests, religious interests in educational provision, men as reformers, and papers reflecting the colonial legacy, with most work focusing on secondary and higher education (Coles, 2008). Consistent with the orientation of JEAH towards educational administration, the majority of contributions from UK scholars are located around formal education. The editors point to a reduction in the emphasis on the provision of schooling and in articles concerned with biography and to an increase in articles concerned with feminist issues, gender, history and historiography (Fitzgerald and Gunter, 2008). More explicit theorisation, debates about policy process and about the gendered nature of leadership or administration in more recent material (Fitzgerald and Gunter, 2008) resonates with HoE’s increasing emphasis on sources and interpretations and historiography. Publications in UK journals by authors located outside the UK also shape UK history of education. The majority of articles in HoE by these scholars come from Europe (24), including six from Ireland. This is followed by USA (21), Australia and New Zealand (13), Canada (four), Asia (five) and Israel (four). In articles with a primary history of education focus in JEAH, in contrast, there are two from Ireland. The majority of JEAH contributions from outside the UK come from Australia and New Zealand (16), followed by USA (eight), Asia (four), Canada (three), Israel (two) and South Africa (one). The relationship between conference presentations and special issues of journals drawn from symposia and conferences held outside the UK forms part of a two-way intellectual exchange. A small contingent of UK scholars regularly present at the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) primarily around education for women and girls and the activities of women educators, religion, morality and citizenship, pedagogy (including progressivism), the visual and technologies (including the media). A smaller number of scholars attend conferences of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES), including the joint ANZHES/UK History of Education Society conference held in Sydney in 2008. However, only one UK scholar has contributed (and in 2003) to the (Australian and New Zealand) History of Education Review and this article resulted from the joint History of Education Society UK/Australia and New Zealand History of Education Society conference held in the UK at Swansea

in 2002 (McDermid, 2003). AERA has been a focus for a small number of historians of education. Again, this has led to little publication in journals located in America or Canada. In the last five years there has been one article originating in the UK in History of Education Quarterly (Byford, 2008) and none in Historical Studies in Education. The key journal outside the UK for UK historians of education is Paedagogica Historica, which has direct links with ISCHE. Of the 188 articles published between 2004 and the end of 2008, 23 are by UK authors, of which two are by philosophers of education addressing methodological issues (Smith, 2008; Standish, 2008). If we exclude those articles directly linked to the ISCHE conferences, key themes addressed include history of school design and environment (Armitage, 2005; Goodman, 2005; Peim, 2005), the materiality of schooling (Burke, 2005a; Grosvenor, 2005), gender relations (Martin, 2008; Goodman, 2008b), educational sciences (Aldrich, 2004; Brehony, 2004; Lawn, 2004), past childhoods (Grosvenor, 2007; Grosvenor, 2009; Fink, 2008) and empire, postcolonialism and social change in history of education (Watts, 2009; Myers, 2009). The majority of these articles addressed new ways or new sources for understanding and conceptualising the educational past. UK scholars contribute to the wider domain of history through the affiliation of ISCHE to the Congress of Historical Sciences, and more recently through the European Social Science History Congress. The small number of scholars who have published in both history of education and history journals demonstrates that publication in both UK-based history of education and history journals is comparatively rare (Martin, 2005; Myers and Brown, 2005; Jacobs, 2007), but is most prevalent in scholarship on the history of women’s education. Women’s History Review included a special issue entitled Earning and Learning (Pullin and Spencer, 2004). The Journal of Historical Sociology carried four articles concerned with special education, sexuality and professionalisation. Analysis of Past and Present and Journal of Contemporary History revealed authors with an interest in education in historical settings but no articles between 2004 and 2008 where history of education was the prime focus. The survey of journals for this chapter included five general UK educational journals: British Education Research Journal, British Journal of Educational Studies, Educational Review, Oxford Review of Education (ORE) and Cambridge Journal of Education. There are historical articles or articles with a strong historical dimension in all five journals (e.g. Furlong, 2004; Taylor, 2005; White, 2005; Ruddock and Fielding, 2006; Smith and Exley, 2006; Jephcote and Davies, 2007; Thomas et al., 2007). However, several of these articles were in special themed issues which offered an historical perspective – The University and Public Education (Judge, 2006); Blair’s Legacy (Walford, 2008) – and only three articles are by researchers who would describe themselves primarily as historians of education (McCulloch, 2006b; Richardson, 2007a; Vickers in Kan et al., 2007).