Studies in the History of Educational Theory Vol 2

Book excerpt: This volume completes G H Bantock’s comprehensive study of educational thought, and its relationship to the broad development of European culture, from the time of the Renaissance to the present day. During the period under consideration, the new freedom from dogma and hierarchy allowed for the emergence of a large number of models of education intended to accommodate the autonomous personality and at the same time to meet the demand for educational expansion. The need to educate ‘the masses’ was increasingly recognized, and the dilemma posed by ‘mass civilisation and minority culture’ became acute as ‘liberal’ autonomy was increasingly threatened by new egalitarian and collectivist notions. The author considers the work of key theorists from the period, including such writers as Coleridge, Nietzsche and Tolstoy, all relatively neglected as educationists.