The transformation of school knowledge in the late Ottoman Empire: conflicting histories

As a result of developments in public education in the nineteenth-century Ottoman state, pedagogic professionalism began to direct school studies by setting scientific discourse against conventional epistemology. However, the strong conviction that the late Ottoman Empire was secularised progressively over years leads to the neglect of the tensions and conflicts in active authorship, and nullifies the role of textbooks as battlefields for ideologies. This article examines the tensions and resistances to modern knowledge that were deemed to be transferred in a smooth transition from the old to the new epistemology, in the history of education literature. The article discusses the discursive views in the general history textbooks. The contrasting conceptions of history, the first man, civilisations and tribal societies demonstrate the failure to form standard school knowledge in the Second Constitutional Period.     

Approval and disapproval of textbooks in the late Ottoman Empire

During the rapidly changing political atmosphere of the 1910s, the practice of sanctioning scholastic knowledge began to be implemented in the yearly selection of textbooks due to political contingencies. The study shows the procedures of approval and disapproval practised by the Grand Council of Education and the Copyright and Translation Office through archival pursuit in the Ministry of Education. The basis of the research material is constituted by documents of the textbook selection commissions for approval and disapproval practices, and rejection petitions written by textbook authors, as well as the incorporation of supportive primary sources such as records of parliament sessions, and critical books and articles on education from the Second Constitutional Period (1908–1918). Tracing a path through the Ottoman archives, the study pursues the frictions between the authors and the Office in the political ambience of the period and exposes the inefficiency of modern bureaucratic units crippled by favouritism and corruption. Thus, it reveals that the well-organised curricula and guidelines in modern schooling did not always yield uniformity. It contributes to questioning the overemphasised impact of modernisation of education, which is often associated with a smooth progression in the history of education literature.     

When overseas education meets a changing local context: the role of Tokyo Higher Technical School in the industrial modernisation of China in the early twentieth century

It is a wise choice for a backward country to explore overseas education bases to find the training for urgently needed talents. In 1900, the Qing government began actively sending students to study advanced technology in Japan. From that time, Tokyo Higher Technical School (THTS) became an indispensable overseas base for Chinese students studying abroad. Although the educational resources of THTS were not superior to those of the imperial universities, returning THTS graduates played a greater role in the industrial modernisation of China than the graduates from imperial universities. This article shows that the role of importers of technology is not only determined by the technology they have acquired, but also highly influenced by a variety of factors, such as opportunity and social demand, presenting a complex and changeable pattern in different contexts. For developing countries, the ‘appropriateness’ plays a more important role than the ‘progressiveness’ of the imported technology.     

Monuments to the Republic: School as a nationalising discourse in Turkey

This article examines the cultural construction of the school in Turkey in relation to the construction of Turkish nation-ness. By looking at how the modern school was fit together with a network of interrelated discourses available in early twentieth-century Turkey, the article investigates the ways in which the school became an object of thought in support of narrating and imagining Turkish nation-ness. In the article, I argue that the school was pivotal in the imagination and institution of Turkey not only literally but also symbolically. Juxtaposed with a radically contrasting image of the traditional educational establishment of the Ottoman dynastic past called mahalle mektebi, the school was appropriated by the Republican elite as a statement of modernity, national character and a total break from the Ottoman past. Giving a visual expression to the new regime’s aspirations for the society, the school, with its very architecture, layout and disciplinary and hierarchical organisation, functioned as a clear symbol of enlightenment, civility, order and progress.     

Happiness disabled: sensory disabilities,happiness and the rise of educational expertise in the nineteenth century

To date, the historical entanglement of disability and happiness has not been considered an object worth of historical inquiry. Nor has the intersection of disability and emotions been used as a lens to examine the history of disability. Our paper aims at filling this academic void by analysing a wide range of philosophical, anthropological, pedagogical, popular and poetic texts dealing with the following question: “Who is unhappiest, the blind or the deaf?” On the basis of a comparative study of Belgian, Dutch, German, Swiss, Austrian, British and American primary source material, we argue that the transformation of western concepts of happiness during the nineteenth century was reflected in attitudes towards people with sensory disabilities. If at the turn of the eighteenth century happiness was considered a sensory experience, it very soon became dependent on the intervention of an educational expert. On the basis of our source material we draw the conclusion that happiness has been an overlooked factor in the construction and problematisation of disability in western societies. Analysis of the ways in which nineteenth-century authors have dealt with this question also shows how happiness became connected to new ways of wielding power, and in particular to the rise of the educational expert.     

危机与革命:19世纪末20世纪初的物理学和哲学

章从19与20世纪之交的科学革命前夕的自然科学状况入手，描述当时牛顿力学和形而上学思维方式结盟所形成的一统天下局面，进而揭示当时自然科学大厦中科学理论和思维方式的危机，说明解决科学危机和哲学危机的出路只能是实现科学革命和思维方式的反转。科学发展中内在的矛盾和危机是科学革命的深层动力。     

Autism education in Greece at the beginning of the 21st century: reviewing the literature

This paper considers recent evidence on autism education in Greece in order to shed light on current developments and attitudes. Given the increase in relevant research in the country, a scoping review to identify topics that have been explored so far and propose areas for future research and implications for practice is timely and necessary. Peer-reviewed papers published between 2000 and 2019 were identified via electronic databases and their main themes were analysed. Themes related to autistic individual (i.e. the voice of autistic individuals and intervention studies), the family around them (i.e. the role of family and stigma), the role of teachers (i.e. teacher training and teacher stress levels) and the wider society (i.e. parent-teacher collaboration, the medical/deficit model of disability and inclusion) emerged from the review. The above themes are discussed in the light of the cultural characteristics of Greece and the recent economic crisis the country underwent as well as similar findings from other European countries.     

Historical writing on science education: a view of the landscape

This article surveys historical scholarship on science education over the last 15 years and lays out a map of the different approaches to writing about this topic found in a variety of disciplines and fields. The hope is to provide scholars interested in science education past and present a better understanding of how this enterprise has functioned in western culture, both in terms of training future scientists and managing the relationship between science and the lay public. Highlighted in this article is the compartmentalised nature of current work which, I argue, presents an obstacle to more productive thinking about the history of science education in modern society.     

The solitude of rural teachers: Hebrew teachers in Galilee Moshavot at the beginning of the twentieth century

This article examines the need rural teachers felt for solitude and the place it took in their emotional world. Solitude was not seen by the teachers as a substitute for social life but, rather, considered as enriching it. Unlike loneliness, solitude was sought after and craved as it represented voluntary self-fulfilment in an environment that was considered culturally and often emotionally unfriendly, at times even hostile. Solitude became at the same time a barrier against bigoted and conservative local societies and a symbolic emotional space in which cultural craving could find a place. Teachers felt the need to preserve substantial distance while at the same fulfilling a kind of beneficial “mission civilisatrice”. Expressions of teachers’ solitude, common to various rural environments at that period, will be examined through the test-case of Hebrew settlements (= moshavot) in Galilee, where the interpretations of the idea of solitude seem an appropriate reflection of similar attitudes in larger rural European scopes. The article will explore the following issues: the origins of teachers’ solitude as mental response to social tensions, the appearances of intimacy, apparently spontaneous but in fact totally controlled in order to preserve the symbolic hedges of solitude and intimacy, different expressions solitude could take and the way offences were considered as attacks on solitude as an emotional refuge. Finally, the article will go through the solitary worlds of one such teacher, Yehuda Antebi.     

The scientific heritage of Portuguese secondary schools: a historical approach

Portuguese schools hold important collections, most organised in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This scientific heritage, however, is still to be discovered. This article focuses on the creation, development, and role of natural history collections in Portuguese secondary schools, between the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, that is, before and after the introduction of laboratory-based teaching in science education. Material culture is thus used to expand the current narrative of science teaching in Portugal, by tracking these kinds of collections. Contrary to the current view on science teaching in Portuguese secondary education, in this article I argue that by focusing on collections, and more generally on the material culture of secondary schools, a new picture emerges that contradicts the traditional discourse emphasising the scarcity of appropriate school buildings, infrastructure, and equipment. A brief overview of the current state of Portuguese natural history teaching collections is also provided, drawing attention to their vulnerability, given the absence of a general policy or guidelines orienting its conservation.     

理工科大学通识教育：反思与借鉴

在新的世纪里,对通识教育进行反思与深化仍是大学特别是理工科大学的未竟之业。对我国理工科大学通识教育之路的探索,可在参考世界知名大学通识教育经验的基础上,结合自身实际,从教育理念、课程设置、教学方式、教师配备、评价机制、管理制度等方面展开。     

中学理科教材中科学史研究的中外比较与启示

国内外学者对中学理科教材中科学史的内容设计进行了大量研究,该领域的研究在历史与背景、研究视角、研究对象等方面存在明显差异。据此,建议国内学者今后应该以HPCS教育观指导研究、扩大研究对象范围、追求研究方法和工具的精细化和本土化、加强教材编写与课程标准、教学实施的动态衔接研究。     

Enlightened paternalism: the prohibition of corporal punishment in Spanish public schools in the nineteenth century

In order to analyse the cultural values of Spanish liberalism, this paper describes the prohibition of corporal punishment in secondary education. The evolution of education laws and codes during the nineteenth century reveals great hope and confidence in building up an academic authority based exclusively on the power of reason and capable of ruling an ordered society. However, the study of documents found in the Instituto de Valencia historical archives highlights the difficulty of maintaining discipline as well as managing the political motivations of rebellious students, who demanded more autonomy from the academic authority.     

Changing aims of computing education: a historical survey

Computing education has been an important and sometimes contentious issue ever since the advent of modern computing. Debates about computing education have closely followed job markets, technological development, academic interests, societal concerns, and changes in the perception of computing. The themes in computing education debates can be characterized by emergence and formation, standardization and organization, accommodation to change, and divergence. The focus of computing education has expanded outward from the computer to programming, algorithms, and information, as well as to the organizational, social, and cultural environment of computer systems.

This survey gives computing education researchers an overview of some of the central issues and disputes in computing education over the brief history of modern computing. The survey highlights the emergence of educational initiatives, concepts, joint efforts, and institutions of computing education, and outlines the relatively short history of computing education research. The survey is structured around four overlapping themes: computing education as technological training, as training for software development, as a central element for the field’s academic recognition, and as training for computational problem-solving in any domain of knowledge. Each theme has played a role throughout the history of modern computing, but their relative emphases have changed over the years.     

The Catholic school and social justice in Africa: a Zambian case study

Abstract

This paper will argue that the state-aided Catholic school in Zambia has contributed significantly to the development of the country over the years. However, because of its enmeshment in the state system of education it has inadvertently become an instrument of underdevelopment. It is structurally complicit in alienating some of the poorest sectors of society, which runs counter to its professed religious mission. This essay presents the Zambian situation as a case study where it is contended that in order to understand the current situation there is need to see it in the light of its history. The discussion is intended to explore how faith-based educational settings within the state systems in Africa may become complicit in sustaining forms of oppression. It will include a consideration of how, as part of this, religion has been reduced historically through being too closely allied to a modernisation framework generating the illusion of promoting social justice. The article notes that in the light of better historical appreciation of the issue there is need for a review of the faith-based school’s pedagogy.     

科学史融入科学课程的利与“弊”

科学史融入科学课程对于提高学生的科学素养有着重要的意义。将科学史融入科学课程,具有认知目标、元认知目标与情感目标三个维度的教育价值,其中,元认知价值是其本源价值,其他两种价值则是其衍生价值。将科学史融入科学课程还存在着一些潜在的"弊端",主要表现为科学研究与历史研究的目标与方法有实质性差别,科学课程中存在辉格主义科学史倾向,对于学生掌握科学史的程度难以测量。这些观点可促使我们更加自觉地利用科学史达成科学教育的目标。     

科学史融入科学教育的几个现实问题

科学史融入科学教育,在西方有较长的历史和较深入的实践,但在我国还是一个新课题。科学史的教育价值是由于科学教育目标的转变而凸显出来的,在全面实现科学教育目标方面,科学史具有特殊作用;作为一种历史研究,科学史本身会因为不同的研究取向而呈现出不同面貌特征,科学教育对此应有自觉意识并加以辨别、运用;恰当的内容组织方式和教学方法,也会有助于实现科学史融入科学教育的目标。     

二十世纪上半期中国教育史研究方法论探析

20世纪的中国教育史研究可以1949年为界分为上下两半期。上半期中国教育史研究的时间、内容和资料发生了动态性演变,由此相应引发了研究方法的变化,为中国教育史研究走向繁荣奠定了基础。