Seminars

ICHRE runs the History of Education Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research. The seminar attracts speakers from around the world, providing a forum for established historians as well as early-career researchers to present their work. For further information please contact Sam Blaxland or Gary McCulloch at ioe.ichre@ucl.ac.uk.

All seminars will be held in ‘hybrid’ mode, with both face-to-face and online attenders. Details of rooms and Zoom links are given below. All seminars will start at 5.30pm UK time.

Thursday 3 October
Room 828, IOE, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL

Zoom link (passcode if needed = 239173):
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99724109270?pwd=zfaj4f5HdeM0mwjuoJPKxBbiI5iUXm.1

British coalminers’ historical experiences of education and training: an oral history

Robin Simmons, University of Bolton

This paper focuses on British coalminers’ historical experiences of education and training. It draws on data from an oral history project to present the stories of five men, all of whom undertook significant programmes of post-compulsory education during their employment or immediately after leaving the coal industry. The paper also compares and contrasts their experiences with those which now exist in former coalmining communities which, it is argued, have significantly diminished over time, especially for young men. Whilst it is apparent that individual choice and motivation can play an important role in helping (or hindering) young people’s trajectories through education and employment, the central argument of the paper is that individual labour market success lies at the intersection of structure and agency – although it is clear that the opportunities for education and work available to young men in Britain’s former coalfields have been deleteriously affected by de-industrialisation.

Robin Simmons is Professor of Education at the University of Bolton and Director of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. His research interests lie in the history and sociology of education, especially in relation to post-compulsory education and training.

 

Thursday 10 October
17.30Room 828, IOE, 20 Bedford Way

Zoom link (passcode if needed = 760871):
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/91905282728?pwd=0nhvebxrYYCUuTTvgVavLH8kRdHwm4.1

‘The World We Want’: Educating Cold War Youth in Internationalism

Catherine Bishop (Macquarie University)

The New York Herald Tribune World Youth Forum was an exercise in idealistic internationalism, cold war propaganda and global citizenship education. For 25 years 30 handpicked teens from around the world spent 3 months in New York attending US schools, living in American families, meeting celebrities, senators and the occasional president, and debating contentious issues on TV. British students attended annually, and included future journalists, academics, diplomats and a government minister, such as Maureen Cleave, John Torode, Keith Hopkins, Lady Suzanne Warner, and Michael Portillo, to name a few. This paper places the Forum within the context of contemporaneous exchange programs. It explores the delegates’ role as ‘walking textbooks’, both within schools and on TV, designed to represent the voices of youth in an era when young people were becoming increasingly strident on their own account.

Dr Catherine Bishop holds a Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at Macquarie University. She is the author of the award-winning Minding Her Own Business, Women Mean Business, & Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ. Her latest book is The World We Want: The New York Herald Tribune World Youth Forum and the Cold War Teenager (September 2024).

 

Thursday 7 November
Room 537, IOE, 20 Bedford Way 

Zoom link: (passcode if needed = 949679):
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/98148718167?pwd=LObMjxoKlbwPXfxQbfABManNRSIBGi.1

Interviewing by post…and PC: The making of child-friendly surveys from the Opies to Covid

Julia Bishop, University of Sheffield and Catherine Bannister, University of Sheffield

Iona (1923-2017) and Peter Opie (1918-1982) were folklorists who undertook a national survey of school-aged children’s oral culture and games in Britain in the third quarter of the 20th century. Drawing on information gathered from children themselves, the Opies’ resulting books broke new ground, showing for the first time the currency, vitality and extent of this vernacular culture, and the ways in which it was transmitted and re-created in space and time (Opie and Opie, 1959; 1969; 1985; 1997).

The extent to which the Opies centred children in their data collection was a novelty at the time. Since then, it has become widespread, certainly in the social sciences. Yet, the Opies published little about their methodology, raising questions as to how it developed as well as the nature of its subsequent impact.

The deposit of the Opies’ archival papers at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, has opened up access to their raw data, providing an opportunity to gain insights into their practices and principles as researchers. It also sheds light on the children who took part, and the role of the teachers who helped operationalise the Opies’ survey. The British Academy project ‘Childhoods and Play: The Iona and Peter Opie Archive’ exists to surface the collection and support research into children and childhoods. Through an affiliated project, the children’s survey submissions have been digitised and are gradually being made accessible online via the Iona and Peter Opie Archive website (www.opiearchive.org).

Drawing on our experience of working with these documents, we will present examples which begin to address some of the questions relating to the Opies’ research. We further draw on our recent involvement in the Play Observatory project (www.play-observatory.com) during the Covid-19 pandemic to demonstrate the inspirational value and continuing relevance of the Opies’ archival documents to contemporary research processes and digital methods.

Julia Bishop is a research associate in the School of Education, University of Sheffield, where she researches into children’s folklore from historical and present-day perspectives. She is co-chair of the British Academy Research Project ‘Childhoods and Play: The Opie Archive’ (www.opiearchive.org) and her publications include contributions to Play Today in the Primary School Playground (2001), Children, Media and Playground Cultures (2013), Children’s Games in the New Media Age (2014), Changing Play (2014), and The Lifework and Legacy of Iona and Peter Opie (2019).

Catherine Bannister is a researcher in the School of Education at Sheffield, where she researches children’s play and well-being, including digital play, and is also the co-organiser of the University’s newly established Contemporary Folklore Research Centre. Her interests include ritual and customary practices for and by children and young people, and her monograph Scouting and Guiding in Britain (2022) explores ritual’s relationship to contemporary children’s socialisation and group identity construction in the Scout and Guide movements

 

Thursday 5 December

17.30, Room 780, IOE, 20 Bedford Way

Zoom link (passcode if needed = 965263):
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/95564959830?pwd=R2Mc2um96Iw7rt2Upv8Pn0aF8hBRaF.1

Between Two Worlds: Chinese Students in America During the Qing Dynasty, 1818-1912

Christopher J. Dawe (UCL)

This presentation will explore educational exchanges between China and the United States during the Qing Empire (1644-1912), examining how America used education as a form of soft power to influence China’s modernization. The study will trace these exchanges from the early 19^th-century missionary efforts to the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship program, focusing on key initiatives like the Foreign Mission School (1818) and the Chinese Educational Mission (1872-1881). It will analyze historical trends and individual case studies based on diverse primary sources using both macro and micro perspectives. The research will argue that while avoiding the imperialist label, the United States functioned as a quasi-imperialist force through its educational initiatives in China. These efforts, evolving from missionary work to government-sponsored programs, aimed to shape China’s future leadership and strengthen American influence. The presentation will discuss the complex outcomes of these exchanges, including their role in China’s modernization, the creation of lasting connections between the two countries, and the cultural tensions and challenges faced by Chinese students in America.

Chris Dawe holds degrees from Brigham Young University and the University of Pennsylvania. With over a decade of experience in China, he currently serves as a principal at an international school. His passion for Chinese history and baseball sparked his interest in the Chinese Educational Mission, inspiring this PhD project on educational exchanges between China and the United States during the Qing Dynasty.