The Andersonians and progressive education, 1930–1968

Strategic Uncertainties: Ethics, Politics and Risk in Contemporary Educational Research. Phyllida Coombes, Mike Danaher, Patrick Alan Danaher (Editors) Post Pressed, Flaxton Qld, 2004, pp.210 ISBN: 1876682728 (paperback) AUD$29.50

Making Hope Practical. School Reform for Social Justice. Peter McInerney. Post Pressed, Qld, 2004, 244pp. ISBN 187668271X AUD$45.00     

The Norden Associations and international efforts to change history education, 1919–1970: international organisations,education, and hegemonic nationalism

During the interwar period, a number of organisations started to look into education as part of an attempt to understand how nationalism was fuelled through education and to what extent it had forced the outbreak of the Great War. In response to nationalism and a perceived need for reformation of national narratives, the school subjects of history and geography became the primary suspects as advocates of chauvinism and militarism. In 1919, associations for the promotion of understanding and cooperation between the Scandinavian countries – the Norden Associations [föreningarna Norden] – began investigating history textbooks. This revision of textbooks was expanded in the 1930s to explore, assess, and develop the entire teaching of history in the Nordic countries. The Norden Associations converged on many levels with the disparate international movements for educational change. This article presents the Norden Associations as part of a process of hegemonic isomorphism in which cultural hegemony set the institutional boundaries within which the organisations could work in order to attain legitimacy. The article demonstrates how an organisation with a specific political agenda, and with only limited international objectives came to be – not only a part of – but, to some extent, an organisational role model for loftier efforts aimed at global and cosmopolitan history teachings.     

Education,art, and exile: cultural activists and exhibitions of refugee children’s art in the UK during the Second World War

Abstract

During the 1930s and 1940s art increasingly came to be used as a therapeutic tool with children who were perceived as damaged by their experiences of war or displacement. This article explores two related exhibitions – Children’s Art from All Countries (1941) and The War as Seen by Children (1943) – which provided a platform for children’s impressions and experiences of war as seen through their drawings, whilst also raising money and awareness for refugee children’s causes. Although supported by an influential network of British educators and cultural figures, the exhibitions were conceived and organised by displaced German, Austrian, and Czech artists and cultural educators who were members of the Free German League of Culture in London during the Second World War. The exhibitions are considered as sites of educational and political interventions by adult refugees in the context of therapeutic interventions with refugee children in British educational settings. In so doing, this article argues that the exhibition organisers conceived of cultural and creative learning as a transformative vehicle for supporting and re-forming personal identities, and for the re-imagining of collective democratic futures.     

Braille,amma and integration: the hybrid evolution of education for the blind in Taiwan, 1870s–1970s

Industrialisation and mass education have long been considered two main determinants in the emergence of special education, but in many formerly colonised countries, such as Taiwan, historical development did not follow along these lines. In Taiwan, schools for the blind were initially set up by missionaries and colonisers, and were primarily designed to meet the latter’s preconceptions and needs. However, pedagogic knowledge and techniques were unexpectedly displaced and transformed as they crossed borders. This study examines the emergence and development of education for the blind in Taiwan from the 1870s to the 1970s. Documentary sources, government statistics and proclamations and oral histories were used in the analysis; they reveal how in Taiwan, education for the blind was shaped under different foreign and domestic influences within specific historical–social contexts.     

Parents,quality, and school choice: why parents in Nairobi choose low-cost private schools over public schools in Kenya’s free primary education era

Low-cost private schools (LCPS) are widespread in Kenya, particularly in urban areas. This study examines the reasons that parents send children to fee-charging schools in a context of free public primary education. Drawing on parent survey and interview data, as well as interviews with national policy makers, we found that parents who chose LCPS for their children were more driven by quality concerns than were public school parents. We also present data on the costs of the school types, compared to household income. Despite being termed ‘low cost’, the fees charged by schools primarily serving the poor were often a heavy burden on families. We conclude with recommendations for maximising the impact of LCPS on educational access and quality.     

CCTV surveillance in primary schools: normalisation,resistance, and children’s privacy consciousness

This study explored how primary school children perceive school surveillance by Closed Circuit TV systems (CCTVs) and how their perceptions relate to their privacy consciousness. It drew on interviews with 57 children, aged 9–12, who were enrolled in three Israeli public schools that had installed CCTVs, and on information gathered from members of the management team of each school. The findings indicated that in all three schools, educators did not discuss the CCTVs with the children. Consequently, most children had various erroneous assumptions regarding the CCTVs, leading some children to wrongly believe that they were seen and heard in almost every corner of the school, including toilets and classrooms. The findings also revealed a tension between normalisation of school surveillance on the one hand, and resistance to excessive surveillance on the other. In addition, the findings demonstrated that even young children, having been born and raised in a digital world with its ubiquitous surveillance, value their privacy and are willing to relinquish it only when they perceive it as justified. The moral balance voiced by the children regarding the circumstances that justify trading privacy for security resembles constitutional analysis.     

Secrets and lies: sex education and gendered memories of childhood's end in an Australian provincial city, 1930s–1950s

There are few historical studies about the sex education of Australian youth. Drawing on a range of sources, including the oral histories of 40 women and men who attended two single‐sex, selective high schools in a provincial Australian city (Newcastle, New South Wales) in the 1930s–1950s, this paper explores the adolescent experience of sex education and gender relations. First, it outlines attempts by the New South Wales State Government and the Newcastle community to introduce sex education, especially during the moral panic about sexuality generated during World War Two. Second, it charts the experiential realm of growing up for adolescent females and males. Hegemonic gender ideology meant that sexual knowledge was mostly kept secret from adolescent girls, and that frightening lies about sexual matters proliferated in the vacuum created by sexual ignorance. For adolescent males, sexual knowledge, while still shrouded in myth and mystery, was more readily available. Indeed sex education classes were introduced at the boys' school in the 1950s, while the girls' school remained silent on the matter for the entire time. At the theoretical level, the paper suggests that the dominant ideology of femininity included sexual ignorance and was allied to the ideology of childhood innocence. Both ideologies were artefacts of patriarchal power.     

Willystine Goodsell (1870–1962) and John Dewey (1859–1952): history,philosophy and women’s education

This article explores the work of history and philosophy in publications by Willystine Goodsell, professor of history and philosophy at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the entanglement of Goodsell’s approach to scholarship with that of her doctoral supervisor John Dewey. The article experiments with diffractive reading to examine Dewey’s and Goodsell’s approach to history, as well as Goodsell’s configuration of women’s historical and contemporary participation in education. It looks at Dewey’s comment that women’s ‘philosophising’ would not be the same ‘in viewpoint or tenor’ as that composed from the ‘different masculine experience of things’ and investigates the principles that order liberal and vocational education in Goodsell’s view of a reformed education for women. The conclusion asks whether diffractive reading is an enhanced form of intertextuality.     

Humanism,modernism and designing education: exploring progressive relations between Australia,New Zealand and the West Riding of Yorkshire 1930s–1970s

Abstract

This article takes as a starting point the career of Sir Alec Clegg, Chief Education Officer for the West Riding of Yorkshire (1945–1974), and traces his professional connections with educationists in Australia and New Zealand. In exploring the nature of global exchanges between educators, artists, architects and designers in the decades immediately before and after the Second World War, the intertwining of modernism and progressivism is critically explored in the wider contextual frame of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The notion of increasing the humanity of the classroom occupied the efforts of a constellation of individuals caught up in the desire to redesign schooling in ways that would regenerate democratic relations of living in the post-war world. It is suggested that a common thread connected those concerned to strengthen democracy through combining progressive and modernist attitudes with the potent legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement.     

The education of Spanish entrepreneurs and managers: Madrid and Barcelona business schools, 1950–1975

ABSTRACT

For some time now, images in science have been an object of study in the history of science. The multiple roles that images play in scientific practice have been recognised and discussed. However, little attention has been given to science related images in educational contexts. The case of geology is all the more relevant because it is considered that it has a specific visual language that is intrinsic to its own constitution as a science. This work aims to contribute to counter this situation through the analysis of geology-related images present in textbooks for Portuguese secondary education in the period between 1836 and 1974. Temporal limits correspond to the creation of secondary education in Portugal and to the end of the Estado Novo. For this period, five textbooks were chosen and their images analysed. The place of geological subjects in the context of science teaching in Portuguese secondary education was also traced. The interpretation of the results shows that images present in textbooks had other purposes besides introducing students to the typical visual language of geology. In fact, one of their main intentions was to “shape” the student’s mind into a “rational way of thinking”.     

Greek technical–vocational education (1870–1940): intentions and failed aspirations

From 1870 until the outbreak of the Second World War there were various attempts at educational reform in Greece, one of the most significant being the intention to establish a national technical–vocational education. The aim of this study is to examine why such a reform was deemed necessary and yet failed to be implemented. The first part examines how foreign influences played an important role in shaping the Greek educational system, both in the type of institution provided and by those Greek students who had studied abroad. Next, there is a close analysis of the official discourse on technical–vocational education, along with an examination of why it was felt that a segmented educational system constituted such a priority. Finally, a critical evaluation is provided to explain how the rhetoric and action of successive Greek governments inevitably failed as a result of ideological confusion and political patronage.     

Race,rurality and representation: Black and minority ethnic mothers’ experiences of their children’s education in rural primary schools in England,UK

There is little research that has examined the role of mothers in their children's education in the rural space of the school, particularly in relation to the experiences of Black and minority ethnic (BME) families who are newcomers to the rural space. This article attempts to redress the balance and examine how BME mothers are positioned in rural primary schools in England (UK) which are predominantly White. This article is based on 20 in-depth interviews conducted with mothers who identified themselves as Black or from a minority ethnic background (India, Pakistan or Bangladesh). All of the respondents had moved into the areas in the last 10 years. The findings from this research suggest that mothers are active agents in the education of their children; however, their experiences reveal that within the White space of the school they are positioned as ‘other’ and ‘outsiders’ as they navigate the diasporic space of the White countryside.     

Investigating inclusive education in primary schools in Ghana: what inclusive cultures,environment, and practices support implementation?

Schools create an inclusive environment and cultures and enact inclusive practices to cater for the learning and social needs of learners. Using an adapted Ghana Inclusive Education Monitoring Tool (IEMT), which is based on the Index for Inclusion, we collected data from 74 headteachers of primary schools. Data analysis involved percentages and frequencies of multiple-scaled items of the adapted IEMT. Findings revealed headteachers admit learners with special needs and disabilities (LwSEND) to set the stage for inclusion, while teachers accept these learners in schools. Collaborative cultures among teachers, parents, and other community stakeholders support inclusive education. While classrooms had somewhat good ventilation and lighting, school facilities were less accessible to all learners. Knowledge to adapt the curriculum and the flow of inclusive knowledge among teachers was limited. Suggestions to improve inclusive education include school-wide professional development for sharing inclusive knowledge, enhancing teachers' pedagogical competence and promoting supportive inclusive cultures.     

Complex collaborations: India and international agendas on girls’ and women's education, 1947–1990

This article explores the dynamics of global campaigns for education through a study of the movement for girls’ and women's education in India since independence in 1947. In particular, it uses the trajectory of ideas within India to theorise about international collaboration on educational goals, with UNESCO and the World Bank being two of the most prominent agencies in the second half of the twentieth century. The article presents an analysis of shifting discourses around women's education at national and international level, along with an exploration of the diverse points of contact between policymakers, activists and academics at both levels.     

Parents’ and teachers’ attitudes,objections and expectations towards sexuality education in primary schools in Austria

The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO EURO) and the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) published the Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe in 2010. The standards were developed to provide an overview of those sexuality education issues that should be addressed in school at various specific age levels. They were intended to guarantee that sexuality education teaching is age-appropriate and of uniformly good quality throughout Europe. In the context of the present survey, Austrian teachers and parents or guardians were asked about the importance of the topics covered by the WHO standards and about any aspects they would like to see for such sexuality education to be successful. The paper concludes that parents and teachers agree on the sexuality education topics they find important for coverage in Austrian primary schools, although teachers find sexuality education in general to be of greater importance than do parents. Teacher’ wishes for sexuality education in practice correlate highly with parents’ ideas of quality. Overall, qualifications and support for work in this field are viewed as essential, with survey respondents perceiving the need for high-quality initial training and continuing education and appropriate frameworks for implementation in school.