1. ELPA 9462: History of US Education Policy
History Assignment Proposal – Laura McInerney
Proposed Title: A Historical Analysis of UK ‘Progressive School’ Leaders
Introduction
Originating in Rousseau’s Emile (1762) the ideas of a progressive education, centred around the needs of
children and experiential learning, influenced both the development of education in the US and also, at
various points, schooling within the UK. Several schools throughout the 19th and 20th Century were
created with the purpose of providing a progressive school experience.
The 1920s in particular brought a swathe of schools that were not only progressive but also ‘famous’.
Sponsored by wealthy or internationally renowned individuals these schools became a national curiosity,
written about frequently in the newspapers and somewhat mythologised in works since (Stewart, 1968;
Skidelsky, 1969) although most recent works have focused more on sociological concerns and the career
impact of such schooling on its pupils (Lucas, 2011).
Proposed Analysis
In this research project I propose to analyse the input of three school leaders all of whom opened their
schools during the 1920s and all of whom either previously had or subsequently garnered a level of
notoriety related to their schooling endeavour. The proposed schools are:
1. Beacon Hill – Bertrand & Dora Russell
2. Summerhill – AS Neill
3. Malting House – Geoffrey Pyke & Susan Sutherland Isaacs
As my future research interest lies in analysing the motivations of new school leaders and also
cataloguing the reasons why new schools either maintain longevity (as in the case of Summerhill) or close
quickly (as in the case both Beacon Hill and Malting House) my intention is to use the primary and
secondary sources to consider:
What were the primary motivators of the school leaders? Economic, political, philanthropic?
How did they plan the opening of the school, including any negotiations with local councils and
other local schools? And, how did they recruit students?
Did their first years of opening live up to expectation?
Finally, if the school closed quickly what contributed to its demise?
My main focus will be on newspaper analysis, and the original writings of the leaders. There have also
been several histories of the movement written which I will review as secondary materials.
Historical Lens
Once I have the sources it may be appropriate to consider them through a particular lens. In view of my
focus on motivation one option is to do a psychohistorical review (Erikson, 1975) of the leaders and
consider what new interpretation this might reveal about the schools, their reasons for being created and
– in some cases – their subsequent demise.
References
Erikson, E. H. and P. N. Bebb (1975). "Life history and the historical moment." History: Reviews of New Books 3(9): 232-233
Rousseau, J. J., B. Foxley, et al. (1914). Emile, Or, On Education, Columbia University Institute for Learning Technologies.
Skidelsky, R. J. A. (1969). English progressive schools, Penguin Harmondsworth.
Stewart, W. A. C. and W. P. McCann (1967). The educational innovators, Macmillan, London and Basingstoke.