A Brief History of Knowledge for Social Science Researchers by Court Deborah;

Author:Court, Deborah;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The development of general education

During the second half of the Industrial Revolution, school systems were organized. While the details vary from country to country in the Western world, a few general observations are not out of place. Before the Industrial Revolution, the upper classes in every society in every period, even girls, were educated in order to fulfill their particular stations and roles in life. Throughout the Middle Ages lower class children became laborers of one sort or another early on, and school systems as such did not exist. Such basic education as existed was carried on under Church auspices. Moving out of the Middle Ages, in Britain at least, “The educational system was relatively undiversified, and consisted of small institutions, molded by the church, and set in rural or small urban communities subject only to small changes in population structure and social composition” (Lawson & Silver 1973, 2014: xxiii). During the Industrial Revolution, with the movement of populations, reduced influence of the Church and a new era of social awareness, governments everywhere in Western Europe and in America became increasingly involved in education. Gradually, with the growth of industry, “support for public education grew, and the result was a transformation of schooling from limited provision into widespread and hierarchical educational systems” (Carl 2009: 503).

In Germany, the Protestant reformer Martin Luther had, as early as 1520, recommended that schooling be available and compulsory for all, his goal being that everyone would be able to read the Bible. In Geneva, John Calvin made a similar case for compulsory education, for similar reasons. “One of the hallmarks of the Renaissance Movement … was the rebirth of learning. The Christian Reformation activists tirelessly advocated universal education as an important means in producing responsible citizens” (Zhang 2004: 27) At the beginning of the 19th century, the King of Prussia made attendance compulsory at state schools, making the German state of Prussia the first place in Europe to do so, with other countries soon following (Zhang 2004).

In the first half of the 19th century in Britain, schooling was available but voluntary, with schools controlled by charity organizations, mainly the Church of England. With the passing of the Education Act in 1870, and then the Education Act of 1876, elementary education became compulsory for all children (Ucan & Ucan 2019). Compulsory elementary schooling in France began in 1841. Public schools were to be free, secular, and mandatory for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 12. In the United States, which were then still the Thirteen Colonies, some free public schools were opened in the early 17th century. After the American Revolution, by the middle of the 19th century, individual states began to pass compulsory education laws. Not until 1918 were all American children in all states required to complete elementary school.

In all these places, and in the other Western nations not mentioned here, elementary schools were developed first, and then secondary schools, as the requirements and expectations that citizens be educated grew. The

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.