Embedding the new science of research: The organised culture of Scottish educational research in the mid-twentieth century

Paedagogica Historica

Volumn 46, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 357-381

  Lawn, Martin ^a   Deary, Ian J ^a   Bartholomew, David J ^b   Brett, Caroline ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

^b LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Education research; Godfrey Thomson; International; Research culture; Scotland

Indexed keywords

EID: 77952478121     PISSN: 00309230     EISSN: 1477674X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00309230903396480     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, "Introduction: Institutionalisation of Educational Sciences and the Dynamics of Their Development," in "The Emergence and Development of Educational Research in Europe," ed. Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, European Educational Research Journal, 1, no. 1 (2002): 3-26.
2. See also Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, "History of Educational Sciences," Paedagogica Historica 40, nos. 5-6 (2004): 569-784.
3. This paper is a product of "A Scottish School of Educational Research 1925-1950", UK Economic and Social Research Council project grant No. RES-000-23-1246 [2006-2009]. Scottish School of Education Research Website: http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/SSER/.
4. Martin Lawn, "Introduction," in An Atlantic Crossing? The Work of the International Examination Inquiry, its Researchers, Methods and Influence (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2008), 7-8.
5. Marc Depaepe, "Experimental Research in Education, 1890-1940: Historical Processes Behind the Development of a Discipline in Western Europe and the United States," in Education and Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Maurice Whitehead (Hull: University of Hull, 1992), 67-93.
6. David N. Livingstone, Putting Science in its Place - Geographies of Scientific Knowledge (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
7. Martin Lawn, An Atlantic Crossing? The Work of the International Examinations Inquiry, its Researchers, Methods and Influence (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2008).
8. Lawn, An Atlantic Crossing?
9. Peter Wagner and Björn Wittrock, "States, Institutions and Discourses: A Comparative Perspective on the Structuration of the Social Sciences," in Discourses on Society: The Shaping of the Social Science Disciplines, ed. Peter Wagner, Björn Wittrock and Richard Whitley (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1993), 331-58.
10. Adrian Wooldridge, Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England c.1860-c.1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
11. Jennifer Platt, A History of Sociological Research Methods in America: 1920-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
12. Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
13. Ellen C. Lagemann, An Elusive Science - the Troubling History of Education Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
14. James Craigie, The Scottish Council for Research in Education 1928-1972 (Edinburgh: Scottish Council for Research in Education, 1972).
15. John G. Morris, The Scottish Council for Research in Education 1928-1993 (PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1994).
16. Gillian Sutherland, Ability, Merit and Measurement: Mental Testing and English Education 1880-1940 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984).
17. John Nisbet, "How It All Began: Educational Research 1880-1930," Scottish Educational Review XXXI (1999): 3-9.
18. John C. Stocks, "Objective bees in psychological bonnets: intelligence testing and selection for secondary education in Scotland between the wars," History of Education 29, no. 3 (2000): 225-38.
19. Willard Brehaut, "British Research in Education: Some Aspects of its Development," in Educational Research in Britain, Vol. 3, ed. Harold J. Butcher and H.B. Pont (London: University of London Press, 1973), 5.
20. Martin Lawn, Ian Deary and David Bartholomew, "Naïve, Expert and Willing Partners: the Scottish Council for Research in Education in the International Examinations Inquiry," in An Atlantic Crossing?, ed. Lawn, 119-136.
21. Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, Sciences de L'éducation 19e -20e Siècles. Entre Champs Disciplinaires et Champs Professionnels (Berne: Lang, 2002).
22. Marc Depaepe, "Experimental Research in Education, 1890-1940: Historical Processes Behind the Development of a Discipline in Western Europe and the United States," in Education and Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Maurice Whitehead (Hull: University of Hull, 1992), 67-93.
23. Marc A. Depaepe, "Comparative History of Educational Sciences: the Comparability of the Incomparable?," in "The Emergence and Development of Educational Research in Europe," ed. Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, European Educational Research Journal 1, no. 1 (2002): 118-122.
24. Charles Withers and Paul Wood, Science and Medicine in the Scottish Enlightenment (East Lothian: Tuckwell Press, 2003).
25. Elizabeth Crawford, Terry Shinn and Sverker Sorlin, Denationalizing Science - the Contexts of Scientific Practice (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1993), 18-19.
26. Terry Johnson, "Expertise and the State," in Foucault's New Domains, ed. Mike Gane and Terry Johnson (London: Routledge, 1993), 144.
27. Livingstone, Putting Science in its Place, 7.
28. Ibid., preface.
29. Ibid., 3.
30. There is a history to the effects Scottish education had beyond its borders, and the influence of individuals in England and America in particular. This history has significance yet it is beyond the reach of this argument about research culture and its elements.
31. Robert R. Rusk, "National Research Centres 11 - Scottish Council for Research in Education," British Journal of Educational Studies 1, no. 1 (1952): 39.
32. Key members of the network can be seen in the Scottish delegation to the International Examinations Inquiry, namely Godfrey Thomson, bell professor of education, University of Edinburgh. Robert R. Rusk, director, SCRE, Edinburgh. James Drever, professor of psychology, University of Edinburgh. William Boyd, lecturer in education, University of Glasgow. David Kennedy-Fraser, psychologist, Glasgow Education Committee. William McClelland, bell professor of education, University of St Andrews. John Mackie, headmaster, Leith Academy. Norman T. Walker, lecturer in education, University of Aberdeen. W.A.F. Hepburn, director of education, Ayrshire. J.C. Smith, senior chief inspector of schools, Scottish Education Department. plus Shepherd Dawson, lecturer in psychology, Jordanhill College[deceased].
33. Crawford, Shinn and Sorlin, Denationalizing Science, 13.
34. This is particularly the case with Teachers College, Columbia University, NY. Prof. W.H. Kilpatrick, author of the Project Method, had toured Scotland in 1919, and Prof. Paul Monroe visited several times. Monroe had become an honorary research fellow of the EIS in 1920. Thomson, Boyd and Inglis, among others, had significant study leave periods at TC, between 1925 and 1935. Close links were made with Prof. Edward Thorndike at TC, who became a close friend of Thomson's, and received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1936.
35. Philip E. Vernon, "The contribution to education of Sir Godfrey Thomson," British Journal of Educational Studies 10, no. 2 (1962): 123-37.
36. Derek J. de Solla Price, Little Science, Big Science (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963).
37. Martin Lawn, Ian Deary and David Bartholomew, "Naïve, Expert and Willing Partners: the Scottish Council for Research in Education in the International Examinations Inquiry," in An Atlantic Crossing?, ed. Lawn, 119-136.
38. Scottish Council for Research in Education, The Intelligence of Scottish Children (London: University of London Press, 1933).
39. Scottish Council for Research in Education, Annual Reports 1932-1938 (Edinburgh: SCRE).
40. Gregor MacGregor, Achievement Tests in the Primary School: A Comparative Study with American Tests in Fife (London: University of London Press, SCRE publication VI, 1934).
41. Kurt Danziger, Constructing the Subject - Historical Origins of Psychological Research (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 5.
42. Derek J. de Solla Price, Little Science, Big Science ... and Beyond (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).
43. Crawford et al., Denationalizing Science.
44. Crawford et al., Denationalizing Science, 15-16.
45. Danziger, Constructing the Subject, 4.
46. Ibid., 3.
47. Ibid., 5.
48. Scottish Council for Research in Education, Aids to Educational Research Comprising Bibliographies and Topics for Research (Edinburgh: London University Press, 1946).
49. Martin Lawn, "The Institute as Network: the Scottish Council for Research in Education as a local and international phenomenon in the 1930s," Paedagogica Historica 40, nos. 5-6 (2004): 719-32.
50. rd Annual Report, 1930-1931 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1931), 12.
51. nd Annual Report, 1929-1930 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1930), 7.
52. th Annual Report, 1935-1936 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1936), 9.
53. rd Annual Report, 1930-1931 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1931), 12.
54. Ibid., 14.
55. Lewis M. Terman and Maud A. Merrill, Measuring Intelligence (London: Harrap, 1937).
56. th Annual Report, 1939-1940 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1940), 7.
57. th Annual Report, 1937-1938 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1938), 9.
58. th Annual Report, 1946-1947 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1947).
59. th Annual Report, 1947-1948 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1948).
60. th Annual Report, 1937-1938 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1938), 14.
61. th Annual Report, 1939-1940 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1940), 11.
62. th Annual Report, 1951-1952 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1952).
63. nd Annual Report, 1949-1950 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1950), 5.
64. th Annual Report, 1951-1952, 5.
65. XXIV SCRE. The Scottish Council for Research in Education: its Aims and Activities 1953. Also: SCRE, Its Aims and Activities (Edinburgh: University of London Press, 1945).
66. "Although all four universities had instituted a post-graduate degree (Bachelor of Education) in education and psychology by Ordinances passed during the war, by 1920 the ordinance had been activated only in Edinburgh where a handful of candidates (including some from overseas) had begun to study for it." Robert E. Bell, "Godfrey Thomson and Scottish Education" (unpublished paper, 1974), 4.
67. Stephen Wiseman, "Higher Degrees in Education in British Education," British Journal of Educational Studies 2, no. 1 (1953): 55.
68. Wiseman, "Higher Degrees in Education in British Education," 59.
69. Annie M. Blackwell, List of Researches in Education and Educational Psychology Presented for Higher Degrees in the Universities of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and the Irish Republic from 1918 to 1948 (London: Newnes, 1950).
70. Annie M. Blackwell, A Second List of Researches in Education and Educational Psychology Presented for Higher Degrees in the Universities of the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic in the Years 1949, 1950, and 1951 (London: Newnes, 1951).
71. Annie M. Blackwell, Lists of Researches in Education and Educational Psychology. Supplement 1, Presented for Higher Degrees in the Universities of the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic in the Years 1952 and 1953 (London: Newnes, 1954).
72. Annie M. Blackwell, Lists of Researches in Education and Educational Psychology. Supplement 2, Presented for Higher Degrees in the Universities of the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic in the Years 1954 and 1955 (London: Newnes, 1956).
73. Education [general]. In Annie M. Blackwell, List of Researches in Education 1950) [see Note 61].
74. Wiseman, "Higher Degrees in Education in British Education," 62.
75. "When the present writer [Bell] carried out a questionnaire survey of all traceable holders of the Scottish education degree in 1968-69, Glasgow graduates (according to University records) numbered 409 compared with Edinburgh's 281." Bell, "Godfrey Thomson and Scottish Education," 4.
76. Wiseman's own figures suggest a more ambitious picture at Edinburgh overall: 167 at BEd level and 56 PhDs (London: 339 and 223 respectively). Wiseman, "Higher Degrees in Education in British Education," 64.
77. Wiseman, "Higher Degrees in Education in British Education," 54.
78. Bell, "Godfrey Thomson and Scottish Education", 6.
79. Ibid., 11.
80. Within the small Edinburgh B.Ed cohort, there was a significant minority from the Indian sub-continent from the 1930s to 1940s.
81. Craigie, J SCRE 1928-1972 (Glasgow: SCRE), 5.
82. rd Annual Report, 1930-1931 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1931), 10.
83. th Annual Report, 1934-1935 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1935), 14.
84. th Annual Report, 1935-1936 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1936), 12.
85. th Annual Report, 1936-1937 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1937), 7.
86. th Annual Report, 1937-1938 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1938), 9.
87. SCRE was funded initially by grants from the EIS and the local authorities; in the 1930s, this supplemented by a significant grant from Carnegie, NY. In 1948-1949, when the government department (the SED) was allowed to assist it financially, it gave £1000. By contrast, the education authorities produced approximately £1600.
88. th Annual Report, 1937-1938 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1938), 21.
89. When the Follow Up of the 1947 Survey was undertaken with a sample - the six-day sample - comprising 1215 pupils, schedules dealing with home/family background, were undertaken by "volunteer home visitors". SCRE Minute November 1945, 2 (SCRE Archive, University of Glasgow).
90. th Annual Report, 1942-1943 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1943), 4.
91. th Annual Report, 1943-1944 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1944), 4.
92. th Annual Report, 1944-1945 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1945), 5.
93. th Annual Report, 1945-1946 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1946), 5.
94. SCRE, Aids to Educational Research Comprising Bibliographies and Topics for Research. Revised ed. (Edinburgh: University of London Press, 1946).
95. th Annual Report, 1945-1946 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1946), 5.
96. SCRE, Aids to Educational Research Comprising Bibliographies and Topics for Research. Revised ed. (Edinburgh: University of London Press, 1946).
97. th Annual Report, 1946-1947 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1947), 5.
98. th Annual Report, 1947-1948 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1948), 5.
99. th Annual Report, 1953-1954 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1954), 4.
100. SCRE, Aids to Educational Research Comprising Bibliographies and Topics for Research. Revised ed. (Edinburgh: University of London Press, 1954).
101. th Annual Report, 1957-1958 (Edinburgh: SCRE, 1958), 4.
102. Lawn, An Atlantic Crossing?
103. Christina A Smith, Mental Testing of Hebridean Children in Gaelic and English (London: University of London Press, SCRE publication XXVII, 1948).
104. William McClelland, Selection for Secondary Education (London: University of London Press, SCRE publication XIX, 1942).
105. SCRE, Aids to Educational Research Comprising Bibliographies and Topics for Research. Revised ed. (Edinburgh: University of London Press, 1954).
106. Willard Brehaut, "British Research in Education: Some Aspects of its Development," in Educational Research in Britain, Vol. 3, 5.