Presidents’ Award

Background

The History of Education Society, UK’s, principal aim is the furtherance of the field. An element of this is the promotion and celebration of the careers of scholars and those working in support of scholarship. The triennial Presidents’ Award seeks to celebrate the longstanding contributions made by individuals to further the history of education. This Award offers the Society the opportunity to profile an individual or individuals’ work, to celebrate it and say ‘thank you’ from peers for their achievements in the field. The award is a prestigious one, something that the Society delights in awarding and wishes to publicly acknowledge and celebrate. The Award is made only once every 3 years (i.e. once in a particular President’s term of office), timed to coincide with the final year of any President’s tenure.

The Award

• Individuals in receipt of the award are invited to attend the annual conference in the year in which it is awarded, having the conference fees waived, and their travel expenses paid or subsidized to a maximum value of £500.
• The career and profile of the award nominees and winner/s will be publicised in the History of Education Researcher, a precis of which will also appear on the Society’s website, in perpetuity, forming a gallery of Award holders.
• Award holders will receive a framed certificate commemorating the award.
• In their year of nomination award holder/s would be encouraged to profile their work through the Society’s media, journals and in public engagement activities. A small budget will be set aside to meet expenses accrued with regard to this work.
• Award holders will receive free online access to the Society’s journal from the date the award is received for a year (generously funded by T&F).

Criteria for Nomination and Selection

• The prize will be awarded to an individual who has made a recognisable longstanding and significant contribution to the field (that is in excess of 20 years according to their profile). This might be as an archivist, someone committed to the public understanding of the subject (e.g. in the museum sector), someone who has made a lengthy contribution to public engagement by some means (e.g. in the media), someone who has served with another History of Education (or related) learned society, as well as by ‘traditional’ academic scholarly means.
• Contribution may be measured in terms of the scope and volume of publications, public engagement, collaboration with and/or service to the wider community, support of early career researchers and doctoral students. Although it is understood that a significant contribution may have been made to one of these areas in particular each will be equally weighted in assessing the case for a nominee for the Award.
• Nominees may be a past-President of the Society, but not normally a recent past-President.
• The Society are keen to secure a diverse and representative range of nominations, and thus applications from under-represented groups will be especially welcome.

Process

• Nominations are welcomed from members of the Society, and others – including self-nominations, in the form of a written proposal that:
  1. Presents the case for nomination, which should include a statement setting out why the nominee would be an appropriate recipient of the award, (maximum of 750 words) together with a CV of the nominee (or link where this is available online)
  2.  Includes supporting statements (of no more than 250 words) from each of two seconders
  3. Awards will be judged against the following criteria:
     • the promotion and facilitation of the study and teaching of the history of education nationally and internationally;
     • the encouragement and support of research in the history of education nationally and internationally;
     • the promotion of the public understanding of the history of education;
     • the encouragement and support of emerging and early career researchers in the history of education;
     •  the promotion, preservation and facilitation of access to primary sources in the history of education, and features of our educational heritage
• Nominations should be sent by email to the Secretary of the Society (Susannah Wright – [email protected]), no later than the deadline shown below.
• Nominations will be considered by a sub-committee of the executive committee.
• The decision of the awards committee is final.
• The outcome of nominations will be kept confidential until reported to the History of Education Society Executive at their autumn meeting. The Award bearer/s will be notified shortly after this, along with an invitation to attend the annual conference.
• Awards will be publicised via social media. Successful Award winners will be introduced and the certificate presented at the annual conference dinner.

Deadline: 31st July 2023