The progressive image in the history of education: stories of two schools

Abstract

This article explores the typology of photographic images of school and schooling used by historians who have developed visual methodologies in their research and scholarship over recent years. The authors consider the question, raised by a number of scholars, concerning the value of image‐based research and the capacity of the visual alone to produce new knowledge aside from other traditional sources. The ‘progressive image’ is discussed as one type of school photograph in the context of a range of other types and the article traces the stories of two schools, known to be progressive and innovative during the mid‐twentieth century through archived imagery. The social relationships forged between educators, artists, photographers and policy makers, known and unknown to the historian, it is suggested are by‐products of the process of considering the progressive image in the history of education, opening up new and potentially rich research agendas for the future.

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