The role of the history of education in teacher Education in South Africa, with particular reference to developments in Britain and the USA

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to review critically the changing nature, role and status of the history of education as a field of study in teacher education courses in South Africa, Britain and the USA. While the British and American situations have had direct influence on the theory and practice of the history of education in English language universities in South Africa, this influence has been shaped and modified by local circumstances, significantly so since the education crisis of 1976. The study seeks to clarify several fundamental questions about the history of education, including its relationship with other fields of educational study and its place in the intellectual preparation of teachers. Such questions are examined in the general contexts of the British, American and South African historiographies of education as well as in the context of the teacher education curriculum as it is shaped by the acid-political context. In the three countries being studied, teacher education has become a matter of urgent concern. One result has been a rethinking of the place of educational theory, which inevitably involves a reconsideration of the place of history of education.