Current Projects

International mind in the education of women and girls 1890-1939

The project is examining the historical significance for the education of women and girls in England of ‘the international mind’ in education. The term ‘the international mind’ in education’ was used frequently in the period between 1918 and 1939 and was particularly associated with ideas about international co-operation and the internationalisation of education. The development of ‘the international mind’ was thought to help the development of world peace. It was also associated with views of citizenship and national identity during the inter-war period.

Analysis

‘The International Mind’ and the Education of Women and Girls in England (1868-1939) project is using the published registers of the Women’s Colleges to chart the flows of University-educated women teachers and heads to and from England. This includes both women born overseas and women whose professional employment took them overseas. This analysis is being used to identify key women and girls’ secondary schools that played a central role in fostering international mobility for women teachers and former pupils. The project is also looking at how women’s organisations facilitated women’s professional mobility, with a particular focus on women teachers’ careers. The project is looking at the ways in which ideas about internationalism and internationalisation were encouraged amongst women (head)teachers and in girls’ schools by organisations like the Association of Headmistresses, the League of Nations Union, the Association for Education in Citizenship and the League of Nations in Geneva.

Sources

‘The International Mind’ and the Education of Women and Girls in England (1868-1939) project is largely using documentary archival material, from national and local record offices and schools. In exceptional circumstances, the researchers may also conduct interviews. It is anticipated that a book will be published from the research, as well as a number of articles and that the research will be presented in a variety of fora.

Research Team:

Professor Joyce Goodman, Professor of History of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR. joyce.goodman@winchester.ac.uk

Dr Andrea Jacobs, Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR. andrea.jacobs@winchester.ac.uk

Dr Fiona Kisby, Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR. fiona.kisby@winchester.ac.uk

Helen Loader, Researcher in History of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR.

Alumni voices

This is a university funded project in three phases which seeks to engage with the changing way that university histories are written. By including the voices of those who have lived and worked in the institution, which began as a diocesan training college and is now the University of Winchester, the research introduces personal reflection and oral history methodology in order to complement existing histories of the institution.

The first two phases have been completed and the research has been presented at the History of Education annual conference in Dublin. The team was subsequently invited to contribute to the Histories of Higher Education symposium at Sheffield University and an international symposium in Erlangen Germany. A further paper will be presented at the joint University of Cambridge and History of Education Society conference in Cambridge in September 2008.

Project Timeline

The research team from the Centre for the History of Women’s Education and the Department of History is also indebted to the University of Winchester alumni and the Winton Club for their encouragement and financial support for this project. A DVD of the second phase of the project was presented at the 2007 Winton weekend and the team have been invited back in summer 2008 to report on further progress.

  • Phase one: Questionnaires and interviews focused on the changing student experience as the college changed from an all male to a co-educational environment from 1960.
  • Phase two: A similar methodology which included video interviews considered the nature of ’community’ for students in the college. I t explored to what extent the community was self contained and to what extent it engaged with the local community in Winchester and its surroundings.
  • Phase three: This is currently underway and is focusing on the experience of the staff who have lived and worked at the college.

Those with access via ATHENS may be interested to read more in our article 'Learning lives and alumni voices' which appeared in the Oxford Review of Education, April 2010.

Research Team:

  • Dr Andrea Jacobs
  • Professor Tom James
  • Dr Camilla Leach
  • Dr Stephanie Spencer

If you would be interested in contributing to the research or would like to know more about the project please contact:
Dr Andrea Jacobs
Researcher in History of Education
Faculty of Education
University of Winchester
Winchester
SO22 4NR.

Tel 01962 827098.

email: Andrea.Jacobs@winchester.ac.uk

ESRC seminar series Women in the 1950s

This is a project jointly convened with the universities of Sussex and Manchester.

ESRC seminar series women in Britain in the 1950s (in CHWE current projects)

This two year seminar series is hosted by the University of Winchester (Dr Stephanie Spencer), University of Manchester (Dr Penny Tinkler) and the University of Sussex (Dr Claire Langhamer).

The aim of the series is to shed light on a neglected generation of girls and women. It includes four one-day seminars that use popular stereotypes from the fifties - the teenage girl, the suburban housewife, the glamorous young woman and the woman in love – as starting points for exploring the diversity and complexity of the lives and experiences of girls and women in this period. The series also includes two one-day workshops which explore neglected sources for researching women and gender in the 1950s, namely material culture, sound and photography.

The next seminar is on 'Sensory sources for 1950s’ research: working with sound and material'

21 May 2010, University of Sussex

Please email Stephanie.spencer@winchester.ac.uk if you would like to attend or for further information see http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/sociology/events/50swomen/