This paper explores the British art patronage scheme "Pictures for Schools," which sold affordable works of art to educational buyers at annual exhibitions between 1947 and 1969, focusing on the work of "Pictures for Schools" founder and organiser Nan Youngman (1906-1995) as an artist, educationalist and activist. It shows…

The Dalton Plan is well known in educational historiography. But there are also unanswered questions such as: how is it possible that a pedagogical experiment begun in the United States in February 1920 had, by the month of March, already come to be known first hand by a visiting English educator? The objective in this article is to find an…

This paper seeks to explore the development, impact and contribution made by the New Ideals in Education conferences, which were held between 1914 and 1937. In particular, it will examine how the group emerged from the English Montessori Society and forged an identity of its own based on the thoughts and ideas of its two major protagonists: Edmond…

In 1916 John Dewey published "Democracy and Education: An introduction to the philosophy of education". In this book some of today's foremost historians, philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists of education mark the anniversary of Dewey's work by reviewing and reflecting, from a British perspective, on Dewey's contribution to our…

This article focuses on the work of three British Women Education Officers (WEOs) in Nigeria as the colony was preparing for independence. Well-qualified and progressive women teachers, Kathleen Player, Evelyn Clark (née Hyde), and Mary Hargrave (née Robinson), were appointed as WEOs in 1945, 1949, and 1950 respectively. I argue that the three…

In the Netherlands there are 400 Dalton schools, while Dalton education has all but disappeared elsewhere, including in its country of origin: the USA. Following a brief period in the 1920s in which it enjoyed strong international interest, it disappeared from the scene. How can it be that the Dalton Plan still exists only in the Netherlands? This…

Histories of the First World War have regularly implicated children's literature in boys' eagerness to enlist in the first two years of that conflict. While undoubtedly the majority of children's books, comics and magazines did espouse nationalistic, jingoistic and martial attitudes, there were alternative stories and environments. Looking at the…

This study attempted to provide an analytic basis for an operational definition of open education. The basic aims were 1) to define some of the essential pedagogical features of open education; 2) to develop explicit, concrete indicators for each feature; 3) to check the validity of the indicators with the major writings on the subject and with…

The author of this informal critique of the British Open School spent the 1972-73 academic year as a teacher in London's Battersea School as part of an exchange program in which six British open school teachers exchanged places with six teachers from British Columbia, Canada. After a brief description of the daily and weekly program at Battersea…

In examining progressive education in Britain, the author finds that, while the future of the distinctively "progressive" style is in question, many of progressive education's main features already exist in British schools: tolerant discipline; coeducation; modified examinations; and encouragement of curriculum experiments and of the…

This article starts by locating the early implementation of progressive educational ideas in Britain in small independent schools. It traces the development of one strand of progressive thinking, and identifies three key figures in its growth--Thomas Davidson, Cecil Reddie and Kurt Hahn. (Author)

This paper discusses the implication of the back to basics movement in elementary school social studies. The paper is divided into three sections, each of which considers a different aspect of the issue. Part one briefly discusses the nature and extent of the back to basics movement in the United States. The various interpretations of the term…

The author examines claims that progressive teaching methods are one cause of declining standards and looks at national monitoring systems developed as a political and administrative response to this issue. Finding these bureaucratic procedures inconsistent with the ideals of progressive education, he proposes an alternative school-based…