St John Bosco, popularly known as Don Bosco, was an educator of the nineteenth century. His educational system, the "Preventive method," is his best-known endeavour among the numerous ground-breaking efforts at forming the youth of his time. This method of educating young people was radical considering the time and his contemporary…

In times of crisis it is good to look back. Not only is it comforting, but better understanding of events in our past can inform decision-making and help us find direction at uncertain times. COVID-19 may have presented new challenges, but this exploration of historical disruptions to school exams highlights themes and a recognisable human spirit.…

Education was a crucial transfer point within modern imperial projects; it was a key domain through which relationships between the state, religious institutions, various agents of reform, and Indigenous, colonised and enslaved peoples were negotiated. Exploring a range of case studies, this article highlights the multiple trajectories of colonial…

This article analyzes a popular arithmetic textbook, "Arithmetic: For the Use of Schools and Colleges," authored by Jadav Chandra Chakravarti, to examine the contents and pedagogies in the text for how mathematics was taught and learned from the end of the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century in colonial…

The nineteenth century has been characterised as a period in which mathematics proper acquired a disciplinary and institutional autonomy. This article explores the intertwining of three intersecting worlds of the history of mathematics inasmuch as it engages with historicising the pursuit of novel mathematics, the history of disciplines and, more…

India's National Science Talent Search (NSTS) examination (1963 to 1976) was imagined and implemented by some top scientists of the period. It aimed to identify "talented" secondary school students with an aptitude for science and mathematics. Selected students attended undergraduate summer schools, did research in special labs during…

Skill development is the key instrument for achieving the target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 in developing countries. The development of human capital in India is of global importance, given the prospects of India being the fastest growing economy of the world and poised to be the country with the largest working-age population in the…

The aim of this article is to trace the literary historiography of the Bengali "rupkatha" or the fairy tale. It is a conscious decision to use the two terms--"rupkatha" and fairy tale interchangeably in the paper because it has been argued that the genre of the Bengali "rupkatha" received its shape and form in…

The politicization of history education relating to colonialism in former major colonial powers, like Britain and France, and former colonies has for obvious reasons received ample scholarly attention. But how is colonial history represented in educational materials aimed at primary school students in countries with a less evident connection to…

Recent surveys and reports document a growing phenomenon of "Hitlermania" in some parts of India. This article investigates whether the way in which National Socialism is presented in school education has encouraged this development or, on the contrary, has discouraged a positive valuation of the Nazis, including their leader. It…

History textbooks play a critical role in their connection to conflict. While they can play a role in dehumanizing the "other" by propagating the myths and narratives of dominant groups, they can also play a transformational role in challenging discourses and narratives at the root of conflict. This article explores the relationship…

The current assessment of the state of political division in the United States is foreboding. Americans are more divided than any time since the Civil War, leaving some to opine that these differences may be irreconcilable. This speculative analysis takes seriously as its point of departure the position of a growing number of American commentators…

This article brings the work of cultural theorist Mieke Bal and historian Hayden White into a conversation, inviting the reader to consider framing, re-framing, and un-framing as historiographical dispositions. The concept of framing was used as a substitute for context in cultural analysis. The article argues that the concept of framing could be…

In India, the history of education has traversed a unique path in the last hundred years. The political influences guided the discipline, but at the same time, they were also contested and critiqued in equal measures. History of education as a discipline went through four distinct phases. The first phase coincided with the last stage of the…

In this article, Dan Lyndon-Cohen makes the case that history departments should move from diversifying the curriculum to decolonising it. After reflecting on some examples of how he made the content of his lessons more representative, he explores how the influence of writers such as Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Emma Dabiri inspired him to find…