This case study of the Russian Empire, based on the analysis of more than 100 primary sources in the form of textbooks on domestic history (uchebniki otechestvennoi istorii) and archival documentation, is intended to help understand the evolution of the formation of domestic history as a school subject as an integral part of the imperialist…

This article seeks to understand how adult students perceived education as disseminated by the Workers' Educational Association (WEA). Evidence will be presented from sources not commonly studied, namely WEA student logbooks of tutorial classes. Adult students attending WEA tutorial classes in the 1920s and 1930s recorded their own personal,…

Reviewing the historiography of education provides insights into both the past and present of this growing area of research across the UK and Ireland. In the nineteenth century research reveals a close association with national identities. These were often Whig histories that celebrated the present and emphasised the progressive nature of…

Historians of education wanting to develop culturally responsive historiographies of Indigenous communities should move beyond a reliance on government and church policy documents--with some variegations of testimony from residential school survivors. The unique circumstances of colonisation that were forged by national/settler policies should be…

This article seeks to exemplify the extent to which oral life history research can enrich existing historiographies of English Religious Education (RE). Findings are reported from interviews undertaken with a sample of key informants involved in designing and/or implementing significant curriculum changes in RE in the 1960s and 1970s. The…

Late nineteenth-century German-English rivalry changed attitudes in Hamburg. Previously, the once fiercely independent city and its burgeoning mercantile middle class had developed an Anglophilia that justified Hamburg being labelled a "London suburb" and "the most British town on the Continent". The affinity for all things…

At the end of the nineteenth century Aime Bogaerts, a Socialist primary school teacher at a Ghent municipal school and from 1901 on the chief editor of the Socialist newspaper "Vooruit", began a new educational initiative: "the children of the popular classes from Ghent" ("De Gentsche Volkskinderen"). Children from…

Contrary to popular understanding that the United States Peace Corps stemmed from a spontaneous idea generated on the campaign trail to appeal to young voters, John F. Kennedy's celebrated proposal for a federally sponsored, overseas volunteer training programme was drawn from models and theories circulated by American academics. This article…

This article explores the politics of literacy in late colonial Sudan. Drawing upon hitherto untapped archival sources in English and Arabic, it focuses on two key questions: What were the purposes and uses of literacy in the eyes of colonial authorities? What means were used to spread literacy skills among Sudanese people? Positioning these…

Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson is one of the key foundational actors in the history of the educational sciences in the UK. At a time when educational studies and the study of educational psychology were very closely linked, in the decades of the mid-twentieth century, Thomson was a crucial figure in education research. He is known for his work on…

British Somaliland, a protectorate from which Christian missionaries were excluded, opened its first government-run school in 1938. The intention of the new director of education, Randall Ellison, was to use written Somali in preference to Arabic. This drew intense criticism from local religious leaders, and had to be abandoned. Accused of being a…

Jesuit education provided the first rigorous educational "system" in the Western world from the 1540s onwards. By 1773 more than 700 Jesuit colleges and universities educating some 250,000 students worldwide constituted the largest educational network in existence up to that time. At the present day, in 68 countries worldwide, the…

Focuses on the use of visual historical images, such as old photographs, as a means to interpret the history of education. Offers examples of photographs to examine past school practices and educational ideologies. Concludes that history in the present is always composed of its relationship to its past. (MER)

Utilizing primary sources, the article reconstructs the typical day of a 19th-century English headteacher. The headteacher's myriad duties included classroom management, school administration, and building maintenance. Concludes with a comparison between 19th-century education management and current practices. (MJP)

Ponders questions arising from items of obsolete technology found stored in an obscure part of the Prince Albert Junior and Infant School, Aston, Birmingham (England) school building. Explores how historical debris can bring the past into the present to provide insight into past teacher experiences, working practices, and culture. (MER)