Public Histories of Education: Perceptions, Memories and Constructions. Introduction

Abstract

Historians of education have spent decades working collaboratively with diverse audiences and publics. Their determination to maintain public engagement with the past and construct history in a participatory way is neither new nor recent. If over recent decades we have witnessed the expansion of “public history” – given our interest in history, memory, didactics and heritage – it is only recently that we have incorporated the term “public history of education” to denote how “history of education” has not only been constructed “for” but also “by” and “with” non-specialised individuals and nonmembers of the academic community. In this special issue, we try to provide reflections, historiographical analyses and studies of specific products and experiences for critical analysis of what is currently understood as “public history of education” from different academic traditions and geographical contexts.