School Memory: Historiographical Balance and Heuristics Perspectives

Abstract

Educational historians developed an interest in “school memory” as a historical object in the early years of the 21st century thanks to a deep renewal of the epistemological fundaments and heuristic objectives in this field of study, accompanied by the growing attention afforded by generalist historians to the politics of memory and the public use of history. But what exactly do we mean by “school memory”? This paper aims to provide an initial and of necessity fairly broad overview of individual, collective and/or public practices involved in the commemoration of the school past. The spread of the heuristic spectrum of the “school memory”, seen as a historical process rather than merely as a historical source, has changed our perspective significantly because it is no longer just a testimony of the school past, it is a new object of study for the historian, who sees it not simply “from within” (i.e. what school was like, or at least how it portrayed itself), but also “from without” (i.e. how it was perceived by the elite and the people). Thus “school memory” can be used to explore a potential new focus for historical research in education, namely the social perception of education, schooling and teaching. In fact, studying the ways in which these phenomena are recalled and portrayed will not only reveal to us the effective social and cultural dimension of this historical phenomenon, it will also help us to define the reasons behind some of the cliches that still beset the school archetype.