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German colonialism has long been treated as a sort of footnote in the epoch of the Empire due to its relatively short time span. The focus was mostly on the reconstruction of a story of 'white' men -- as the story of pioneers, 'discoverers', missionaries or traders. But how were children included in the colonial project? This article deals with this question with regard to the genre of colonial literature for children that emerged in the German Empire. Due to their pedagogic impetus these novels are of significance for historical educational research: they were explicitly put in the service of instruction to inspire children with the meaning of colonial issues. Within these novels 'nature' had high priority. On the basis of selected colonial novels for boys and girls, this article investigates the question of what was understood by 'nature' and of its importance for colonial education.

As an introduction to the Special Issue 'Power relations, preservation and voice. Writing histories of education with autobiographical materials,' this article reviews the state of the art of autobiographical work in history of education research. Moreover, it argues that although writing histories of education with autobiographical materials is not a 'new' phenomenon, incorporating yet unknown or overlooked sources can bring fresh insights and perspectives to the field. This arises from the potential of autobiographical materials to complement reigning understandings of the past with alternate narratives. Yet, this introduction also points to challenges in working with such materials – particularly when we consider their work in constructing, presenting and performing a particular self. In this introduction, we start by discussing the term 'autobiographical materials' and tracing the development of using these kinds of materials in research. We then go on to explore various theoretical and methodological issues around working with autobiographical materials, in relation to production, preservation, access and the intellectual frameworks that we as researchers choose to employ. Finally, we introduce the articles that comprise this Special Issue. As a whole, this Issue offers a careful and considered re-visitation of the challenges and potentials inherent to working with autobiographical materials, further enriching the ongoing debate over power relations, preservation and voice when writing histories of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the so-called century of travelling, many Creole travellers went on a journey from Latin America to Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This article outlines the travellers' impact on the construction of (supra)national identities, by highlighting the often alleged duality between "European civility" and "Latin American barbarism" within their travelogues. After a brief description of processes of nation-building in Latin America, the article focuses on the distinction between "civility" and "barbarism", as reflected in the travellers' observations of educational concepts. The travellers emphasised the need to distinguish between the notions of "education" and "instruction". The analysis of the travelogues revealed that many travellers were influenced by pre-conceived "ideas of Europe". This article highlights instances in which the circumstances in Europe conformed to the travellers' expectations, as well as instances in which the travellers suffered disappointment and irritation due to unexpected and non-conforming experiences. Particularly the non-conforming experiences possess an immense potential for further investigations. To outline this productive potential, this article will critically examine Rainer Kokemohr's theory of "Bildung". Kokemohr defines the processes of handling and converting experiences of crisis as "Bildung" if they lead to profound modifications of the experiencing subject's self- and world-conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question "What does this have to do with everything else?" refers to ecological thinking. In this article, we use an ecological approach to explore the interrelationships between the incidence of the influenza pandemic of 1918–19, its trajectories and impacts on education. Our emphasis on children and their environment, as specific ecological arrangements, allows the mapping of associated social, institutional, cultural and material contexts and relations, alongside axes of experiences, behaviours and choices during a life-threatening crisis. To achieve this we apply the multiple perspectives that an ecological approach demands and use four different sources of evidence, from Sweden, Portugal, England and Spain, respectively: a teacher obituary, a magazine article, a school Log Book and an artist's drawing. Each piece of evidence helps to identify lines of articulation and strands of entanglements projected in time and space. Their joint ecological reading enables the grasping of glocal connections, uncovering a few tesserae of a much larger mosaic, and pointing to the inherent potential of an educational-ecological approach to the study of past pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on two different versions of the childhood and life history of a female "child of a Russian" who grew up in the Soviet occupation zone and the later German Democratic Republic (GDR). Besides a biographical-narrative interview, there is also a published text on the author's childhood memories. The article concentrates on the childhood of the author/interviewee, since the published version does not provide any information on her later life, and picks out two so-called "key scenes" that appear in both the published version and the interview, comparing the different versions with each other and examining them for ruptures, inconsistencies and changes. For the purpose of better understanding the analysis of these scenes, a third scene is added, which, however, only comes up in the interview. The analysis pursues the question of whether different presentations of a scene have something to do with the methodological particularities of an oral autobiographical narration as opposed to a written one, and what kind of knowledge is gained from contrasting two different self- testimonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses the history of urban and natural education as featured within the issue.

This issue of Paedagogica Historica is a product of the 39th ISCHE Conference, held in Buenos Aires, from 17 to 21 July 2017. For this reason, the journal exceptionally includes articles in Spanish. At the event, 442 papers were presented, distributed in 103 sessions in which 363 participants (271 researchers and 92 students) from 36 countries of the 5 continents participated. The central theme of the Conference - also covered in this issue - was Education and Emancipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]