As a neutral and multilingual country, Switzerland struggled with major domestic political conflicts during the First World War due to the two cultures of the French-speaking and German-speaking parts of the country. The divided cultural loyalties ("fossé moral", "Röstigraben"), consisting of Swiss-Germans supporting Germany…

This paper examines the role of William Graham Brooke as advocate of women's higher education and access to university. His work as advocate is considered against the religious, political, social and economic backdrop of late nineteenth century Ireland. A barrister, as Clerk in the Lord Chancellor's office, he was centrally involved in the…

Like laws for formal education, laws for crime and punishment shape the relationship between the citizen and the state. They could, in fact, be equally powerful in building or breaking the civic spirit. In the past three decades, a revolution has occurred in the United States that is as insidious as it is unprecedented: the rise of the American…

Focusing on the Working Men's College (WMC), this study charts the chequered fortunes of a Victorian project: providing workers with a "liberal education." The paper analyses the project's aim (making "better citizens"), its disciplinary content (the humanities and/or the sciences) and its challenges (the increasing prestige of…

This paper, largely based on new, previously unused documents from US archives, considers the consultancy group financed by the Ford Foundation in 1960 to support the school reforms the Italian Minister of Education Giuseppe Medici was promoting. The group was headed by James Bryant Conant, and its evaluations were based on principles of…

How did the undergraduate college rapidly position itself as the gateway to middle-class US employment between 1880 and 1920? This article attempts to explain one part of that process. Drawing on Weberian organisational theory, transnational intellectual history and case studies of three institutions, it identifies hierarchy as a defining aspect…

This article analyses early years education policy in England from 1918 to 1972, applying the theoretical ideas of John Kingdon. Throughout this period, the educational needs of young children were a low political priority, but they did occasionally rise on the agenda. When the issue gained prominence, politicians considered two key policy…

The increasing prevalence of so-called cognitive-enhancing drugs is well documented in American higher education. There has been little historical analysis, however, specifically exploring the role of postsecondary institutions in this evolving drug narrative. This paper traces substance use and research trends in American higher education over…

This article emphasises two major themes that address the influence of the Asian American Movement: (1) encouraging students to broaden the discourse on race and ethnic relations by redefining categories and challenging prevalent assumptions; (2) an increased tolerance and frequency in course offerings that examine and centralise the histories,…

Today, the use of photographs in publications and exhibitions is commonplace, but this was not always so. This article shows how photographs of certain schools that have had lasting impact on design stand in ambiguous relationships to the buildings themselves. Photographs function as part of the design process; they record details of construction…

This article examines an experimental kindergarten programme "Work in the Kindergarten: An Australian Programme based on the Life and Customs of the Australian Black" developed by Martha Simpson in early twentieth-century Australia. Here Simpson adapted international Revisionist Froebelian approaches to cultural epoch theory and nature…

This article analyses the creation of the schools called "ikastolas" throughout the Basque Country from the 1960s onwards. The name "ikastola" refers to a unique school model whose major characteristic is to teach the majority of subjects in the Basque language, or "euskera." It outlines the reasons why some of these…

This article analyses the initiating role of the steel industry in educational selection by means of psychometric techniques used in the psycho-physiological laboratory associated with a vocational school in Luxembourg founded in 1914. It first considers the origins of, and initial meanings bestowed upon, this first (and perhaps also last)…

In 1855 the Revd C. E. Van Koetsveld established his "School for Idiots" in The Hague. Within two years, he had also opened a boarding facility that accommodated many of his pupils. Legal regulations demanded authorisation for a child to be placed in this asylum. This procedure included a questionnaire on the condition of the child. The…

For educational historians involved in the representation of Indigenous contexts and peoples, what is the relevance of ethnohistory as a discipline or methodology, and what is lost or gained in using it? This article reviews ethnohistorical literature, and brings it in conversation with literature by Indigenous scholars on research methodologies,…