Historical methods in educational research: sources, contextualisation, periodisation and analysis

What are historical methods in educational research? Despite their frequent use, there is still a need to clarify their distinctive features. This article examines four key aspects of historical research in education: source materials, contextualisation, periodisation, and historical analysis. While this implies that historical research shares features with other research methods, this article demonstrates that historians of education face specific challenges that cannot be fully captured by a terminology of instruments, sampling, coding and representativeness. Instead, this article argues that terms such as source criticism, weight and disciplined reading provide a more accurate description of this research strand. It also highlights the importance of revising and adapting a research plan in historical research, as well as identifying relevant sources and analysing them within their appropriate context and time period. As a result, this article is an argument for further interdisciplinary collaboration, and for history of education to be presented and assessed on its own terms. Historical analysis differs from thematic analysis and content analysis. This article is consequently a reminder that we do not need to limit ourselves to the research practices and the terminology of other strands of the social and behavioural sciences.