10 Documentaries on the History of Education

by Charlotte Rochez

"Above all, documentary must reflect the problems and realities of the present. It cannot regret the past; it is dangerous to prophesy the future. It can, and does, draw on the past in its use of existing heritages but it only does so to give point to a modern argument. In no sense is documentary a historical reconstruction and attempts to make it so are destined to failure. Rather it is contemporary fact and event expressed in relation to human associations."
- Paul Rotha (1935)  

While some might question their academic value, documentaries provide an accessible, relatively popular, window through which to look at the history of education. For many of us a relevant documentary provides an opportunity for a moment of tea, toast and 'guilt-free' TV. Sometimes a documentary sparks a lively debate or new line of academic interest.

Discussing documentaries with friends of the History of Education Society, produced the following sample of ten thought-provoking film recommendations. What would you add? Please share your favourites with us on Twitter and Facebook.

The Ladybird Books Story: How Britain Got the Reading Bug (BBC4 - Timeshift)

Documentary on the creation and popularity of the Ladybird books, provides insights into literacy, learning of the world, and childhood culture of the second half of the twentieth century. Most interesting are the illustrations capturing the 1950s idealisation of childhood. 

The Wellbriety Movement: Journey of Forgiveness

Oral testimonies document the abuses of the Indian Boarding Schools of North America and discuss their ongoing impact experienced as continued intergenerational trauma suffered in native communities.

BBC 4 - Commonwealth on Film: Childhood

A piece of 'imperial nostalgia'. Footage from the mid twentieth century. Segments on connecting teachers and children in rural Canada (school boat, and school rail car) and Australia (radio). Clips of schools in Barbados and Kenya and interviews with Indian school boys.

Hitler's Children (Guido Knopp & ZDF Contemporary History Department)

Five-part documentary on Hitler's harnessing of children in the Third Reich, and their experiences through the Jungvolk, Hitler Youth to the Wehrmacht, SA or SS.

Helen Keller Documentary

Helen Keller born in 1882, suffered an illness as an infant which left her blind and deaf. This documentary tells of her life and how with Anne Sullivan's aid she became able to communicate, growing up to become the first deafblind person to gain a bachelor of arts degree.

British Children at War and Play (The British Council Film Collection) 

1940s footage of children at school and at play and during evacuation. The film provides a window into contemporary educational ideals, including gendered education, a concern for charater development and a high valuation of progressive play-based pedagogy in the early years.

Pink Floyd - The Brick in the Wall Kids

Documentary offers insights into experiences and perceptions of schooling in 1970s and 1980s London. The former pupils of Islington Green School featured on Pink Floyd's 1980 hit, 'Another Brick in the Wall' reflect on their day-to-day experiences of school and growing up and relate the song to their lives. Roger Waters, the song's writer, speaks of the creation and meaning of the song. Best watched in conjunction with 'The Wall' itself.

British Pathé Collection

Not a documentary as such, searching for 'education' or 'schooling' within the Brisith Pathé Collection returns engaging footage from the mid twentieth century.

Human Resources: Social Engineering In The 20th Century  (Metanoia Films)

Scott Noble seeks to expose how modern capitalist states and systems exploit human beings as a resource. The clip below is the film's treatment of modern schooling and its relationship to behaviourism and control, with a strong focus on the work of John Taylor Gatto. The full documentary deals further with the topic of the exploitation of human resources in relation to work, production, war, society and culture.

Sunday Schools: Reading, Writing and Redemption (BBC 4)

Charting the history of the Sunday Schools from their origins helping with literacy for the poor, to their popularity in the Victorian era to their decline in the late twentieth century, this film documents the influence of Sunday Schools upon British culture and education.

Exploring the history of education through pop music

by Charlotte Rochez

“The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with — nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they can add up to the story of a life.” 

― Rob Sheffield, Love is a Mix Tape

Did you ever make a mixtape when you were younger? What memories do those songs bring back? How do they relate to your educational experiences? Do you think your mixtape was similar to others of your generation? Would those songs bring back similar memories for them? A top hit would likely be meaningful to many different people of similar ages, though it may be imbued with distinct recollections.

If, rather than reflecting on your own experience, you were to nominate a song relating to the broader theme of 'education', which would you choose? And if we were to take these collectively, what might such a 'people's playlist' tell us about the history of education over the last 60 years?

Popular music is not only culturally reflective, it may be prophetic, provocative or ameliorative. Charting such a musical history may afford insights into popular perceptions, the creation and proliferation of contemporary ideas and the dialogue between them.

In following playlist of British popular music relating to education we witness the movement of positive associations or reminiscences of schools and teachers to a criticism of the school system, its methods and aims. This is not a simple trajectory; Madness's 'Baggy Trousers' celebrates good times within a flawed system was as a response to Pink Floyd's critical condemnation of schooling in 'Another Brick in the Wall'. Through time similar motives reappear: Busted’s ‘What I go to school for’ sexualises the theme of teacher admiration in Lulu’s ‘To Sir With Love’ and Elton John’s ‘Teacher I need you’; the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘Never Miss a Beat’ echoes Madness’s ‘Baggy Trousers’ in celebration of cheeky youthful defiance, but with young people’s location moved from messing around in school spaces, to playing truant on the streets.

In US music, too, there is a movement from celebrating schools as a place of learning to challenging the pedagogy and curriculum of conventional schooling, and more recently to questioning the impact of social stratification according to popularity on adult life experiences. 

Which songs do feel provide particular insights into the history of education? Share with us on Twitter or Facebook.

Shakespeare on (early) modern education

by Charlotte Rochez

Many are currently celebrating Shakespeare's 450th birthday. A search for Shakespeare quotes on education and school, returned this top ten from the American Shakespeare Center. The quotes indicated how many of our contemporary views on school may be shared by with Tudors, and a possible continuity of educational issues fully spanning the modern eras.

Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson (1881-1955)

By Emma Anthony

To mark our Wellcome Trust funded project, ‘Documenting the Understanding of Human Intelligence’*, which aims to catalogue and preserve the papers of educator and psychologist Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson (1881-1955), Edinburgh University archives and special collections are holding a free seminar at Edinburgh University Library, 16th May 2014.

 Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson (1881-1955)

The seminar programme is a varied one exploring Thomson’s work in Education, Psychology (especially cognitive testing), Statistics, and Eugenics, with academic speakers from each field.  Chaired by Professor Dorothy Meill, Vice Principal and Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science, It will also discuss current scientific research facilitated through data sets left from Thomson’s work, as well as the complexities involved in interpreting and cataloguing the collection itself.

Professor Ian Deary's British Academy Lecture on Thomson

The seminar is free, but please note places must be booked through eventbrite.
Wellcome Trust bursaries for accommodation and travel are available.
For further information, contact Emma.Anthony@ed.ac.uk.

*Funded by the Trust's Research Resources grant scheme under the call 'Understanding the Human Brain'.  Continuing on from the current cataloguing project, we aim to digitise Thomson's papers, and catalogue related papers through the Moray House and University of Edinburgh collections.  We will also be curating an exhibition regarding Thomson's life and work in 2016.

Writing and Academic Space - History of Education Society Annual Student Conference

By Lottie Hoare

News and Call for Papers:

Writing and Academic Space History of Education Society Annual Student Conference

Saturday 5 July 2014, 11am-5pm - University of Nottingham

The title for this years History of Education Society student conference came about after conversations with Nottingham University PhD student, Emma Lautman. Emma offered her university as the venue for our 2014 event, after attending the 2013 HES student conference Witness to Change: sharing student and teacher persepctives which took place at Birmingham University in June 2013. She also suggested that writing should become a central theme for this year’s conference because postgraduates were united by the task of writing – however diverse their history of education subject matter may be. 

We now have two confirmed Keynote speakers for Writing and Academic Space. Dr. Marcella Sutcliffe, a research associate at the University of Cambridge on the AHRC funded project ‘Active Citizenship, Public Engagement and the Humanities: the Victorian Model’ will present a paper: ‘New directions and perspectives for the history of education: A transnational approach’.  Dr. Alison Clark, senior lecturer in Childhood and Youth studies at the Open University, will be presenting a paper: ‘Writing on childhood and place: an exploration of methodological artefacts’. Jonathan Doney (University of Exeter) and Co-editor of the History of Education Researcher will also be running a session on writing for this journal. 

Alongside these events we are announcing a Call for Papers for postgraduate speakers. We are looking for 15-minute presentations from current postgraduate students. There are two panels to which you can contribute: 

1. You can either send a 250 abstract for a 15 minute paper on some aspect of your current research which you would like to share with an audience for feedback or questions – this will come under the heading Research Presentations.
2. Or you can send a 250 word abstract for a 15-minute presentation for the panel 1000 words on a Source. For this panel you need to focus on a single source and bring the source or a representation of it with you on the day. Sources can include for example: photographs, artefacts, exercise books, music/sound/film clips (these need to be short enough to fit into15-minute presentation alongside your 1000 spoken words) or other sources – we are open to suggestions. As with the Research Presentations there will also be time for questions and feedback on your presentation. 

It would be great if you touch on how your work connects with the theme Writing and Academic Space but it does not need to be central to your paper. 

Please send 250 abstracts to Lottie Hoare on chh11@cam.ac.uk by Sunday 18 May 2014. Please mark clearly in your email whether you want to be considered for ‘Research Presentations’ or ‘1000 words on a Source.’ 

We will notify those who are accepted as speakers by the first week of June 2014.

This enables speakers to book advance tickets for Nottingham for travel on 5 July 2014. These inland travel costs will be covered by HES (UK) for speakers, once receipts have been presented. There will be no charge to attend the conference for speakers. A small charge will be asked for non-presenting current HES members who would like to come along – further details will be confirmed in June but it is likely to be in the region of £5 to cover catering costs. 

If you would like to be involved and require further details do get in touch with Lottie Hoare on chh11@cam.ac.uk 

All good wishes Lottie Hoare 

Postgraduate representative, History of Education Society, UK

and co-organisers Emma Lautman (University of Nottingham) and Alice Kirke (IoE)

What's the point of HES blog?

By Charlotte Rochez

It is estimated that only 10 percent of historians share their scholarship in digital form in openly-accessible forms online (Townsend 2010 cited Nawrotzki & Dougherty 2013). In questioning this lack of engagement, and in devising this blog, I listened to historians' discussions on blogging. Their conversations tended to concentrate on the following four questions:

1. Do serious scholars blog?

The digital age is challenging the traditional relationship between forms of publication and academic esteem. Once academic publications were confined to print in monographs, peer-reviewed articles and recited conference papers. Today these modes are being challenged, with academic events hosted in virtual spaces and academic theses published online. Some academic blog posts better resemble journal articles. Others share academic content without 'academic' tone, structure or language. By posting their work online, scholars invite others to respond and are able to use this critical feedback to inform their ongoing research.  Blog posts are useful for scholars who are serious about impact. Open-access blogs, with links, embedded sources and concise writing may enable scholars to publicly share reflections on the latest literature, research, events and findings in their field.

  

2. Don't you need a lot of time and techno-how to blog?

For those who do recognise the benefits of sharing on-going reflections (or full-publications) online, some feel they lack the resources to do so. Whilst new platforms have simplified the process of blog creation and design, for many, the prospect of crafting (and publicising) regular blog posts is a daunting or unrealistic addition to their already strained academic workloads. Multi-contributor blogs offer a much-needed opportunity for writers to create occasional blog posts.

3. Does anyone read blog posts?

Internet entrepreneur Evan Williams recognises that "blogging got the concept of personal publishing, but it didn't really take advantage of the network". Picture yourself sharing your astute reflections openly online only to reach no audience; without publicising your post in relevant online platforms it becomes another message bobbing alone in a sea of unlabelled plastic bottles. The most popular blog-posts serve as articulations sparking, or developing, academic conversations and are linked to interested and engaged communities on social media. 

4. How does publishing online benefit researchers?

Most academics receive little or no profit directly from printed publications. However those profits, and the chances of acceptance for publication, may be increased through demonstrating online interest and engagement. This indicates to publishers (and editors) that there is a market and a means of advertisement for the work. By establishing their presence amongst online academic communities, academics are able to publicise themselves and their work. Melissa Terras found that papers that are tweeted and blogged about have "at least more than 11 times the number of downloads".

How does the HES blog respond to these questions?

The HES blog is an open-access platform for those interested in the history of education to share and discuss our work and to reflect on the work of others. Freed from the demands of creating and regularly updating an individual blog, HES welcomes occasional or one-off contributions. In moving away from the model of individual bloggers seeking to publicise and network their personal publications, HES draws upon its existing network, for both authorship and readership. The blog is linked to the HES website, and its posts are advertised to its twitter followers and facebook fans.

Details on how to contribute a post to this History of Education Society Blog can be found here.