The History of Education as History of Knowledge

The History of Education as History of Knowledge brings together international scholars to explore how the emerging field of the history of knowledge can enrich the well-established history of education. While recent research in the history of knowledge has examined actors, practices, and institutions of knowledge, this volume is the first to focus systematically on sources and methodologies within the context of education.

Covering the modern period, the chapters investigate a wide range of case studies—from kindergartens and teachers’ associations to philosophical societies and transnational transfers of solidified knowledge. Together they demonstrate how shifting perspectives on sources and methods allow historians to examine knowledge in its plural forms: produced, mediated, contested, and circulated within and beyond educational institutions.

Emphasizing how knowledge is bound up with power relations, this book shows how hierarchies of gender, class, race, and ethnicity have shaped what counts as educational knowledge and how it is transmitted. In addition to empirical studies, contributors critically reflect on methodological approaches drawn from intellectual history, sociology of knowledge, praxeology, discourse analysis, and science and technology studies.

This book will appeal to scholars, students, and teachers in educational history, the history of knowledge, and related fields, and will serve as an orientation for early career researchers.