RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

192 HISTORICAL AND DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH
idea or institution can do much to help us
understand how our present educational system
has come about; and this kind of understanding
can in turn help to establish a sound basis for
further progress of change. Historical research
in education can also show how and why
educational theories and practices developed. It
enables educationalists to use former practices to
evaluate newer, emerging ones. Recurrent trends
can be more easily identified and assessed from
an historical standpoint – witness, for example,
the various guises in which progressivism in
education has appeared. And it can contribute to
afullerunderstandingoftherelationshipbetween
politics and education, between school and
society, between local and central government,
and between teacher and pupil.
Historical research in education may concern
itself with an individual, a group, a movement,
an idea or an institution. As Best (1970)
points out, however, not one of these objects
of historical interest and observation can be
considered in isolation. No one person can
be subjected to historical investigation without
some consideration of his or her contribution
to the ideas, movements or institutions of
a particular time or place. These elements
are always interrelated. The focus merely
determines the point of emphasis towards which
historical researchers direct their attention.
Box 8.1 illustrates some of these relationships
from the history of education. For example, no
matter whether the historian chooses to study
the Jesuit order, religious teaching orders, the
Counter-Reformation or Ignatius Loyola, each
of the other elements appears as a prominent
influence or result, and an indispensable part of
the narrative.
For an example of historical research
see Thomas (1992) and Gaukroger and Schwartz
(1997).
Choice of subject
As with other methods we consider in this book,
historical research may be structured by a flexible
sequence of stages, beginning with the selection
and evaluation of a problem or area of study. Then
follows the definition of the problem in more
precise terms, the selection of suitable sources of
data, collection, classification and processing of
the data, and finally, the evaluation and synthesis
of the data into a balanced and objective account
of the subject under investigation. There are,
however, some important differences between
the method of historical research and other
research methods used in education. The principal
difference has been highlighted by Borg (1963),
who suggests that in historical research, it is
important for the student to define carefully the
problem and appraise its appropriateness before
moving into earnest into the project, as many
problems may not be suitable for historical research
methods, while, on the other hand, other problems
may have little or no chance of yielding any
significant results either because of the dearth of
relevant data or because the problem is trivial.
Box 8.1
Some historical interrelations between men, movements and institutions
Men Movements Institutions
Type
Specific
Ignatius Loyola Counter-Reformation Religious teaching order Society of Jesus, 1534
Benjamin Franklin Scientific movement; Academy Philadelphia Academy, 1751
Education for life
John Dewey
Experimentalism
Progressive education
Experimental school University of Chicago
Elementary School, 1896
Source: adapted from Best 1970