Cutting knots ‘together–apart’: threads of Western and Southern European history of education research

ABSTRACT

This article presents a state of the art of the history of education in Western and Southern Europe by ‘cutting together–apart’ (Barad) ‘knotting-s’ (Ingold), in terms of both discipline formation and historiography across and beyond countries in these regions. It (dis)entangles national and regional particularities in terms of approaches, themes and constraints, and contributions to thriving international networks in the history of education. It sketches local trends and developments of the last 30 years and situates these within their differently evolving national and/or language-based disciplinary and institutional landscapes. Its snapshots of the history of education across the Benelux, Germany and Germanophone regions, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and France highlight the contribution and interaction of national/linguistic intellectual traditions, institutional nodes of activity, (inter)disciplinary identities, methods and approaches, and vibrant scholarly communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Historiography and methodology
• discipline formation
• transnational entanglements
• academic journals, conferences, awards, and prizes
• re-diffraction

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the editors of History of Education and of this double special issue for inviting them to contribute to a state of the art on history of education research transnationally and offering helpful advice. The content of this article owes much to the scholarship of, and/or discussions with, Nelleke Bakker, Antonio Canales, Pierre Caspard, Eulàlia Collelldemont, Marc Depaepe, Renaud d’Enfert, Joyce Goodman and Carl Lemke, among others.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Geert Thyssen et al., ‘Introduction’, in Folds of Past, Present and Future: Reconfiguring Contemporary Histories of Education, ed. S. Van Ruyskensvelde et al. (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2021), 5.

² Ibid.

³ 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 (2020), https://doi.org/10.14516/ete.335241 (accessed February 26, 2021).

⁴ Tim Ingold, Lines: A Brief History (London: Routledge, 2007), 169.

⁵ Ibid.; Tim Ingold, Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (Oxford: Routledge, 2011), 149.

⁶ Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007).

⁷ Thyssen et al., ‘Introduction’, 4, citing Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, 3, 36, 72–3.

⁸ Karen Barad, ‘Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart’, Parallax 20, no. 3 (2014): 168–87.

⁹ Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, esp. 148–51.

¹⁰ Barad, ‘Diffracting Diffraction’, 168.

¹¹ Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, 148.

¹² Ibid., esp. 135, 182.

¹³ For example, Jeroen J. H. Dekker and Frank Simon, ‘Shaping the History of Education? The First 50 Years of Paedagogica Historica – Introduction’, Paedagogica Historica 50, no. 6 (2014): 707–16.

¹⁴ Via the journal Paedagogica Historica (founded in 1961), the Belgian-Dutch Society for the History of Education (BENGOO, 1975), the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE, 1979), etc., the Belgian field has long expressly tuned into developments transnationally.

¹⁵ This tangling always entailed cooperation with non-university partners, such as the Christian Teachers’ Union (COV) and (later) the Ypres School Museum.

¹⁶ 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, esp. 10.

¹⁷ Marc Depaepe et al., ‘About Pedagogization: From the Perspective of the History of Education’, in Educational Research: The Educationalisation of Social Problems, ed. P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008), 13–30.

¹⁸ Marc Depaepe et al., Order in Progress: Everyday Educational Practice in Primary Schools, Belgium, 1880–1970 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000).

¹⁹ For example, Geert Thyssen, ‘Visualizing Discipline of the Body in a German Open-Air School (1923–1939): Retrospection and Introspection’, History of Education 36, no. 2 (2007): 247–64; Frederik Herman et al., ‘The School Desk: From Concept to Object’, History of Education 40, no. 1 (2011): 97–117.

²⁰ Carine Steverlynck, Kleine martelaars. Een historisch document over misbruikte kinderen, kindermishandeling, incest en prostitutie (Antwerp: Icarus, 1997).

²¹ An Hermans, ‘Twee vleugels. Een verkenning van de thematisering van sekse in het historisch onderzoek over opvoeding en onderwijs in België’, in Jaarboek voor de Geschiedenis van Opvoeding en Onderwijs 2000: Genderconcepties en Pedagogische Praktijken, ed. M. van Essen et al. (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2000), 41–88.

²² Angelo Van Gorp, Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, ‘Backing the Actor as Agent in Discipline Formation: An Example of the “Secondary Disciplinarization” of the Educational Sciences, Based on the Networks of Ovide Decroly (1901–1931)’, Paedagogica Historica 40, no. 5–6 (2004): 591–616.

²³ Marc Depaepe, Frank Simon and Angelo Van Gorp, Ovide Decroly (1871–1932): Une approche atypique? (forthcoming).

²⁴ Sarah Van Ruyskensvelde, Karen Hulstaert and Marc Depaepe, ‘The Cult of Order: In Search of Underlying Patterns of the Colonial and Neo-Colonial “Grammar of Educationalization” in Belgian Congo. Exported School Rituals and Routines’, Paedagogica Historica 53, no. 1 (2016): 36–48. See also the work involving Congolese scholars, on schoolbooks and songs in the Belgian Congo, informed by collaboration within the fold of the International Schoolbook and Educational Media Research Association (IGSBI): Marc Depaepe et al., Manuels et chansons scolaires au Congo belge (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003).

²⁵ For example, Sebastian Barsch, Anne Klein and Pieter Verstraete, eds., The Imperfect Historian: Disability Histories in Europe (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013).

²⁶ For example, Pieter Verstraete and Yva Söderfeldt, ‘Happiness Disabled: Sensory Disabilities, Happiness and the Rise of Educational Expertise in the 19th Century’, Paedagogica Historica 50, no. 4 (2014): 479–93; Geert Thyssen and Ian Grosvenor, eds., ‘Learning to Make Sense: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sensory Education and Embodied Enculturation’, special issue, The Senses and Society 14, no. 2 (2019): 119–248.

²⁷ For example, Lieslot De Wilde, Bruno Vanobbergen and Griet Roets, ‘The Role of Life Histories in an Age of Apology: A Presence of the Past?’, Qualitative Social Work 19, no. 1 (2020): 93–107.

²⁸ For example, Anja Giudici, Thomas Ruoss and Sarah Van Ruyskensvelde, eds., ‘Educating the Volksgemeinschaft: Authoritarian Ideals and School Reforms in Europe’s Fascist Era’, special issue, Paedagogica Historica 56, no. 5 (2020): 569–722.

²⁹ Jeroen J. H. Dekker, Het verlangen naar opvoeden. Over de groei van de pedagogische ruimte in Nederland sinds de Gouden Eeuw tot omstreeks 1900 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2006); Sjaak Braster, Ian Grosvenor and María del Mar del Pozo Andrés, eds., The Black Box of Schooling: A Cultural History of the Classroom (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2012).

³⁰ Smeyers and Depaepe, Educational Research. See also BENGOO’s series of yearbooks entitled Jaarboek voor de Geschiedenis van Opvoeding en Onderwijs.

³¹ Thus, the concept of ‘caring power’ (zorgende macht) in the exploration of ‘sex[/gender] relations’ (sekseverhoudingen) has threaded its way into historiography of education internationally. See Annemieke Van Drenth, ‘Over dienende liefde en zorgende macht. Sekse en sekseverhoudingen in historisch perspectief’, Tijdschrift voor Vrouwenstudies 18, no. 3 (1997): 322–35.

³² Nelleke Bakker, Kwetsbare kinderen. De groei van professionele zorg voor de jeugd (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2016); Marjoke-Rietveld-van Wingerden, Van woordblindheid tot dyslexie. De geschiedenis van leesproblemen in het Nederlandse onderwijs (Apeldoorn: Garant, 2016); Annemieke Van Drenth, ‘Rethinking the Origins of Autism: Ida Frye and the Unraveling of Children’s Inner World in the Netherlands in the Late 1930s’, Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences 54, no. 1 (2018): 25–42.

³³ Saskia Bultman, ‘Constructing a Female Delinquent Self: Assessing Pupils in the Dutch State Reform School for Girls, 1905–1975’ (PhD diss., Radboud University Nijmegen, 2016).

³⁴ Tina van der Vlies, ‘Multidirectional War Narratives in History Textbooks’, Paedagogica Historica 52, no. 3 (2016): 300–14.

³⁵ Maria Luce Sijpenhof, ‘A Transformation of Racist Discourse? Colour-Blind Racism and Biological Racism in Dutch Secondary Schooling (1968–2017)’, Paedagogica Historica 56, no. 1–2 (2020): 51–69.

³⁶ For example, Jean-Jacques Weber, ‘Rethinking Language-in-Education Policy in Luxembourg’, Forum für Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur in Luxemburg 264 (2007): 24–6.

³⁷ For example, Daniel Tröhler and Thomas Lenz, eds., Trajectories in the Development of Modern School Systems (New York and London: Routledge, 2015); Matias Gardin and Thomas Lenz, eds., Die Schule der Nation: Bildungsgeschichte und Identität in Luxemburg (Weinheim and Basel: Belz Juventa, 2018); Anne Rohstock, Thomas Lenz and Catherina Schreiber, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies. A Socio-Historical Analysis of the Luxembourgish Curriculum’, in International Handbook of Curriculum Research, 2nd ed., ed. B. Pinar (New York: Routledge, 2013), 327–40.

³⁸ For example, Frederik Herman, Karin Priem and Geert Thyssen, ‘Body_Machine? Encounters of the Human and the Mechanical in Education, Industry and Science’, History of Education 46, no. 1 (2017): 108–27; Françoise Poos and Marguy Conzémius, ‘Forging a Modern Society: Photography and Corporate Communication in the Industrial Age (ARBED, 1911–1937)’, Exhibition, Luxembourg, Centre National de l’Audiovisuel, June–December 2017; Irma Hadžalić, ‘Transatlantic Iron Corpornations: The Expansion of Luxembourg’s Steel Industry to Brazil and the Emergence of Industry-Related Social Welfare in Minas Gerais, ca. 1910–1965’ (PhD diss., University of Luxembourg, 2016); Geert Thyssen and Frederik Herman, ‘Re-Turning Matters of Body_Mind: Articulations of Ill-/Health and Energy/Fatigue Gathered through Vocational and Health Education’, History of Education 48, no. 4 (2019): 496–515; Klaus Dittrich, ‘Bilingual Primary Schools, Decorative Art and Psychotechnics: Luxembourgian Education at International Exhibitions and Congresses, 1870s–1930s’, History of Education, 48, no. 3 (2019): 317–35.

³⁹ Heinz-Elmar Tenorth, ‘Historische Bildungsforschung’, in Handbuch Bildungsforschung, ed. R. Tippelt and B. Schmidt (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2009), 135–53.

⁴⁰ Ibid., 135.

⁴¹ Eckhardt Fuchs, ‘Historische Bildungsforschung in internationaler Perspektive: Geschichte – Stand – Perspektiven’, Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 56, no. 5 (2010): 703–24.

⁴² SGBF History of Education Working Group, ‘The Almanac. History of Education News’, http://www.hist-edu.ch/en/. See also: History of Education Switzerland, ‘Knowledge Portal on the History of Schooling and Education’, University of Zurich, 2019, http://www.bildungsgeschichte.ch/ (both accessed January 4, 2022).

⁴³ Until November 2021 it was known as the Georg Eckert Institute for Textbook Research.

⁴⁴ The journal’s editors announced a widening of focus in 2019, the results of which are pending.

⁴⁵ Leibniz Institute for Educational Media, ‘Publications from Educational Media Research’ (Braunschweig: GEI, 2021), https://edu-docs.edumeres.net/en/publications/ (accessed January 4, 2022).

⁴⁶ Research Library for the History of Education at DIPF, ‘About Us’, https://bbf.dipf.de/en/the-bbf/about-us (accessed January 4, 2022).

⁴⁷ peDOCS, ‘Open Access Educational Sciences’, https://www.pedocs.de/index.php?la=en (accessed January 4, 2022).

⁴⁸ Ulrich Hermann, ‘Aufgaben und Ziele eines neuen Periodikums’, in Jahrbuch für Historische Bildungsforschung 1 (Weinheim: Juventa, 1993), 5–8.

⁴⁹ DGfE, ‘Jahrbuch’, https://www.dgfe.de/sektionen-kommissionen-ag/sektion-1-historische-bildungsforschung/jahrbuch (accessed January 4, 2022).

⁵⁰ See, for these examples, respectively: Carola Groppe and Gerhard Kluchert, eds., Jahrbuch für historische Bildungsforschung 15 (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2009); Marcelo Caruso and Ute Frevert, eds., Jahrbuch für historische Bildungsforschung 18 (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2012); Marcelo Caruso and Christian Kassung, eds., Jahrbuch für historische Bildungsforschung 20 (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2015); Eckhardt Fuchs, Ulrike Mietzner and Carola Groppe, eds., Jahrbuch für historische Bildungsforschung, 22 (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2017); Meike Sophia Baader, Rita Casale and Joachim Scholz, eds., Jahrbuch für historische Bildungsforschung, 24 (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2018).

⁵¹ Although Paedagogica Historica, for example, is an influential international journal with German as one of its publication languages, in practice very few of its contributions appear in German.

⁵² Walter Herzog, ‘Wenn der Wolf im Schafspelz den Sack schlägt und den Esel meint. Heinz-Elmar Tenorth zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik’, Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Historiographie 1, no. 14 (2008): 45–7.

⁵³ Gesellschaft für Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 1 (1998), https://guw-online.net/publikationen/jahrbuch-fuer-universitaetsgeschichte/item/75-jahrbuch-fuer-universitaetsgeschichte-1-1998 (accessed January 4, 2022).

⁵⁴ Rita Casale, Daniel Tröhler and Jürgen Oelkers, ed., Methoden und Kontexte: Historiographische Probleme der Bildungsforschung (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006); Gerhard Kluchert, ‘Nicht wegzudenken. Zur Zukunft der historischen Perspektive in der Erziehungswissenschaft’, Bildung und Erziehung 69, no. 4 (November 1, 2016): 399–414; Friederike Thole, Sarah Wedde and Alexander Kather, eds., Über die Notwendigkeit der Historischen Bildungsforschung. Wegbegleiter*innenschrift für Edith Glaser (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2021); Bernd Zymek, ‘Wozu (noch) Bildungsgeschichte und Historische Bildungsforschung?’, Die Deutsche Schule 197, no. 2 (2015): 203–21.

⁵⁵ Gerhard Kluchert et al., Introduction to Historische Bildungsforschung: Konzepte – Methoden – Forschungsfelder, ed. G. Kluchert et al. (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2021), 13–27.

⁵⁶ Kluchert, ‘Nicht wegzudenken’; Heinz-Elmar Tenorth, ‘Historische Bildungsforschung’, in Handbuch Bildungsforschung, 135–53; Annemarie Augschöll Blasbichler and Michaela Vogt, ‘Interview with Heinz-Elmar Tenorth’, Espacio, Tiempo y Educación 5, no. 2 (2018), https://www.espaciotiempoyeducacion.com/ojs/index.php/ete/article/view/246 (accessed January 4, 2022).

⁵⁷ Sabine Reh and Joachim Scholz, ‘Historische Bildungsforschung und Ihre Erziehungswissenschaftlichen Perspektive’, Erziehungswissenschaft 29 (2018): 7.

⁵⁸ Antonio Viñao, ‘La Historia de la Educación como disciplina y campo de investigación: viejas y nuevas cuestiones’, Espacio, Tiempo y Educación 3, no. 1 (2016): 1–25.

⁵⁹ José Hernández, Sara González and Iván Pérez, ‘History of Education in the Iberian Pensinsula (2014–2019)’, Histoire de l’éducation 2, no. 154 (2020): 188.

⁶⁰ For example, in 2019, prizes were awarded to Maria Eugénia Bolaño, ‘Identidade, educacion, género e nación. A Galiza imaxinada a través da prensa galega da emigración (1915–1936)’, Historia y Memoria de la Educación, no. 12 (2020): 81–99; and to Carlos Sanz, ‘Los enemigos de la patria. La representación del otro durante la Guerra Civil Española en los textos escolares del fascismo italiano (1936–1943)’, Historia y Memoria de la Educación, no. 12 (2020): 333–60.

⁶¹ Agustín Escolano, ‘A manualística na Espanha: duas décadas de pesquisa’, Educação & Fronteiras 7, no. 20 (2017): 1–20; Justino Magalhães, O Mural do Tempo. Manuais Escolares em Portugal (Séc. XVIII–XX) (Lisbon: Colibri, 2011).

⁶² Áurea Adão and Justino Magalhães, eds., História dos Municípios na Educação e na Cultura (Lisbon: Instituto de Educação, 2013).

⁶³ António Candeias, ‘Literacy, Schooling and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Portugal: What Population Censuses Can Tell Us’, Paedagogica Historica 40, no. 4 (2004): 509–30; Narciso de Gabriel, Ler e escribir en Galicia (Coruña: Universidade da Coruña, 2006).

⁶⁴ Mariano González, ‘Continuidades y câmbios en las disciplinas escolares: Apuntes para una teoria de historia del curriculum’, TESI-Teoria de la Educación 15, no. 4 (2014): 262–94; Elsa Estrela, ‘Alquimia do conhecimento: a construção do conhecimento curricular em Portugal (1970–2009)’ (PhD diss., Universidade Lusófona, 2015).

⁶⁵ Joaquim Pintassilgo and Carlos Beato, ‘Balanço da produção recente no campo da História das Disciplinas Escolares (Portugal, 2005–2015)’, Cadernos de História da Educação 16, no. 1 (2017): 45–63.

⁶⁶ António Ferreira, Luís Mota and Carla Vilhena, ‘Leituras do pensamento educacional de António Nóvoa. Análise comparada de revistas científicas de educação e de ensino em Portugal (1987–2017)’, Revista Portuguesa de Pedagogia 52, no. 1 (2018): 5–26.

⁶⁷ Ernesto Português, ‘Monsenhor Airosa – pedagogo – empresário’ (PhD diss., Universidade de Lisboa, 2015); Jon Igelmo, ‘Iván Illich en el Cidoc de Cuernavaca (1963–1976)’ (PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2011).

⁶⁸ Justino Magalhães, ‘A instituição educativa na modernização do local’, Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione 5, no. 1 (2018): 41–55.

⁶⁹ Jean Guereña and Alejandro Tiana, eds., Formas y espacios de la educación popular en la Europa Mediterránea (Madrid: UNED, 2016).

⁷⁰ Jon Igelmo and Carl Lemke, ‘Jesuits and Education in Spain after the Second Vatican Council’, International Studies in Catholic Education 10, no. 2 (2018): 119–31.

⁷¹ Carlos Silva, ‘Escolas, higiene e pedagogia: Espaços desenhados para o ensino em Portugal (1860–1920)’, in Educação e património cultural, ed. M. J. Mogarro (Lisbon: Colibri, 2013), 93–117.

⁷² Inês Félix, ‘School Journeys: Ideas and Practices of New Education in Portugal (1890–1960)’ (PhD diss., Umeå University, 2020).

⁷³ António Henriques, ‘The Emergence in Portugal of State Art Museums as Places of Public Instruction and their Replacement by Museums of Contemplation (1833–1899)’, História da Educação, no. 23 (2019): 1–30; Pedro Moreno, ‘Educational Heritage Historiography in Spain’, Educar em Revista, no. 58 (2015): 87–102.

⁷⁴ Jorge do Ó and Sérgio Matos, eds., A Universidade de Lisboa nos séculos XIX e XX, 2 vols. (Lisbon: Tinta-da-China, 2013); Antonio Canales and Yasmin Álvarez, ‘Las cátedras de la Sección de Pedagogía de la Universidad de Madrid bajo el primer franquismo’, Revista de Educación, no. 389 (2020): 95–166.

⁷⁵ Helena Cabeleira, ‘O Artista enquanto aluno: Ensino artístico, práticas culturais e concepções de si na Imprensa Académica de Lisboa (1878–2007)’ (PhD diss., Universidade de Lisboa, 2013); Tamar Groves, ‘Professional Advocacy in Education: The Legacy of the 1960s Students’ Protest and the Forging of a Social-Professional Identity among Teachers (Spain, 1970–1982), Espacio, Tiempo y Educación 7, no. 1 (2020): 163–80.

⁷⁶ Agustín Escolano, Emociones y Educación (Berlanga del Duero: CEINCE, 2018).

⁷⁷ Helena Cabeleira, ‘As imagens como fonte histórica’, in História da Educação: Fundamentos teóricos e metodologias de pesquisa (2005–2014), ed. L. Alves and J. Pintassilgo (Porto: CITEM, 2017), 175–201; Eulàlia Collelldemont, ed., Investigar la Historia de l’Educació amb les Imatges (Vic, Barcelona: Eumogràgif/MUVIP, 2014).

⁷⁸ Raquel Cercós, ‘Les pedagogies de la masculinitat’, Temps d’Educació, no. 33 (2007): 281–90.

⁷⁹ Ana Madeira, ‘Os estudos sobre História da Educação Colonial e Pós-Colonial’, in História da Educação, 103–30; Gabriela Ossenbach and Maria del Mar del Pozo [Andrés], ‘Postcolonial Models, Cultural Transfers and Transnational Perspectives in Latin America’, Paedagogica Historica 57, no. 5 (2011): 579–600.

⁸⁰ Jorge Ramos do Ó, Catarina Martins and Ana Paz, ‘Genealogy as History: From Pupil to Artist as the Dynamics of Genius, Status and Inventiveness in Art Education in Portugal’, in Rethinking the History of Education: Transnational Perspectives on its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, ed. T. S. Popkewitz (New York: Palgrave, 2013), 157–78.

⁸¹ Kira Mahamud Angulo et al., ‘Civic Education and Visions of War and Peace in the Spanish Transition to Democracy’, Paedagogica Historica 52, no. 1–2 (2016): 169–87.

⁸² Carlos Sanz and Tereza Rabazas, ‘La cuestión lingǘıstica en la práctica educativa de la enseñanza primaria en el Páıs Vasco y Navarra durante el franquismo (1950–1959). Un estudio a partir de un fondo documental etnográfico’, Educació i Història: Revista d’Història de l’Educació, no. 35 (2020): 75–102.

⁸³ Jorge Cáceres-Muñoz, ‘La institución libre de enseñanza y su relación con Extremadura’ (PhD diss., Universidad de Extremadura, 2017).

⁸⁴ Tullio De Mauro, Storia linguistica dell’Italia unita (Bari: Laterza, 1963).

⁸⁵ Marzio Barbagli and Marcello Dei, Le vestali della classe media: ricerca sociologica sugli insegnanti (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1969).

⁸⁶ Carlo M. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969); Giovanni Vigo, Istruzione e sviluppo economico in Italia nel secolo 19 (Torino: ILTE, 1971).

⁸⁷ Marino Raicich, Scuola, cultura e politica da De Sanctis a Gentile (Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1981).

⁸⁸ Marina Roggero, L’alfabeto conquistato: apprendere e insegnare nell’Italia tra Sette e Ottocento (Bologna: il Mulino, 1999).

⁸⁹ Simonetta Soldani and Gabriele Turi, Fare gli italiani: scuola e cultura nell’Italia contemporanea (Bologna: il Mulino, 1993).

⁹⁰ See, e.g., Carla Callegari and Angelo Gaudio, eds., ‘Current Questions and Perspectives in Comparative Education’, special issue, Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione 5, no. 2 (2018): 7–387.

⁹¹ See https://new.cirse.it/ (accessed January 9, 2022).

⁹² The editor of Annali, initiator of L’Archivio per la Storia dell’Educazione, and leader of the large group of scholars gathered around these ventures, was Professor Luciano Pazzaglia.

⁹³ Much work here has been done by Sabrina Fava, Carla Ghizzoni and Simonetta Polenghi.

⁹⁴ See work by the leading professor Roberto Sani and his numerous collaborators, e.g., Juri Meda, Mezzi di educazione di massa. Saggi di storia della cultura materiale della scuola tra XIX e XX secolo (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2016).

⁹⁵ The team, gathered around Professor Giorgio Chiosso, a prominent figure in the cultural and historiographical renewal of Italian history of education, includes, e.g., Paolo Bianchini and Maria Cristina Morandini.

⁹⁶ See: http://dbe.editricebibliografica.it/dbe/indici.html (accessed January 9, 2022).

⁹⁷ See the volumes of Fonti per la storia della scuola: http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/index.php/news-home/biblioteca-digitale/item/740-biblioteca-digitale-%25257C-fonti-per-la-storia-della-scuola (accessed January 9, 2022).

⁹⁸ Mirella D’Ascenzo, Tutti a scuola? L’istruzione elementare nella pianura bolognese tra Otto e Novecento (Bologna: CLUEB, 2013).

⁹⁹ Examples of work from this area, led by Professor Antonio Faeti, include publications by Emy Beseghi. See also Giorgia Grilli, Di cosa parlano i libri per bambini: La letteratura per l’infanzia come critica radicale (Rome: Donzelli Editore, 2021). Several scholars from other universities are also active in this field.

¹⁰⁰ For example, Gianfranco Bandini and Stefano Oliviero, Public History of Education: Riflessioni, testimonianze, esperienze (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2019).

¹⁰¹ See Fulvio De Giorgi, William Grandi and Paola Trabalzini, eds., ‘Maria Montessori, Her Times and Our Years: History, Vitality and Perspectives of an Innovative Pedagogy’, special issue, Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione 8, no. 2 (2021): 3–160.

¹⁰² Stefano Lentini, Fabio Pruneri, Brunella Serpe and Caterina Sindoni.

¹⁰³ Andrea Bobbio, Andrea Mangiatordi, Tiziana Pironi and Paola Trabalzini.

¹⁰⁴ For example, Fulvio De Giorgi, Angelo Gaudio and Fabio Pruneri, eds., Manuale di storia della scuola italiana: Dal Risorgimento al XXI secolo (Brescia: Morcelliana, 2019).

¹⁰⁵ Egle Becchi, Maschietti e bambine: Tre storie con figure (Pisa: ETS, 2011); Mario Gecchele, Simonetta Polenghi and Paola Dal Toso, eds., Novecento, il secolo del bambino (Azzano San Paolo: Junior, 2017).

¹⁰⁶ For example, Domenico F. Elia, Palestre e stadi. Storia dell’educazione motoria in Italia (Milano: Mondadori, 2020).

¹⁰⁷ Tiziana Pironi, Percorsi di pedagogia al ‘femminile’. Dall’Unità d’Italia al secondo dopoguerra (Rome: Carocci, 2014); Antonella Cagnolati, La costilla de Adán: Mujeres, educación y escritura en el Renacimiento (Seville: Arcibel, 2016).

¹⁰⁸ Francesca Romana Nocchi, Quintiliano: Modelli pedagogici e pratiche didattiche (Brescia: Morcelliana, 2020).

¹⁰⁹ For example, Luana Salvarani, Nova schola: Temi e problemi di pedagogia protestante nei primi testi della Riforma (Rome: Anicia, 2018).

¹¹⁰ Rita Hofstetter and Solennn Huitric, eds., ‘Regards sur l’histoire de l’éducation, une perspective internationale’, special issue, Histoire de l’éducation, no. 154 (2020): 1–292. In this issue, see the following contributions on France: Solenn Huitric, ‘Les thèses françaises en histoire de l’éducation depuis 1990: un miroir de la discipline?’, 93–117; Renaud d’Enfert and Rebecca Rogers, ‘Orientations et lieux de la recherche en histoire contemporaine de l’éducation en France depuis 2000’, 143–76.

¹¹¹ Pierre Caspard and Rebecca Rogers, ‘The History of Education in France: A “Laboriously Useless Science”’, in Knowledge, Politics and the History of Education, ed. J. Eckhardt Larsen (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2012), 73–86.

¹¹² D’Enfert and Rogers, ‘Orientations’.

¹¹³ Renaud d’Enfert and Pierre Kahn, eds., En attendant la réforme. Disciplines scolaires et politiques éducatives sous la Quatrième République (Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 2010); Renaud d’Enfert and Pierre Kahn, eds., Le temps des réformes. Disciplines scolaires et politiques éducatives sous la Cinquième République: les années 1960 (Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 2011); Renaud d’Enfert and Joël Lebeaume, eds., Réformer les disciplines. Les savoirs scolaires à l’épreuve de la modernité, 1945–1985 (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015); Pierre Kahn and Youenn Michel, eds., Formation, transformations des savoirs scolaires. Histoire croisée des disciplines, XIX^e–XX^e siècles (Caen: Presses universitaires de Caen, 2016).

¹¹⁴ On financing schools, see Jean-François Condette, ed., Le coût des études. Modalités, acteurs et implications sociales XVI^e–XX^e siècle (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012); Jean-François Condette, ‘L’École une bonne affaire? Institutions éducatives, marché scolaire et entreprises (XVI^e–XX^e siècles)’, Revue du Nord 54, no. 29 (2013): 198–201. On schools in wartime, see Jean-Francois Condette, ed., Les Écoles dans la guerre. Acteurs et institutions éducatives dans les tourmentes guerrières (XVII^esiècle–XX^e siècle) (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2014); Matthieu Devigne, L’École des années noires. Une histoire du primaire en temps de guerre (1938–1948) (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2018). On the history of pupils, Jean-François Condette, ‘Pour une histoire renouvelée des élèves (France, XIX^e–XXI^e siècles). Bilan historiographique et pistes de recherche’, Histoire de l’éducation, no. 150 (2018): 73–124; Véronique Castagnet and Jean-François Condette, eds., Histoire des élèves,vol. 1: Parcours scolaires, genre et inégalités (XVIIe–XXe siècles) (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2020); Jérôme Krop and Stéphane Lembré, eds., Histoire des élèves, vol. 2: Ordres, désordres et engagements (XVIe–XXe siècles) (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2020).

¹¹⁵ André D. Robert, ‘Une culture “contre” l’autre: Les idées de l’éducation nouvelle solubles dans l’institution scolaire d’Etat? Autour de la démocratisation de l’accès au savoir’, Paedagogica Historica 42, no. 1–2 (2006): 249–61.

¹¹⁶ Rebecca Rogers, ‘French Variations on the Educational Civilizing Mission (19th–20th Century). Cherchez les missionnaires, cherchez les femmes’, in Van Ruyskensvelde et al., Folds of Past, Present and Future, 179–98.

¹¹⁷ Maurice Edenz, ‘Faire école l’école dans une “vieille colonie”. Un État colonial aux prises avec le monde scolaire de la Guyane Française’ (PhD diss., IEP de Paris, 2018 [dissertation prize, 2019]); Thuy Phuong Nguyen, L’école française au Vietnam de 1945 à 1975. De la mission civilisatrice à la diplomatie culturelle (Amiens: Encrage, 2017).

¹¹⁸ Alexandre Fontaine, Aux heures suisses de l’école républicaine. Un siècle de transferts culturels et de déclinaisons pédagogiques dans l’espace franco-romand (Paris: Demopolis, 2015); Damiano Matasci, ‘L’école républicaine et l’étranger. Acteurs et espaces de l’internationalisation de la “réforme scolaire” en France (1870–première moitié du XXe siècle)’ (PhD diss., Université de Genève/EHESS, 2018 [dissertation prize, 2013]). Matasci’s book subsequently won the 2017 ISCHE prize for the best first book in the history of education.

¹¹⁹ Pierre-Eric Fageol, ‘L’enseignement en situation coloniale et postcoloniale: Perspectives croisées’, special issue, Tsingy, no. 24 (2021): 1–144. A related issue is scheduled for 2022.

¹²⁰ Jean-Noël Luc, Jean-François Condette and Yves Verneuil, Histoire de l’enseignement en France, XIX^e siècle–XXI^e siècle (Paris: Armand Colin, 2020).

¹²¹ Barad, ‘Diffracting Diffraction’, 168.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geert Thyssen

Geert Thyssen is Associate Professor in Educational Sciences at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. His work has centred on health education, school law- and industry-related reform initiatives, body-sensory education, and meaning/sense making in education with a focus on in/equality, inclusion/exclusion, and diversity. He is member of the Executive Committee of the History of Education Society and special section editor of History of Education, and Link Convenor of Network 17 (Histories of Education) of the European Educational Research Association (EERA). He currently studies senses of belonging concerning food- and street music-related education and higher education.

Kristen Nawrotzki

Kristen Nawrotzki teaches at Heidelberg University of Education in Germany. Her work focuses on the history of early childhood education and care in the United States, the UK and transnationally. Her latest book is Reimagining Teaching in Early Twentieth Century Experimental Schools (2020), with Alessandra Hai, Helen May, Larry Prochner and Yordanka Valkanova. She was an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Roehampton Early Childhood Research Centre, is Co-President of the International Froebel Society, and serves on scientific and advisory boards and as a reviewer for international journals, publishers and funding bodies in the history of education, childhood studies and women’s history.

Ana Luísa Paz

Ana Luísa Paz is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education, University of Lisbon, and researcher at the UIDEF – Research and Development Unit in Education and Training. She graduated in History at the University of Lisbon (2000), received a master’s in Sociology – Sociology of Education at the New University of Lisbon (2005) and a PhD in Education – History of Education at the University of Lisbon (2015). She has been involved in individual and team research on Portuguese schooling and literacy, arts education, and pedagogies for higher education, in both historical and comparative perspectives.

Fabio Pruneri

Fabio Pruneri is Full Professor of History of Education at the University of Sassari. His work has focused on the history of school policy in Italy from the eighteenth century to the present day. He is member of the board of Paedagogica Historica, History of Education and several Italian history of education journals. He is currently Principal Investigator of a project of national scope entitled ‘Education and Development in Southern Italy (1861–1914)’.

Rebecca Rogers

Rebecca Rogers is Professor in the History of Education at Université de Paris (France). She is a member of the research laboratory Cerlis. Specialist in the history of French girls’ education, she is also interested in historiography, publishing in English and French. Her publications include A Frenchwoman’s Imperial Story: Madame Luce in Nineteenth-Century Algeria (2013), and an edited volume with Françoise Laot: Les sciences de l’éducation. Émergence d’un champ de recherches dans l’après-guerre (2015). President of ISCHE between 2015 and 2018, she is active on the board of several journals, notably Histoire de l’éducation, Paedagogica Historica and Clio. Femmes, genre, histoire.