History of Education

The history of education program is designed primarily for, but not limited to, students to specialize in the history of American education, and its complex and multicultural dimensions. The Department offers a sequence of courses in the History of Education, including History of Western European Education, History of Asian American Education, Educational Movements in the Twentieth Century, Historical Foundations of American Educational Thought, and Methods and Techniques of Historical Research. Under the rubric of Seminars for Advanced Students of Education, the history of education program offers specialized research seminars in a range of areas, including minority and women's educational history. The History Department also offers a large number of courses that are relevant to our program. Students in the History of Education Program, in consultation with their advisors, regularly take history courses in Oral History, African American History, Quantitative Techniques for Historians, and Historiography. The history of education program aims to provide students with rigorous methodological and theoretical training in historical research, resulting in an understanding of the origins and development of American education within the context of American social and intellectual history. Students are prepared mainly for careers as teachers and researchers. However, the history of education program also supports the preparation of students in other programs by providing a historical context for a fuller understanding of policy, philosophical, and contemporary social issues.

Graduates from our program have gone to secure tenure-track faculty positions in places such as Stanford University, University of Iowa, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and here at the University of Illinois, among others.  We are one of few graduate programs in the country to offer a specialty in the history of education, and beginning in 2006, EPS will be the home of the History of Education Quarterly, the major journal in the history of education.

Affiliated Faculty

• James D. Anderson (African American education in the South from 1860-1935, the history of higher education desegregation in southern states, the history of public school desegregation, institutional racism, and the representation of Blacks in secondary school history textbooks, history of African American public higher education and the development of African American school achievement in the twentieth century)

• Christopher M. Span (African American education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, African American intellectual history)

Courses in History of Education

• EPS 400: History of American Education
• EPS 403: European Education to 1600
• EPS 404: European Education since 1600
• EPS 502: Education in the 20th Century (e.g., desegregation, progressive education, affirmative action, education of multiracial groups)
• EPS 503: Seminar in the History of Education (e.g., history of American higher education, African American education)

Connections with the Campus

• Department of History (http://www.history.uiuc.edu/)
• Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society http://cdms.ds.uiuc.edu/default.htm)
• African American Studies and Research Program (http://www.aasrp.uiuc.edu/home/default.asp)
• Asian American Studies Program (http://www.aasp.uiuc.edu/)

Recent Faculty Activities

All of the faculty in the history division, especially under Professors Anderson and Span’s leadership, have participated annually in various mentoring opportunities for promising undergraduate and graduate students through the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), the McNair Program, and the Summer Predoctoral Research Program here on campus.  Their commitment to ensuring that the next generation of scholars receive equal opportunities have earned them numerous accolades within and outside the university community.

On a national scale, Professor Anderson is featured on two PBS documentaries that looks at the history of schools and schooling, aptly titled, School, as well as another that investigates the history of segregation in the South, entitled The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.  Dr. Anderson also served as the expert witness for the landmark Supreme Court case, Grutter vs. Bollinger, that reaffirmed the importance of Affirmative Action on college campuses.

Professors Pak and Span regularly give lectures to community and school organizations within the Champaign-Urbana area as well as community groups around the Midwest related to school equity, African American student achievement, and on the history and education affecting Asian Americans.

Currently, Professor Anderson serves as Member-at-Large for the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Executive Council and Professors Span and Pak are active in AERA’s Division F: History and Historiography (http://aera.net/divisions/?id=71).