This article reconsiders the way in which the French language was taught in British schools from 1780 to 1830. In particular, it is shown that (contrary to recent claims) the use of recitation- and conversation-based techniques, as opposed to rule-based grammatical learning, persisted well into the 1820s, both in influential pedagogic textbooks…

The development of pedagogical science in eighteenth-century Germany unfolded in close connection with the emergence of the modern bourgeoisie and its emancipation from a still absolutist society. While social and political structures in Britain and France were changed by revolutions, the relative weakness of the German bourgeoisie led to the…

Gender research demonstrates the important role played by the school in determining a gendered world-view and the influence of the school system on gender-role socialization. Most studies based on the constructivist school relate mainly to one of two issues: either the gender of the teachers themselves, or the gender-mapping of the curriculum…

This article examines how one of the first initiatives in what now is known as "special education" came into existence in the historical context of the Netherlands. It focuses on the first private and autonomous institution for mentally retarded pupils, the so-called "School for Idiots", established in 1855 in The Hague by…

There was very little in common between Mary Wollstonecraft and Hannah More. For More and Wollstonecraft, and for many of their contemporaries, what women?s education lacked most significantly was order, method and system. Recent scholarly work on the Enlightenment has identified changes in attitudes towards women?s education, epitomized in the…