Course Of The History Of Education In American Cities

The history of educational historiography is a disciplinary history, which is the reflection of the history of education. This Dissertation (The Course of American Urban Education Historiography) is belonging to it, Which attempts to reflecting the course of American urban education historiography.American urban education historiography is born at the end of1960s, defining shape in the1970s, changing direction from the1980s. It is born out of reality and serves for the reality which has certain reference value on Chinese educational history.American urban education historiography is an important field of American education historiography which is an interdisciplinary subject of urban history and educational history. It used "city" paradigm, seeking to clarify the development and transformation of the urban schooling. American urban education historiography had focused on reality, trying to building bridge between history and reality, reflecting history and guiding reality. The dissertation makes the founding of American urban education historiography as the beginning, studying the course of American urban education historiography which making history, American education historiography, the development of American urban education as context, summarizing its researching characteristics, researching models and functional orientation.American urban education historiography owns a history of fifty years up to the present. Its time span isn’t lengthy and its clue is clear. However, American urban education had become something of a preoccupation in the field of educational history, most leading education historian pay more attention to it. So many education historian and abundant historical materials make my dissertation a hard work. Integrating point and sphere, this dissertation makes the rising and changing direction of American urban education historiography as the major clue and selecting Michael B. Katz, David B.Tyack and Jeffrey Mirel as case study.The paper is divided into two parts. Part one is used three chapters to study the rising of American urban educational historiography.Part two is used two chapters to inquire the changing direction of American urban educational historiography. In part one, it include three chapters. The first chapter of this dissertation is introduced American urban educational historiography before1980s. The dissertation divides this stage into three phases:germination period (from the end of the19th century and the early20th century to1968); founding period (from1968to the beginning of1970s); shaping period (from the beginning of1970s to the beginning of1980s). It analyzes the history background, representative educational historian, works and researching characteristics of various periods. The second chapter select Michael B. Katz’s The irony of early school reform:educational innovation in mid-nineteenth century Massachusetts as text to analyze. This book stands for the founding of American urban education historiography. Katz used conflict history, sociology, case study to study the urban school reform in the mid-19th Massachusetts. He argued that urban schooling is the device of the upper middle class to control the underclass. The third chapter selects David B. Tyack’s The One Best System:A History of American Urban Education as text to analyze. This book stands for the shaping of American urban education historiography. The One Best System open "the third way" beyond the census history of mild revisionist and the conflict history of radical revisionist. Tyack used compromise history to treat urban schooling which not only maintaining the permanent inequity, but also making some contributions to the society in history.Part two of this dissertation divided into two chapters, studying the course of changing direction of American urban educational historiography.The fourth chapter introduces the changing direction of American urban educational historiography in the influence of "post-revisionist" historiography of education since1980s.In this period, education historian treated urban schooling as "contested terrain" among deferent interest groups, unlike liberalism historian who thought city school as a manifestation of democracy, and unlike radical revisionist who thought city school as a tool of social control. The fifth chapter selects Jeffrey Mirel’s The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System:Detroit,1901-1981as text to analyze. This book is the representative text in this period. Mirel continued to revise the view of radical revisionist, adhered to the compromise view of history, and combined narrative-oriented approach and problem-oriented approach. He focused on the reasons of the decline of Detroit city school system.