In search of ‘time-tested truths’: historical perspectives on educational administration

Abstract

This article has a dual purpose. The first is to pay tribute to the work of Richard Selleck and Geoffrey Sherington; the second to argue that historians of education can make substantial contributions to current and future educational policy and practice by identifying what Ravitch has called ‘time-tested truths’. The nature and purpose of historical study are examined with particular reference to education and to making maps of the past. Examples are provided of the application of historical perspectives to contemporary education issues in 1985 and 1996. The final section draws upon an analysis by leading historians in the USA of the failures of school reform, and a research project into the establishment, nature and likely fate of the Department for Education and Employment in the UK. The basic conclusion is that the development of the field of educational administration requires both specialist historical studies and those informed by a broader understanding of educational and human perspectives.

Keywords:

• truths
• historical maps
• 1944 Act
• DfEE
• consilience

Notes on contributor

Richard Aldrich is Emeritus Professor of the History of Education, Institute of Education, University of London. His current interests include futurology and neuroscience and their implications for education.

Notes

1. ‘English’ rather than ‘British’ because the nature and control of education in other parts of the UK have changed over time, most recently with the creation of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly in 1998.