Introduction

ABC, 123, Look at Me!

School Past_Present_Future in Europe and Beyond in Words, Numbers and Images

This online platform brings together in digital form teaching and learning materials that are thought of as conversation pieces about school and time. A publication in physical and digital form is intended to keep these materials accessible for the foreseeable future as well, and to keep the conversation going. The materials in question have been commissioned from academics across Europe: from early career researchers to more experienced scholars. In the first instance doctoral students who attended the History of Education Doctoral Summer School (HEDSS-9) in Riga were invited to submit contributions representing countries in Europe and beyond. Gradually, we extended our invitation to friends and (link) convenors (organisers) of Network 17 – Histories of Education of the European Educational Research (EERA), as the time frame was very limited and more materials were needed still to obtain an acceptable sample. The teaching and learning materials included have had to be produced and copy-edited at record speed, so we ask readers, viewers and commentators to consider these with a forgiving eye and mind. 

The inspiration for developing teaching and learning materials about school and time, or more broadly speaking, education and time, has come from various directions. On the one hand, one of the co-editors of this publication, Fabio Pruneri, has acquired an interest in “time devices” like school bells and “time management” in schools in Italy at a local and national level from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. His interest in school and time has developed further through teaching history and philosophy of education courses touching on such subjects. In June 2017, he hosted a conference at the University of Sassari, Italy aimed at a broad audience including aspiring teachers. School in Three Words: Comparative Readings of the School of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow was the title of this conference which invited Italian and European scholars to identify three words able to help understand school as it was, as it is nowadays, and as it will be in the future across national borders. From this, the idea of using words to “capture” time – or better: times – was born. On the other hand, his fellow co-editor Geert Thyssen, who, through Erasmus+, gave a guest lecture on open-air schools and time at the University of Sassari and also contributed to the School in Three Words conference, has become interested in how time is used, or somehow works, to make sense of lived experiences and of past(s), present(s) and future(s) in education in the West and in other places, societies and cultures. This interest has grown from work on a previous EERA Network 17 project/publication, Education across Europe: A Visual Conversation; from research on modes and processes of meaning-and sense-making; and from a fascination with feminist theory about time, shared with Joyce Goodman – a dear colleague and EERA Network 17 friend. Like her, many other such colleagues and friends have become intrigued by the powerful roles visual and other materials have played over time, or perhaps rather with time, in school and education in general. This has fed into the idea of asking contributors to the teaching and learning materials included here to think about school and time through or with images as well.  

The teaching and learning materials presented here also figure against the backdrop of broader interests and concerns. Europe thus seems to be at a pivotal point, and schools internationally are confronting challenges to do with migration and racism; impacts of standardised testing and growing preoccupation with tests, data and metrics; staff and student health and wellbeing; and numerous other things. At the same time, supposed national, regional, local and European identities, values etc. are being reaffirmed. This convinced us there is a need for windows to the past, present and future allowing one, young or old, to better appreciate conditions of schooling across boundaries. Ever in flux and flow, time bound up with places, materials and people has indeed shaped and is still shaping imagined communities. The teaching and learning materials presented here, then, intend to help a broad audience get a sense of schooling and education in Europe and beyond in relation to time. They aim to offer windows of opportunity for comparative thinking about schooling with and through time, as alternatives to current quantitative assessments of education systems internationally. In doing so, they hope to inspire re-imaginings of school and education in Europe and beyond.

Concretely, authors were invited to write a contribution for any country they felt they were able to represent, which would appeal to a broad audience including teachers, educators, parents, carers, and even students of upper primary/lower secondary school age and above. For each country represented the teaching and learning materials were intended to consist of a short, roughly 1,000 word-long text based on 1 image, 1 word and 1 number considered to be meaningful in this context, accompanied by engaging questions capable of stimulating further thinking. Contributions were thought of as conversation pieces on school_time, meaning accounts on both school (or education) in, across or through time, and time itself as something making past(s), present(s) and future(s) of school (or education) conceivable in one way or the other. Authors were furthermore asked to use vernacular language as much as possible and non-academic referencing. In practice, the contributors to this publication have gone about meeting these challenges in various ways, each no doubt having in mind a certain conception of scientific quality and public engagement, a particular audience, perhaps a specific child, young person, parent or carer, and a different interpretation of the task laid out. This makes for a rich and diverse sample of materials, notwithstanding the inevitably homogenising layout and copy-editing choices made by a broader team of co-editors. Rather than attempting to summarise the essence of these materials, we invite readers, viewers and commentators to engage in (re-)imaginings of their own regarding school and education as something of the past, present and future in which time plays a role. Only time can tell what further words, numbers and images this will help conjure up to make sense of schooling in Europe and beyond.  

Geert Thyssen & Fabio Pruneri