What is the History of Education?
Generally, the history of education adopts a broad definition of education. It is concerned both with how historical meanings have been invented and passed on to others as well as with how children get socialized into adult roles. In this respect it intersects with cultural and intellectual history, political history, history of childhood and youth, women’s and ethnic history. Its subject matter ranges from an examination of the origin and development of particular educational practices and institutions to people’s experiences (both as children and adults) in formal schools (whether elementary, secondary, tertiary, public or private) and in informal settings such as in the home, in adult literacy programs or in child-care initiatives. As a field the history of education is informed by insights from other disciplines including sociology, political science, women’s studies, ethnic and racial studies, cultural studies, curriculum studies and higher education.
The history of education is also a subfield of the social foundations of education, an area concerned with understanding education as a social and cultural phenomena. As a result, the educational past attracts the interest of scholars in multiple settings, whether in departments of history or faculties of education, in schools, museums, or other popular organizations, both in Canada and in other countries.