History of education in Britain since 1960

This article reviews the historiography as it has developed in Britain over the past sixty years in the history of education. This encompasses three key phases. From 1960 until about 1975 it was a field that was based mainly in key texts while new journals and societies began to emerge. From 1975 to the end of the century as it lost its mass market in teacher education, general texts in the history of education declined while specialised journals research grew in importance. In the early decades of the twenty-first century, specialisation continued in an increasingly diversified research field with a growing emphasis on theory, methodology, comparative and transnational approaches, and engagement with the social sciences. Initially quite insular and tending to focus on local and national concerns, it became prominent in international activities and in contributing to research with international, comparative and transnational vistas. Overall, the map of the history of education in Britain has changed both in form and in content, as well as in the audience towards which it was principally directed.