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Virtual history and the history of education

Introduction Over the past generation, research in the history of education has done much to highlight a wide range of contested ideals and practices that have represented alternative philosophies or priorities at particular points in time. Overall, this corpus of research has tended to identify itself with the neglected and marginalized, rather than with the dominant groups and triumphant systems that had been eulogized in the previous generation of research. Its findings have greatly enhanced our understanding of the history of education. At the same time, the emphasis on contestation between alternatives has increased the temptation to ask what would have happened if events had conspired otherwise at critical junctures. This kind of question is the basis of what is often described as ‘virtual history’, or less kindly as ‘what if’ or ‘might-have-been’ history. Little attention has been given to issues surrounding the use of virtual history in relation to the history of education. The present paper explores the rise of virtual history in the writing of educational history over the past thirty years, with particular reference to education in twentieth-century Britain, and seeks to explain and assess this development. Several key questions have been raised through the application of virtual history to the history of education in twentieth-century Britain. For example, with regard to the rise of comprehensive schools designed for abilities and aptitudes, what would have happened if this major development had been circumvented, or else if it had taken place sixty years earlier than it did? Or relating to the role of the state: would it have been more beneficial if the state had not established an education system in the late nineteenth century? Or, has the dominance of liberal education been responsible for Britain’s educational, social and political problems, and would a stronger role for technical education have provided greater success? These different versions of virtual history have each raised interesting issues but they have become increasingly prone to unverifiable speculation. They have also tended to dramatize the alternatives involved, to idealize the unrealized line of historical development, and to encourage retrospective wishful thinking.