The Development of the Postwar Western Historiography of Education

As a result of the development of modern teacher education,the traditional western historiography of education is characterized by describing the school education of modern nation states and the thoughts of great educators through a linearly progressive historical perspective.Under the double influences from the two transformations undergone by historical studies worldwide and from the restructuring of the educational institutions in the postwar era,the traditional western historiography of education has made two shifts in its paradigm: in the 1950s it followed the trend of adapting the historical studies to the paradigm of social sciences and developed into a new paradigm of sociological historiography,resulting in the appearance of a new educational historiography firstly in America,which later influenced other countries;in the 1980s,the rise of new cultural historiography led to the emergence of a new cultural educational historiography in Britain and America,which later spread to other western countries.In the 21st century,on the one hand,there are still supporters of the traditional paradigm of educational historiography,who are striving for the independence of the traditional paradigm;but on the other,the new cultural educational historiography and the new sociological-oriented historiography,each emulating and complementing the other,contribute to the formation of the postwar pluralistic situation in which the three different paradigms of educational historiography co-exist with each other.