The Unrecognized Mechanism: History of Science Education in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Despite the many assumptions that usually surround the importance of science education for scientific practice, scholarship on the history of subject has been scattered and usually undertaken en route to other pursuits. In this research, I aim to bring to the fore science education as an unrecognized integrating mechanism within 19th century science, one that is implicit but never overtly discussed in much of the recent scholarship in the history of science. To do so, I will first highlight some ways that established historiographical narratives centered in the 19th century are enriched by taking into consideration the role of science education. In the second part, I will discuss some ways that science education facilitated and contributed to the circulation and appropriation of scientific practices within 19th century European space. I will present specific case studies from the German lands, post-Napoleonic France, England and early Modern Greece, each one focusing on different aspects of the interplay between science and education, across different national and institutional spaces.