Puncta for Professors: The University of Bologna and its Fining System

Elena Rossi, Magdalen College, Oxford Ever fallen asleep in a boring class? Had a lecturer that always let their classes overrun? What if you could fine your lecturers for this audacious behaviour? It may sound crazy, but this was the reality for teachers in the early...

H A L Fisher and the Education Act of 1918 – The One That Got Away

Jamie Trezise, University of Sussex When considering the educational reforms of the 20th century, it will most likely be the 1944 Education Act, pioneered by Rab Butler, that comes to mind, which introduced secondary education for all.[1] Or perhaps it might be the...

Classical Scholars and Classical Musicians

Alexander Jakobidze-Gitman, Witten/Herdecke University How did a musician and music historian like me become interested in the debates on classical education dating back more than a century? Like many other Russian humanities scholars, I realized only in my twenties...

Vocational Schools at the 1900 Universal Exhibition

Miranda Sachs, Texas State University If a visitor to the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris had wandered into the pavilion sponsored by the city of Paris, she would have encountered a display of handcrafted objects produced by students at the city’s vocational...

Ian and Anne Serraillier, and The New Windmill Series

Liz West, University of Reading The New Windmill Series is part of the Heinemann Educational Books Archive at the University of Reading Special Collections. The archive, which covers the period from 1949-81, reveals an interesting interplay between publisher, teacher...

Education during a Global Health Crisis

Alexa Rodríguez, University of Virginia Almost two years later and school systems across the world continue to be disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, this is not the first-time schools have faced the challenge of operating during a public health crisis such as...

On Interdisciplinarity

Karen Lillie, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Truly good research – the kind that offers new insights into long-standing ideas, that pushes us to see a little differently – can rarely be labelled as purely one thing or another. In synthesising...