Roll of honour: schooling and the Great War 1914–1919

History, 2014

Back in 1995, Daniel Woolf observed that 'the global dominance of Western academic historical practices' has led to a sense, particularly beyond the west, that 'not just history, but historiography. .. has been written by the victors' (D. Woolf, 'Historiography,' New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. M. C. Horowitz (New York, 2005), p. 1). Past dominance can't be rectified even by heroic labour, but the record can be set straight. Nearly twenty years later, as general editor of the five-volume Oxford History of Historical Writing, Woolf has facilitated the critical surveys of materials that readers need to consider the circumstances that have shaped historical thought and practice on a truly global scale. Compiled by an international team of some 150 contributors, this series has already begun to stimulate new research and innovative teaching within and beyond the west, addressing if not correcting, any worries over the intellectual and cultural range of historical practice beyond Europe. Of course any claim to a definitive History seems to presume the timeless authority that authors in this series seek to question. Nevertheless, its broad geographical, chronological and thematic range will encourage a comparative approach to historical thought and practice that can only enrich the many fields that draw on historical writing. Although the chapters in this particular volume focus on the writing of history during a period that witnessed the spread of printing and literacy, many contributors consider textuality with reference to oral, visual and material expression-and to their associated social values. It is a relief to know that the final volume in this series considers the methodological problems that this broad sweep entails. If historians have grown increasingly self-conscious about how we ought to think, teach and write about the past, to say nothing of what we assume of the past of people and places beyond our immediate experience, this volume provides a reassuring resource. The editors have organized this volume geographically, 'by following the sun' as well as by following the invention of written historical records; the chapters (numbering over thirty-three) start with 'Chinese official historical writing under the Ming and Qing' before reaching 'Historical writing in colonial and revolutionary America'. Peter Burke's chapter on the emergence of critical standards for confirming historical bs_bs_banner

2013

This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of …MPhil History…… (insert MCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signed … Paul Methven …………(candidate) Date …18 December 2013 STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own.

History of Education Quarterly, 2005

This paper examines the range of formative influences, within their educational experience, that helped to propel public schoolboys towards volunteering for military service upon the outbreak of the First World War. (Note that in the UK, “public schools” are, confusingly, institutions that are fee-paying and are thus frequented by students born into the upper and upper middle-classes). Based upon research conducted at second-tier English public schools, the work examines the scholastic factors and teaching methods that moulded boys’ characters and attitudes to the extent that responses to a strident call to arms in 1914 were almost universally positive. The areas explored in depth include: the influence of the schools as austere total institutions in the furtherance of manliness and muscular Christianity values; the classroom curriculum – specifically, the indoctrination of national supremacist values and the socialization of positive feelings as to war and ‘glorious death in battle’; the ubiquitous focus upon character development through competitive sports; the effects of religious teaching upon boys’ attitudes to subsequent volunteering; the militaristic impact of the 1908 Officers’ Training Corps scheme. Throughout, the thesis forms connections between deliberately embedded public school character and attitude traits with the requirement, by military recruiters, for similar attributes within their intake of junior officers during the early months of the First World War. Several broad questions are dealt with: for example, how appropriate were sports-embedded qualities to practical subaltern officering? What made the recruitment campaign so successful in securing ex-public school volunteers? How did key elements within the public school environment (e.g. authoritative hierarchy, rules and discipline, monasticism, indoctrinated beliefs) result in volunteering enthusiasm? To help address these (and other) relevant questions, the thesis draws upon the works of specialists within related fields - notably sociologists, linguists and educational experts. In conclusion, the thesis confirms the fact that, and determines how, thousands of ex-public schoolboys were engineered, from an early age,towards serving their country in wartime. Keywords: WW1, "First World War", "Great War", volunteering, recruitment, education, "public schools", OTC, history, geography, classics, athleticism, manliness, "elective reading", Edwardian

Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 2021

In his classic The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), Friedrich Engels argued that workers engaged in industrial action gained knowledge of economic processes, tactical awareness in struggles and grasped the value of solidarity in the face of employers" assaults on pay and working conditions. These struggles constituted "schools of war"; significant learning experiences for workers, argued Engels. Yet schools of war can take other forms, such as struggles against the capitalisation of education; educational institutions becoming sites of capital accumulation and preparation for capitalist work. In this sense, education has become a battleground as its privatisation, commodification, marketisation, commercialisation and monetisation have gathered pace in many countries since the second half of the twentieth century. This article argues that there are two main fronts in the war over the penetration of education by capital in contemporary society: the business takeover of education, as educational institutions become value-and profit-making sites; and the reduction of education to labour-power production. It explores these two fronts of war in terms of education policies in England and Brazil and argues for the establishment of forms of education beyond capitalist states and capital"s commodity forms.

Vox Clamantis, 1917

Ku Hungming critised how the degenerated form of modern European Education, and especially and narrow-minded patriotism instructed by European schools that promoted national interests without a sense of right and wrong, had been the major cause of the first world war and chaos in the modern world. Ku compared also the difference between classical Confucian idea of educastion and modern European education.

School Wars: The Battle for Britain's Education by Melissa Benn Biteback Publishing, RRP £12.99 review by Tim Barton published in Hastings Independent, issue #71, 03.03.17

2014

Evidence found in The New York Times from 1939 to 1945 and corroborating sources are used to demonstrate the impact of the Second World War on the progressive educational movement. We posit that December 7, 1941 initiated the waning of the progressive education movement in the secondary social studies curriculum. Progressive education emphasized a child-centered, experiential curriculum, an issues-centered approach to learning, and a critical analysis of society. Our findings indicate that the educational climate during the Second World War initiated a shift from questioning American institutions to celebrating them. Education became more centralized and many educational organizations were mobilized to support the war effort. Specifically, the secondary social studies curriculum became one of several propaganda vehicles in support of the war. In addition, colleges and universities became training grounds for teachers, defense workers, and soldiers. A war on the home front ensued. Th...

Education constitutes a central part of every political system, as it provides the mental basis for a next generation of citizens. The same applies for the Habsburg Monarchy; the very idea of Empire was already planted in the minds of young girls and boys who attended school in Austria, Hungary, or another part of the monarchy. This paper explores in what way the Empire was present in school reports of two Austria-Hungarian girls’ schools between 1910 and 1918. It is shown that attempts to further patriotism and patriotic activities in schools increased at the outbreak of WWI and were indeed successful in mobilizing students for the Empire's purposes. Students of the Girls' Lyceum in Znaim and the Luithlen Lyceum in Vienna contributed to the war effort by performing various tasks for the Habsburg Empire.