HISTORICAL AND DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH © LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION AND KEITH MORRISON

STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER Some preliminary considerations: theory and method The requirements and process of documentary analysis Some problems surrounding the use of documentary sources The voice of the past: whose account counts? A worked example: a biographical approach to the history of education

INTRODUCTION The uses and limitations of historical sources can only be fully appreciated when they are understood in their social context as historical products.

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: THEORY AND METHOD Foundational claims over scientific, empirical history were intrinsic to the formation of this new, university-led discipline constructed upon a theory of knowledge. Scholarly reputations were built on the principles of the search for objective truth. Within this approach ‘the facts’ spoke for themselves independently of a particular point of view. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: THEORY AND METHOD Social history, sometimes described as the ‘history of the people’ or ‘history from below’, emerged as an alternative to conventional political history, both in terms of its objects of interest and its belief in deep-rooted economic and social factors as agents of historical change. A broadening of attention to other documentary sources was an important feature of the broad body of social history, with a willingness to supplement documents with other sources of evidence, e.g. the revival of oral history. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: THEORY AND METHOD Recovering lost voices provided a means to empower women, the working class and minority communities, allowing them to speak for themselves. The ‘take-off’ of cultural history from the late 1980s onwards ruled out a fundamentally positivistic concern with getting at the truth, giving readers ‘the facts’. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: THEORY AND METHOD A post-structural approach to history: remaking ourselves as readers and writers. Meaning is looked for in a culture’s language and systems of representation. Perception of empirical reality is constituted through multiple refracting perspectives, which are constantly changing, over time and space. Read the same material artefacts or texts, but read against the grain, looking for contested meanings and omissions. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: THEORY AND METHOD Foucault: documents are not of interest because of what they tell us about the author, but because they inform us about the mechanisms through which power is exercised. Documents are a medium through which power is expressed. Much of the historian’s skill lies in the creative and self-aware use of the sources from which history is made. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

THE REQUIREMENTS AND PROCESS OF DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS Primary sources Every kind of evidence which people have left of their past activities, produced during the period being studied. Secondary sources Primary analysis An interpretation of raw materials. Secondary analysis An examination of the interpretations of others. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

SOME PROBLEMS SURROUNDING THE USE OF DOCUMENTARY SOURCES Some written data are deliberately written for research; most are not. Data deliberately written for research can be by the researcher and/or the researched (e.g. diaries): insiders and outsiders. If data were written for a purpose, agenda and audience other than research(ers), then there are problems of validity and reliability. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

CHECK HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS FOR VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY Challenges to validity and reliability Authenticity Credibility Representativeness Meaning (intended, received and internal meaning) © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

SOME PROBLEMS SURROUNDING THE USE OF DOCUMENTARY SOURCES Documents are selective in terms of the information presented. Often they do not record everything about events. The act of recording is informed by the social, cultural, economic and political landscape of which they are a part. Those who work with historical documentary evidence can have too little and too much available to them. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

THE VOICE OF THE PAST: WHOSE ACCOUNT COUNTS? History-writing is wide in scope and does not just reflect the standpoint of authority. There are many sources of accounts: biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, interviews, oral testimonies, historical records, library records, educational archives, images. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

DOING HISTORICAL RESEARCH The background to the research. The research ‘problem’. Initiating the process of researching the past: the importance of archives. Widening the search: uncovering public and private resources and some practical considerations. Building up a (political) profile. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

DOING HISTORICAL RESEARCH It is possible to recreate ‘lost lives’ and events by going beyond the official record and digging for the raw material of history. The past does not in any automatic way ‘speak for itself’. When it comes to our educational past, historical and documentary research needs to include not just the leaders but the people who inhabit the classrooms and the forms, dimensions and meaning of their experience, to bring history into and out of the community and ensure the unknown ideas from the under-classes, the unprivileged and the defeated, are told with integrity and not quietly forgotten. © 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors