The book takes the major thematic areas that have absorbed historians of education, and provides an analysis and synthesis of these themes. A hugely important contribution to research, this book will become an invaluable tool for every early-career researcher in the field, and a reference point for all experienced scholars.

This book was originally published as a special issue of History of Education.

Introduction: Forty years of History of Education, 1972-2011 Deirdre Raftery and David Crook PART ONE: Major Themes 1. The gendered politics of historical writing in History of Education Joyce Goodman 2. The history of secondary education in History of Education Gary McCulloch 3. Religions and the history of education: a historiography Deirdre Raftery 4. Teacher education as a field of historical research: retrospect and prospect David Crook 5. Structures and systems and bodies and things: historical research on primary schooling and its professional relevance Peter Cunningham 6. Interpreting biography in the History of Education: past and present Jane Martin 7. The changing role of the academic journal: the coverage of higher education in History of Education as a case study, 1972-2011 Roy Lowe PART TWO: International Perspectives 8. Invitation and Refusal: A Reading of the Beginnings of Schooling in Aotearoa New Zealand Alison Jones and Kuni Jenkins 9. Education, health and social welfare in the late colonial context: the International Missionary Council and educational transition in the interwar years with specific reference to colonial Africa Peter Kallaway 10. Westernization and social transformations in Chinese music education, 1895-1949 Wai-Chung Ho 11. Between patriotism and nationalism: Johan Hendrik Swildens and the 'pedagogy of the patriotic virtues' in the United Dutch Provinces during the 1780s and 1790s Barry J. Hake 12. Australia's 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum Heather Sharp 13. Understanding education and India: new turns in postcolonial scholarship Tim Allender

Deirdre Raftery is a historian of education at University College Dublin, Ireland. A recent Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK, and a Life Member of the University of Cambridge, UK, she has written many books including Women and Learning in English Writing, 1600-1900 (1997), and (jointly) Emily Davies, Selected Letters (2002), and Female Education in Ireland, 1700-1900: Minerva or Madonna? (2005). She has also contributed chapters to Routledge books including The Routledge Companion to Education, and Routledge's new Introduction to the Study of Education (Routledge, forthcoming). She is joint editor of History of Education, and a member of the Executive Committee of the History of Education Society (UK).

David Crook joined Brunel University in 2011. Formerly a comprehensive secondary school teacher, he worked at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK, between 1994 and 2010, including periods as Course Leader for the MA in History of Education, Assistant Dean of Research and Consultancy and Head of the Educational Foundations and Policy Studies Department. He remains a Visiting Fellow of the Institute. His many publications include McCulloch, G. & Crook, D., The Routledge international encyclopedia of education (2008) and Crook, D.& McCulloch, G., History, politics and policy-making in education (Routledge 2007). He is joint editor of History of Education, and a member of the Executive Committee of the History of Education Society (UK).