In the aftermath of South Africa's attainment of political freedom in 1994, the country's history has been depicted through numerous literary works. Most of these works are distinguished by a 'master narrative' that conveys the notion of apartheid's overwhelming oppression, perpetuating the unrealistic perception of constant black misery. We…

Historically settler and Indigenous childhoods have been defined in educational terms. However, scholarship has tended to focus on policy, curriculum, gender and the place of Indigenous Maori children as colonial education subjects, with less emphasis on settler children's experiences or responses. This article explores this through a case study…

"Capital of Mind" is the second volume in a breathtakingly ambitious new economic history of American higher education. Picking up from the first volume, "Exchange of Ideas," Adam R. Nelson looks at the early decades of the nineteenth century, explaining how the idea of the modern university arose from a set of institutional…

Design, manufacture and supply of school furniture in the Australian state of New South Wales following the Second World War occurred in a context of population growth and new ideologies of teaching and learning. This article addresses the particular situation in New South Wales, where administration of schooling remained highly centralised. The…

Reform is often associated with anticipated changes aimed at altering and improving social structures. Revealing the outcomes of reform initiatives, as well as identifying key facilitators and circumstances that contributed to their success or failure, can provide a deeper understanding of this distinct social phenomenon. Social transformations…

Based on the potential of educational materials to forge and shape the collective memory, this article analyses the representations of the Francoist Hunger Years (1939-1952) in recent history textbooks for secondary schools by a wide range of publishers. The main thesis of the paper is that while there are textbooks that provide a complex…

One of the Editors' 2022 "Challenges to the Field" was: "What is the story this government wants us to tell our children?" "What is education for?" Continuing this conversation leads to a related question: What can be learnt from reviewing the history of schooling in Australia in this light? I argue here that the…

This paper focuses on independent training providers (ITPs) -- in other words, private companies -- as suppliers of vocational education and training in post-war England. Whilst acknowledging the central role of further education (FE) colleges in delivering vocational learning, it draws attention to a large, diverse sector of ITPs operating…

This article addresses the ways in which Swedish history textbooks for upper secondary schools published between 1994 and 2011 deal with the most recent past. The textbooks are chronologically organized and follow history into the textbook authors' time, and each new edition of the textbooks includes the latest developments. The article inquires…

"Exchange of Ideas" launches a breathtakingly ambitious new economic history of American higher education. In this volume, Adam R. Nelson focuses on the early republic, explaining how knowledge itself became a commodity, as useful ideas became salable goods and American colleges were drawn into transatlantic commercial relations.…

For two centuries, academics and their universities have competed for prominence and vied to demonstrate that their institutions are at the center of the scholarly world. Scientific advances in particular fields, reciprocal academic visits and conferences, impressive physical architecture, and publishing in shared venues and a "lingua…

This study aims to explore the cultural heritage and social education of contemporary Nanjing Yun brocade by combing the historical background and traditional culture of Nanjing Yun brocade, combined with the current social and cultural background, this paper analyzes the inheritance status and problems of Nanjing Yun brocade in modern society. At…

Histories of creativity have often included discussions of its origins and examined pivotal moments in their societal contexts (Nelson 2010; Simonton 2001; Still & d'Inverno 2016; Wasserman 2012). Some have considered creativity's compromised status among academics and in schools that resulted from divergent notions of what it means to create…

Scholarly disciplines are historical reservoirs riven with contradictions. Often unaware of their own history, the humanities lead in complications, with English departments outpacing other fields of study. Both writing and English language and literature studies exhibit long-standing omissions and conflicts. This essay explores their similarities…

By the mid-eighteenth century, when the first university appeared in Russia, many European nations could boast of long and glorious university traditions. But Russia, with its poorly developed system of elementary and secondary education, lagged behind other European countries and seemed destined for a long spell of second-tier performance. Yet by…