Paedagogica historica, quo vadis? An epilogue on the ambivalences and paradoxes of doing educational history

ABSTRACT

The present epilogue, concluding a special issue on the development of our field in lesser-known geographical contexts, takes the opportunity to air some of the author’s personal views. After all, with the publication of this issue, his years as editor of Paedagogica Historica are over. In a sense, therefore, the reflections brought here are somewhat his spiritual testament, even if this is put into perspective from the outset by the author himself. Indeed, the article reiterates some positions already taken in the past, such as the idea that, by drawing “lessons” from the educational heritage, the discipline of history of education need not necessarily be made more relevant and/or topical in order to reclaim its place in the training of teachers and pedagogues. Rather, Depaepe argues in this context for staying in line with cultural-historically conceived research on educational history, even if this marginalises the discipline even more at the expense of so-called more efficient study domains. Nevertheless, the message proclaimed here remains, all in all, hopeful. Only insights on the basis of pedagogical historiography can sufficiently open the way to nuance and put into perspective contemporary discussions, debates, disagreements, tensions, conflicts and so on. That is why Depaepe ends on a positive note. In his words, “hope and realism: it seems old-fashioned, but unfortunately, in all these years I have not found better tools for a respectful, sincere and unbiased approach to the educational past“.

KEYWORDS:

• History of education
• educational history
• pedagogical historiography
• development and relevance
• teaching and research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ See, e.g. Marc Depaepe, “Why Even Today Educational Historiography is Not an Unnecessary Luxury. Focusing on Four Themes from Forty-Four Years of Research”, Espacio, Tiempo y Educación 7, no.1 (2020): 227–246.

² Marc Depaepe, De ontwikkeling van het recente denken over historische pedagogiek. Een analyse van de theoretisch-methodologische discussie over het vak in West-Duitsland, het Oostblok, de Verenigde Staten en Groot-Brittannië (Leuven: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, non-published doctoral dissertation, 1982). This thesis was written in Dutch. A summary – also in Dutch – was published in the Revue belge d’Histoire contemporaine/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis 14, no. 3–4 (1983): 592–594.

³ For a short overview of the development of ISCHE during its first decades, see Christoph Lüth, “Entwicklung, Stand und Perspektive der internationalen Historischen Pädagogik am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts – am Beispiel der International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE)”, in Historische Pädagogik am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Bilanzen und Perspektiven. Christa Berg zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Petra Götte and Wolfgang Gippert (Essen: Klartext/PRO, 2000), 81–107.

⁴ Die historische Pädagogik in Europa und den USA. Berichte über die historische Bildungsforschung. Teil 1: Belgien, Finnland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Italien, Niederlande, Norwegen, Österreich, Polen, USA; Teil 2: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ČSSR, Dänemark, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, Portugal, Schweden, Schweiz, Spanien, UdSSR, Ungarn, ed. Manfred Heinemann (Stuttgart: Klett-Cota, 1979 and 1985).

⁵ Rudolf Gönner, “Begründung und Perspektiven einer Schul- und Bildungsgeschichte des pannonischen Raumes”, in Schul- und Bildungswesen im pannonischen Raum bis 1918 mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des niederen Schulwesens. Internationales Kulturhistorisches Symposium Mogersdorf 1975 im Mogersdorf (Eisenstadt: Selbstverlag des Amtes der Burgenländischen Landesregierung, Landesarchiv, 1976), 15–23 (and with translations, 24–37). This book was vol. 7 of the series of this international cultural historical event; the following year a conference would be organised with almost the same title but “mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des höheren Schulwesens”.

⁶ To mention only the most important of my contributions about theory, methodology and historiography of the “history of education”: Marc Depaepe, “Demythologizing the Educational Past: An Endless Task in History of Education”, Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation 9, no. 2 (1997): 208–223 (also published in History of Education: Major Themes, vol. I: Debates in the History of Education, ed. Roy Lowe (London: Routledge, 2000), 356–370; Marc Depaepe, “How Should History of Education be Written? Some Reflections about the Nature of the Discipline from the Perspective of the Reception of Our Work”, Studies in Philosophy and Education 23, no. 5 (2004): 333–345 (special issue: Historiography of Education: Philosophical Questions and Case Studies, ed. D. Tröhler and J. Oelkers); Marc Depaepe, “The Ten Commandments of Good Practices in History of Education Research”, Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Historiographie 16, no. 1 (2010): 31–34. Some of these articles have been collected and published in Spanish with other essays, see: Marc Depaepe, Vieja y nueva historia de la educación. Ensayos criticos (Barcelona: Octaedro, 2006).

⁷ It seems that in a contested field like ours, the history of education, making state of the arts, methodologically, theoretically as well as historiographically, has been a favourite pastime. Giving a bibliographical overview of this would obviously take us much too far, but nevertheless I am happy to give for the reader some indications of the works that have helped me during my career to choose position, for or against: Historische Pädagogik. Methodologische Probleme der Erziehungsgeschichte, ed. Volker Lenhart (Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlaggesellschaft, 1977); Why should we teach history of education?, ed. Kadriya Salimova and Erwin V. Johannningmeier (Moscow: Rusanov Publishing House/International Academy of Self-Improvement, 1993); Marie-Madeleine Compère, L’Histoire de l’éducation en Europe. Essai comparatif sur la façon dont elle s’écrit (Bern: Peter Lang/Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, 1995); Gary McCulloch and William Richardson, Historical Research in Educational Settings (Birmingham: Open University Press, 2000); Cultural History and Education. Critical Essays on Knowledge and Schooling, ed. Thomas S. Popkewitz, Barry M. Franklin and Miguel A. Pereyra (New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001); Gary McCulloch, The Struggle for the History of Education (London: Routledge, 2011); Knowledge, Politics and the History of Education, ed. Jesper Ekhardt Larsen (Münster: LIT-Verlag, 2012); Narrar historias de la educación. Crisol y alquimia de un oficio, ed. María Esther Aguirre Lora (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones sobre la Universidad y la Educación/Bonilla Artigas Editores, 2015).

⁸ See, e.g. Manfred Heinemann, “Die Vergleichbarkeit des Unvergleichbaren. Anmerkungen zu neueren Tendenzen in der Geschichtsschreibung der Erziehung”, in Onderwijs, opvoeding en maatschappij in de 19de en 20ste eeuw, Liber amicorum prof. dr. Maurits De Vroede, ed. Marc Depaepe and Mark D’hoker (Leuven: Acco), 83–91; Marc Depaepe, “A Comparative History of Educational Sciences: The ‘Incomparability of the Comparable’?”, European Educational Research Journal 1, no. 1 (2002): 118–122.

⁹ See Jacqueline Gautherin, Une discipline pour la République: La science de l’Éducation en France (1882–1914) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2003).

¹⁰ See, e.g. Helmut Becker and Gerhard Kluchert, Die Bildung der Nation. Schule, Gesellschaft und Politik vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1993). Another striking example is, of course, Switzerland; see in this respect: Une école pour la démocratie. Naissance et développement de l’école primaire publique en Suisse au 19^e siècle, ed. Rita Hofstetter, Charles Magnin, Lucien Criblez and Carlo Jenzer (Bern: Peter Lang, 1999). More of such “examples” can be found in A History of Popular Education. Educating the People of the World, ed. Sjaak Braster, Frank Simon and Ian Grosvenor (London: Routledge, 2013).

¹¹ See Lire, écrire, compter: 2 000 ans d’alphabétisation. Archives Départementales de Seine Maritime, 5 juin-30 septembre 1981 (Paris: I.N.R.P., Musée national de l’éducation, 1981), 19: “L’œuvre scolaire des débuts de la IIIe République réussit ce qu’aucun régime antérieur n’avait pu faire: couvrir tout le territoire d’un réseau de bâtiments homologues (la fameuse « mairie-école »)”.

¹² In this respect, reference can be made to the life’s work of Helmut Engelbrecht, Geschichte des österreichischen Bildungswesens von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Erziehung und Unterricht auf den Boden Österreichs, 5 vols. (Wien: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1982–1988), and more specifically to volume 3: Von der frühen Aufklärung bis zum Vormärz. As far as the historiography of Austrian education is concerned, see also: Zur Geschichte des österreichischen Bildungswesens. Probleme und Perspektiven der Forschung, ed. Elmar Lechner, Helmut Rumpler and Herbert Zdarzil (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992).

¹³ Jean-Luc Le Cam, “L’histoire de l’éducation: discipline de recherche historique ou science auxiliaire de l’action pédagogique ? Les leçons d’une comparaison franco-allemande”, Histoire de l’éducation 137 (2013): 93–123.

¹⁴ See, also, Marc Depaepe, “Entre pédagogie et histoire. Questions et remarques sur l’évolution des objectifs de l’enseignement de l’histoire de l’éducation”, Histoire de l’éducation 77 (1998): 3–18.

¹⁵ Sol Cohen, Challenging Orthodoxies. Toward a New Cultural History of Education (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), and more specifically chapter 1: “The History of the History of American Education, 1900–1976. The Uses of the Past” (originally published in Harvard Educational Review 46 (1976): 298–330 and also translated into German and published in Manfred Heinemann’s edition, Die historische Pädagogik …, Teil 1 …, 255–289). See, also, António Nóvoa, “La nouvelle histoire américaine de l’éducation”, Histoire de l’éducation 73 (1997): 3–48; and Marc Depaepe, “De ontwikkeling van de Amerikaanse opvatting over historische pedagogiek. Een overzicht”, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis/Revue belge d’Histoire contemporaine 14, no. 3–4 (1983): 545–569.

¹⁶ To mention only two examples: see, e.g. Nación, Educación, Universidad y Manuales Escolares en Colombia. Tendencias, Historiográficas, Contemporáneas, ed. Jorge Conde Calderón, Luis Alarcón Meneses, Roberto Figueroa Molina and Roberto González Arana (Cali: Fondo de Publicaciones Universidad del Atlántico, 2002), especially “panel 2: Historiografía de la Educación y la Pedagogía colombiana y latinoamericana. Balance y perspectivas”; Debates y desafíos en la historia de la educación en México, ed. Alicia Civera, Carlos Escalante and Luz Elena Galván (México: El Colegio Mexiquense/Instituto Superior de Ciencias de la Educación del Estado de México, 2002).

¹⁷ Heinz-Elmar Tenorth, “Rationalität der Pädagogik. Wissenschaftstheoretische Dichotomien in der Erziehungswissenschaft und die Bedeutung der Historisierung der Wissenschaftstheorie”, Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 14. Beiheft (1977), 131–158. See also Michaela Vogt and Annemarie Augschöll Blasbichler, “Education and Society, Profession and Discipline – Appeal and Necessity, Practice and Method of their Historicization. Interview with Heinz-Elmar Tenorth”, in In the Footsteps of the Masters. Interview with the History of Education, ed. Antonella Cagnolati and José Luis Hernández Huerta (Roma: Tab, 2022), 201–211.

¹⁸ See in this respect for Germany, also Marc Depaepe, On the Relationship of Theory and History in Pedagogy. An Introduction to the West German Discussion on the Significance of the History of Education (1950–1980) (Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 1983) and for other regions: Marc Depaepe, “It’s a Long Way to … An International Social History of Education. In search of Brian Simon’s Legacy in Today’s Educational Historiography”, History of Education 33, no. 5 (2004): 531–544.

¹⁹ See, e.g. António Nóvoa and Tali Yariv-Mashal, “Comparative Research in Education: A Mode of Governance or a Historical Journey?” Comparative Education 39, no. 4 (2003): 423–438.

²⁰ See, e.g. Thomas S. Popkewitz, Cosmopolitanism and the Age of School Reform. Science, Education, and Making Society by Making the Child (New York: Routledge, 2007).

²¹ Martha C. Nussbaum, The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019).

²² Martin Conway, Celia Donert and Kiran Klaus Patel, “From Contemporary History to the History of the Present”, in Why Europe, Which Europe? A Debate on Contemporary History of Europe as a Field of Research (A blog proposed by Hypotheses), https://europedebate.hypotheses.org/1150.

²³ See, e.g. Jürgen Schriewer and Marcelo Caruso, “Globale Diffusionsdynamik und kontextspezifische Aneignung: Konzepte und Ansätze historischer Internationalisierungsforschung”, Comparativ 15, no. 1 (2005): 7–30.

²⁴ See, e.g. Aīda Krūze and Iveta Ķestere, Pedagoģijas vēsture: 15 jautājumi: zinātnisko rakstu krājums (Rigā: RaKa, 2010); Iveta Ķestere, “The Baltic Historians of Pedagogy and the International Standing Conference for the History of Education”, Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum 2 (2014): 127–132; Iveta Ķestere and Iveta Ozola, “German fascism, Soviet communism, and Latvian nationalism in the education of Latvia (1940–1944)”, Paedagogica Historica 56, no. 5 (2020): 624–641. See also Luciana Bellatalla, “Between National and Global History of Education. Experiences in Soviet and Post-Soviet Latvia. Interview with Iveta Kestere”, in In the Footsteps of the Masters, 121–137.

²⁵ Marc Depaepe, “De marxistisch-leninistische opvatting over historische pedagogiek in de D.D.R. (1965–1980)”, Pedagogische Studiën. Tijdschrift voor onderwijskunde en opvoedkunde 59, no. 12 (1982): 507–518. See also, Marc Depaepe, “L’Apport de l’histoire de l’éducation à la définition des politiques éducatives. Quelques réflexions méthodologiques”, in L’Offre d’école – The Supply of Schooling. Eléments pour une étude comparée des politiques éducatives au dix-neuvième siècle. Contributions to a comparative study of educational policies in the nineteenth century, ed. Willem Frijhoff (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne/Institut national de la recherche pédagogique, 1983), 15–31.

²⁶ Günther was one of the prominent authors of the GDR textbook for history of education: Geschichte der Erziehung, ed. Karl-Heinz Günther, Franz Hofmann, Gerd Hohendorf, Helmut König, and Heinz Schuffenhauer (Berlin: Volk und Wissen. Volkseigener Verlag, 1967).

²⁷ For example, Brita Rang, Pädagogische Geschichtsschreibung in der DDR. Entwicklung und Entwicklungsbedingungen der pädagogischen Historiographie 1945–1965 (Frankfurt aM: Campus Forschung, 1982); and Ernst Cloer, Theoretische Pädagogik in der DDR. Eine Bilanzierung von außen (Weinheim: Deutschen Studien Verlag, 1998).

²⁸ Marc Depaepe and Hans Van Crombrugge, “Using or Abusing the Educational Past? – Some Methodological Reflections on the Place of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in the Educational Historiography”, in Pestalozzi in China. International Academic Symposium on the Occasion of the Publication of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s Selected Works in Chinese, ed. Hans Gehrig (Zürich: Pestalozzianum, 1995), 51–62.

²⁹ See, respectively, Marc Depaepe, “Struggling with the Historical Attractiveness of Psychology for Educational Research. Illustrated by the Case of Nazi Germany”, in Educational Research: The Attraction of Psychology, ed. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2012), 11–31; Marc Depaepe, “De spanning van verborgen agenda’s. Ontwikkelingen inzake het onderwijs in de historische pedagogiek”, Comenius. Wetenschappelijk Forum voor Opvoeding, Onderwijs en Cultuur 17, no. 3 (1997): 200–215; Marc Depaepe, “Katholische und nationalsozialistische Pädagogik in Belgien, 1919–1955. Ihre ambivalente Beziehung im Spiegel der‚Vlaamsch Opvoedkundig Tijdschrift’”, Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 44, no. 4 (1998): 504–522; and Sarah Van Ruyskensvelde and Marc Depaepe, “Vlaamsche Paedagogiek. Progressive Educationalists and the Construction of a Flemish Volksgemeinschaft 1941–1944”, Paedagogica Historica 56, no. 5 (2020): 587–604.

³⁰ Depaepe, “Why Even Today”, 240.

³¹ In which Frank Simon (University of Ghent) was not only a regular, but equally a leading figure, with whom we were on the same wavelength theoretically, methodologically and historiographically. See, e.g. our common contributions, like: Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Sources in the Making of Histories of Education: Proofs, Arguments, and Other Reasonings from the Historian’s Workplace”, in Educational Research: Proofs, Arguments, and Other Reasonings, ed. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2009), 23–39; Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “It’s All About Interpretation: Discourses at Work in Education Museums. The Case of Ypres”, in Educational Research: Discourses of Change and Change of Discourse (Cham: Springer, 2016), 207–222; and Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “At the Intersection of Anecdotal Stories and Great Narratives: Reflections on the Cooperation between Educational Historians and Educational Philosophers”, in Past, Present, and Future Possibilities for Philosophy and History of Education. Finding Space and Time for Research, ed. Naomi Hodgson and Stefan Ramaekers (Cham: Springer, 2018), 15–31.

³² See, e.g. History of Education for the Twenty-First Century, ed. David Crook and Richard Aldrich (London: Institute of Education, University of London, 2000); and Richard Aldrich, Lessons from History of Education. The Selected Works of Richard Aldrich (London: Routledge, 2006).

³³ As far as our research is concerned, see Tom De Coster, Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Emancipating a Neo-Liberal Society? Initial Thoughts on the Progressive Pedagogical Heritage in Flanders since the 1960s”, Education, Research and Perspectives 31, no. 2 (2004): 156–175 [= Essays in Honour of Professor Emeritus Richard Edward Aldrich] (Crawley: The University of Western Australia, 2004); Tom De Coster, Marc Depaepe, Frank Simon and Angelo Van Gorp, “Dewey in Belgium: A Libation for Modernity? Coping with His Presence and Possible Influence”, in Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey: Modernities and the Travelling of Pragmatism in Education, ed. Thomas S. Popkewitz (New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005), 85–109; Tom De Coster, Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “‘Alternative’ Education in Flanders, 1960–2000: Transformation of Knowledge in a Neo-Liberal Context, Paedagogica Historica 45, no. 4–5 (2009): 645–671.

³⁴ See, e.g. Sébastien Duffort, “Les pédagogies innovantes: heurts et malheurs (le 5 juin 2018)”, in Mezetulle. Blog-revue de Catherine Kintzler: politique, théâtre, danse, musique, opéra, lecture, philosophie …, https://www.mezetulle.fr/les-pedagogies-innovantes-heurts-et-malheurs-par-sd/.

³⁵ Marc Depaepe, Frank Simon and Angelo Van Gorp, Ovide Decroly (1871–1932). Une approche atypique? (Kingston, Ontario: Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Theory and History of Education International Research Group, 2022), published as e-book: https://queens.scholarsportal.info/omp/index.php/qulp/catalog/book/222. Our methodological positioning is pointed out in the first chapter.

³⁶ See the quote of Nietzsche, taken as the motto for our article: Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Paedagogica Historica: Lever or Mirror in the Making of the History of Education?” Paedagogica Historica 32, no. 2 (1996): 421–450 (here 421); and also, Sol Cohen and Marc Depaepe, “History of Education in the Postmodern Era”, Paedagogica Historica 32, no. 2 (1996): 301–305.

³⁷ See, e.g. Lynn Fendler, “Critical Powers of Historical Framing: Continuity and Representation”, in Folds of Past, Present and Future. Reconfiguring Contemporary Histories of Education, ed. Sarah Van Ruyskensvelde, Geert Thyssen, Frederik Herman, Angelo Van Gorp and Pieter Verstraete (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2021), 59–80; and Thomas S. Popkewitz, “The Study of Education. On Rethinking History with the Help of Marc Depaepe”, in Folds of Past, 103–125.

³⁸ Marc Depaepe, De pedagogisering achterna. Aanzet tot een genealogie van de pedagogische mentaliteit in de voorbije 250 jaar (Leuven: Acco, 1998).

³⁹ Redactie Onderwijskrant, “Tweehonderd Onderwijskranten: 10.000 pagina’s, sinds 2013 dagelijks fb, blog, tweets. 45 jaar engagement voor degelijk onderwijs & tegen aantasting van de kwaliteit”, Onderwijskrant 200 (2022): 2–25 (here 8).

⁴⁰ Of course, we cannot cite here all the works that have inspired us, but the work of several Spanish colleagues has certainly been influential in this regard. See, e.g. Antonio Fco. Canales, “The Cultural History of Education: Between the Siren Song of Philosophy and the Discrete Charm of the Philosophy of the Social Sciences”, in Folds of Past, 39–58; Antonio Viñao, “School Culture(s): Historiography of a Polysemic Concept”, in id., 469–488; in this respect, see also: Educación, Historia y Sociedad. El legado historiográfico de Antonio Viñao, ed. Pedro L. Moreno Martínez (Valencia: Tirant Humanidades, 2018); and Mariano González Delgado and Christine A. Woyshner, “Disciplinas escolares y cultura escolar. Una conversación con Antonio Viñao Frago en torno a la historia del currículum en España”, in In the Footsteps of the Masters, 103–119; in the same realm, see also the works of Escolano, e.g. Augustín Escolano Benito, La escuela como cultura. Experiencia, memoria, arqueología (Campinas, SP: Alínea Editora, 2017) and last but not least Maria del Mar del Pozo Andrés, who was, for instance, the driving force behind the exposition catalogue: Madrid, ciudad educadora 1898/1938. Memoria de la Escuela Pública. Ensayos en torna una exposición (Madrid: Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Oficina de Derechos Humanos y Memoria, 2019). See also Joaquim Pintassilgo, “Reflexões em torno da inovação em educação. Entrevista com Maria del Mar del Pozo Andrés”, in In the Footsteps of the Masters, 267–285.

⁴¹ Marc Depaepe, Frederik Herman, Melanie Surmont, Angelo Van Gorp and Frank Simon, “About Pedagogization: From the Perspective of the History of Education”, in Educational Research: The Educationalization of Social Problems, ed. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008), 13–30, which was illustrated on the basis of our research: Marc Depaepe et al., Order in Progress. Everyday Educational Practice in Primary Schools: Belgium, 1880–1970 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000).

⁴² As initiated in: Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Is there any Place for the History of ‘Education’ in the ‘History of Education’? A Plea for the History of Everyday Educational Reality in- and outside Schools, Paedagogica Historica 31, no 1 (1995): 9–16; and more developed in: Marc Depaepe, Frank Simon, Melanie Surmont and Angelo Van Gorp, “‘Menschen in Welten’ – Ordnungstrukturen des Pädagogischen auf dem Weg zwischen Haus und Schule”, Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 52. Beiheft (2007): 96–109.

⁴³ See, e.g. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe, “The Research Community Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: A Retrospect of Collaborative Research over Two Decades”, Journal of Philosophy of Education 54, no. 3 & 5 (2020): 645–654, 1395–1397; Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe, “Incentives to Embrace Plurality and Diversity in the Study of Education. An Introduction”, in Production, Presentation, and Acceleration of Educational Research: Could Less be More? (Singapore: Springer Nature, 2021), 1–9.

⁴⁴ Le Cam, “L’histoire de l’éducation”.

⁴⁵ Depaepe, “Entre pédagogie et histoire”.

⁴⁶ See Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe, “On the Rethoric of ‘What Works’. Contextualizing Educational Research and the Picture of Performativity”, in Educational Research: Why ‘What Works’ Doesn’t Work, ed. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2006), 1–16.

⁴⁷ Marc Depaepe, “The Fragile Boundary between ‘Education’ and ‘Educationalization’: Some Personal Reflections on the Often Exaggerated Educational Aspirations of Museums”, Historia y Memoria de la Educación 15 (2022): 389–419.

⁴⁸ Marc Depaepe, “Über den Bildungswert von Schulmuseen”, in Bildungsmedien im wissenschaftlichen Diskurs. Festschrift für Eva Matthes zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Dörte Balcke, Jakob Benecke, Andrea Richter, Michaela Schmid and Herwig Schulz-Gade (Bad Heilbrunn: Kilinkhardt, 2022), 369–378.

⁴⁹ See, e.g. Hartmut von Hentig, “Ist Bildung nützlich?”, in Metamorphosen der Bildung. Historie – Empirie – Theorie, ed. Edwin Keiner et al. (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2011): 395–412; and Jan Masschelein, With Time. Regarding pedagogical forms. Valedictory Lecture. Notes for a lecture. Leuven, 16 September 2022 (Leuven: Leuven University, Research Unit Education, Culture & Society, 2022).

⁵⁰ Marc Depaepe, “Qualities of Irrelevance? History of Education in the Training of Teachers”, in Knowledge, Politics and the History of Education, 39–53.

⁵¹ Tatjana Takševa, “Building a Culture of Peace and Collective Memory in Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo’s Museum of War Childhood”, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 18, no. 1 (2018): 3–18 (here 5).

⁵² An iconic image that I learnt from the late Nicolaas Frans Noordam during my doctoral research, see: Nicolaas F. Noordam, Inleiding in de historische pedagogiek (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1976), 1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was co-funded by the Latvian Council of Science under [Grant lzp-2021/1-0385].

Notes on contributors

Marc Depaepe

Marc Depaepe (1953) is emeritus professor of history of education at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), where he was “vice-rector” (deputy chancellor) between 2013 and 2017, responsible for the KU Leuven campuses in West-Flanders. Since 2005 co-editor of Paedagogica Historica. Former president (chair) of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (1991–1994) and member of the International Academy of Education (2012-). Member of several other international societies and editorial boards related to educational historiography. Published and co-published abundantly on the history of educational and psychological sciences in Europe and the United States; the history of schooling in Belgium (especially primary education); the theory, methodology, and historiography of the history of education as a discipline; and the history of colonial education, especially in relation to the former Belgian Congo (1908–1960). In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Latvia in Riga, at which he is, since 2019, engaged as a “leading researcher”.