ABSTRACT
In order to understand why some educational phenomena appear as givens – as natural, obvious or beyond doubt – while others are considered problematic, the analysis of their historical origins and social construction is essential (Popkewitz 1997). Thus, the ‘persistence of the recitation’ (Hoetker and Ahlbrand 1969) has attained the role of one of the givens of educational history, a ‘technology’ determined by the framing of the classroom and reproduced almost automatically or unintentionally as a result of the intrinsic qualities of the pedagogic situation. Figure 3.1 shows a classroom of this kind. However, if we presuppose that dominating forms of the pedagogical process take shape and develop – and maybe become redefined – in a social and educational context, which is part of a wider societal pattern, historical studies contribute to a richer understanding of the apparently invariable. This chapter focuses on how the ‘lesson’, or recitation, as pedagogic text was structured in the early periods of modern compulsory schooling in Sweden. However, the term ‘recitation’ covers diverse strands of pedagogical thinking (Hamilton 1989); what, then, was its alleged rationale and how can we contextualize its representations?
