This article presents an understanding of the context, nature and significance of Mary Gurney's educational career during the years 1863 to 1917. It is assisted in part by the conceptual lenses of feminist thinking and network theory. Despite neglect by past historians, Gurney's work was seen by contemporaries as equal in significance to that of…

This article seeks to introduce a new historical explanation as to why left-wing working-class women engaged in liberal, middle-class organisations during the first wave of feminism. The article specifically deals with middle-class associations and clubs that had educational purposes. Instead of focusing on the larger explanatory scheme of the…

This article focuses on an underexplored aspect of the Catholic convent school experience, namely the kinds of socialisation and regulation of emotion maintained within the convent community. Drawing on the emerging history of emotions and the concept of emotional communities first posited by Barbara H. Rosenwein, it considers how historians might…

This article discusses the extent to which middle-class Christians, many of whom were progressive liberals, involved themselves in the Moral Instruction League (MIL) to intervene in 'improving' the moral character of the English working class. It considers how they reconciled their motivations and underlying theology with secular goals that sought…

How did the undergraduate college rapidly position itself as the gateway to middle-class US employment between 1880 and 1920? This article attempts to explain one part of that process. Drawing on Weberian organisational theory, transnational intellectual history and case studies of three institutions, it identifies hierarchy as a defining aspect…

Within a 20-year period from the late 1850s to the late 1870s, most European countries created programmes in response to what appeared as a new social problem: unwed daughters of the middle classes in need of jobs. Taking off from the 150th anniversary of the English Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, this paper examines the diffusion…

This paper explores the contribution of James Bryce as an Assistant Commissioner to the Taunton Commission from 1865 to 1868. It highlights his criticisms of the English middle class and of middle-class education represented in the endowed grammar schools of Lancashire, England. These criticisms were based partly on finely detailed observation of…

Given American higher education's origins in British practice, it is surprising that training in the traditional "learned" professions follows such different patterns. Most strikingly, such training is post-graduate in the United States while it is often a first degree programme in Britain. Intriguingly, in the middle nineteenth century,…

This paper considers the voluntary work of girls in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Historians have so far neglected to study social work as an integral part of middle-class girls' formal and informal education. The paper uses records of several little-known girls' service leagues including Time and Talents, Girl's Realm Guild of Service,…

This paper investigates the history of the education of the middle classes with particular reference to the historical experience of the English grammar schools between 1868 and 1944. It indicates a general neglect of the history of middle-class education and an opportunity to develop this in greater depth in terms of the range and diversity of…

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century control over their schools was central to the sense of a Catholic identity for English Catholics, and its defence was a priority of their bishops. The 1944 education act threatened the financial viability of these schools. Between 1942 and 1944 the divided and uncertain response of the Catholic…

Focuses on the pioneering efforts concerning moral education and educational reform by British educator Frederick James Gould. Discusses the application of his socialistic ideas to further three causes: (1) socialism and secularism; (2) positivism; and (3) a form of middle class radicalism. (KDR)

Discusses the development of middle class, public secondary Scottish schools for girls over 14 years old in the latter 1800s. States these institutions opened the door for the Scottish women's movement, allowing women to pursue public positions. Clarifies that the movement was still in its early stages by the late 1800s. (KDR)

Explores four women's networking activities that promoted Fredrich Froebel's kindergarten pedagogy from 1840-1900. Describes how the movemen created Froebelian organizational infrastructures, affecting national and religious boundaries and providing a support system for middle class members, political lobbies, leadership, and recognition for…

Discusses the Aberdare Committee created to remedy shortcomings arising from a non-intervention policy in Welsh secondary education, eminating from the 1881 Report of the Committee on Intermedicate and Higher Education (Wales). Focuses on three commissions: the Caredon, Taunton, and Devonshire. Discusses the committee outcomes regarding English…