History of Education Society

The History of Education Society grew from the intellectual ferment and institutional transformations in the field of the history of education. Although some work in this area had been done in the late nineteenth century, Ellwood P. Cubberley and Paul Monroe formalized history of education as an academic subject with their institutional, proselytizing style during the first half of the twentieth century. As a service course for prospective classroom teachers, history of education extolled the institutional evolution of the public school system and portrayed it as an inevitable outcome of consensus forged by a democratic society.

This field of study first assumed institutional form in 1948, when the History of Education Section appeared under the auspices of the National Society for College Teachers of Education, with the History of Education Journal (HEJ) serving as its official organ and Claude Eggertson as editor. A stormy debate erupted in the 1950s over the intellectual mission of educational history—utilitarian versus scholarly—virtually paralyzing that organization. In 1957, the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education formed the Committee on the Role of Education in American History in order to move educational history closer to academic history, a scholarly approach rather than an institutional narrative, a broad history of education instead of a narrow history of public schools.

The History of Education Society, an independent organization, replaced the Section in 1960. This represented more than simple institutional displacement; it symbolized the field's emergence as a legitimate area of research. The History of Education Quarterly the society's “scholarly journal,” replaced HEJ the following year. The journal was based at the University of Pittsburgh, with Ryland W. Crary as its first editor. The Quarterly reflected the intellectual undercurrents of the society as it moved to New York University, Indiana University, Slippery Rock University, and the University of Illinois, with Henry J. Perkinson, Paul H. Mattingly, James McLachlan, B. Edward McClellan, William J. Reese, Richard J. Altenbaugh, and James D. Anderson serving as editors at various times.

Another significant scholarly metamorphosis occurred during the 1970s. Revisionist historians introduced the concept of conflict and challenged education historians to reevaluate the role of public schooling in democratic America, generally dismissing it as a source of political, social, and economic liberation and intellectual and personal growth. Debates over the revisionist view dominated the society's annual meetings and the pages of its journal. By the late twentieth century, the field had expanded its scope, analysis, and research methods, revealing a [Page 412]mature and vibrant subject. It transcended the mere history of schooling by emphasizing the educational functions of other cultural institutions, like the family, religion, and media, among others.

The society began a long-term affiliation with the International Conference for the Study of the History of Education in 1988. Incorporated in 1994 as a nonprofit organization, the society holds its annual meetings in different regions of North America, often sponsored with local associations like the Midwest History of Education Society, Southern History of Education Society, and Canadian History of Education Society. The History of Education Society offers a variety of prizes that recognize noteworthy, scholarly contributions.

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