Peace and War as Topics in Scholarly Journals of History of Education: a comparative investigation

Abstract

Educational thinking is rooted in ideas of future and continuity. Wars and revolutions, however, indicate discontinuity, disruptions, breaks. The article asks whether wars and revolutions are a significant topic in educational research and reflection, especially, to what extent and how history of education focusses upon wars and revolutions in the past 50 years? In order to answer these questions and also to analyse differences according to time and space the article draws on three disciplinary key journals. They represent important scholarly associations of history of education – the British and the American History of Education Societies and the International Standing Conference on the History of Education, i.e. “History of Education” (UK, founded 1968), “History of Education Quarterly” (USA, founded 1961), and “Paedagogica Historica” (International, founded 1961). We find that war as a special topic seems to be far beyond the scope of educational research and reflection, and, thus, is also not a core subject systematically dealt with in historical educational research journals. It is argued that war does not provide any U-topia (Eu-topia), which could serve as a normative point of reference for education and history of education. War seems to function as an educational A-topos: “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (Wittgenstein).