The Struggle for the History of Education

Review of periodical literature on the history of education published in 2016

“…22 Gary McCulloch has explored in detail the many different directions that historians of education have taken since taking heed of Lawrence Cremin's exhortation in 1965 to 'project [their] concerns beyond the schools to a host of other institutions that educate: families, churches, libraries, museums, publishers, benevolent societies, youth groups, agricultural fairs, radio networks, military organizations, and research institutes'. 23 More than half a century later, readers will find in this review examples of articles on almost all these institutions. By contrast, studies of individual schools are comparatively rare in the periodical literature for 2016, although some are mentioned in other sections of this review.…”

La Historia de la Educación tras Bolonia: ¿hacia la extinción?

“…Esta centralidad en la formación de maestros y pedagogos comenzó a verse cuestionada en los años setenta. En las últimas décadas, tanto en España como a escala internacional, la historia de la educación ha ido perdiendo su antigua condición de saber fundamental en la formación de estos colectivos para perfilarse progresivamente como una materia introductoria y secundaria (MCCULLOCH, 2011).…”

Raising the participation age in historical perspective: policy learning from the past?

“…However, while historical approaches have been widely recognised as contributing to our knowledge of policy, it is a commonplace that academics and policy makers regularly ignore them. 'Policy amnesia', infused by 'year zero' thinking, can be a shortcut to believing that policy can achieve something 'new', often in a very short space of time (Higham & Yeomans, 2007a;Raffe & Spours, 2007;McCulloch, 2011). Indeed, many initiatives of the 'new' Labour governments from 1997 were characterised by a turning away from historical explanation and wariness that they might become ensnared in briars of history; instead, Tony Blair championed the idea of continuous 'radical' change.…”