The progressive image in the history of education: stories of two schools

Abstract

This article explores the typology of photographic images of school and schooling used by historians who have developed visual methodologies in their research and scholarship over recent years. The authors consider the question, raised by a number of scholars, concerning the value of image‐based research and the capacity of the visual alone to produce new knowledge aside from other traditional sources. The ‘progressive image’ is discussed as one type of school photograph in the context of a range of other types and the article traces the stories of two schools, known to be progressive and innovative during the mid‐twentieth century through archived imagery. The social relationships forged between educators, artists, photographers and policy makers, known and unknown to the historian, it is suggested are by‐products of the process of considering the progressive image in the history of education, opening up new and potentially rich research agendas for the future.

Notes

1. See the following collections: Grosvenor, Lawn, and Rousmaniere (1999); Special Issue of Paedagogica Historica 36(1) (2000); Special Issue of History of Education 30(2) (2001); Burke (2001); Mietzner, Myers, and Peim (2005); Burke (2007); Margolis (2007b); Grosvenor (in press).

2. See a collection of articles in a special issue of History of Education, Burke (2007).

3. See, for example, Catteeuw et al. (2005). See also a reply to their arguments, Margolis (2007a).

4. For an interesting discussion of methodological approaches concerning function and purpose of visual histories of school, see Thyssen (2007).

5. See Cunningham (2000); see also Snitzer (1964).

6. There has been some innovative work here: see, for example, Ian Grosvenor, Martin Lawn, António Nóvoa, and Kate Rousmaniere. Cf. Smaller (2004).

7. See Spencer (2007).

8. An important intervention here is Catteeuw et al. (2005).

9. See, for example, Meitzner and Pilarcazyck (2005); Peim (2005b).

10. W. Benjamin, cited in Grosvenor, Lawn, and Rousmaniere (2000). See also Grosvenor and Lawn (2001).

11. Lessons without Tears (aka Lessons without Fears), 19 March 1945, British Pathé News, 1215.03.

12. The Prestolee O'Neill Collection consists of three volumes of materials and is deposited at the School of Education, University of East Anglia. There are two volumes of photographs and cuttings and one box containing memos, notes and instructions for the teaching of certain subjects, in O'Neill's hand. The box also contains books on various topics constructed by the children during the 1930s and 1940s.

13. Holmes (1952). Holmes was the nephew of the ex‐Senior Inspector of Schools, Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes (1850–1906) and taught alongside O'Neill at Prestolee in the early years. The Idiot Teacher was reprinted in 1977 by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation for Spokesman Books, Nottingham. For a further discussion of Prestolee and the relationship between Sawyer and O'Neill, see Burke (2005).

14. Terms taken from Livingstone (2003).

15. Sawyer remarked in later life, ‘For many years I had believed that it should be possible to have a school in which pupils worked naturally and did not have to be continuously chivvied along by teachers. In the years 1937 to 1944 I saw such a school in action. It was Prestolee’ (Sawyer and Alder).

16. This relationship has been explored in Burke (2005).

17. Louis Christian Schiller (1895–1976), a former HMI and important promoter of progressive ideals and child‐centred teaching in primary education. Taught maths at Rendcomb School in Gloucestershire (1920–1923), a progressive secondary school run by one of his former teachers, Mr J. H. Simpson. In 1946 Schiller was appointed as the first Staff Inspector for Primary Education, following the reorganisation brought about by the 1944 Education Act. Schiller spent time pursuing his interest in the primary teaching of maths and his enthusiasm for art and movement in education grew. See Schiller (1979).

18. An important essay on the implications of the construction of vast historical online archives of ‘memory’ is Eric Margolis (1999).

19. Schiller certainly knew and valued the work of Franz Cizek, an important figure in revolutionising attitudes and practices around children's art education during the interwar years. See Griffin‐Beale, op.cit, xi.

20. For biographical information on each of these educators, see van der Eyken and Turner (1969).