Pieter Verstraete

Towards a Disabled Past: Some preliminary thoughts about the history of disability, governmentality and experience

In this article a humble attempt is made to bridge the gap between the history of education and the philosophy of education with reference to what has been called Disability Studies since the 1980s. After outlining some of the internal tensions within New Disability History concerning ‘critique’, ‘power’ and ‘history’ the suggestion is made to consider the possibilities of the word ‘experience’ in order to construct a ‘new’ way of approaching the past. Our reading of history will draw heavily on some texts of Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault and some contemporary authors who—inspired by the work of the above‐mentioned—attempt to reconsider our modern subjectivity and reinterpret our agency.

Living in the Presence of Others: Towards a Reconfiguration of Space, Asylum and Inclusion.

One of the core characteristics of inclusionary discourses and practices is their emphasis on living in the presence of others. Despite this self-evident character, the question of what is understood by living in the presence of others only sporadically has been the object of critical inquiry. By turning ourselves towards Stengers’ conceptual figure of the idiot and the work of a rather unknown French educator Fernand Deligny, we – opposed to what contemporary scholars and professionals tend to think – will argue that space still occupies an important role in inclusive discourses and practices. Deligny’s remarkable reappraisal of the word ‘asylum’ in particular seems fruitful in order to think the relations between space, inclusion and living in the presence of others anew. In line with Stengers’ idiot, Deligny’s polishing of the word ‘asylum’ leads to an alternative presentation of inclusion as something which has to do with creating (1) spatial interstices in one’s own thinking while living in the presence of others, and (2) places where the other can find refuge against the dominant languages of divergent contemporary professionals and disciplines.

THE POLITICS OF ACTIVITY: EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES BETWEEN 1750 AND 1860

During the last two decennia ‘disability’ increasingly has been considered by various academic disciplines like sociology, literature, social sciences, geography and history as a fresh and innovative analytical category with the transformative potential of race, gender, class and sexuality. At the heart of this development is a comprehensive transformation of what is understood by ‘disability’. Traditionally, ‘disability’ was considered to be nothing more than an objective and invariable part of the human body. Nowadays ‘disability’ is primarily presented as the contingent result of the complex and manifold interactions between an individual’s body and its surrounding multilayered reality. This new meaning of ‘disability’ especially has been put forward by what has come to be known as Disability Studies.

Savage solitude: the problematisation of disability at the turn of the eighteenth century

In this article an old question with relation to disability history is dragged up and looked at from a rather new perspective. By referring to Foucault’s notion of problématisation a new insight is presented into the way in which disability at the turn of the eighteenth century became a problem for contemporary politics and how a particular kind of education offered itself as an appropriate means to solve it. In order to enlighten this crucial part of the history of Western societies the author will turn to a rather under‐exposed part of European culture: solitude. This focus on solitude will not only open an unexpected door on the history of disability but also will enable the formulation of a critique on both the dominant discourse of inclusion and contemporary models of education which aim at teaching people how to behave while being solitary.

Commemorating the disabled soldier: 1914–1940

Introduction to our guest-edited special issue on the legacies of war disability after the First World War.

Valorising the cultural heritage of the school desk through historical research

From a historical point of view it is not only possible to adopt an innovative approach concerning the way the material culture and representation of educational research are examined, but the historical study itself can also contribute to a revamping of the material scholarly culture and the way it is represented. The latter can be brought about both by means of research projects being set up with an intrinsic finality, as well as via projects contemplating an alternative way of disseminating and communicating scientific findings. In our chapter we substantiate this thesis on the basis of the example of the school desk, which we deal with at various different levels of historiography. First, we will delve into the iconic and metaphorical use of the ‘school desk’ on covers, in titles, slogans and so on. These are often historical images that have been extracted from their original context and appropriated in a way that no longer wants to represent traditional or historical practices. Historical research on the educational uses of the school desk, however, can help explain its symbolic value for the present day (which is also revealed by the fact that virtually all education museums include displays of school desks). Second, starting from a recent study on the innovative value of the school desks of Oscar Brodsky we will show how alternative paths have to be explored in order to successfully link the long tradition of uses of the desk with the process of modernization. Up to now—and this is our third issue—the historiography of the school desk has been framed almost exclusively within a Foucouldian paradigm, a research tradition which bears several inconveniences for a dynamic approach towards the historical relationship of the educational actors (teachers and pupils) with the school desk. This resulted, among other things, in the school desk primarily being conceived of as a static object, even in the historical study of the educational process. Hence, we argue in the fourth section for a more dynamic approach. In our view, instead of isolating the school desk as a source for historical research, future-oriented research should contextualize its use, not only against the background of the prevailing educational practices, but also in relation to the existing cultural-historical practices in other social fields. Studies on the ‘grammar of schooling’ and the ‘grammar of educationalization’, such as those that we have undertaken in the past, but which are also at the head of various other initiatives, constitute a good starting point for this. In the final section we discuss to what extent education museums in general and specific exhibition projects in particular can help to realize such a dynamic historical understanding. On the one hand, it is obvious that there exists within the world of education museums a great potential to valorise the cultural heritage of the materialities of schooling in relation to the history of educational practices. On the other hand, however, this same world has remained so amateurish and conservative that the danger of a romanticized and nostalgic interpretation is lurking around almost every corner, although we can certainly point to one or two promising initiatives in the direction we have described as desirable.

Let us entertain you: an exploratory study on the beliefs and practices of teaching history of education in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACT Following recent studies that have mapped history of education research practices, this article aims to map contemporary history of education teaching practices. Drawing on data from interviews with history of education university lecturers and a global digital survey, we explore the rationale behind teaching practices and teaching beliefs in history of education. The starting point for our interest was a shared “sense of unease”: we had the impression that those teaching practices and teaching beliefs were driven more by a concern to meet students’ expectations and interests – to warrant their motivation and engagement – than by the content. The findings of our study provide evidence to support our concern. The contents, as well as the format of history of education courses, is changing towards what we provocatively would like to call, edutainment. This article aims to contribute to a critical self-reflection of history of education teaching worldwide.

Silence or the sound of limpid water: disability, power, and the educationalisation of silence

Abstract In this article the history of silence is looked at from an educational perspective. By closely examining the way three nineteenth-century authors – who all based their educational theories on concrete experiences with persons with disabilities – have related themselves to silence, it will be argued that silence has been educationalised. Silence has been increasingly integrated in the teacher’s official tool box in order to make sure a new kind of discipline can be encountered in the classroom. The educationalisation of silence that can be found in the works of Jean-Marc Itard, Edouard Seguin and Maria Montessori seems to have been paralleled by a transformation in the way power was wielded over pupils in schools. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, silence seems to have lost its ability to symbolise critique and increasingly to have been used to steer the behaviour of children in a subtle way. In other words, by closely looking at the work of Itard, Séguin and Montessori one can see how silence became an integral part of a new educational landscape that tried to seduce children to do particular things and act in a particular way. In nineteenth-century schools the sound of docility would indeed gradually be replaced by the seduction of silence.

Educational soundscapes: tuning in to sounds and silences in the history of education

Abstract In order to introduce the special issue on “educational soundscapes” the editors, first of all, explore the intimate link between silence, sound and the production of social meaning. An acoustic history of education, so it is argued, cannot solely focus on silence nor can it solely focus on sound. After having demonstrated the necessity of taking into account sounds and silences at the same time, the term “educational soundscapes” consecutively is defined, historically contextualized and connected to the widely used concept of educationalization. Finally, the different contributions to the special issue are briefly introduced and connected to the main theme of the special issue, namely “educational soundscapes”.

The Possibility of an Unbiased History of Steiner/Waldorf Education?

In many respects, and certainly with regard to his educational ideas, Rudolf Steiner was a child of his time. Trust in the natural goodness of the child that became more and more central, belief in an evolutionist development of both individuals and humanity as a whole, the emphasis on a holistic education realised through a community of teachers, parents and children; all of these were ideas that Steiner shared with other key figures of the progressive education movement, which began in the late nineteenth century. In line with the existing historiography on progressive education ( Reformpadagogik ) in general, historical research on the figure of Steiner, and particularly on the development of the schools and the educational system named after him, is characterised by paying considerable attention to the years of foundation in the interwar period on the one hand and to current practices on the other, in that way largely neglecting the developments during the second half of the twentieth century.