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Education played a vital role in the shifting nature of colonial administration and the reshaping of colonial relations in the nineteenth century. The activities that occurred within classrooms shaped the behaviour and identity of children towards an imperial norm while beyond the school walls the changing management structure tied various local actors together within state regulations. This paper examines the process of centralising education in Trinidad. While influenced by the model of nationalised education emerging in white-settler colonies, the constellation of local relations resulted in something uniquely different. Reforms in Trinidad demonstrate how colonial governance was reshaped by co-opting non-state actors into its functioning but had to ensure that those actors maintained their field of independent actions to do so. While educational reforms took a unique path in Trinidad, the expanding influence from the colonial centre eventually shaped the education system to align with other systems elsewhere in the Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of school inspection in the early (1861–1910) professionalisation of Swedish elementary school teachers. International research on school inspection has focused on educational reform, but rarely on the role of inspection in teachers' theoretical and practical development. The paper's theoretical assumption is that school inspection was initiated by the Swedish state as part of its effort to professionalise teaching in the 1860s. Using inspectors' reports, the paper examines two specific areas: (1) the quality of teaching observed in the classroom and inspectors' recommendations for improvement, and (2) the development of teachers' seminars and continuous pedagogic development. The results demonstrate that, although faced with various challenges, inspectors contributed to teacher development, indicating the benefit of state intervention in elementary school education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the relation between society, science and institutionally-embodied higher education reform in nineteenth-century Ireland. Institutional reform is measured in terms of governance, curriculum, access and teaching practice. Superiorisation, subversion and fusion are identified as characteristics of reformed institutions. Mobile professional elites are viewed as agents of institutional reform. The institutions examined are Trinity College, Mechanics Institutes, the Museum of Irish Industry, Royal College of Science, Queen's Colleges, Catholic University, Royal University, and the National University of Ireland. Historians of education have frequently tended to write commemorative histories of individual institutions. This writer's interest resides less in the institutions per se than in tracing their popular roots and assessing their often strained inter-relationships which qualified their progress and which was conditioned by government's imperative to manage consensus in the changing milieu within which they operated. As such the paper contributes to much-needed research into the university as 'a societal phenomenon'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians have observed that the period 1860-1890 was educationally progressive. This paper identifies the renaissance with the creation of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland in the aftermath of Church Disestablishment. Disestablishment legislation facilitated the inclusion of the laity in Synod. The paper argues that the lay-clerical dynamic generated educational reform at all levels of provision. Post-Reformation denominational divisions qualify the discussion. The structure of Synod - General Synod, Diocesan Synods, Boards of Education and Education Committees - was the outcome of an intense debate as the post-Disestablishment Church of Ireland sought to reinvent itself. The 'art' of the title refers to Synod's adroit use of this structure in promoting educational reform that mitigated tensions surrounding the religious-secular conflict which characterised Irish post-Famine modernisation. Synod's role as agent of educational reform constitutes the theme. The paper aims to contribute to what, regretfully, remains an undeveloped historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on nineteenth-century theories according to which intellectual disabilities find expression in physical impairment. Such theories became widespread in Switzerland due to the growing interest in a condition then called 'cretinism' – a specific form of 'idiocy' in the course of which mental and physical disintegration went hand in hand. The first institution for 'cretinic' children initially achieved considerable fame. However, it eventually failed completely, leading to a loss of interest in 'cretinism'. Interestingly, the specific body–mind connection that was associated with 'cretinism' did not vanish; instead, it became important in the context of another intellectual disability that gained attention after the mid-nineteenth century: 'idiocy'. Physical aspects became the main criteria for identifying 'idiotic' children in order to allocate them to special educational measures. The paper argues that the connection of an 'abnormal' mind to an impaired body allowed for the popularisation of knowledge regarding 'idiotic' children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of William Graham Brooke as advocate of women’s higher education and access to university. His work as advocate is considered against the religious, political, social and economic backdrop of late nineteenth century Ireland. A barrister, as Clerk in the Lord Chancellor’s office, he was centrally involved in the organisation of Anglican schooling as part of a broader Irish-Church re-structuring in the wake of its Disestablishment (1869). For Brooke, education, including the education of women, constituted a single project; it was also a public project. He was ideally positioned to execute his role as advocate: descending from a family with a long tradition of involvement in Church education, Brooke had a thorough knowledge of the problems confronting women in education and in the workplace. The paper traces how Brooke, in a largely male-dominated society, exploited the relationships between the various bodies with which he had close connections to enable women to fruitfully engage with these same bodies in order to facilitate their access to university. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Issues associated with school absenteeism have attracted considerable attention and have long been one of the focal points of government strategies for school improvement. Pupil non-attendance is not a new phenomenon and featured prominently in Her Majesty’s Inspectors’ reports from 1839. This paper outlines the patterns of and influences on elementary education in early Victorian industrial Monmouthshire during the period 1839–1865. The twin problems of irregular attendance and early withdrawal of pupils are discussed together with the limitations and unreliability of contemporary statistics. An examination of the reasons for absence is then discussed together with the remedies proposed to alleviate the problem with particular reference to the contribution of the Prize Schemes. The paper illustrates the disadvantages of basing an educational system on voluntary endeavour and enlightened self-interest and highlights the paradox that, despite the introduction of mandatory attendance, the problem is still persistent and protracted and finding definitive solutions still remains elusive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1855 the Revd C. E. Van Koetsveld established his ‘School for Idiots’ in The Hague. Within two years, he had also opened a boarding facility that accommodated many of his pupils. Legal regulations demanded authorisation for a child to be placed in this asylum. This procedure included a questionnaire on the condition of the child. The paper discusses the analysis of data included in the files of 187 children admitted to Van Koetsveld’s institution between 1857 and 1873. In an earlier examination of these data, the author was intrigued about what could be inferred from these data. In this paper the same question is addressed from a new angle by applying the theoretical and methodological perspective of ‘praxeography’. This approach reveals the logic behind the process of inscribing characteristics on vulnerable children. Moreover, the analysis shows how children’s inner worlds were opened up for further examination and social intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The separation of examining from teaching, pushed furthest in the ‘examining university’ of which London University, founded in 1836, was the model, was a much-debated principle in nineteenth-century Britain. This separation was generally rejected in Scotland, but only after complex controversies that illustrate how Scots defined their university tradition in comparative terms, and how Scottish developments interacted with those in England and Ireland. Among the issues involved were proposals for a National University or central examining board, and claims that graduates should have a right to give ‘extramural’ teaching in competition with professors. The paper traces this aspect of university reform in Scotland from the 1820s to the 1890s, and argues that the professorial model and the integration of teaching and examining were successfully consolidated and defended. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on teaching manuals, government reports and school inspectors' reports from the 1830s up to the early twentieth century, this paper traces the changing conceptual and social distance between childhood and adulthood in Ireland. Using Norbert Elias's figurational approach, it is argued that children became increasingly involved in both unplanned civilising processes and deliberate civilising missions framed by state functionaries, religious elites and pedagogic experts. Young children were civilised in the broader context of unintentional, but ordered social processes developing over the course of the nineteenth century. While both pupils and teachers were at first addressed and depicted in similar ways, a growing social and cultural differentiation between adult and child gradually developed. This is related to the increasing status of teachers, their position as civilising agents of the state, and the gradual acceptance by elites that Irish teachers of humble social origins had become more emotionally self- controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English painter Barbara Bodichon received a dynamic home education, consisting of engaging lessons, reading sessions, family discussions, sketching excursions, and trips at home and abroad. As an adult, Bodichon led a nomadic life, living between Algeria and England and travelling across Europe and America. Seeking to unpack travelling and travel letters as sources of learning, this paper studies Bodichon’s correspondence as epistolary articulations of herBildung(self-cultivation). It argues that, conforming toBildung’s idea of forging one’s individuality in interaction with the world, her travelling provided her with a variety of settings through which she extended towards the unknown and incorporated it into her sense of being. In turn, letters functioned as forums where she made sense of encountering the difference through which she individualised her subjectivity. Notwithstanding, a revised reading ofBildungpermits teasing out to what extent Bodichon’s self-cultivation was developed at the expense of certain social categories. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to analyse the cultural values of Spanish liberalism, this paper describes the prohibition of corporal punishment in secondary education. The evolution of education laws and codes during the nineteenth century reveals great hope and confidence in building up an academic authority based exclusively on the power of reason and capable of ruling an ordered society. However, the study of documents found in the Instituto de Valencia historical archives highlights the difficulty of maintaining discipline as well as managing the political motivations of rebellious students, who demanded more autonomy from the academic authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several European countries were unable to match student numbers with labour market demand during the nineteenth century. The causes of this mismatch may be found in the organisation of higher education and the funding of students. Drawing on a variety of sources, this paper compares financial support available to Reformed and Catholic theology students in The Netherlands, to examine how differences in student funding affected enrolment and labour-market patterns. While low tuition fees increased access to the public universities, generous student financing provided by numerous parties caused a structural oversupply of Protestant theology students. The private Catholic colleges instead selected students and applied grants specifically to encourage graduation, consequently balancing students more closely with labour-market demand. This relative success of regional colleges over national universities mirrors the primary education history literature on the benefits of local coordination and resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides new evidence on the advance of literacy in Spain during the period 1860–1930. A novel dataset, built with historical information from the Spanish population censuses (over 8000 municipalities), enables this process to be described in detail from the end of the Ancien Régime to the Second Republic. The study thus presents stylised facts at a very low level of geographic aggregation, thereby permitting a closer examination of the main patterns. Overall, spatial differences in literacy were sizeable during the whole nineteenth century. Furthermore, these disparities were only significantly reduced between 1900 and 1930 when the growing demand for these basic skills was met by stronger government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to situate the teaching body of the écoles d'arts et métiers in their historical context in nineteenth-century France, and to discuss the history of the specificity of teaching in technical schools. The success of this form of vocational education is commonly ascribed to the prominence it gave to manual work. This explanation, however, fails to acknowledge the role played by the general education teachers and workshop foremen and deputy-foremen. An analysis of the information contained in a wide number of archival documents is of interest for three main reasons. First, it dispels the myth of vocational training based exclusively on a 'hands-on' approach to tools and machinery. Second, the documents can be used to reconstruct the career paths of college teachers. Finally, such an analysis rehabilitates the activities of this provincial teaching body, whose pedagogy, scientific production and work to promote a technical education played an important role in the development of basic vocational training in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyse how the emerging Swedish school system in the early nineteenth century can be understood within the context of a gradual break-up of the estate society and its replacement with a class society in which citizenship was an important foundation. This is done through the discussion of the conceptions of citizenship on two levels. The first is the national level, focusing the national debate on education, and the second is the local level, investigating the local schools and the school setting. The main result is that the conceptions of citizenship in the school context were formed along two major lines: an inclusive social and civil citizenship and an exclusive, active and political citizenship. Consequently, the emerging Swedish school system simultaneously fostered these two citizenship conceptions, which coexisted in an educational system that was able to cast pupils as either subjects (comprehensive citizenship) or agents (designated citizenship). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absconditi Viscus(orHidden Entries) is a series of sound compositions based on the history of Birmingham School of Art during the First World War. Sound artist Justin Wiggan explored the concept of historical sonic information that although lost could still potentially permeate the archival record and the fabric of the school building. Each sound piece has also been synchronised with brainwave frequencies in order to stimulate a listener’s brain activity in an attempt to connect them with the time period, the physical building and the emotional impact of the war. This creative, experimental – and potentially controversial – assertion of phonic excavations and sonic mining as method challenges us to rethink both affect and the archival record in relation to the history of education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The children of navvies were subject to the vagaries of an itinerant lifestyle, and during the latter years of the nineteenth century this invariably affected their relationship with an educational system that mandated compulsory attendance. Based primarily on school records, this article explores the contrasting ways in which teachers perceived navvy children who were admitted to a number of schools during the construction of one particular railway in the mid-1890s. Perceptions concerning the children’s behaviour, attendance, abilities and educational progress, together with evidence of the treatment they received, are considered in the context of contemporary attitudes towards the navvy community and aspects of the navvy lifestyle. The admission of navvy children also had logistical implications for schools, and these are assessed in terms of the pressures placed upon financial resources and teaching staff. This illustrates the disparity that could exist between small rural schools and larger schools in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the years around 1900, more women were benefiting from a university education and using it as a pathway to acquiring research expertise and contributing to the development of scientific knowledge. Although numbers were small compared with men, it is clear that the idea of a female researcher was no longer an oddity. As illustrated by biographies and an analysis of three fictional texts featuring a female scientist, the increasing visibility of women did little to challenge the masculine colouring of science. A dissonance can be identified between femininity and science, even in settings sympathetic to a woman’s scientific activities. Particular unease is discernible when women are placed within the material culture of the laboratory. The problem of a woman embodying scientific authority, especially at a time when science was professionalising and institutionalising, adds an additional layer of complexity to discussions about women, science and education in these years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the circulation of a single artefact, the Museu Escolar Brasileiro (Brazilian School Museum) and its use in education through the pedagogical method of object lessons. Concentrating on the activities of particular individuals and enterprises (Menezes Vieira, Oliveira Lopes and Maison Deyrolle), within three geographical spaces (Brazil, Portugal and France), this article seeks to explore the relationship between the national and the international in educational proposals and initiatives that emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. The approach adopted also allows connections between the history of education and the history of science during this period to be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A three-year-old boy, born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1892, lived the final months of his life in an abusive foster home. His death barely made a ripple in the press, and the system proved unable or unwilling to deal with much of the most disturbing evidence about the perpetrators of abuse. This article argues that cases like this one are more than just historical curiosities. They expose abuse that so often lay hidden from the public gaze, and reveal important information about how and why it was allowed to occur. Such cases demand the historian’s attention, not because they are scandalous stories, but because they are sites of historical injustice. They also provide opportunities to understand why systems intended to protect children can fail them so badly, a question that remains pertinent today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1831, the British Government decided to become directly involved in the provision of elementary education in Ireland, a country over which it then had jurisdiction. By European standards of the time this was a highly unusual step. A number of scholars have interrogated the factors that led to this outcome as well as the role played by various individuals. Daniel O’Connell’s activities, at this time, have been described as relatively limited, which appears incongruous given that he is considered the most powerful Irish politician of this era and was then at the height of his powers. It is the central contention of this article that O’Connell was, in fact, intimately involved in bringing about a national system of elementary education. Of more lasting significance is the manner in which he defined the role of the politician vis-à-vis the Church authorities in educational policy-making. In this regard he established a pattern that remained unchanged for over a century and indeed, it could be argued, largely persists to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In research on the development of a nineteenth-century ‘science for the people’, initiatives by scientists or people well-trained in science has been emphasised, while the writings, roles and initiatives of elementary teachers are normally just mentioned in passing. In this study the development of nineteenth-century elementary science textbooks is analysed. While practitioners and popularisers of science established the genre as such, writing the first textbooks on elementary science and arguing for its place in elementary education, elementary teachers were prime movers in developing the genre both pedagogically and scientifically. In doing this they not only contributed to further strengthening the cultural status of science in late nineteenth-century Sweden but most probably strengthened the elementary teaching profession as a whole, formulating the expertise of the teacher in relation to elementary science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the management of the education enterprise of teaching Sisters, with reference to their transnational networking. The article suggests that orders of women religious were the first all-female transnational networks, engaged constantly in work that was characterised by ‘movement, ebb and circulation’. The mobility of teaching Sisters is framed within a discussion of three interconnected features of their global networking: the management of transnational recruitment networks, the advantageous use of international travel networks, and the movement of resources around the world. The article draws on sources from convent archives in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA that throw light on the transnational networking of women religious around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emergence of mass schooling is undoubtedly one of the most significant transformations that took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This article takes a new approach to this fundamental issue by analysing the historical conditions required for the construction of school buildings and the advent of mass schooling, in the 1840–1900 period. Using the school building process as a point of departure, the growth of schooling is tied not only to well-known factors such as industrialisation, state formation processes and the decentralisation of school systems, but also to the expansion of the market economy, modernisation of the credit market, liberalisation of the real property market, changes in local tax systems, and the expansion of the building materials market. Thus, a broader and largely novel explanation of the emergence of mass schooling is accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Orleans Tribune (1864–1870), the first black daily newspaper in the United States, was the singular text in the public South at its time to staunchly advocate for public, integrated education, anticipating the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, and arguing that separate education would always be synonymous with unequal education and would reinforce the mark of inferiority already placed upon blacks by slavery. This article argues that the Tribune grounded its argument against segregated education in logos-centred rhetoric that focused specifically on combating the dominant discourse of white supremacy and black inferiority embedded in the emerging ideology of scientific racism. The Tribune defended against the divisive rhetoric of the newly forming eugenics movement and instead posed public, integrated education as a necessary prerequisite to rebuilding a nation destroyed by the Civil War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians have frequently referred to the British Association for the Advancement of Science as an institution that had the professionalisation of British science as its chief aim. This article seeks to complicate this picture by asking what, if any, concept of ‘professionalisation’ would have been understood by nineteenth-century actors. In particular, it seeks to move away from traditional functionalist understandings of professionalisation, as the possession of specialist knowledge and expertise, and consider instead broader definitions, which incorporate the power relationships and identities constructed through discourses of professionalisation. It argues that it was just as important for professional scientists in nineteenth-century Britain to possess a particular type of character (independent, rational, self-controlled) closely identified with popular ideals of elite masculinity and developed through a thorough scientific education. It also reinterprets the growing popularity of scientific internationalism, with its emphasis on the independence of the scientist (from state control) as a crucial part of this masculinising discourse of professionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]