Historical Studies in Education / Revue d'histoire de l'éducation

Front Matter

Mallory Davies — 2026-06-24

In Memoriam: R. D. Gidney

Paul Axelrod — 2026-06-24

In Memoriam: R. D. Gidney

Self-Determined Schools: Lumbee Education History in a Tri-racial System in Robeson County, North Carolina

Christy L. Oxendine — 2026-06-24

In 1885, North Carolina recognized the Croatan Indians as a third race in addition to Whites and Blacks, granting them state apportionments and a self-governed public school system in Robeson County. This legislation also established a tri-racial school system in the state. Over time, the Croatans, renamed Lumbee, became the largest tribe in the southeastern US. Despite racialization and ongoing appeals for additional school funding, the Lumbee found strength in their self-determination. They supported their schools through educational rallies and contributions of land, supplies, time, and labour. The Lumbee ancestors were committed to creating and maintaining community schools, a legacy that remains central to Robeson County and North Carolina’s history. This article traces the history of Lumbee-controlled schools from 1885 to 1940

The Drift of Men: Business Education, Women Students, and the Decline of Arts in the 1920s

Sara Z. MacDonald — 2026-06-24

The rising enrolment of women in faculties of arts significantly influenced the development of business education in English-Canadian universities. To identify commerce as a professional program for men, and to fortify its academic integrity, universities eliminated skill-based courses in office procedure from the curriculum. This article explores early business education by focusing on two universities: Queen’s, which introduced commerce in 1919; and Western, which established commerce in 1920, and then secretarial science in 1924. The study provides an opportunity to explore the gendered division of business education. It assesses the ways in which commerce was constructed as an applied social science within the arts faculty, not just to protect the discipline from charges of vocationalism, but to assert authority over knowledge production by excluding women and their connection to secretarial work.

“Probably a little lady like you would not want to be called Doctor”: Female Normal School Instructors in Canada, c. 1925 – 1950

Lynn Lemisko — 2026-06-24

Despite the rising number of published studies exploring the experiences of women as teachers, grade school administrators, and faculty and students of higher education institutions, few studies investigate the history of female normal school instructors. We have begun to address this gap as part of a large-scale, SSHRC-funded study examining the history of teacher education across Canada. In this paper, we present the lives and contributions of four female normal school instructors whose experiences illuminate themes we uncovered by employing Rebecca Coulter’s ideas arising from her examination of Donalda Dickie’s “power of practice” — themes including: developing practice with intentionality; doing through practice: reaching down, up, and out; and gender constraints circulating in early- to mid-twentieth century Canada.

“This place is like a prison”: Disciplining Inmates and Resisting Institutionalization at the Ontario Institution for the Education of the Blind, 1882–1903

Harrison Dressler — 2026-06-24

This article investigates the experiences of the pupils-cum-inmates who attended the Ontario Institution for the Education of the Blind (OIB) between 1882 and 1903. Using testimonies from a provincial investigation conducted in 1900, the article positions the OIB as having developed as an extension and specialization of Ontario’s social welfare and carceral apparatus. It argues that the OIB possessed certain of the structural and organizational features of carceral institutions. During the principalship of Alfred Hutchinson Dymond, the OIB borrowed carceral ideologies and techniques from the British penal reform movement to discipline inmates. Economic pressures combined with the OIB’s organizational functions isolated pupils from broader society, increasing the likelihood of their mistreatment. The writings of the adult pupil Walter A. Ratcliffe, a former schoolteacher and deaf-blind socialist, were prescient in advancing a structural critique of institutionalization. Many of his peers criticized the province of Ontario for associating blindness with criminality.

"A Gilt-Edged Class of Trained Men": Telegraph Schools in Canada and the United States, 1870s-1920s

Michael Feagan — 2026-06-24

Throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century hundreds of young men and women sought to learn telegraphy in schools and colleges. These schools aimed to uplift students into promising careers by equipping them with a rare skill set at an affordable price and a small time commitment. Telegraph schools aimed to provide students with a uniform set of skills, knowledge, and experiences to get right into the workforce as telegraphers. The development of telegraph schools is also tied to the history of technical schools more broadly. Ultimately, telegraph schools over promised what they could deliver to their students.

Ailsa M. Watkinson, Spare the Child: Ending Childhood Corporal Punishment

Paul Axelrod — 2026-06-24

Alison Mountz and Kira Williams, Let Geography Die: Chasing Derwent's Ghost at Harvard

Lucy E. Bailey — 2026-06-24

Laura Yares, Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth-Century America

Eric Caplan — 2026-06-24

Jackson Pind, Students by Day: Colonialism and Resistance at the Curve Lake Indian Day School

Chadwick Cowie — 2026-06-24

Ruth Lamont, Eloise Moss, and Charlotte Wildman, Friendless or Forsaken? Child Emigration from Britain to Canada, 1860-1935

Jane Errington — 2026-06-24

Elizabeth Marshall, The Drinking Curriculum: A Cultural History of Childhood and Alcohol

Julie Garlen — 2026-06-24

Derek Taira, Forward without Fear: Native Hawaiians and American Education in Territorial Hawai’i, 1900-1941

Eōmailani K. Kukahiko — 2026-06-24

Stéphanie Gaudet et Caroline Caron, Faire l'expérience de la démoratie : les tiers-lieux de l'éducation à la citoyenneté des jeunes au Québec

Charles-Antoine Bachand — 2026-06-24

Marc-André Éthier et David Lefrançois, Développer la pensée historienne à l’école : représentations, outils et pratiques

Laurie Pageau — 2026-06-24

Contributors

Mallory Davies — 2026-06-24

Guidelines for Authors

Mallory Davies — 2026-06-24