This paper examines the relationship of working-class feminist academics to the Academy. Our paper interrogates tensions between resistance and submission from the perspective of four educationally successful working-class women who have become academics. The paper starts with an overview of the state of the Academy at the beginning of the…

This article builds upon a tradition of feminist critical engagements with Bourdieu, developing the concept of 'foregrounded history' as a way to conceptualise the temporal and affective in processes of habitus formation. Through analysis of affects 'produced through the social encounter' within everyday childhoods on a British council estate, the…

Applying the critical lenses of feminism, autographical theory and literary analysis, this essay performs a triple reading of Vera Brittain's multi-genre writings about gender, war,and university education. Focusing specifically on "The Dark Tide" (1923), "Testament of Youth" (1933) and "The Women of Oxford" (1960),…

This article asks historians of education to think about the influences that we bring to bear on our work. It uses, as an example, Carolyn Steedman's book "The Tidy House: Little Girls Writing" (1982). "The Tidy House" set out to interpret a short story written by three primary school girls in Britain in 1976. Steedman…

This study (Note 1) investigates potential differences in language use between genders, by applying a modified model of thought representation. Our hypothesis is that women use more direct forms of thought representation than men in modern spoken British English. Women are said to favour "private speech" that creates intimacy and…

Having limited access to colleges and universities offering women the same educational opportunities available to men, elite women of the 19th century crossed national borders for advanced study and teaching opportunities. The career of Tsuda Umeko, founder of one of the first private institutions of higher education for women in Japan, leader in…

This lecture will revisit nineteenth and twentieth century education policy and politics in the light of the experiences and struggles of a (nowadays) virtually unknown educator activist. Beautiful, tireless, courageous and principled, socialist school teacher Mary Bridges Adams (1855-1939) gave up her life for the Cause. Encouraged by William…

This article examines the work of Lady Nancy Astor (1879-1964) in campaigning for nursery education and nursery schools in Britain from the late 1920s until the Second World War. Arguably no elected politician in England at any time, including the present, has identified themselves more closely with the cause of nursery schooling in Britain.…

Working from a feminist/critical cultural studies perspective, which perceives culture and society as imbued with political tensions, I pose two central questions in this article. First, how can community-based, consumer activism be understood as a strategy adopted by marginalised groups to assert rights claims? I focus on British women's…

Recent decades have witnessed the waning fortunes of social class as a historical category of analysis. In particular working-class education is rarely discussed in historiography although there has been significant work done in this area, particularly in adult education and literacy. A reassessment of these studies allows us to examine the ways…

A discussion of how Bristol, Great Britain organized and developed a televised symposium on women. (HB)

Women librarians in Great Britain are struggling to eliminate the historical bias against married women continuing to work. Also, while the number of women working in libraries has increased, the number in top positions has decreased. (JAB)

How events of the late medieval period of Great Britain are depicted in Robert Greene's play, "The Scottish History of James the Fourth," is discussed. The play reflects the spirit of a time in which some began to claim that women were the intellectual equals of men. (RM)

An on-going theoretical issue for pastoral counseling concerns the integration of psychological and theological concepts. The possibility of exploring the compatibility of Gestalt psychotherapy and feminist theology is considered with reference to the 'practical-values' of each, and it is proposed that there is significant common ground between…