The history of education in its own light: signs of crisis, potential for growth

The history of education has long questioned its own status: installed within Faculties of Educational Science and curricula for teacher training, it has often lost ground compared with other parts of the discipline, such as educational technology, as it is perceived as not professionalising. At the same time, however, it has undergone great epistemological renewal, opening itself to new sources and methods. The difficult balancing of practical and theoretical questions that afflicts the history of education will be addressed by the essays in the present number of the journal, that provide a rich framework, relating to methodological questions but also to the academic place of the discipline and its social repercussions. There are articles illustrating national and international perspectives and that cover both Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia) and Latin America, presenting a well-articulated reconstruction, making a stimulus to reflection on the place of historical research – which is educational in itself.