History of Education...Get over it!

As certificated educators, we all go through it. Like a right of passage, every education program has in its requirements, an educational history course. Kliebard examines what the real value of “history of education” is in teacher education programs. As a big idea, he suggests that it is a way for us to discover things that we need to “get over”. Exposure to long held ideas to put them under critical scrutiny to see if they fit our current realities. I really liked this quote that he used; “much of the value of studying the history of education lies not in providing us with answers, but in daring us to challenge the questions and the assumptions that our intellectual forebears have bequeathed to us.” (Kliebard, H. pg. 2). Yes! I wish that this would have be prefaced in the education history syllabi in my time spent in B. Ed.

When he ponders the idea of habit of thought, that made me think of what role innovation and creativity has in our practices today. He suggests that by looking at the history of education we can deeply develop habits of thought which include reflection and deliberative inquiry. Both are required to bring innovation and creativity in teaching and learning! I would argue that without reflection and inquiry, you are removing any opportunity for creativity or innovation. (this goes for teachers as well as students).

Kliebard suggests that the study of history in education can allow us to see things differently. Again, I thought of my definition of innovation and creativity! Seeing something old and reflecting on ways that we could re-define, re-use, re-work to make it fit our current needs.

In his coverage of ideas from John Dewey and Arthur Bestor, I see more connections to innovation and creativity that live within teaching and learning.

Dewey’s work suggests that goals should never be fixed and that “appropriately designed activity can provide the context from which goals eventually emerge.” (Kliebard, H., pg 3) Create the conditions and activity carefully and see what emerges. Then you may have your answer to whether children understand and are able to demonstrate the outcomes. Live in the present experience and context. “Children begin to see knowledge as important, if the knowledge they get in school is of consequence to them in the immediate world they live in, not in the distant, often fanciful world of the future.” (Kliebard, H. pg. 4).

Arthur Bestor was all about intellectual development; that was the purpose of schooling. The link to teaching and learning, as brought about by ideas that may emerge from creativity and innovation. Bestor was all about the conditions for intellectual development.

Sources:

Kliebard, H. M. (1995). Why history of education? Journal of Educational Research, 88(4), 194-199.