Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Faculty member of the Department of Psychology, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
Abstract
In this paper the importance of studying historical foundations of education has been explained and also it is maintained that for modern or scientific history the main task of a historian is to discover the meanings of past events. Interpreting and exploring the meanings of events are based on the patterns and paradigms accepted and exploited by the historian. In this article some of these patterns or paradigms which have been used in the realm of history of education, are examined. Amongst them are: the utilitarian and feministic patterns, the paradigms concerned with the study of history from below and the analytical study of history, the pattern of history serving educational administrators and that of history of education for improving world peace, the pattern dealing wtih comparative history and the study of non- organizational behavior, and finally, the paradigms for studing historical continuities and that of studying history based on the theory of “the end of history”.
What has been suggested is not to restrict the research in this domain to only one of these patterns, since, as some critics believe, this will put the history on some theoretic path non realistically. The suggestion is to use these approaches of interpreting past educational events appropriately.
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