Visual History

Addressing questions about representation, this book critically explores the potential of different types of visual material to illuminate historical studies. The contributions in this collection range from explorations of picture schemes used in 19th century classrooms to contemporary popular representations of schooling. Film and photographic images are considered in specific contexts, presenting case studies along with theoretical reflections about methods, values and the very nature of historical studies. Images are examined in children’s literature, in the induction of history of education students, in the recreation of past practices and in the promotion of government policies. Visions of education are put alongside discussion of ‘the visual turn’, its value to historians, its relations with questions about the construction of knowledge and the archive. A range of positions on the visual are represented in the collection. Without presenting an orthodoxy the book aims to promote new awarenesses of this important aspect of education history and the issues it raises.