Structures and systems and bodies and things: historical research on primary schooling and its professional relevance

Abstract

Recalling its origins as a research journal addressing educationists this article seeks to understand historical research published in History of Education as aimed at a professional audience. Primary schooling provides a significant focus as the study of education history was fostered especially in the training of elementary teachers.1 In that context a traditional strand of research on structures and systems is recognised for its past achievements and continuing importance. At the same time this account identifies and welcomes continuing innovations in research focus and research method, but asks about potential audiences in the field and argues the importance of reaching a wider professional readership. Over the lifetime of the journal History of Education, political, cultural and institutional contexts have changed along with changing research methodologies. These parallel shifts suggest that the character of research in our field is not simply the product of autonomous intellectual currents but part of a larger pattern of change that embraces schooling. Recognition of this fact should remind educationists of the value of applying their historical research to elucidating current issues. A marked trend in the lifetime of History of Education has been its increasingly international scope, and examples of research on elementary and primary education from Paedagogica Historica are referred to for comparison. 1‘Primary’ here refers to the contemporary context, ‘elementary’ to the historical. These two contrasting terms are often found interchangeably in the literature, with regard to historical time and to geographical location, in some cases varying as descriptors of ‘education’ on the one hand or ‘schools’ on the other. Various usages in the course of this article reflect terms used by authors whose works are referred to, or their application at different times and in different countries. ‘Elementary’ was succeeded by ‘primary’ as a statutory definition in the UK in 1944, but remains the preferred term in the USA, Japan and France, ‘Grundschule’ or ‘grundskola’ in Germany and Sweden, with ‘primary’ prevailing in Spain, Portugal and Italy.