While current debates oppose the cochlear implant's privileging of speech acquisition to teaching sign language, nineteenth-century debates, in contrast, opposed those who saw sign language as a tool for learning to read and write, and those who saw in it an autonomous language for organizing thought itself. Should the order of gestural signs…

On May 4, 2006, French and German cultural ministers announced the publication of "Histoire/Geschichte", the world's first secondary school history textbook produced jointly by two countries. Authored by a team of French and German historians and published simultaneously in both languages, the book's release drew considerable public…

The kindergarten was, in all countries but Germany, a foreign import. The most familiar aspect of its diffusion to American scholars is the spread of Froebel's teachings into England and the United States by emigrants who had left the German Confederation after the failure of the revolutions of 1848-49. Familiar as well are the propaganda efforts…

In this article, the author discusses her comparative study of the history of the welfare state in the United States, England, and France, she studies some of the usual features of the welfare state, which include important entitlement programs, such as social insurance, and protective labor legislation, but she also focuses on the development of…

Compares career preferences of graduates of the two most prestigious Jesuit schools in nineteenth-century France. Graduates of one, which catered to the upper class, generally followed familial vocations such as law. Graduates of the other, upwardly-mobile members of the middle class, generally chose public service careers in the armed forces.…

Many researchers believe that professional development derives from power struggles. This case study shows that the professionalization of nineteenth-century secular French primary school teachers was generated by the interplay between teachers and other participants--particularly the Catholic church, families, and the state--in the funding and…

Literacy and education did not lower fertility rates in a 19th-century village, Marlhes, located in southeastern France. Reasons why are discussed. (RM)

Elementary, secondary, and higher education enrollment data for Scotland between the 1860s and 1939 are examined, and the structure and development of the Scottish system in the light of some of the general theories of comparative social history of education are discussed. (RM)

A review of five books concerned with French educational history since the Revolution. (RA)

Discusses the necessity of setting boundaries for a research topic while bridging gaps with information from other disciplines and history of education in other nations. Illustrates the point with the history of women's education in the United States. Includes discussion of the influence of British boys' schools, French boarding schools, and the…

Examines the reasons behind the expansion of congregational primary education before the educational push of the Third Republic in the diocese of Lyon (France). Argues that the popularity of Catholic-sponsored schooling in Lyon depended on the conjuncture of religious philanthropy and cost effectiveness. (CMK)