Historians have frequently referred to the British Association for the Advancement of Science as an institution that had the professionalisation of British science as its chief aim. This article seeks to complicate this picture by asking what, if any, concept of "professionalisation" would have been understood by nineteenth-century…

Since the concept of nationalism first emerged on the world stage, universities have played a key role in its collective formation and dissemination to the masses. Established under challenging circumstances and subjected to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the wake of the 1967 war, Palestinian institutions of higher…

In nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Europe, the age of the governess coincided with the age of nationalism. This paper explores the connection between them in the specific context of intercultural education by foreign governesses. It argues that nationalism, with its focus on the identification and projection of a distinct national…

The children of navvies were subject to the vagaries of an itinerant lifestyle, and during the latter years of the nineteenth century this invariably affected their relationship with an educational system that mandated compulsory attendance. Based primarily on school records, this article explores the contrasting ways in which teachers perceived…

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…

Late nineteenth-century German-English rivalry changed attitudes in Hamburg. Previously, the once fiercely independent city and its burgeoning mercantile middle class had developed an Anglophilia that justified Hamburg being labelled a "London suburb" and "the most British town on the Continent". The affinity for all things…

This paper compares public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education in post-war Singapore and Hong Kong. After the Second World War the Singapore government shied away from PPPs, while the state in Hong Kong collaborated extensively with the non-state sector in education. Singapore was a small city-state flanked by two Muslim nations, and its…

This conjectural essay was originally written for a symposium "Historiography of the future: Looking back to the future" held at the International Standing Conference for History of Education (ISCHE) 33, July 2011, San Luis Potosi, Mexico organised by Kate Rousmaniere and Frank Simon. Participants were asked to envision future challenges for the…

This paper describes a study dealing with the reconstruction of the lives of two Spanish primary school teachers during the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975), in order to learn to what extent such a field of research can contribute to the history of education. Two family archives provide extraordinary and unique documentation to track down their…

The historical developments of infant schools in Great Britain and "salles d'asile" in France--both precursors of present-day preschools--were interconnected. However, historians have not yet analysed specifically how transnational exchange influenced the growth and nature of these institutions. Drawing on archival data and secondary…

A decade of transformation that emerged following a period of inertia and insularity in Irish education, the 1960s is widely regarded by scholars as representing a paradigm shift in education policy. Marked by a more interventionist, strategic policy approach, this period resulted in significant democratisation of education, particularly at…

This article examines educational rhetoric in Ontario, Canada, during the Great Depression. It notes how the government, through the Annual Reports of the Minister of Education, and the College of Education, through its journal, "The School," espoused themes of social efficiency regarding educational ideas and policies. The Depression…

This article examines the biographies and personal records of nineteenth-century Catholic nuns who worked in education, with a view to determining how they reconciled their individuality with the demands of religious life. Their resistance to rules, and the ways in which they wrestled with the vow of obedience, is examined. The roles of the Novice…

Like other adult education providers such as the Workers' Educational Association, the educational settlement movement was beset with political controversy during the 1920s. This article considers the relationship between the Educational Settlements Association (ESA) and its affiliated institutions, relating these to the competing political…

Spain suffered a severe political and moral crisis in the final years of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth. Pedagogues and politicians belonging to the "Institución Libre de Enseñanza" (ILE), or those close to it, did not consider it possible to regenerate the country without attending to education and Britain…