Quentin Skinner, intentionality and the history of education

Abstract

This article attempts to reconsider and re‐evaluate the often misunderstood and mis‐conceptualised notion of “progressivism” within education by examining it through the lens of intentionality, specifically the textual kind prescribed by Quentin Skinner in his seminal work “Visions of Politics” (2002). Locating and explicating his ideas will therefore form the first part of the article. In particular, there will be an examination of his two key analytical concepts, locutionary meaning and illocutionary force, which will act as the methodology for the analysis. The second part of the article will examine how writers of the past have tended to equate the term “progressivism” with “progressive schools”, seeing the concept as floating through time, independent of human agency. There will be a brief discussion on the problems of misconceiving progressivism in this way. To fulfil its chosen aim therefore, the article will use as its focus two contemporaneous educators from the past who have often been seen as fitting into the same, linear progressive tradition: Susan Isaacs and A.S. Neill. The article will demonstrate in its final part, through a Skinnerian examination of one of each of their key texts, how far from fitting into a homogenous progressive discourse Isaacs and Neill were when it came to their intentions and understandings in writing.

Keywords:

• progressivism
• intentionality
• Skinner
• linguistic
• education

Notes

¹See Alun Munslow, The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies (London: Routledge, 2000); Richard Evans, In Defence of History (London: Granta, 1997); Arthur Marwick, The New Nature of History (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001); Keith Jenkins, On “What is History” (London: Routledge, 1995).

²See Christopher Parker, The English Historical Tradition since 1850 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1990).

³Ibid., 199.

⁴See Geoffrey Elton, The Practice of History (London: Methuen, 1967); Arthur Marwick, The Nature of History (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1970).

⁵Mark Bevir, The Logic of the History of Ideas (Cambridge: 1999), 75.

⁶Cari Palonen, “Logic or Rhetoric in the History of Political Thought?,” Rethinking History 4, no. 3 (2000): 304.

⁷Rita Casale, “The Educational Theorists, The Teachers, and their History of Education,” Studies in Philosophy and Education 23 (2004): 400.

⁸Ibid., 400.

⁹Ibid., 400.

¹⁰Daniel Tröhler, “The New Languages and Old Institutions: Problems of Implementing New School Governence,” in Educational Research: Why “What Works” Doesn’t Work, ed. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe (New York: Springer, 2006), 76.

¹¹Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe, “On the Rhetoric of ‘What Works’: Contextualizing Educational Research and the Picture of Performativity.” In ibid., 5.

¹²See Sol Cohen, Challenging Orthodoxies: Towards a New Cultural History of Education (New York, 1999).

¹³See Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education 32, no. 2; 35, no. 2; 37, no. 3 & 43, nos. 5–6, for example.

¹⁴Robert Lamb, “Feature Book Review: Quentin Skinner’s ‘Post‐modern’ History of Ideas,” History 89, no. 295 (2004): 424.

¹⁵Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Vol. 1: Regarding Method (Cambridge, 2002), 65.

¹⁶Ibid., 16.

¹⁷Gary Kelly, Revolutionary Feminism: the Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992), 2.

¹⁸Quentin Skinner, op. cit., 103.

¹⁹See James Tully, “The Pen is a Mighty Sword,” in Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics, ed. James Tully and Quentin Skinner (Cambridge, 1988).

²⁰Ibid.

²¹See W.A.C. Stewart, The Educational Innovators 1881–1967 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1968); Robert Skidelsky, English Progressive Schools (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969).

²²See Robin Barrow, Radical Education: A Critique of Freeschooling and Deschooling (London, 1978); and John Darling, Child‐Centred Education and its Critics (London: Paul Chapman, 1994).

²³Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (New York, 1972), 4.

²⁴G.M. Blenkin and A.V. Kelly, The Primary Curriculum (London, 1981), 16.

²⁵See M.D. Lawson and R.C. Peterson, Progressive Education: an Introduction (Sydney, 1972).

²⁶John Darling, op. cit., 5.

²⁷See A.O. Lovejoy, Essays in the History of Ideas (Baltimore, 1948).

²⁸See W.E. Marsden, “Contradictions in Progressive Primary School Ideologies and Curricula in England: some Historical Perspectives,” Historical Studies in Education, 9, no. 2 (1997): 224–36.

²⁹See Sol Cohen, op. cit.

³⁰See Robert Skidelsky, op. cit.; W.A.C. Stewart, op. cit.; W.A.C. Stewart, Progressives and Radicals in English Education 1750–1970 (London, 1972); and Jonathan Gathorne‐Hardy, The Public School Phenomenon 1597–1977 (London, 1977).

³¹Robert Skidelsky, op. cit., 13.

³²W.A.C. Stewart, 1968, op. cit., xv.

³³Ibid., xvi.

³⁴Ibid., xv.

³⁶Ibid., 12–13.

³⁵See Peter Cunningham, Curriculum Change in the Primary School since 1945: Dissemination of the Progressive Ideal (London: Falmer Press, 1988).

³⁷Roy Lowe, The Death of Progressive Education (London: Routledge, 2007), 160.

³⁸Ibid.

³⁹See for example Kevin Brehony, “An ‘Undeniable’ and ‘Disastrous’ Influence? Dewey and English Education (1895–1939),” Oxford Review of Education, 23, no. 4 (1997): 427–45; Kevin Brehony, “From the Particular to the General, the Continuous to the Discontinuous: Progressive Education Revisited,” History of Education 30, no. 5 (2001): 413–32; and Kevin Brehony, “Texts, Meaning and Interpretation: Hermeneutics and Historical Research” (paper given at the joint Conference of the Canadian History of Education Association and the History of Education Society (USA) at OISE, University of Toronto, Canada October 17–20, 1996).

⁴⁰Kevin Brehony, “From the Particular to the General, the Continuous to the Discontinuous: Progressive Education Revisited,” History of Education, 30, no. 5 (2001): 421.

⁴¹Peter Cunningham, “Innovators, Networks and Structures: Towards a Prosopography of Progressivism,” History of Education, 30, no. 4 (2001): 433.

⁴²Cyril Burt, How the Mind Works (London, 1933), 57.

⁴³Ibid.

⁴⁴Hadow Report, Report of the Consultative Committee on the Education of the Adolescent. (London: HMSO, 1926), 35.

⁴⁵C.A. Richardson, Memorandum on the Free Place Examinations and Junior School, HMI Paper no. S 64: 1. (London: HMSO).

⁴⁶A.G. Hughes and E.H. Hughes, Learning and Teaching: an Introduction to Psychology and Education (London, 1937), 145.

⁴⁷L.R. Wheeler, “A Study of the Mental Growth of Dull Children,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 21 (1930): 378.

⁴⁸James Duff, “Children of High Intelligence: A Follow‐up Enquiry,” British Journal of Psychology, Part 4 April (1929): 432.

⁴⁹Ibid.

⁵⁰Ibid.

⁵¹See J.B. Russell, “The Measurement of Intelligence in a Rural Area,” British Journal of Psychology Part 3 January (1930): 274–296.

⁵²Sarah Bassett, “Factors Influencing Retention of History in the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Grades,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 20 (1929): 690.

⁵³L.L. Thurstone and R. Jenkins, “Birth Order and Intelligence,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 20 (1929): 651.

⁵⁴See H.E.G. Sutherland, “The Relationship between IQ and Size of Family,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 20 (1929): 81–90.

⁵⁵See George Campion, “The Organic Growth of the Concept as one of the Factors in Intelligence,” British Journal of Psychology, Part 1 July (1929): 60–65.

⁵⁶See Susan Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Young Children (London: Routledge, 1930), 59.

⁵⁷James Tully, 1988, loc. cit., 8.

⁵⁸D. Pigeon and A. Yates, An Introduction to Educational Measurement (London, 1968), 5.

⁵⁹C.B. Cox and A.E. Dyson, Black Papers on Education (London, 1968–1970), 76.

⁶⁰G.W. Bassett, A.R. Crane, and W.G. Walker, Headmasters for Better Schools (University of Queensland Press, 1967), 6.

⁶¹Aldo Agazzi, The Educational Aspects of Examinations (Strasbourg, 1967), 141.

⁶²See R.S. Peters, “In Defence of Bingo: A Rejoinder,” British Journal of Education Studies, 15 (1967): 188–94; R.S. Peters, “What is an Educational Process?,” in The Concept of Education, ed. R.S. Peters (London, 1967), 1–23.

⁶³Arthur Jensen, “How Much can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?,” Harvard Educational Review, 39, no. 1 (1969): 78.

⁶⁴Richard Lynn, “Comprehensives and Equality,” in Black Papers on Education, ed. C.B. Cox and A.E. Dyson (London, 1969), 30.

⁶⁵W.B. Dockerell, “Secondary Education, Social Class and the Development of Abilities,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 36, Part 1 (1967): 12.

⁶⁶A.J. Cropley, “Creativity and Intelligence,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 36, Part 2 (1967): 264.

⁶⁷P.J. Hitchman, “The Validity and Reliability of Tests of Spoken English,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 36, Part 1 (1967): 22.

⁶⁸See H.J. Eysenck, “Intelligence Assessment: A Theoretical and Experimental Approach,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 37, Part 1 (1967): 81–99.

⁶⁹A.S. Neill, Summerhill, a Radical Approach to Education (London, 1968), 9.

⁷⁰Ibid., 23.

⁷¹Ibid., 113.

⁷²Ibid., 287.

⁷³Ibid.

⁷⁴See Richard Lynn, 1969, loc. cit.

⁷⁵Quentin Skinner, 2002, op. cit., 8.