An elusive science : the troubling history of education research / Ellen Condliffe Lagemann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lagemann, Ellen Condliffe, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education--Research--United States--History.

Education.

Education--Research--Social aspects--United States.

Education--Research--Social aspects.

Education--Research.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

xvii, 302 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Summary:

Since its beginnings at the start of the 20th century, educational scholarship has been a marginal field, criticized by public policy makers and relegated to the fringes of academe. "An Elusive Science explains why, providing a critical history of the traditions, conflicts, and institutions that have shaped the study of education over the past century. "[C]andid and incisive. . . . A stark yet enlightening look at American education."--"Library Journal "[A]n account of the search, over the past hundred or so years, to try and discover how educational research might provide reliable prescriptions for the improvement of education. Through extensive use of contemporary reference material, [Lagemann] shows that the search for ways of producing high-quality research has been, in effect, a search for secure disciplinary foundations."--Dylan William, "Times Higher Education Supplement

Contents:

Introduction: A Slow Evolution: Education Becomes a Subject of University Research 1

The Feminization of Teaching 1

Conflict and Competition: High Schools, Normal Schools, Colleges, and Universities 7

Part I In Quest of Science: the Early Years of Education Research 19

1 Reluctant Allies: Psychologists Turn to Education 23

G. Stanley Hall and the Child-Study Movement 24

Clark University: "The Perfect Non-University of G. Stanley Hall" 29

William James's Search for Vocation 32

Psychology and Education at Harvard 35

From Child Study to Child Hygiene 39

2 Specialization and Isolation: Education Research Becomes a Profession 41

John Dewey's Youth and Early Career 3

Dewey at the Laboratory School 47

A Creative Community: The Social Sources of Dewey's Thought 51

Edward L. Thorndike: "Conquering the New World of Pedagogy" 56

Thorndike and Teachers College: A Reciprocal Relationship 62

Dewey Displaced: Charles Hubbard Judd at the University of Chicago 66

3 Technologies of Influence: Testing and School Surveying 71

The History and Philosophy of Education: From Center to Periphery 73

Dignity amidst Disdain: Ellwood Patterson Cubberley and the First Generation of Scholars of School Administration 76

Leonard P. Ayres, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the School Survey Movement 80

The Cleveland Survey 83

Lewis M. Terman and the Testing Movement 87

Consensus and Community: A Science for School Administration 94

Part II Cacophony: Curriculum Study During the Interwar Years 99

4 Politics, Patronage, and Entrepreneurship: The Dynamics of Curriculum Change 105

The Scientific Study of Society 107

Child Interest 109

The Teachers College "School System" 112

Denver, Colorado, Teachers Study the Curriculum 118

The Emergence of a New Specialization: Curriculum and Instruction 120

Social Reconstructionism and Its Transformation 123

5 Developmental Perspectives: Critics Challenge Determinism in Education 130

The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund 131

Nature versus Nurture: The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station 134

The Progressive Education Association's Eight-Year Study 139

Ralph W. Tyler: From Mental Measurement to Evaluation 142

Human Development: The PEA's Commission on Curriculum and Human Relations 145

Class, Caste, Mobility, and Cultural Bias: The University of Chicago Committee on Human Development 151

The Educational Testing Service 156

Part III Excellence and Equity: the Continuing Problems and Potential of Education Research 159

6 Contested Terrain: The Disciplines versus Education 165

The "New Math" 166

The National Science Foundation 168

Jerrold R. Zacharias and the Physical Sciences Study Committee 169

The Process of Education: "St. Jerome's Gospel" 172

From the History of Education to History and Education 176

The Theory Movement in Educational Administration 178

7 Gaining Ground and Losing Support: The Federal Role in Education Research 184

The Cooperative Research Program 185

The National Assessment of Educational Progress 188

James S. Coleman and Equality of Educational Opportunity 193

Title I Evaluation Studies 200

The National Institute of Education 204

8 Promoting Learning and Reform: New Directions in Education Research 212

The Beginnings of Cognitive Science 212

The Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard 216

Cognition and Education 218

Qualitative Methods and Interpretive Studies 219

New Links between Research and Practice 223

Systematic Research 226

Conclusion: Toward the Reconfiguration of Educational Study 231

Problems of Status, Reputation, and Isolation 232

Problems of Governance and Regulation 238

What's to Be Done? 241.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-282) and index.

ISBN:

0226467724

OCLC:

43095768