A Social History of Educational Studies and Research

The character and role of the study of education in the UK have always been contested and often challenged. This book examines the contribution to the study of education that has been made by higher education institutions, journals, textbooks and societies. While key disciplines such as history, sociology, psychology and philosophy have been vital, education has been an unstable coalition of interests rather than a discipline in its own right. This has given rise to tensions that leave it vulnerable to new threats. The study of education has also provided space within the structures of journals, societies and conferences that have allowed the field to survive despite these issues. We discuss the problems and opportunities facing the study of education today, and its prospects of adapting to changes in the decades ahead.

A Social History of Educational Studies and Research examines the development of the study of education in the UK in its broader educational, social and political context since its early beginnings in the first part of the twentieth century. By providing a historical analysis of the contested growth of the field this book examines the significant contribution that has been made by institutions of higher education, journals, text books, conferences, centres, and academic societies. It discusses the problems and opportunities of the field, and its prospects for survival and adaptation to current changes in the decades ahead. The work draws on documentary sources, social network analysis, and interviews with leading figures from across the field.

This book highlights international influences on the development of educational studies and research in the UK, its role in the growing internationalisation of the field as a whole, and also comparisons and contrasts with the nature of the field elsewhere. It relates the development to the wider social, political and economic changes affecting higher education in general and educational studies and research in particular. It addresses the historical development of disciplines in higher education institutions and the nature, extent and limitations of interdisciplinarity.

A Social History of Educational Studies and Research discuss the problems and opportunities facing the study of education today, and its prospects of adapting to changes in the decades ahead. It is a distinctive and original analysis of educational studies and research that provides the first comprehensive study of its type.