17. Histories of Education
Paper
His Master’s Voice: A History of the Teacher’s Voice, 1880-1940
Luna Lemoine, Pieter Verstraete
KU Leuven, Belgium
Presenting Author: Lemoine, Luna
The voice is a crucial tool that teachers use daily to carry out their pedagogical practices. Its importance is highlighted by the significant amount of medical and quantitative research that has been done, in terms of preserving it and limiting the negative impact it can have on students’ achievements (see for example Martins et al., 2014; Rosenberg et al., 1999). The few qualitative research on voices has shown that they have the power to change the meaning of a sentence by, for example, merely varying the tone (Le Breton, 2011). In that way, our perception of certain voices can impact how we perceive people (ibid). In education, where a hierarchical relationship could be installed between a teacher and a student, this could be significant: how students perceive their teacher’s voice tone could influence such a power relationship, and Koch (2017) even suggests that this could further influence the kind of citizens students will become later in life. Therefore, the teacher’s voice is a powerful tool that could influence students’ achievement as well as their behaviour (Koch, 2017; Moustapha-Sabeur & Aguilar Río, 2014).
Nonetheless, the teacher’s voice was not always present in classrooms. Landahl (2019) has shown that in the 19th century, the students’ voices filled up the rooms to repeat and memorize lessons. Towards the end of the century, a shift occurred: teachers were asked to ‘activate’ students by explaining and asking them questions, making their voices more dominant in classrooms (ibid). Despite the impact of a teacher’s voice in education and what it could tell about educational beliefs throughout history, there is still a lack of research on the teacher’s voice in qualitative and historical research.
This paper is an attempt to open the doors of the field of history of education on the teacher’s voice, by inscribing the research in the framework of New Cultural History of Education. One of the concerns of this framework is to understand and counter forms of power that can be hidden in educational historiographies as well as in the educational system itself throughout time (Fendler, 2019). The paper thus supposes that the teacher’s voice can be considered a powerful tool that needs to be understood more thoroughly. By doing this, the paper aims to add a new layer to different powers involved in education throughout history and to introduce a discussion on the potential power of the master’s voice.
More specifically, this paper investigates the descriptions of the teacher’s voice in the French-speaking Belgian context between 1880 and 1914. The period investigated is marked by the so-called School War, which opposed Catholic and liberal visions of education in policymaking. It ends with the beginning of the First World War, which marks a turn in many aspects of society, including education. Two research questions are investigated: the first one explores how teachers were advised to use their voice, and how their voice was described in pedagogical journals and manuals. This allows an analysis of whether the way teachers’ voices have been described has been the same as today, i.e. in terms of concerns for vocal health mainly. More broadly, such research could also give insight into how the voice has been seen as part of the didactic tools throughout history. On the other hand, the paper will compare the presentations of voice between Catholic and liberal pedagogical journals. This could inform us of the influences that pedagogical beliefs could have had and therefore, it could start a reflection on how education has been defined.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedBelgian pedagogical journals written in French were chosen as the principal form of primary source to investigate the questions. Unlike diaries, pedagogical journals offer a wide range of information such as letters from teachers, descriptions of what inspectors saw in classrooms, reports of pedagogical conferences, or articles from pedagogues and psychologists. Journals can thus give a variety of insight from descriptions of practices to depictions of actual teaching in class and more ideological arguments. The language, i.e. French, was chosen as it was still the dominant language of the intellectual sphere during the investigated period (Witte, 2011).
Journals both from liberal and Catholic beliefs were investigated to question their influence on pedagogical beliefs. However, because many of the journals that are within the investigated period and still conserved in universities and national archives were liberal-oriented, Catholic pedagogical manuals were also added. The journals were selected from the indexes of Belgian pedagogical journals published by De Vroede and Bosmans Hermans (1974, 1976). The manuals were found through research on the online platform of the university libraries of KU Leuven (Limo). The selection was done through a search of the keyword ‘pedagogy’, and a limitation on the type of document, the place of publishing, and the time frame.
The liberal-oriented journals that were analysed are Le Progrès (1861 – 1888), Moniteur des instituteurs primaires (1872 – today), and l’Ecole belge (1909 – 1913). The only Catholic-oriented journal that was investigated is l’école Catholique (1881 – 1893). Four Catholic-oriented manuals were investigated, namely Traité théorique et pratique de méthodologie (1882), Résumé du cours de pédagogie par un ancien directeur d’école normale (1880), Quelques directions méthodologiques pour le personnel des écoles primaires et les maîtresses Frœbéliennes (1905), and Cours complet de pédagogie et de méthodologie (1885).
To find relevant articles, the first volume of each journal was read to find the type of keywords to search for, as almost no explicit mention of the word ‘voice’ was made in article titles. Next, articles related to pedagogy, obedience, children’s attention, ways to teach certain topics such as history or geography, and qualities that teachers were expected to have, were looked for in the table of contents. Those articles were indeed most likely to deal with the teacher’s voice.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe paper confirms three previous findings on how the teacher’s voice was presented: the need to vary its tone, the role of the teacher’s voice in his authority, and the teacher’s speech as a model for students (Calcoen & Verstraete, 2022). Unique findings were descriptions of voices for different classes, with an emphasis on expressing emotions such as passion through voice. The voice was also often linked to the word ‘soul’, together with expressions such as ‘kindness’, ‘patience’, or ‘firmness’. Concerns for the teacher’s vocal health could not be found.
No difference between Catholic and liberal writings was found. This means that teachers in both systems received similar advice in terms of voice use. It could be explained by the fact that Catholic teachers wanted to keep their professionalism by ensuring that students understood the study content, in opposition to the Catholic authority’s belief which emphasized more routine memorization, especially in terms of religious teaching (Depaepe et al., 2000).
Overall, the findings confirm that the teacher's voice is a very crucial part of the teaching practice, closely connected to ideas of how and what education should be. Yet, teachers’ voices seem to be neglected in historical and qualitative research, perhaps due to their embodied features. This might also explain why the voice was rarely explicitly described in articles. To conclude, this paper induces a plea to expand this field of research, with further attention needed on bodily practices and what they can tell about educational beliefs. A more longitudinal study on the teacher’s voice is also interesting to search how the perceptions of the teacher’s voice have evolved, and the implications for educational beliefs.
ReferencesCalcoen, Nick and Pieter Verstraete. “De stem van de meester: Een exploratief onderzoek naar de letterlijke stem van de onderwijzer tussen 1880 en 1940.” Master thesis, KU Leuven, 2022.
Depaepe, Marc, Kristof Dams, Maurice De Vroede, Betty Eggermont, Hilde Lauwers, Frank
Simon, Rolan Vandenberghe, and Jef Verhoeven. Order in Progress : Everyday
Education Practice in Primary Schools, Belgium, 1880-1970. Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 2000.
De Vroede, Maurits and An Bosmans-Hermans. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van het pedagogisch leven in België in de 19de en 20ste eeuw: Deel 2, De periodieken 1878-1895. Leuven: KUL, 1974.
De Vroede, Maurits and An Bosmans-Hermans. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van het pedagogisch leven in België in de 19de en 20ste eeuw: Deel 3, De periodieken 1896-1914. Leuven: KUL, 1976.
Fendler, Lynn. “New Cultural Histories.” In Handbook of Historical Studies in Education, edited by Tanya Fitzgerald, 1-17. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2019.
Koch, Anette Boye.“Sounds of Education: Teacher Role and Use of Voice in Interactions with Young Children.” International Journal of Early Childhood 49, no. 1 (2017): 57-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-017-0184-6.
Landahl, Joakim. “Learning to listen and look: the shift from the monitorial system of
education to teacher-led lessons.” The Senses and Society 14, no. 2 (2019): 194-
206. https://doi-org.kuleuven.e-bronnen.be/10.1080/17458927.2019.1619314.
Le Breton, David. Eclats de voix : une anthropologie des voix. Paris: Editions Métailié, 2011.
Martins, Regina Helena Garcia, Eny Regina Bóia Neves Pereira, Caio Bosque Hidalgo, and Elaine Lara Mendes Tavares. “Voice Disorders in Teachers. A Review.” Journal of Voice 28, no. 6 (2014): 716–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.02.008.53
Moustapha-Sabeur, Malak and Jose Ignacio Aguilar Río. “Faire corps avec sa voix : paroles d’enseignant.” In Le corps et la voix de l’enseignant : théorie et pratique, edited by Marion Tellier and Lucile Cadet, 67-79. Paris: Maison des Langues, 2014.
Rosenberg, Gail Gregg, Patricia Blake-Rather, Judy Heavner, Linda Allen, Beatrice Myers Redmond, Janet Phillips, and Kathy Stigers.“Improving Classroom Acoustics (ICA): A Three-Year FM Sound Field Classroom Amplification Study.” Journal of Educational Audiology, no. 7 (1999): 8-28.
Witte, Els.“La question linguistique en Belgique dans une perspective historique.” Pouvoirs 1, no. 136 (2011): 37-50.
17. Histories of Education
Paper
Understanding School Buildings: unpacking the archives of the pioneer Building Performance Research Unit
Bruno Gil1, Carolina Coelho2
1University of Coimbra, Centre of Architectural Studies – from Territory to Design, Department of Architecture, Portugal; 2University of Coimbra, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, Department of Architecture, Portugal
Presenting Author: Gil, Bruno;
Coelho, Carolina
The purpose of this article is to further develop the groundbreaking research conducted by the Building Performance Research Unit (BPRU). The BPRU was established at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, in 1967 and conducted research on 48 comprehensive schools in central Scotland that were opened between 1958 and 1966. Our research contents were publicly presented for the first time at the ECER 2023 conference in Glasgow, the original setting of this history of education we continued to elaborate on. Our presentation introduced the objectives of the BPRU and the theoretical contributions of its researchers from various disciplines, including the founder and main coordinator, architect Thomas A. Markus ; P. Whyman (architect), D. Canter (psychologist), T. Maver (operational research scientist), J. Morgan (physicist), D. Whitton (quantity surveyor) and J. Flemming (systems analyst).
Our presence in Glasgow, also enabled unprecedented access to the BPRU documents, which had been archived since 1973, when the unit's activities came to an end. A detailed reading and critical interpretation of these archival documents can provide a relevant contribute to the knowledge of these first post-occupancy experiences in schools from the end of the 1960s. This includes the challenges, experiences, and deviations involved in speculating on a field that, at the time, was still unaware of its true relevance, as evidenced by many contemporary studies.
The working papers, signed by the researchers, provide an objective report on the measurements of school building layouts and the needs of their communities. The papers map the physical conditions that determine teaching environments, such as sound and daylight, through a rigorous study of spatial partitions. This helped to better understand the particular perceptions of students and teachers. Although the quantitative techniques were used to translate data into objective information, psychologist David Canter's reports aimed to subjectively assess the school communities through questionnaires that were marked by their semantic richness.
The BPRU theory of “improvisation” pertains to changes made in the day-to-day operations of schools’ communities, to varying degrees. The aim was to map these changes in a relatively simple manner, using models that learn from each school's level of improvisation. This allowed for the simulation of future day-to-day operations of schools as open systems of improvisation.
Based on the BPRU’s observation that “people are more adaptable than school buildings”, it is important to consider the full activity of these spaces as relevant data to achieve a fuller architectural response. We argue that interdisciplinary research is currently crucial for renovating educational spaces.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis paper resorts to primary sources from the archive material of the BPRU, currently deposited in Archives and Special Collections at the University of Strathclyde, to detail the goals, methods, and workflow that gave structure to this innovative approach to “research performance”, namely related to the appraisal of school buildings – here related to three main lenses:
1. Presenting BPRU’s research agenda, stated in the first intentions document GD/1/TAM/ML, 18th August 1967, is crucial to frame the context of this forerunner academic venture on education research within an architectural research environment: why schools as the focus of building appraisal, how, by whom and by what means this building appraisal is envisioned;
2. Understanding the aims, scientific organisation and techniques of the five months “Exploratory Study”, introduced in the working paper GD/1/TAM/ML, 18th August 1967, developed in the context of secondary schools in Scotland, between September 1967 and January 1968, will unravel the interchanges of the outputs coming from diverse disciplines, as psychology and architecture;
3. Considering BPRU’s dissemination activities – in the Royal Institute of British Architects, in London and the Design Methods Group in Massachusetts, USA, - as a way of receiving critique on their research endeavour on the comprehensive schools, will helps us to situate the idealization of a research field specific conceived around educational research, namely on school buildings and environments.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsAs argued in our paper 'The Power of School Buildings', presented at ECER 2023, we quote Thomas A. Markus to introduce the expected outcomes. The vision is to incorporate research findings into future designs, contributing to innovative school buildings and environments while being aware of the legacies provided by the long history of education and pedagogies:
“In the present case the Unit’s interest in developing an understanding of, and techniques for, building performance appraisal led to the need to select a building type in which a large number of similar examples could easily be reached, in which background information on the buildings could be readily obtained and in which there was some hope of assessing the actual product of the organisation which the building housed. From a social viewpoint we felt that a building type of which many examples were likely to be built in future years would provide the possibility of research findings actually being incorporated in future designs. All these considerations pointed to schools […]” (Markus and Building Performance Research Unit, 1972, p.52)
Drawing on the BPRU's five-year activity, we contend that their pioneering interdisciplinary research approach offers valuable lessons. Specifically, by unpacking their archive, we can critically revisit their experimental methodology and consider its current significance, namely in the context of research processes associated with the renovation of obsolete educational spaces. By considering the full scope of their activities, we can develop a more comprehensive response, in a contemporary context of an architectural practice-based research.
ReferencesBuilding Performance Research Unit Reports, nº 1-38 (1967-1970). Archive materials from the Andersonian Library, Archives & Special Collections (Serials), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Building Performance Research Unit (1970). Building Appraisal: Students
London: Applied Science Publishers.
Markus, T. (1967). Measurement and appraisal of building performance: the first documents. The Architects’ Journal, 146, 1565-1573.
Markus, T. (1968). The Comprehensive School. Report from the Building Performance Research Unit - Activities, spaces and sacred cows. RIBA Journal, Volume 75 (9), 425-426.
Markus, T. (1974). The why and the how of research in 'real' buildings. Journal of Architectural Research. Journal of Architectural Research, Vol. 3, No. 2 (May 1974), pp. 19-23
Markus, T. (1993). Buildings and Power: freedom and control in the origin of modern building types. London and New York: Routledge.
Markus, T.; Building Performance Research Unit. (1972). Building Performance.
St Michael’s Academy Kilwinning, The Architects’ Journal, 151, 9-50.
RIBA Journal (1966). NEWS: Measuring building performance. RIBA Journal, 73(3), 103.
The Architects’ Journal (1970). Tom Markus is alive and well…, 151(9), 538-543.
17. Histories of Education
Paper
Oral History as a Litmus Test for Educators' Emotions and Young Researcher Self-Criticism
Ingrida Ivanavičė
Vilnius University, Lithuania
Presenting Author: Ivanavičė, Ingrida
This year's Network17 invitation was a fascinating impetus to look at my dissertation (which I am currently writing at Vilnius University, on the retrospective and perspectives of Roma education policy and practice 1956-2024 in Lithuanian schools) from a completely different and unplanned angle - the emotions of the individual in a historical context. Nevertheless, today, balancing between two intentions: 1) to present a small part of the research data related to the teacher's memories of his/her experiences of working with three different generations of Roma pupils (from the late 1980's onwards), and 2) to criticize myself as a researcher who has been applying oral history for perhaps the first time, I pose the question: What emotions and feelings emerged in the teachers' narratives about the past, and do these emotions in the current context have implications for their work, and perhaps even for future strategy planning?
In answering this question, the analysis revealed a wide range of emotions and feelings experienced in the past, which can be summarised as "negative", meanwhile in terms of the present, educators identified much more "positive" emotions. This can be explained by the fact that teachers are now very happy about their successes and are aware of the enormous impact that, for example, a simple transition from one class to another can have on some Roma pupils, but both in the past and in the present this happiness, seems to be clouded by the pressure of the public "a piori problematic" discourse on Roma education, because as Matras mentions, "No tabula rasa is available when it comes to briefing politicians, media, or the wider public about Roma/Gypsies and their needs or aspirations" (2013). Thus, from a historical perspective the "resignation to defeat" of the past were transformed in the present - into a context of lower expectations. Teachers tend to view truly noteworthy pedagogical changes with a very modest attitude, as "small steps on a long journey". Interestingly, this phrase tends to be used by teachers of both the old and the young generation, which allows us to speak of a kind of reproduction of pedagogical emotions in the context of a future programmed in the past, i.e. a present of low aspirations.
The "good" features of oral history were particularly highlighted in the context of this study as an opportunity not only to create a source of unique information, but also to involve the Roma and the educational community in the construction of history. Nevertheless I have also encountered the "classic" difficulties of the novice researcher: trying to understand how individuals relate to their past and how historical understanding unfolds over time (Ricoeur, 2004), navigating between the twists and turns of memory and history, where the resulting testimony is "never the same twice in a row" (Portelli, 2009), and the difficulties of interpretation and the transition between the micro and the macro history of history (Domanska, 1999). I understand and apologise in advance to those who may find my newbie-level observations about the use of oral history in educational research naive and even self-evident, but perhaps by analysing myself rather than others I am much more in line with the longing theme of this year's ECER Network17 call - by sentimentally reminding experienced educational historians of their own first oral history research and nostalgic career beginnings.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis presentation presents only a small part of the data (selected according to the theme of this year's conference and Network17 invitation) collected at Vilnius University during the implementation of a dissertation research project on the retrospective and future perspective of Roma education policy and practice in Lithuanian schools (1956-2024). Combined with elements of biographical research oral history was used as the main research method with the participation of three different generations of Roma with experience of schooling in Lithuanian schools since 1956. Oral history has received a great deal of attention from scholars who have addressed key theoretical and methodological issues either in general (Thompson, 2000; Perks, Thomson, 2006, Thomson, 2007), or within the framework of a particular period (Vinogradnaitė et. al, 2018; Švedas, 2010),so it was chosen as appropriate for recording voices from marginalised groups (Portelli, 2009). It is also important to mention that the general study used archival (mostly school’s archival data) document analysis (G. McCulloch, 2004).
Another important voice in the research was that of educators working with the group in question in Lithuanian schools since 1985 (educators of the younger generation also had the opportunity to be involved in the research - their narratives were used in a comparative aspect). Currently, 23 educators from different Lithuanian cities and different types of schools have already been involved in the study. Data for all participants in the study are depersonalised. The collected oral history interviews were transcribed (audio recordings ranging from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours) and the data were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun, Clarke, 2022). In preparation for this presentation, the array of data collected during the general dissertation research has been revisited through a re-targeted thematic examination of the narrative of educators' emotions, as well as a re-analysis of my interview notes in relation to capturing the educators' emotions, and a personal research diary (which has become extremely useful for capturing my own emotions and reflection, following Nadin, Cassell (2006); Trainor, Bundon (2020)).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings1) Analysing the narratives of the professional memories of teachers working with Roma pupils since the late 1980s, the following dominant emotions emerged: frustration/hopelessness, disappointment, fear, feelings of loneliness, joy/pride. Some of them were more related to the organisation and implementation of the educational process, others to the assessment of educational achievements. Feelings of frustration/despair, fear have evolved and transformed in the historical perspective, taking on new forms, the narrative of feelings of joy and pride has become more connected to the future parallel, and the feeling of loneliness seems to have remained unchanged in the past-present perspective. Interestingly, the process of oral history interviews itself often veered in this direction of emotions and feelings, and seemed to turn not only into multi-perspective personal/collective testimonies and reflections on the past, present and future, but also into a kind of psychotherapeutic analysis of the genesis of individual emotions.
2) I will not be contradicting myself by saying that the oral history method requires a lot of effort on the part of the researcher, but the analysis of that effort becomes another interesting field of research. As a young historian of education applying this method for the first time, I have encountered, perhaps, a number of difficulties: 1) in the process of data collection; 2) in the management of the enormous amount of data; 3) in the context of the tension between history and memory; 4) and most importantly (for this particular topic) – in the ethical issues of historical research. Some of the questions that arose during the research resolved themselves, while others remained unanswered, intriguing and tempting me to delve into the depths of philosophy of history in the hope that I would find answers to them "when I grow up and become a historian of education".
ReferencesBraun, V., Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. Sage
Domanska, E. (1999). Mikrohistorie. Spotkania w miedzyswiatach. Poznan: Wyd. Poznanskie.
Matras, Y. (2013). Scholarship and the Politics of Romani Identity: Strategic and Conceptual Issues. European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online, 10(1), 209-247.
McCulloch, G. (2004). Documentary research in Education, History and Social Sciences. RoutledgeFalmer: London.
Nadin, S., & Cassell, C. (2006). The use of a research diary as a tool for reflexive practice: Some reflections from management research. Qualitative Research in Accounting Management, 3(3), 208–217.
Perks, R., Thomson, A. (eds.). (2006). The Oral History Reader, London and New York: Routledge.
Portelli, A. (2009). What Makes Oral History Different. In: Giudice, L.D. (eds) Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Ricoeur, P. (2004). Memory, History, Forgetting, transl. K. Blamey & D. Pellauer. The University of Chicago Press.
Švedas, A. (2010). Sakytinės istorijos galimybės sovietmečio ir posovietinės epochos tyrimuose (atminties kultūros ir istorijos politikos problematikos aspektas). [Possibilities to adapt oral history to the research of soviet and postsoviet epoch (the problems of the culture of memory and the politics of history)]. Lietuvos istorijos studijos, Nr. 26.
Thompson, P. (2000). The Voice of the Past. Oral History. Oxford University Press.
Thomson, A. (2007). Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History. The Oral History Review, 34(1), 49–70.
Trainor, L. R., & Bundon, A. (2020). Developing the craft: Reflexive accounts of doing reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 1–22.
Vinogradnaitė, I., Kavaliauskaitė, J., Ramonaitė, A., Ulinskaitė, J., Kukulskytė, R. (2018). Sakytinė istorija kaip sovietmečio tyrimo metodas. Vilnius: VU leidykla.
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