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Materiality, Wallcharts, and Educational Change in Sweden from the Mid-nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century
Get PDFThis article investigates the dissemination of wall charts as an instructional technology in the subjects of history, geography, natural science, and geometry in elementary schools in Sweden, particularly in the Uppsala diocese from 1861 to 1910. Previous research lacks empirical analyses of the charts’ actual dissemination, making this case study of Sweden a valuable contribution to the fields of material culture and the visual aspects of schooling in the history of education. Using school inspector reports, protocols from national inspector meetings, and national and regional pedagogical statistics, the article provides empirical evidence of the active work of school inspectors and state initiatives that contributed to the widespread dissemination and use of wall charts in Swedish elementary schools by 1910
The Development of Home Economics as a Field of Knowledge and its Contribution to the Education and Social Status of Women
Get PDFDenmark underwent major changes in the 1800s and the first part of the 1900s, which affected the role of education in the lives of women. Until then, women in Denmark had primarily worked as homemakers with few academic opportunities; but from the early 1900s, home economics developed as a field of knowledge, and several schools of home economics appeared across the country. Several factors contributed to and influenced this development. Focusing on the period 1890–1940, which was particularly important to the development of this knowledge field in Denmark, we consider the interests promoting the growth of this field of knowledge, its educational content, and the contradictory meaning it had for the social status of women. On the one hand, the development of home economics contributed to turning home duties into an educational and occupational area, preparing for a welfare state making the private sphere a public matter. On the other hand, it tied women to the private sphere and prevented their influence in the public sphere
Funding of Progressive Education, 1891–1954: A Swedish Case
Get PDFIt is a well-known fact that several of the early progressive schools were privately, not publicly, funded. This has been observed in studies of progressive schools in, for instance, Japan and England. However, more specific analyses of the nature of this financing are rare. The overarching purpose of the article is to analyse and describe the funding of progressive private upper secondary schools (läroverk) through a case study including two schools in Gothenburg and Uppsala in the early 1900s. Using primary material, such as minutes from the annual meetings of shareholders and final accounts, a broader understanding of conditions and motives is accomplished. A combination of donations from local philanthropists, public funding, and student fees funded the schools. Gradually, the importance of philanthropic capital decreased. In addition, it also turned out that the schools were hardly driven by profit motives
From Dismantling the Class Society to Investing in Human Capital: The Rise and Fall of the Selective Student Finance System in Sweden 1939–1964
Get PDFThe article highlights the history of the early gift-based and selective student finance system of the social democratic welfare state in Sweden, targeting students from the working classes. This lesser-known system, introduced in 1939, preceded the present loan-financed and universal system established in 1965 designed to reach students from all classes. The arguments for launching the selective system, how this system met the objective of broadening the social recruitment of students and the arguments behind the dismantling of the system are analysed. The equalising effect of the selective system was strong, but student loans were nevertheless more compatible with an emerging idea, imported from the Chicago School, that education could be considered an (loan-financed) investment in human capital, that provides future yields rather than a right. Historical institutional theory is used to analyse the shift between two diametrically opposed models that took place within the same Social Democratic regime
Educational Space in Time: Reflections on Limits and Options for Educational Ambitions in History
Get PDFThis article studies educational ambitions in the context of the time-bound limits and possibilities offered by the educational space in order to better understand people’s educational mindsets and behaviour across time. The concepts of educational space and educational ambition, as well as their application across time, are elaborated by distinguishing four indicators that appear to determine the limits and conditions of the educational space in the history of early modern and modern Europe. These are the demographic situation, the socio-economic circumstances, the power balance between private and public, and the time-bound manifestation of the educational mindset. The article also explores how some classic educational concepts—here, the sentiment de l’enfance coined by Philippe Ariès and the concept of “discipline”—could be used in the history of childhood and education by relating them to time-bound limits and positive conditions of the educational space
German-Soviet Cooperation in the Arctic during the Weimar Republic: Friedrich Schmidt-Ott’s contribution
Get PDFWithout Friedrich Schmidt-Ott, President of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft/Emergency Association of German Science (today: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/German Science Foundation), and his good personal relations, favoured by the Treaty of Rapallo, German-Soviet-Russian cooperation in the Arctic would not have been conceivable in the early 1930s. It will be shown in this article how he helped to set up the International Study Association for the Exploration of the Arctic Region by Airship (in short: Aeroarctic), bringing researchers from Germany and the Soviet Union together again in an international research community while both countries were excluded from the International Research Council. The aim was to open up an Arctic transport route with airships. On the Soviet side, the polar researcher Rudolf Samoilovich played an important role in the preparation of the Arctic expedition of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, which was planned by the Aeroarctic under Fridtjof Nansen and carried out after his death by Hugo Eckener together with the scientific director Samoilovich. In addition, Samoilovich facilitated the participation of German geophysicists in Soviet expeditions during the Second International Polar Year (1932–1933). Kurt Wölken carried out seismic ice thickness measurements on Novaya Zemlya, while Joachim Scholz determined air electricity and ultraviolet radiation on Franz Joseph Land and observed polar lights. In addition, both investigated sound propagation in the high atmosphere. Their different fates during the Third Reich are also revealed. It was not until 1998 that joint German-Russian research projects in the Arctic were resumed again
Lessons from a Study of Diversity and Equality in Legal Education.: Methodology, Findings and Relevance for Teaching
Get PDFThe article summarises and elaborates a norm-critical and intersectional study of the legal education in Gothenburg, and reflects on the broader pedagogical project of discussing the study among the faculty. A norm-critical perspective seeks to critically examine what is taken for granted and perceived as normal, and subsequently what is perceived as exceptions. An intersectional perspective acknowledges power structures as complex social structures with diverse origins. Together they provide a useful tool for analysing how different social positions are represented in the assignments of the legal education. The study showed, among other things, that men, Nordic people, adults and people from middle and upper class were overrepresented compared to the Swedish society as a whole. The study resulted in important discussions at the Department of Law in Gothenburg on whether representation matters, and if so what should be done. The article seeks to present the study itself and the theoretical thinking behind the study, and to discuss possible ways of dealing with its results
The Gothenburg Law Clinic and the use of Threshold Concepts in Clinical Legal Education
Get PDFIn 2014, the Department of Law at the University of Gothenburg launched the Gothenburg Law Clinic, or Rättspraktiken, to offer students a way to gain increased practical experience through applied studies rooted in the tradition of clinical legal education (CLE). The core pedagogical element of CLE can be described as anchoring teaching in grassroots legal realities as a means of enhancing student reflection on the complex interplay between black-letter law and law in practice. In one of the courses offered at the clinic, the welfare law course, the CLE approach was combined with the use of threshold concepts (Meyer and Land 2003). In this article, we present these two pedagogical ideas, describe their implementation in curricula, and discuss potential developments based on students’ experiences. Our aim is to describe the ways in which using a CLE approach in combination with Meyer and Land’s notion of threshold concepts has enabled students to obtain advanced-level learning of welfare law
Cliometrics of Primary Education in the Long Nineteenth Century France
Get PDFThe objective of this article is to study the links between the financing of primary education, schooling and economic growth in France in the nineteenth century. To do so, we use information on the financing allocated by the State, the departments, the municipalities, and households over the period 1820–1913. Our analysis is in two stages. First, we analyse the evolution of these different types of financing over time, relying on the outliers’ methodology to detect the existence of possible breaks in the series. Next, we study the causal relationships between the different types of financing, the number of children enrolled in primary education and the gross domestic product. Over the period studied, our results confirm that mass schooling is primarily driven by political will, before being explained by the increase in wealth available in the economy
Transforming and Financing Intermediate-Level Technical Education During Industrialisation: Sweden 1850–1920
Get PDFAround 1900, Sweden had transformed into a modern industrial nation. A three-level technical school system, introduced in the 1850s, ensured that Sweden maintained a strong position among other industrialised countries. In this article, we study changes in the structure and financing of the technical secondary schools, the middle level of the system, between 1850 and 1919. Both local and national actors were important in the structural changes and educational reforms, but government grants remained the same for extended periods, which led to frequent discussions and pleas for increased funding. Low salaries compared to other forms of schooling and competition from the industry gradually became a problem recruiting qualified teachers. However, stakeholders who considered the education of middle-level technicians an important matter pushed for increased funding, improvements in teachers’ salaries and employment conditions, and restructuring of the teaching to keep pace with technological development