This is a recording of 'School Stories: Histories of Education', the Inaugural lecture by Stephanie Spencer, Professor of History of Women’s Education.
Talk description:
If asked, most people will tell you a story about their school days. Most of us recognise the familiar genre of the ‘school story’. Many of the authors and the majority of their readers had no experience of the boarding school life that formed the backdrop to these stories, yet it was an extraordinarily popular genre in the mid-twentieth century. In this lecture, both real and imaginary school stories will be revisited in order to enhance our understanding of education in the immediate post-war period. Prof. Spencer will also reflect on whether such stories can, or even should, inform present and future policy planning.
About Professor Stephanie Spencer:
Prof. Spencer is Head of the Department of Education Studies and Liberal Arts and Convener of the Centre for the History of Women’s Education, located within the Faculty of Education, Health and Social Care. Her research interests include both formal and informal aspects of girls’ education and cross-disciplinary boundaries between education, history and cultural studies.
