How historians began to take over the history of education as carried on by professors of education is analyzed as an instance of academic imperialism by a Professor of the Sociology of Education at the University of Southern California. He sees here a social movement going through stages of unrest, popularization, formalization, and institutionali zation. The Old Order, initially responding defensively, may turn toward self-revitalization by accepting some of the ideas of the New Order.
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References
1.
* Revised version of a paper presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association on September 2, 1964 in Montreal, Canada.
2.
See Calvin W Stillman, "Academic Imperialism and Its Resolution ," American Scientist, 43 (January, 1955), pp. 77-88, for a discussion of mterdisciplinary encounters between anthropology and economics.
3.
Charles H. Page, "Sociology as a Teaching Enterprise," in Robert L. Merton, Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr., editors, Sociology Today: Problems and Prospects. New York: Basic Books, 1959, pp. 582-583.
4.
For a discussion of Cubberley's work as an educational historian, see chapter 7 of Jesse B. Sears and Adin D. Henderson, Cubberley of Stanford and His Contribution to American Education. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1957.
5.
See Lawrence A. Cremin, "The Recent Development of the History of Education as a Field of Study in the United States," History of Education Journal, 7 (Fall, 1955), pp. 1-35.
6.
Arthur E.Bestor, Educational Wastelands. The Retreat from Learning in Our Publ c Schools . UrbanaUniversity of Illinois Press, 1953.
7.
Patil H. Buck, et al., The Role of Education in American History. New York: Fund for the Advancement of Education, 1957, p. 2
8.
Some examples are the Carnegie, Kellogg, and Russell Sage Foundations, the Office of Education, and, particularly for historians, the Fund for the Advancement ot Education of the Ford Foundation.
9.
Rue Bucher and Anselm Strauss, "Professions in Process," American Journal of Sociology , 66 (January, 1961), p. 326.
10.
Rue Bucher "Pathology: A Study of Social Movements within a Profession," Social Problems, 10 (Summer, 1962 ), pp. 40-44.
11.
On a much grander scale, Barber has suggested that for the last three or four hundred years, science has been a vast social movement, displacing other ideas and capturing the influential social positions in education and government once held by humanism. "It has been a social movement in somewhat the same way that a variety of enthusiastic religious and ideological movements have been, winning new scope and influence for their ideas." See Bernard Barber, "Tension of Accommodations between Science and Humanism," The American Behavioral Scientist, 7 (November, 1963), p. 7.
12.
Bucher, op. cit., p. 51.
13.
Herbert Blumer, "Social Movements," in A. M. Lee , editor, Principles of Sociology. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1951, p. 199.
14.
C. Wendell King, Social Movements in the United States. New York: Random House, 1956, pp. 25-27.
15.
Ralph H. Turner and Lewis M. Killian , Collective Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1957, p. 309.
16.
Carl A. Dawson and Warner E. Gettys, An Introduction to Sociology. New York. Ronald, 1948, pp. 689-709.
17.
Bernard Bailyn , Education in the Forming of Amer can Society . Needs and Opportunities for Study. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960, pp 8-9.
18.
Ibid, p. 9.
19.
Bernard Bailyn , "Education as a Discipline: Some Historical Notes," in John Walton and James L. Kuethe, editors, The Discipline of Education. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1963, p. 131.
20.
Frederick Rudolph , The American College and University: A History . New York: Alfred Knopf, 1962, p. 501.
21.
Wilson Smith , "The New Historian of American Education: Some Notes for a Portrait," Harvard Educational Review, 31 (Spring, 1961), p. 139.
22.
Rudolph, op. cit., p. 497. It is true that most past effort by historians in educational history has been limited to higher education.
23.
Oscar Handlin , "Introductory Note," Harvard Educational Review (Spring, 1961), p. 121
24.
Buck, op. cit., pp. 5-6.
25.
Richard Hofstadter and Wilson Smith, American Higher Education: A Documentary History, Vol. I, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1962 , p. vii.
26.
For a list of several research projects in progress, see Smith, op. cit, p. 140, foctnote 6.
27.
Buck, op. cit., p. 16.
28.
Bailyn in Walton and Kuethe, op. cit, p. 143.
29.
Wilson Smith, "Comments," in Walton and Kuethe, op. cit, p. 143.
30.
The 1964 president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer of the History of Education Society, and the editor of the History of Education Quarterly, were all professors of education.
31.
The December, 1963 membership list of the History of Education Society lists 240 members. Only 25 of the persons listed are also listed in the 1963 "History" volume of the Directory of American Scholars. Of that 25, 15 could be classified primarily as educators on the basis of one or more of the following biographical criteria: (1) a doctor's degree in education, (2) a professorship in education, (3) membership in the National Society of College Teachers ot Education and/or extensive memberships in other education oriented associations. Thus only about 10 of the current members of the History of Education Society can be classified primarily as historians. (Directory of American Scholars: A Biographical Directory. Vol. I : History. Edited by the Jaques Cottrell Press.Fourth edition, New York, R. R. Bowker Company, 1963.)
32.
Editorial, "Perspectives," History of Education Quarterly, 1 (December, 1961), p. 2.
33.
Lawrence A Cremin , The Transformation of the School. Progressivism in American Education, I876-I957. New York. Alfred Knopf, 1961
34.
, and Raymond E. Callahan.Education and the Cult of Efficiency: A Study of the Social Forces that have Shaped the Administration of the Public School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
35.
Editorial, "Perspectives," History of Education Quarterly, 3 (March, 1963), p. 2
36.
Paul Nash, "History of Education," Review of Educational Research , 34 (February, 1964), pp. 5-6.
37.
William W. Brickman, "Revisionism and the Study of the History of Education," History of Education Quarterly, 4 (December, 1964), pp. 216-218.
38.
Ibid., p 220
39.
In general, most educationists seem to believe that beyond historical training, knowledge of and/or experience in the field of education is also invaluable. For example: "It is difficult to do a really accurate and meaningful study in educational history, especially of the United States, if one has not been exposed to the joys and sorrows of daily classroom teaching; contact with children, adolescents, and parents; c operation or conflict with supervisors, administrators, boards of education, and tl e community at large; and a multitude of other experiences which enable the historian to comprehend and appreciate the inner development of education." (William W. Brickman, Guide to Research in Educational History. New York: New York University Bookstore, 1949, p. 215.)
40.
Newton Edwards and Herman G Richey, The School in the American Social Order . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947, p. xii
41.
For a list and discussion of other such textbooks, see Bernard Mehl, "New Writings and the Status of the History of Education," History of Education Journal, 8 (Spring, 1957), pp. 108-111.
42.
Bucher, op. cit , p. 50.
43.
See Stillman, op. cit., p. 77.
44.
For a discussion of differential commitment to disciplines, see Howard S. Becker and James S. Carper, "The Development of Identification with an Occupation," American Journal of Sociology, 61 (January, 1956), pp. 289-298.
