This article reconstructs the phases of development of the history of education as a school subject and subject within the framework of the education of teachers at teacher training schools from 1869 onwards, and the presence of these contents at teacher training academies after 1960 and faculties of education after 1986. At the same time, it…

Purpose: This paper traces the incorporation of western educational histories in the development of normal-school curricula during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China (1901-1944). It uses publication networks to show how the study of comparative educational history facilitated the international circulation of knowledge in the teaching…

Taking a point of departure in the paradoxical fact that the increase in educational knowledge leads to an increase in uncertainty for educational organisations, this article explores how uncertainty and contingency have increasingly become an integral part of school governance. The article draws on Niklas Luhmann's theory of 'World Society' as a…

This paper sheds light on an intellectual dispute on the purpose of problem-based learning that took place in the 1970s between two major figures in the history of PBL: Howard S Barrows from McMaster University and Henk Schmidt from Maastricht University. Using historical evidence from archive materials, oral history accounts and contemporary…

One strand in the scholarship of Catholic school identity perceives that it has deteriorated since Vatican II (1962-1965) and therefore needs restoration. Unfortunately, this perception is based on an assumption that there is a "singular" Catholic identity. This article demonstrates a basis in theology, social theory, and educational…

By repositioning the salonniere as a progressive, feminist educator who employed a constructivist framework to regulate the discourse of the male philosophes who frequented her salon space, this article offers a new vantage point from which to examine her influence on the Enlightenment cause. Feminist historians have insightfully analysed the…

Reviewing the historiography of education provides insights into both the past and present of this growing area of research across the UK and Ireland. In the nineteenth century research reveals a close association with national identities. These were often Whig histories that celebrated the present and emphasised the progressive nature of…

Teachers' implementation of and attitudes to school reforms and overriding pedagogical ideals have long been a topic of debate and research. In this article, we centre on teachers' descriptions of how progressive teaching was conducted as well as on the teachers' reasons for implementing such teaching in the 1940s. This study is based on written…

Inspired by Adriana Cavarero's recent work on "maternal inclinations" as a postural term, the overall purpose of this article is to seek out a "geometry of the educational relation" that is alien to the masculine myth of the 'economic man'. Drawing on Jan Masschelein and Maarten Simons's critique of the marketization of…

Whilst Kant is one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy and was also, in his own time, an important theorist of education, he is sometimes regarded with suspicion by contemporary educational theorists. His philosophy, it is often maintained, is fraught with problematic dualisms and other familiar confusions of the…

Purpose: Some studies have claimed that Chinese thinker Hu Shi (or Hu Shih) received and responded to John Dewey's educational ideas only at a theoretical level and did little for education at a practical level. This paper reexamines Hu's reception of Dewey's ideas with a focus on how he used those ideas to solve China's educational and social…

This article offers a response to some recent critiques of character education in a UK context, in general, and the approach promoted by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, in particular. The article argues that critiques of current UK character education betray an inadequate grasp of significant factions within its group of advocates,…

This paper explores the transfer, translation and recontextualisation of Laurence Stenhouse's work, as encapsulated in the 'teacher as researcher' metaphor, to the Greek language and in the fields of research and policy in Greece and Cyprus. We first briefly frame action research work as emerging through and within a specific space-time (and in…

The liberal and neoliberal world order is increasingly under attack. Global levels of democracy have been declining for over a decade, accompanied by rollbacks in some kinds of rights. We examine the implications of increasing criticisms of the (neo)-liberal era over time for educational reform discourse around the world by drawing on a unique…

Cooperative learning can be considered as an umbrella term for a number of classroom practices. In this paper we consider the educative nature of cooperative learning in physical education, and we have challenged ourselves to examine how cooperative learning can enhance the education of young people. We do this by revisiting cooperative learning's…