Richard Aldrich (1937–2014)

Richard Aldrich, a former President of both ISCHE and the British History of Education Society and a leading historian of education for many years, sadly died on 20 September 2014. Richard made an enormous contribution, not only through his personal scholarship, but also by his constant firm leadership, especially in times of difficulty for the discipline. His support to colleagues and students at all levels was unfailing, as was his championship of history of education. He believed deeply that rigorous research, analysis and understanding of the educational past had much to teach the present and guide us into the future. To the end of his life he sought to impress this on his peers, students, the government and public.

Born in Charlton, London, on 10 June 1937 – a place that always remained dear to him, not least for its football team Charlton Athletic FC of which he was a lifelong supporter – Richard was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War. Returning to London in 1947, he attended the Deansfield Junior School in Eltham, followed by secondary education at the John Roan School for Boys, Greenwich. He then read history at Cambridge, graduating in 1958 and following this with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course at King’s College, University of London. There his lifelong love of history of education was stimulated, resulting subsequently in both an MPhil in 1970 on “Education and the Political Parties 1830–1870” and a doctorate in 1977 on “Sir John Pakington and National Education”, both supervised by the eminent historian of education A.C.F. Beales.

From 1972 he began to play an active part in the young History of Education Society. Following six years of secondary school teaching at the Godalming County School in Surrey (1959–1965) with a lectureship at Southlands College of Education, he was thus well placed to become lecturer in history of education and Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) history at the Institute of Education, University of London in 1973. Richard was to remain at the Institute for the rest of his career, helping it to become a leading centre of history of education. Many scholars and students can testify their respect and admiration for his work. He was one of the best of tutors and mentors – sympathetic, encouraging, generous with his time, unfailingly supportive, yet, at the same time, rigorous in his demands, insightful in his comments and intolerant only of shoddy work. His enormous contribution to the Institute included being Public Orator from 1993 and publishing his well-received centenary history, The Institute of Education, in 2002.¹

From 1973 to the present, indeed, Richard brought out a steady stream of publications. His own favourite was probably his lovingly crafted biography of Joseph Payne in 1995 but the range of his historical interests can be seen in his Lessons from History of Education of 2006, in which were collected extracts from what he considered to be his finest writings over 30 years. These included publications on understanding history of education; the politics of education; educational reformers; curriculum and standards; the teaching of history and other works ending with an absorbing section on family history exemplified by the educational history of his father George. All demonstrated his searching questioning and thorough and innovative scholarship.

The Festschrift, History, Politics and Policy-making in Education, compiled and edited by his colleagues David Crook and Gary McCulloch in 2007, focused on a theme central to Richard’s work while testifying to the deep regard in which Richard was held by historians of education. At the centre of the field in Britain, he was on the committee of the History of Education Society for 11 years, serving as both Secretary (1984–1989) and President (1989–1993) in that time. Crucially he kept the Society and the subject going when history of education was under severe threat and became very much the Society’s public spokesperson. It is little wonder that in 2004 he was made an honorary life member.

Richard was also a leading scholar in the history of education internationally.² With his first International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) conference being that at Oxford in 1983, the scope of his work in the 1980s became more international. He taught at a Summer School in Canada, and, after learning Portuguese, frequently visited Brazil (São Paolo and Brasilia) to give courses and to advise the Brazilian Ministry of Education. He also frequently went both to the USA for conferences, visiting colleagues such as Bill Reese, and to Australia, where Clive Whitehead and Thomas A. O’Donoghue in 2008 edited a Festschrift in honour of the by now Emeritus Professor who had made many friends in that country.³ In 1993, at the Lisbon meeting of ISCHE, he was elected to the Executive Committee. One year later, in Amsterdam, he was elected its president as a matter of course.

During his presidency the ISCHE became more academic, more international and more attractive for young scholars. For young scholars he established the ISCHE Conference Paper Prize Award, given for the best paper presented at the ISCHE conference by an early career scholar or postgraduate student, and first awarded in 1997 during the conference in Maynooth, Ireland, organised by John Coolahan in cooperation with Richard. In order to upgrade the level of papers and the attractiveness of ISCHE for scholars, he started, together with Paedagogica Historica, the publication of the best papers of the ISCHE conferences, first in the Paedagogica Historica Supplementary series, then in a yearly special issue of Paedagogica Historica, guaranteeing both the quality of papers and the continuity of publishing the ISCHE proceedings. He also made decisive steps to make ISCHE, initially established as an intellectual bridge between East and West during the Cold War and thus holding its yearly conferences in Europe, definitely an international organisation. It was in 1999 that thanks to Richard and his Australian friend Geoffrey Sherington of the University of Sydney, ISCHE went to Sydney, a precedent for many future ISCHE conferences to be organised outside Europe. Richard’s effectiveness as an ISCHE president resulted from a unique combination of diplomacy, firmness and scholarship. After resigning as ISCHE president in 1997, he continued to attend almost all conferences. In 2007 he was made an honorary member. At the conference in Riga in 2013, his last one, he again used his diplomatic tools during the debate on the new constitution of ISCHE. Everybody expected him at the ISCHE conference in London in 2014, held at the Institute of Education, his working place since 1973, whose history he put on record. He should have been the guest of honour as the wise, amiable and highly respected historian of education whom everybody knew.

Richard firmly rebuffed the idea that history is invented while admitting that historians are necessarily informed and stimulated by the interests and priorities of the present. His acute awareness indeed, of the need to apply well-informed historical perspectives to current educational issues underpinned much of his funded research and also supplied the passionate undercurrent of his last publications. His argument that applying such perspectives was best done through collaboration between scholars from different disciplines⁴ was exemplified, first, in his highlighting of crucial current developments in neuroscience where he argued cogently for giving a central place both to the role of education in the history of human evolution and the brain in the history of education.⁵ One article on this was in the special issue “Shaping the History of Education? The First 50 Years of Paedagogica Historica” in the section entitled “Shaping New Trends”.⁶ Second, he engaged with the vital contemporary issue of the effect of climate change on the survival of the human species. Here he urged a fundamental reappraisal of the nature and aims of education to give priority to education for survival.⁷

Such original and challenging insights remind us of what we owe to Richard’s lifetime of thoughtful scholarship and service to history of education. So many recall affectionately his friendship, conviviality and joy in life as well as his wise advice, gently yet firmly given. And his and Averil’s hospitality was unforgettable. He will be long remembered not only by Averil and his large, loving family, but also by generations of historians of education.

Emeritus Professor Ruth E. Watts
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Email: [email protected]
Professor Dr Jeroen J.H. Dekker
Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences Basic Principles of Pedagogy – Department of Pedagogy Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Grote Rozenstraat 38
9712 TJ Groningen
The Netherlands
Email: [email protected]

Notes

¹ Richard Aldrich, The Institute of Education 1902–2002: A Centenary History (London: Institute of Education, 2002).

² We thank Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon for their comments and advice.

³ Clive Whitehead and Thomas A. O’Donoghue, eds., “Essays in Honour of Professor Emeritus Richard Edward Aldrich,” Education Research and Perspectives 31, no. 2 (2002). See also Maria del Mar del Pozo Andrés, “Conversación con Richard Aldrich, Catedrático emérito de historia de le educación,” Revista Historia de la Educación 27 (2008): 475–92.

⁴ Richard Aldrich, “‘In Search of Time-Tested Truths’: Historical Perspectives on Educational Administration,” Journal of Educational Administration and History 46, no. 2 (2014): 220–33.

⁵ Richard Aldrich, “Neuroscience, Education and the Evolution of the Brain,” History of Education 42, no. 3 (2013): 396–410.

⁶ Richard Aldrich, “Nature, Nurture and Neuroscience: Some Future Directions for Historians of Education,” Paedagogica Historica 50, no. 6 (2014): 852–60.

⁷ Richard Aldrich, “Education for Survival: An Historical Perspective,” History of Education 39, no.1 (2010): 1–14.