Valorising the Cultural Heritage of the School Desk Through Historical Research

Abstract

From a historical point of view it is not only possible to adopt an innovative approach concerning the way the material culture and representation of educational research are examined, but the historical study itself can also contribute to a revamping of the material scholarly culture and the way it is represented. The latter can be brought about both by means of research projects being set up with an intrinsic finality, as well as via projects contemplating an alternative way of disseminating and communicating scientific findings. In our chapter we substantiate this thesis on the basis of the example of the school desk, which we deal with at various different levels of historiography. First, we will delve into the iconic and metaphorical use of the ‘school desk’ on covers, in titles, slogans and so on. These are often historical images that have been extracted from their original context and appropriated in a way that no longer wants to represent traditional or historical practices. Historical research on the educational uses of the school desk, however, can help explain its symbolic value for the present day (which is also revealed by the fact that virtually all education museums include displays of school desks). Second, starting from a recent study on the innovative value of the school desks of Oscar Brodsky we will show how alternative paths have to be explored in order to successfully link the long tradition of uses of the desk with the process of modernization. Up to now—and this is our third issue—the historiography of the school desk has been framed almost exclusively within a Foucouldian paradigm, a research tradition which bears several inconveniences for a dynamic approach towards the historical relationship of the educational actors (teachers and pupils) with the school desk. This resulted, among other things, in the school desk primarily being conceived of as a static object, even in the historical study of the educational process. Hence, we argue in the fourth section for a more dynamic approach. In our view, instead of isolating the school desk as a source for historical research, future-oriented research should contextualize its use, not only against the background of the prevailing educational practices, but also in relation to the existing cultural-historical practices in other social fields. Studies on the ‘grammar of schooling’ and the ‘grammar of educationalization’, such as those that we have undertaken in the past, but which are also at the head of various other initiatives, constitute a good starting point for this. In the final section we discuss to what extent education museums in general and specific exhibition projects in particular can help to realize such a dynamic historical understanding. On the one hand, it is obvious that there exists within the world of education museums a great potential to valorise the cultural heritage of the materialities of schooling in relation to the history of educational practices. On the other hand, however, this same world has remained so amateurish and conservative that the danger of a romanticized and nostalgic interpretation is lurking around almost every corner, although we can certainly point to one or two promising initiatives in the direction we have described as desirable.