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Educational Research: The Attraction
of Psychology
Educational Research
VOLUME 6
Aims & Scope

Freedom of inquiry in educational research can no longer be taken for granted.
Narrow definitions of what constitutes ‘scientific’ research, funding criteria that
enforce particular research methods, and policy decision processes that ignore any
research that is not narrowly utilitarian, in many countries, create a context that
discourages scholarship of a more speculative, exploratory, or critical sort.
In this series, internationally leading scholars in philosophy and history of education
engage in discourse that is sophisticated and nuanced for understanding contempo-
rary debates. Thus social research, and therefore educational research, is again
focused on the distinctive nature of what it studies: a social activity where questions
of meaning and value must be addressed, and where interpretation and judgment
play a crucial role.
This educational research takes into account the historical and cultural context and
brings clarity to what actually constitutes science in this area. The timely issues that
are addressed in this series bear witness to the belief that educational theory cannot
help but go beyond a limited conception of empirical educational research to provide
a real understanding of education as a human practice. They surpass the rather sim-
ple cause-and effect rhetoric and thus transgress the picture of performativity that
currently keeps much of the talk about education captive. The authors are united in
the belief that ‘there is a place within the social sciences in general’, and within the
discipline of education in particular, for ‘foundational’ approaches that enable the
systematic study of educational practice from a discipline-orientated approach.
For further volumes:

http://www.springer.com/series/8398
Paul Smeyers • Marc Depaepe
Editors
Educational Research:
The Attraction of Psychology
Editors
Paul Smeyers Marc Depaepe
Ghent University and Katholieke Campus Kortrijk, Subfaculteit Psychologie
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium en Pedagogische Wetenschappen,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
ISBN 978-94-007-5037-1 ISBN 978-94-007-5038-8 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5038-8
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949848
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
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with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for
any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein.
Printed on acid-free paper
Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Earlier Volumes in this Series
Educational Research: Why ‘What Works’ Doesn’t Work

Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe
2006, VI, 195 p., Hardcover
ISBN 978-1-4020-5307-8
Educational Research: Networks and Technologies
ISBN 978-1-4020-6612-2
Educational Research: the Educationalization of Social Problems
ISBN 978-1-4020-9722-5
Educational Research: Proofs, Arguments, and Other Reasonings
ISBN 978-90-481-3248-5
Educational Research: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics
2010, VIII, 224 p., Hardcover
ISBN 978-90-481-9872-6
v
Contents
1 Making Sense of the Attraction of Psychology:

On the Strengths and Weaknesses for Education
and Educational Research ...................................................................... 1
2 Struggling with the Historical Attractiveness of Psychology
for Educational Research Illustrated by the Case
of Nazi Germany ..................................................................................... 11
Marc Depaepe
3 On the Fatal Attractiveness of Psychology:
Racism of Intelligence in Education ...................................................... 33
Jean-Claude Croizet
4 Psychology in Teacher Education: Efficacy,
Professionalization, Management, and Habit....................................... 53
Lynn Fendler
5 The Fatal Attraction of the Language of Developmental
Psychology in Child-Rearing ................................................................. 73
Stefan Ramaekers and Judith Suissa
6 Mirror Neuron, Mirror Neuron in the Brain, Who’s
the Cleverest in Your Reign? From the Attraction
of Psychology to the Discovery of the Social ......................................... 91
Kathleen Coessens, Karen François, and Jean Paul Van Bendegem
7 The Vocabulary of Acts: Neuroscience,
Phenomenology, and the Mirror Neuron .............................................. 105
Paul Standish
vii
viii Contents
8 The Attraction of Neuropsychological Findings in Contemporary

Educational Thinking, or Feeling, Emotion and Relationship
as Blind Spots in Educational Theory ................................................... 119
Volker Kraft
9 ‘The Proper Study of Mankind’? In Defence
of the Humanities Against the Exaggerated
Pretensions of ‘Scientific’ Psychology ................................................... 131
David Bridges
10 The Theology of Education to Come ..................................................... 147
Richard Smith
11 Learning Is Not Education ..................................................................... 159
Nicholas C. Burbules
12 Attention, Commitment and Imagination in Educational
Research: Open the Universe a Little More! ........................................ 167
Stijn Mus
About the Authors ........................................................................................... 175
Author Index.................................................................................................... 181
Subject Index ................................................................................................... 183

Chapter 1
Making Sense of the Attraction of Psychology:
On the Strengths and Weaknesses for Education
and Educational Research
Psychology studies a great variety of processes (e.g. conflict, aggression, frustration,

memory, learning) and is used in different fields or areas (e.g. labour relations, mental
health, advertising, human resources management, the courts, people’s private life).
Among these, one also finds education and child-rearing. Psychology not only carries
with it the promise that it will deliver insights into human behaviour, it is also
believed that it can help to address the problems human beings are confronted with
in the situations they find themselves in. The number of psychology researchers is
growing and so is the number of job opportunities requiring this type of qualification
or areas in which those who studied psychology are employed. It is an understatement
to claim that psychology nowadays favours a particular methodology and the use of
certain methods. Though it loves to refer to itself as embracing ‘post-positivism’, it
can be asked whether it really has parted from logical empiricism characterized by
the invariance of perception, meaning and methodology. Randomized field trials
and (quasi-)experiments are paradigmatically recognized as the preferred way to
proceed. It is true that parts of the discipline are no longer wary of the use of qualitative
methods and are sometimes even interested in ‘the particular’, but it can be questioned
whether this is more than the use of qualitative data within a design that is foremost
aimed at explanation (whether causal, quasi-causal or probabilistic) and which is
looking for the general, i.e. to be able to generalize insights. The discipline thrives
in the present climate of research output that almost exclusively values publica-
tions in ‘Web of Knowledge’ journals. It has penetrated many domains of society,
P. Smeyers (*)
Ghent University and Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: [email protected]
M. Depaepe
Campus Kortrijk, Subfaculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische Katholieke Universiteit,
Leuven, Belgium
P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: The Attraction 1

of Psychology, Educational Research 6, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5038-8_1,
2 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe
and its vocabulary and discourse have become part of our everyday conversations.
Such a success story is likely to attract researchers working in other areas who gladly
take the lead from those who work in a booming field. Educational researchers are
no exception to this, but in their case, more needs to be said.
Obviously, the study of education involves other theoretical approaches as well
such as those of sociology, ethics, history, etc. As all of these aspects come together
at the level of the practitioner and the policymaker in the educational field, all of
them should have a place in educational research conducted to inform practitioners
and policymakers and should also be part of the academic discipline of education,
a field of study in its own right. But this is not the end of the story. By studying
phenomena from different angles, methods are also ‘borrowed’ from other disci-
plines. And thus, a new debate is given ammunition: Which are the proper methods
to study education? Though it may not be easy to determine all the relevant aspects
of an educational problem (in fact opinions differ considerably concerning this),
surely, all of these aspects have to be given a place in educational research. From
this, it follows that educational research not only has to accommodate various
interests but as well various methods or methodologies. For some scholars, either
in the field of educational research or more general in academia, this is a bridge too
far. Answering the question why psychology is particularly relevant (and attractive)
for the field of education and educational research therefore does not suffice with
an answer in general terms; of course in general, its attraction and relevance for
education and educational research are straightforward. Instead, what should be
highlighted is the attractiveness of particular kinds of psychological research and
such as well in terms of content as of method. And it is to these that this collection
of essays turns. It considers this specific attractiveness in the context of education
as well in its historical underpinnings as in its philosophical and educational
presuppositions.
Traditionally, education had deep roots in philosophy, religion and more gener-
ally in values and in what it means to lead a life that is worth living. For various
reasons, this is no longer the case even to the extent that some scholars will claim
that it is now all about means and that ends are shifted into oblivion and no longer
part of a rational debate. Here education is seen as something that has value only in
so far as it aids to acquire a good (or a better) job, as it prepares for society. It is of
course not just understandable but common sense that one tries to have as much
knowledge as possible of whatever kind, but it is nonetheless important to identify
the kinds of knowledge which have a special relevance for a certain area or field.
One can see the attraction of studies in laboratory conditions investigating the relation
between independent and dependent variables hoping to achieve general insights
and conclusions based on statistical reasoning. Yet, in social sciences, much more
than in natural sciences, its laws (or quasi-laws) or regularities can only be applied
ceteris paribus (everything being equal). They are in desperate need of contextual-
ization. And thus, an alternative approach presses itself forward. To this, it should
be added that many take their lead from meaning and intention, from what some-
thing means for us as the material out of which our decisions are composed
(and which should therefore be taken up by the academic discipline).
1 Making Sense of the Attraction of Psychology… 3
Quantitative empirical research belongs to the paradigm of causality, which

cannot give a place for the reasons human beings invoke for doing what they are
doing (or only at great pains and by changing the meaning of causality to incorporate
‘reasons’). It may battle to include interaction effects; yet, it is in danger of falling
short because it starts from the idea that variables can be studied in isolation and put
together later again with other variables. Moreover, it presupposes too much homo-
geneity. And different from a holistic approach where the full picture is the starting
point (and the meaning of the parts is defined in terms of their contribution to the
full image), it is often also too piecemeal. Together with the prominence it gives to
neuroscience, so fashionable nowadays, it prioritizes the natural over the social
world. Though psychology and the particular kind of educational research that
developed in its vein may pursue a legitimate interest, its utilitarian value, one that
is celebrated so highly in its embracing of the means-end reasoning, seems to be
rather limited in the field of education. In that context, it may be in danger to
implode, to melt down, once it is realized that such educational research thus
divorces itself from what is really at stake in that area. There is incidentally a
remarkable parallel between educational research and psychology and the discontent
psychologists themselves express in relation to neuroscience. Identifying a world-
wide movement in favour of more brain research and less psychology in the tradi-
tional sense, i.e. as a behavioural science which studies the functioning of human
beings in all its dimensions, Wagemans (2011) recently complains that some scien-
tists are of the opinion that they can enhance their prestige by adding ‘neuro’ as a
quality label to their subdiscipline. Instead of installing a hierarchical relationship
between neurosciences and psychology, he argues, it may be better to consider these
disciplines as only partly overlapping, and against a reductionism (in the direction
of one or other kind of physics), he reserves a place for psychology as a select dis-
cipline. There are many elements (such as education, the sociocultural context,
previous experiences), he argues, which determine human behaviour and which
cannot adequately be addressed when limiting oneself to brain processes. Though it
cannot be denied, so he continues, that these too are mediated by brain processes,
this does not equal to explaining behaviour exclusively on the basis of these. May we
add that when educational research is at stake, these, in our opinion valid arguments,
are easily overlooked (possibly deferred) in favour of the dominant psychological
approach—although it must be said that perhaps even more damage is done by
educational researchers themselves who have shifted their own research and are all
too eager to embrace the above-mentioned ‘shortcomings’.
A more balanced approach that addresses other aspects as well and which pays
attention to the particularities of the situation one is studying may be more apt for
the educational field. Here it is accepted that social science does not give us fixed
and universal knowledge of the social world as such but, rather, that it contributes to
the task of improving upon our practical knowledge of ongoing social life. Here one
does not go along to address the existential condition one finds oneself in charac-
terized and undermined increasingly by uncertainty and doubt by looking for
another normative background (based on laws, regularities, statistical reasoning).
It is accepted that such would break down the existential meaning and only offer the
illusion of certainty. Thus, the tendency is resisted to look for expert advice which
would bracket the personal commitment of those involved abandoning their respon-
sibility in favour of what is neutral and ‘objectively true’. That the development of
a particular child can be given a place within what is normally to be expected may
give us some confidence that nothing is going wrong. Yet, the alternative should not
necessarily invoke all kinds of measures but start with a more inclusive appreciation
of her behaviour which may or may not lead to specific interventions. Psychology
and educational research that put itself in the nowadays dominant tradition presup-
pose too much that the normal development administers a normative background
and generates aims which have to be observed and aspired at any cost. It goes with-
out saying that there are many psychologists and educational researchers who apply
their insights wisely and who do rely in their advice not exclusively on the limited
insights particular research has to offer. But it seems that when they refer to their
specific expertise (as psychologists or as educational experts) or when they talk
about what their subject should address, they invoke a particular concept of science
(laws and regularities) and use what is ‘scientifically established’ thus putting them-
selves in danger of ignoring other relevant aspects as well as the particularities of
the problem they want to address. Their approach carries a promise they cannot live
up to. Of course, the illusion of certainty that they uphold is very attractive, almost
irresistible to all those who struggle to decide what to do. Yet, their help, often well
intended, cannot do away with the responsibility and the requirement to offer a
justification for the way we interact on behalf of those who are put in our trust. It
cannot do away with the normative stance they themselves are necessarily embracing
as researchers.
The attraction for education and the mimicking of educational research based on
the success of psychology (a track on the way to a full-fledged evidence-based sci-
ence) come down to embracing a particular methodology and methods which create
the illusion of the possibility of expert advice (and thus of certainty) by offering an
answer that ‘works’ but which brackets each and everyone’s responsibility. Here,
the isolated meritocratic individual replaces the person or subject whose home is a
social practice that can be understood to a large extent by focusing on reasons and
intentions which explain the alternative ways in which human beings can take part.
The simple generalizations that are offered ignore the particularities of the situation
the teacher or parent finds herself in but do also away with the child and her possible
commitment and indeed possible contribution to what is passed on. Though all of
that may be attractive and even successful, an analysis of the presuppositions which
are embraced shows that it needs to be resisted or, to put this more precise, appreciated
in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. Thus, it will also become clear how much
historical and cultural contextualization is required to make sense of what parents,
teachers, policymakers and educational researchers really have to focus on.
Proponents of the approach that we have characterized of psychology and par-
ticularly of educational research in its vein may find the above criticism just another
illustration of sweeping generalizations educational theorists come up with not
helpful at all neither for theory nor for practice in the educational field. It will thus
be matter to substantiate these claims and such will be offered by this collection of
essays. The chapters address issues which are high on the agenda nowadays. In one
or other way, all of them contribute to the idea that educational research should
reclaim its territory instead of indulging itself in what is rightfully psychology’s
own. And it is tempting to add that psychology itself would not do bad when it
revived in its own approach a certain anthropological, philosophical and historical
dimension. But, surely, that must be left to them.
This is not the first time that the Research Community ‘Philosophy and History
of the Discipline of Education’,1 established by the Research Foundation Flanders
(FWO), Belgium (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen),
addresses an area that is central for educational research. In both the first (1999–
2003) and second (2000–2008) periods, which focused on ‘evaluation and evolution
of the criteria for educational research’, various positions were scrutinized
(see Smeyers & Depaepe, 2003, 2006). In the present (third) 5-year period of this
Research Community (2009–2013), the overall interest is ‘faces and spaces of edu-
cational research’, which is divided into four subthemes (respectively addressed
during the conference in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012): the ethics and aesthetics of
statistics, the attraction of psychology, institutional space, designs and material
culture, and finally the representation of educational research. The papers published
in this volume were first presented at the 2010 Research Community conference in
Leuven. Scholars from philosophy and history of education (some of whom are
particularly interested in history and philosophy of science) combine their efforts to
study psychology as part of both the academic discipline of education and the
broader educational context. Starting from some chapters which address first of all
the historical situatedness of the development and contribution of psychology to
education, child-rearing and educational research, the relevance and presuppositions
of neuroscience are discussed by several authors. Then, a contribution is offered
which discusses the relation with educational theory and what it may lack nowa-
days. Turning to what we should expect from psychology and highlighting how it
narrowed down education to learning, the issue is raised what we need most in
education and whether this could be identified as ‘a theology of education to come’.
The collection2 opens with a chapter by Marc Depaepe (Chap. 2) who addresses
the historical attractiveness of psychology for educational research which he illus-
trates with the case of Nazi Germany. He argues that it is quite easy to formulate a
number of hypotheses on the attractiveness of psychology for educational research
on the basis of the existing literature. Generally spoken, one may assume that
there has been a growing interest during the twentieth century for psychology in
educational research. The takeover of ‘experimental pedagogy’ by ‘educational
psychology’ in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, even before the
Second World War, may be a good example in this respect. He warns for the sim-
plicity of that kind of conclusions. He considers it essential that a historian of
science tries to historicise his findings not only against the temporal and spatial
backgrounds of the studied developments but also against the specific life stories of
the individual researchers. It is hardly possible, so he argues, to understand the
concrete relationship between psychology and educational research without such a
contextualization. This is illustrated with the development of educational psychology
in Nazi Germany. Offering an analysis of the Zeitschrift für Pädagogische

Psychologie, he turns to the work of Gerhard Pfahler (who was granted clemency
after the war) one of the key figures. He shows that the search for structural
processes in history must always be supplemented (and even corrected) by smaller-
scale stories of everyday reality.
The next chapter by Jean-Claude Croizet (Chap. 3) discusses the fatal attractive-
ness of psychology and addresses more in particular the racism of intelligence that
can be observed in its use in educational contexts. He starts from the observation
that psychology has penetrated many domains of society and can be considered as a
very successful social science. It is widely present in education, in the workplace, in
court and not to mention in people’s private life. This success, he argues, is to a large
extent due to the fact that psychology offers a scientific credit to an important and
key cultural principle in our Western societies: the belief of the primacy of the indi-
vidual over the situation as a cause of behaviour. Psychology has played a key role
in substantiating this cultural frame by proposing an ‘objective’ measure of intelli-
gence and by repeatedly fuelling the idea that in a democratic society and a com-
petitive educational system, the winners are those who are the more intelligent.
Hand in hand, education and psychology have contributed to a powerful illusion
that hides the impact of power and privilege in the schools and recycle them into
individual merit. The chapter focuses on the love story between social domination
and the psychology of intelligence. It discusses the development of intelligence
testing and shows how research in psychology has served the domination and
expropriation of the haves over the have-nots. He labels this form of social control
‘the racism of intelligence’ and deals with its presuppositions and the main
characteristics.
Psychology is heavily relied upon in teacher education. In her chapter, Lynn
Fendler (Chap. 4) looks at it through the lenses of efficacy, professionalization,
management and habit. Educational psychology is a required element in the cur-
riculum for all accredited teacher preparation programmes in the United States, and
background knowledge in educational psychology is assessed on examinations for
teacher licensure in most jurisdictions. Traditional university-based teacher
certification is under attack from various sectors, and the curriculum for teacher
preparation is among the most contested issues. In this chapter, she examines four
possible hypotheses that might be offered to explain the continued presence of
educational psychology in the curriculum of US teacher education. Efficacy:
Educational psychology is a requirement in teacher education curricula because
the study of psychology makes better teachers (regardless of how one might define
‘better’). Professionalization: Educational psychology is included in the curriculum
of teacher education because the affiliation with a scientific discipline helps to raise
the professional status of teaching and teacher education. Policy/management:
Educational psychology remains in the curriculum of teacher education because
psychological research renders the unruly practices of teaching more predictable,
rational and manageable; the language of psychology gives teacher educators a
voice in educational policymaking. Habit: Educational psychology continues to be
included in the curriculum of teacher education out of habit. Each of these hypotheses,
she argues, calls for a different investigative approach. Specifically, in order to

examine the efficacy perspective, she does a survey of recent literature and synthe-
sized the findings of scientific research reports addressing the relationship of educa-
tional psychology to the quality of teaching. Second, to investigate the plausibility
of the professionalization perspective, she draws on histories of psychology and
histories of teacher education as well as professionalization theories in order to
assess the historical role educational psychology has played in professionalization.
Third, in order to examine the policy/management explanation, a genealogical
approach is taken to the relationship of psychology and teacher education as disci-
plines in the epistemological context of modern social sciences. Finally, in order to
examine the role and function of habit, the chapter turns to John Dewey’s (1922)
philosophy in Human Nature and Conduct.
But not only in a context of schooling and of education generally psychology is
attractive. In their chapter, Stefan Ramaekers and Judith Suissa (Chap. 5) discuss
the area of child-rearing and focus more particularly on developmental psychology.
They argue that the language of developmental psychology shapes our conceptual-
izations and understandings of child-rearing and of the parent–child relationship. First,
they show how developmental psychology, in Burman’s succinct phrasing, both
contributes to and reflects normative assumptions about parenthood and upbringing,
both in structuring research agendas and in informing practice. They analyze recent
prominent research and popular literature on parenting and policies on parent
support, in both the UK and Flanders. Second, the chapter addresses the ways in
which developmental psychology in the area of parenting and upbringing holds a
particular attraction in our current cultural context. In a post-Enlightenment society,
the traditional frameworks through which humans face and understand their
existential condition are increasingly undermined by uncertainty and doubt.
Drawing on the work of (among others) Zygmunt Bauman, it is shown how devel-
opmental psychology is one of the instruments that contribute to breaking down our
existential condition into a series of well-defined, and thus apparently manageable,
tasks and categories. In so doing, it displaces rather than confronts the possibly
limitless depth of the enormity of the reality of ‘being a parent’.
Turning to an area that is fashionable nowadays, i.e. neuroscience, Kathleen
Coessens, Karen François and Jean Paul Van Bendegem (Chap. 6) deal with the
so-called discovery of the social. Their telling title ‘Mirror neuron, mirror neuron in
the brain, who’s the cleverest in your reign? From the attraction of psychology
to the discovery of the social’ says it all. It is a rather safe statement, so they claim
that the social dimensions of the scientific process are accepted in a fair share of
studies in the philosophy of science. It is a somewhat safe statement to claim that
the social dimensions are now seen as an essential element in the understanding of
what human cognition is and how it functions. But it would be a rather unsafe state-
ment to claim that the social is fully accepted in the philosophy of mathematics.
And they are not quite sure what kind of statement it is to claim that the social
dimensions in theories of mathematics education are becoming more prominent,
compared to the psychological dimensions. In their contribution, they focus, after a
brief presentation of the above claims, on this particular domain to understand the
successes and failures of the development of theories of mathematics education

which concentrate on the social and not primarily on the psychological.
The discussion of neuroscience continues with a contribution by Paul Standish
(Chap. 7) who writes about the vocabulary of acts as this is found in neuroscience,
phenomenology and where the concept of the mirror neuron is used. He considers
the ground-breaking work in neuroscience of Giacomo Rizzolatti, whose
identification of the ‘mirror neuron’ has been referred to as a minor Copernican
revolution with extensive implications for educational and rehabilitative practices.
Rizzolatti and his colleagues draw attention to the influences of phenomenology on
their work, especially from Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, and it is in this light that he
ponders some presuppositions and implications of their research. His discussion
relates these to Samuel Todes’ richly rewarding Body and World, a text whose
argument and conclusions and whose theoretical ‘architecture’ are in significant
respects consonant with the holistic nature of mirror neuron theory. While the
achievements of Todes are highlighted, his work is, however, also criticized for the
priority it gives to the natural philosophy of the body—a priority of the natural over
the social world. Standish’s criticism, which draws on Wittgensteinian and
Heideggerian insights, is shown to apply similarly to the work of Rizzolatti. The
consequence of this, however, is not to undermine that work: On the contrary, it
provides it with a stronger basis and shows that its consequences for neuroscience
are potentially more far-reaching than have been claimed.
The debate concerning neuroscience and its relevance for educational thinking is
taken up by Volker Kraft (Chap. 8) in the next chapter who highlights feeling,
emotion and relationship, thus identifying blind sports in educational theory. The
chapter—mainly referring to the situation in Germany—consists of three parts.
In the first section, the current presence of neurosciences in the public discourse
will be described in order to illuminate the background which is relevant for con-
temporary educational thinking. The prefix ‘neuro-’ is ubiquitous today, and, therefore,
concepts such as ‘neuropedagogy’ or ‘neurodidactics’ seem to be in the mainstream
of modern thinking. In the second part of the chapter, the perspective changes from
the public discourse to the disciplinary discourse; a brief excursus into developmental
psychiatry, neuropsychology and modern psychoanalysis is used in order to demon-
strate how results of neuroscientific research are integrated in their theoretical
frameworks. These three disciplines have no difficulty to integrate neuroscientific
findings because each of them possesses a systematic core composed of ‘native
concepts’. In contrast to them, educational theory has much more integration prob-
lems as is shown in the third part. On the one hand, neuroscientific thinking seems
to be able to conquer education rather easily and without great resistance especially
in the fields of early childhood education, instruction and learning mainly by
simplifying educational processes and by reducing the complexity of the educa-
tional task to a mere ‘relationship problem’. On the other hand, this attraction of
neuroscience in education could be understood as the reflection of a theoretical
deficit in educational theory itself with the significance of affect and emotion not
receiving proper attention.
Turning to the exaggerated pretensions of ‘scientific’ psychology, David Bridges

(Chap. 9) asks what kind of psychology we are in need of which takes him to a
defence of the humanities. One of the central claims or aspirations of modern
psychology, he argues, is to place the study of the human mind and behaviour on a
properly scientific basis. This chapter proposes that while such scientific study of
human beings might reveal all sorts of interesting things about them, ‘the proper
study of mankind’ requires a different intellectual and imaginative apparatus rooted
in the humanities and the more humanistic end of the social sciences. This is pursued
via William James (often regarded as one of the founding figures of modern psy-
chology and especially educational psychology) and via Isaiah Berlin to the early
eighteenth-century philosopher Giambattista Vico whose reaction to Enlightenment
science and mathematics led him to articulate a vision of a scienza nuova or new
science essentially rooted in the humanities. Berlin’s and Vico’s work is joined in
this paper to Winch’s advocacy of the centrality of philosophy to an understanding
of human and social being. The result is to put a new emphasis on human self-
consciousness and intentionality, on imagination or fantasia, on moral responsibility
and self-questioning, on human experiencing of the natural and social world and
human understanding of the rules which they live by as well as on the cultural and
historical framing of all these. In so far as these things are what constitute our
humanity and in so far as these provide the very stuff of the subjects we roughly
group together as the humanities, then this provides a case for valuing the contribution
of the humanities to ‘the proper study of mankind’ above the scientific pretensions
of psychology.
Claiming that psychology has achieved hegemonic status as virtually the default
discipline in the study of education, Richard Smith (Chap. 10) changes gear and
forefronts the importance of a ‘theology of education to come’. The achievements
of psychology, so he writes, are not always as impressive as its claims. Crucially, as
it is generally conceived and practised, it does not offer us much help in making
sense of what may be called our ‘mindedness’, the logic of our souls: how we turn
away from life and from plenitude. Although some philosophers have addressed
this, there is a case for saying that the vital discipline for education is less philosophy,
especially philosophy of the Anglophone tradition, than a kind of theology. Negative
theology, as it is called, gives us ways of understanding education’s aporias, its
idealistic longings and how we are to think of cultivating responsibility to other
people. It helps us to see that education is always and rightly bound never to be good
enough always destined to fail.
It will come as no surprise that psychology has addressed ‘learning’, one of the
central concepts of education. But learning is not education, Nick Burbules (Chap.
11) claims in his contribution. Researchers and policymakers speak more often now
about ‘learning’ than they do about ‘teaching’. He explores what is beneficial and
what is problematic concerning the shift of focus from the teacher’s perspective to
the learner’s perspective. However, a theory of learning, so he argues, is not sufficient
to support a wider conception of education because learning must be enacted to be
worthwhile and because the factors that go into shaping when learning is enacted
go beyond matters that can be said to have been learned themselves. A wider
conception of education therefore needs to consider these other factors. This exami-
nation has implications for questions of teaching and how to evaluate it, for thinking
about learning outcomes and whether and how they can be ‘measured’ and for
the normative elements and judgments that must go into any wider conception of
‘education’.
In the final chapter, Stijn Mus (Chap. 12) offers some conclusions concerning the
current appeal of psychology in education and educational research and bases this
on the different angles taken by the chapters. The attractions that have been identified,
he argues, offer a varied picture. He pays attention to the idea of psychology as a
default science of education and to educational research on the track of a full-fledged
evidence-based science. The particular idea of truth and of means-end reasoning is
scrutinized together with the disappearance of rich concepts. It may be too easy, he
argues, to see the attractiveness of psychology in its prestige or professionalization
in society being both external factors, but this ignores the importance of the fact that
an answer is offered in terms of ‘what works’. In a rapidly changing time that is
undermined by uncertainty by breaking down the existential condition, it will not be
easy to recover in educational theory what has been lost. It has yet to be seen whether
the scientism that is embraced by psychology and its counterpart in educational
research can convincingly be refuted.
Notes
1. For further information about previous work of the Research Community, see
Smeyers (2008).
2. For details about the mentioned publications, see the respective chapters in this
collection.
References
Smeyers, P. (2008). Afterword. In P. Smeyers & M. Depaepe (Eds.), Educational research: The
educationalization of social problems (pp. 227–237). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Smeyers, P., & Depaepe, M. (2003). Introduction. In P. Smeyers & M. Depaepe (Eds.), Beyond
empiricism. On criteria for educational research (pp. 9–23). Leuven, Belgium: Leuven
University Press.
Smeyers, P., & Depaepe, M. (2006). Introduction. On the rhetoric of ‘what works’. Contextualizing
educational research and the picture of performativity. In P. Smeyers & M. Depaepe (Eds.),
Educational research: Why ‘what works’ doesn’t work (pp. 1–16). Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Springer.
Wagemans, J. (2011). Weg met de psychologie!? [Away with psychology!?]. Karakter. Tijdschrift
van Wetenschap, 36, 14–15.
Chapter 2
Struggling with the Historical Attractiveness
of Psychology for Educational Research
Illustrated by the Case of Nazi Germany
Marc Depaepe
2.1 Far Too Easy Hypotheses?
La ciencia (…) consiste en un ‘prurito’ de plantear problemas1

(José Ortega y Gasset, 1930/2001, p. 16)
A few years ago, when we determined the themes for the upcoming meetings of the
Leuven Research Community, I thought that there could be no easier task than that
which lays before me at the moment: reporting on the history of the attractiveness
of psychology for educational research. On the basis of my work in the history of
educational science on the development of the empirical-analytical paradigm
(Depaepe, 1993), it seemed that one could quite easily formulate a number of
hypotheses with regard to the increasing role of psychology in educational research.
Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, efforts to develop an indepen-
dently conceived ‘experimental pedagogy’ (as a counterpart to the earlier existing
experimental psychology) had, to a large extent, been merged with the further devel-
opment of (an equally independently conceived) ‘educational psychology’ in, among
others, the United States, England and Germany.
This very same hypothesis of a growing interest in psychology within the field of
educational theory could also be derived, without much effort, from the general his-
tory of science (see, e.g., Depaepe, 2010; Porter & Ross, 2003). As we know, the
emergence of the discipline of education (Pädagogik) as a science was closely
connected with the rise of the Enlightenment and, more specifically, with the idea
of the manipulability of mankind and society. As a result, educational theory was
considered to have a highly normative character. It was imbued with social values
M. Depaepe (*)
Campus Kortrijk, Subfaculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische Katholieke Universiteit,
Leuven, Belgium
P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: The Attraction 11

of Psychology, Educational Research 6, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5038-8_2,
12 M. Depaepe
and standards which had to be realised with its help. As shown by, among others,
Fritz Osterwalder (2006), it served as a kind of secularised theology from the
eighteenth century onwards. This could be established not only on the basis of its
content but also based on its language. Its language remained, in a sense, ‘evangelical’:
the educationalist brought, in keeping with the winged words of Immanuel Kant, the
liberating message of (self-)education to maturity (and autonomy). Afterwards,
educational theory and/or educational sciences developed increasingly in the direction
of positivism and experimental science and have been shaped further, from the end
of the nineteenth century onwards, by child study, pedology (and pedotechnics)
and, to some extent, reform pedagogy (or ‘new’ education) (see Depaepe, 1993,
2010). However, this dominant and heterogeneous direction was not a solitary trend.
Numerous ‘new’ substantive research areas as well as methodological ‘paradigms’ led
to the ‘educational sciences’ manifesting themselves increasingly ‘in the plural’
from the end of the 1960s. Besides the empirical-analytical approaches, also critical-
emancipatory ideas took root. These ‘pedagogies’ were generally based on all kinds
of ‘humanistic’ psychologies (like those of Rogers, Maslow and the like; see, e.g.,
Beatty, Cahan, & Grant, 2006; Stauffer, 2009). It was certainly notable that the
‘aim of education’—the normative excuse par excellence of traditional educational
theory—was determined less and less on the basis of one or other ideology but rather
from the standpoint of the optimal development of the ‘self’.
With this, the normativity of the past does not completely disappear, but it has
certainly been exchanged for a different perspective. Educational correctness is
defined less and less on the basis of the ideological and/or moral frameworks within
which a person has to be educated. Instead, it is based on one’s own opportunities
for optimal development. Here, (developmental) psychology seems to have
definitively displaced theology (philosophy and ideology) as a legitimising science
(see, e.g., Ottavi, 2001). Educational interventions are primarily justified by the
criterion that they should not damage the individual or cause her any frustrations.
In addition to these more intra-scientific causes, there are, at first sight, several
extra-scientific elements from the history of educational science that reinforce the
hypothesis that during the twentieth century, educationalists seemed to be increas-
ingly driven into the arms of psychology for their scientific work. One can first of
all refer to the growing professionalisation of the field, where the hunger for status
has undoubtedly been a decisive motive. Desire for social recognition and profes-
sional prestige were by no means foreign to the scientism movement which, from
the end of the nineteenth century onwards, revealed a methodological preference for
experimental studies and quantitative approaches in psychology and afterwards in
educational sciences. This, incidentally, takes us back to the topic ‘ethics and
aesthetics of statistics’, which was the theme of the meeting of the Research
Community in 2009. Very likely, the implicit hierarchy of pure science as compared
to the applied science(s) also played a role here, although it is not immediately clear
in what way this has influenced the relationship between psychology and pedagogy.
On the one hand, one can assume that the discipline of education had every
reason to become, as far as possible, an empirical-analytical science (in terms of the
formulation of inductive laws) on its own, while on the other hand, the linear
2 Struggling with the Historical Attractiveness of Psychology for Educational… 13
application of a successful, generally accepted psychological theory could be just

as prestigious.
Prototypes of both ‘approaches’ can be found, respectively, in the German efforts,
following the much-debated ‘realistic turn’ (realistische Wende) of the 1960s, to
finally establish an empirical science of education (Erziehungswissenschaft) and in
the North American applications of the start of the twentieth century which intro-
duced the large-scale learning theories of connectionism and behaviourism in edu-
cation (Depaepe, 1997; Reuben, 2003). Although it would be rash to extract such
processes from their historical-cultural context by comparing them to each other—
we will come back to this later—it nevertheless appears as though the second exam-
ple carried more weight in relation to the history of science than the first. It is not
for nothing that Edward Lee Thorndike, considered to be the founder of ‘educa-
tional psychology’ in the United States, has also gone down in history as the stan-
dard bearer of educational research. The much-quoted phrase “Thorndike won,
Dewey lost” (Lagemann, 2000, p. xi) speaks volumes in this respect. On the other
hand, it is questioned today whether or not the German realistische Wende, for
which Wolfgang Brezinka was later identified as the most popular spokesperson,
actually took place. In any case, it has been argued that Brezinka himself did not
make a very significant contribution to this research (Von Saldern, 2010).
Whatever it may be, it is not difficult to find occasional examples in the histori-
ography which subscribes to the idea of psychology increasingly becoming domi-
nant (and, therefore, indirectly also attractive) in educational research. Without
laying any claim to being systematic, let alone exhaustive, I am listing here a num-
ber of them: reportedly, in the United States, when the craze of the connectionist
S/R bond theories was over, the educationalists simply continued scrounging off
from psychologists. From the 1950s, it was primarily Piaget’s cognitive develop-
mental theory that regained popularity within educational circles—the Swiss psy-
chologist was a real ‘God’ in the United States in the 1970s—after which his
influence began to wane and he was replaced by Vygotsky (Beatty, 2009). As a
general rule, educational innovations, and not in the least the progressive, child-
centred reforms—which appeared to make up sui generis the core of reform peda-
gogy or ‘new’ education—were based on a psychological theory, even though the
psychology of educational reformers was not necessarily that of the psychologists.
This was not just the case in North and South America (Goodchild, 2006; Stauffer,
2009) but also in Western Europe, even in Germany where several voices were
raised in support of conducting educational research in the psychological laboratory
despite the exceptionalism (Sonderweg) of the relatively autonomous geisteswis-
senschaftliche Pädagogik (Schubeius, 1990). This resulted in high expectations in
Austria (and, more specifically, in Vienna) which were not necessarily fulfilled
(Benetka, 2004).
Perhaps even more illuminating with regard to the possible attractiveness of
psychology on pedagogy is the fact that the term ‘experimental pedagogy’—for
which Wundt’s old student Ernst Meumann had already set up the most well-known
research programme in the German-speaking region before the First World War—
disappeared from the professional journal with the same name during the interbellum
14 M. Depaepe
period. This journal had been merged with that for educational psychology, but the
title of the latter was retained as the banner of the merged journal. As already
mentioned, an analogous development can be seen in the United Kingdom (see also
Wooldridge, 1994). Here, too, educational psychology, with its extensive array of
tests and measurements, ultimately proved to be a more powerful concept and term
than experimental pedagogy (for which the professional journal would likewise
be merged with that for educational psychology before the Second World War).
In France, where the rise of the late nineteenth-century ‘science of education’
(science de l’éducation) cannot be viewed separately from the political programme
of the Third Republic (Gautherin, 2002), ‘psycho-pedagogy’ (psycho-pédagogie)
also developed after the Second World War to become the core of the—by then
renamed in the plural—‘sciences’ of education. That was a fortiori the case in
Geneva, Switzerland, where the Piagetian tradition had been nurtured for a long
time already by, among others, Edouard Claparède, whose orientation was also, if
not more, psychological than educational.
One can hardly underestimate the importance of the Geneva school in the inter-
national perspective, which is proved by, among others, the numerous studies
devoted to this topic by Rita Hofstetter (whether or not in collaboration with Bernard
Schneuwly: see, e.g., Hofstetter, 2010; Hofstetter & Schneuwly, 1999, 2004, 2006,
2009, 2002; Hofstetter & Schneuwly [with the collaboration of Lussi, Cicchini &
Späni], 2007; Lussi, Muller, & Kiciman, 2002). In one of my first articles on the
history of educational sciences (Depaepe, 1987), I also underlined the importance
of Claparède within the institutionalisation and internationalisation of psycho-
pedagogical thought. Even before the outbreak of the First World War, he acted as
a mediator between two rivalling scientific organisations. What was noteworthy was
that this rivalry seemed to be partly determined by the scientific background of its
players (in this case, the pedologist from Antwerp and the former teacher Médard
Schuyten versus the psychologists Jean Jules Van Biervliet and Alfred Binet, from
Ghent and Paris, respectively). Personal rivalries such as these (which could develop
into real feuds) were far from uncommon in the world of psychologists and educa-
tionalists of the time. One also came across such rivalries in Germany during
the first half of the twentieth century, between Meumann and Wilhelm August Lay
(a former teacher trainer who also called himself an experimental educationalist;
see also Hopf, 2004) in Great Britain, between the educational psychologist Cyril
Burt and the experimental educationalist William Winch in the Netherlands and
between the psychologist Hendrik Brugmans and the pedologist Hendrik Gerard
Hamaker. As a matter of fact, there are yet other Belgian examples which could
be cited: the conflict in Brussels between the pedologist Josepha Ioteyko and the
experimental educationalist (also a former teacher) Tobie Jonckheere and the
tensions between the (educational) psychologist Arthur Fauville and the experi-
mental educationalist Raymond Buyse (also a former teacher) in Leuven.
With a little goodwill, one can perceive a certain pattern in these rivalries. The
more scientifically (usually psychologically) skilled researchers almost always got
the long end of the stick as compared to those who stood closest to the educational
practice (often through their pre-training as a teacher). This might again point to the
fact that the difference in status (and consequently, the greater attractiveness of one
field for the other) can be validated with biographical data. Nevertheless, by doing
so, we risk jumping to conclusions. Biographical research itself proves that one
must be very careful with such generalisations. For example, Meumann was himself
involved in a controversy with his teacher Wundt, precisely with regard to the
expansion of experimental psychology into the field of education (see also Hopf,
2004, pp. 52–58; Herzog, 1999, p. 281). Binet, who missed out twice on obtaining
a prestigious chair in experimental psychology in Paris (Nicolas, 2009, pp. 171–173;
pp. 217–237), ultimately appeared to sympathise with the teachers rather than with
the psychologists (see also Avanzini, 1969). While Piaget, who had studied mala-
cology (the study of molluscs), joked about the fact that he had never taken a single
examination in ‘his field’ psychology and, therefore, did not seem to belong there
(Xypas, 2001, p. 175). In short, these biographical details appear to be, to paraphrase
Mollenhauer, an ‘ironic counterpoint’ to ‘scientific knowledge production’ (cit. in
Cloer, 2006, p. 172). It not only supplements the structural, process-oriented and
therefore often-depersonalised approach seen in history but also problematises this.
2.2 Far Too Easy Phrasing of the Questions?
There is no such thing as ‘normal’ science in history

(Jan Vansina, 1994, p. 249)
Anyone who delves into the biography of individual scientists indeed finds that
simple questions asked of history (of science) often result in a complex answer, full
of ambiguities and paradoxes. Take, for example, the case of Ovide Decroly, on
whose biography our research group has been working for a long time now. In our
view (Depaepe, Simon, & Van Gorp, 2011), his scientific expertise was not primarily
based on pedagogy or psychology but on medical science. It was the medical
standpoint (and all the extra-scientific aspects related to that—usually respect and
prestige) that made him a specialist, even with regard to education. Undoubtedly,
such a dritten im Bunde played a role (although probably not always in the same
way; see, e.g., Stroß, 2002) in the lives of Claparède, Wundt, Hamaker and also
Maria Montessori, who, just like so many other trendsetters in the fields of psychology,
pedology and/or pedagogy of the time, were also doctors.
This ménage à trois (Friedrich, 1999) was not always caused by medicine. As
always, philosophy was also a key player and, in fact, a spoilsport. On the one hand,
it very clearly influenced the interpersonal controversies between educationalists
and psychologists. On the other hand, the fact that chairs were linked to philosophy
was one of the main factors of the German Sonderweg in psychology as well as in
educational theory. This not only explained why Germany seemed to lag behind in
the field of empirical research as compared to other countries, and in particular, the
Anglo-American scene, but also why the Germans devoted more attention to the
16 M. Depaepe
philosophical (i.e. geisteswissenschaftliche) component in these fields (see, e.g.,

Drewek, 2010; Schubeius, 1990, 2002; Tröhler, 2010).
That is why, from a historical point of view, it remains difficult to discuss the
fields of ‘psychology’ and ‘pedagogy’ as such. Under no circumstances have these
ever been supra-historical entities. Their contours were definitely shaped within a
historical context. Their development was subject to scientific trends and changing
paradigmatic waves, not only in time but also in various cultural areas (which were
usually language-related and could be split up geographically), not to mention the
often wide gap between what was intended to be done programmatically or paradig-
matically, and the research actually carried out and/or described. Moreover, all these
paradigms maturing over time—the metaphor of a bouillon de culture (Cicchini,
2004) is appropriate here—were far from comprehensive. Within each discipline,
as well as in clearly defined spatial-temporal contexts, there was a great deal of
disagreement and conflict regarding the way forward. Many forms of research
existed side by side, conflicting with each other and mixed up, both in terms of
methodology and content.
The basic disciplines mentioned here were, therefore, far from being a mono-
lithic whole. All kinds of sub-fields and intermediate fields developed simultane-
ously within psychology as well as educational theory/educational sciences, such as
developmental psychology, child and/or youth psychology, educational psychology,
psycho-pedagogy (within which, of course, diverse and oppositional paradigms
again managed to take root). Such sub-fields were usually categorised as a ‘sub’-
discipline of either psychology or educational sciences. This possibly had more to
do with the longing for a Cartesian order than with the reality of the research. In any
case, it shows that rigid conclusions like those of the Dutch philosopher of science
Van Strien on psychology and educational theory—which, he argues, are like water
and oil and therefore cannot be combined in any way (cit. in Depaepe, 1993,
p. 357)—are difficult to sustain once the relevant arguments are effectively contex-
tualised and historicised.
Moreover, what exactly did all those people who called themselves psycholo-
gists and/or educationalists have in common? Their education? Evidently, educa-
tional curricula differed just as much depending on where and when they were
organised. Moreover, the character and history of the individual concerned played
an important role. Some scientists (such as Piaget) were autodidacts; others had
received an ‘academic’ education. Some of them had finished a professional career
in education; others had become ‘lectern educationalists’ or ‘laboratory psycholo-
gists’ (although the latter were less common among educationalists) after their
university education. And still, others were mainly ‘would-be’. Using a term from
Karl Bühler, Ivo van Hilvoorde (2002, 119) refers in this context to Auch-
psychologen, by which he means those who were ‘hobby educationalists’, barred
from the scientific field by the ‘full-blooded’ psychologists. Nonetheless, the same
van Hilvoorde comes to the conclusion that one can hardly speak of a humble
attitude among educationalists with respect to psychologists in the Netherlands in
the period before the 1960s. Rather, the opposite was true according to him. At the
editorial offices of Pedagogische Studiën, for example, the already mentioned

psychologist Brugmans had to give in time and again to educationalists like Philip
Kohnstamm and Martinus Langeveld.
2.3 Far Too Superficial Conclusions?
Il y a plus d’une sagesse, et toutes sont nécessaires au monde;

il n’est pas mauvais quelles alternent2
(Marguerite Yourcenar, 1951/1958, p. 283)
What was discussed in the previous paragraph regarding the historicity of the (due
to the search for a disciplinary identity) usually strongly professed demarcations
between scientific areas may appear to be so obvious that it does not even need
to be mentioned. Nonetheless, there is every indication that researchers—even
renowned ones—pressurised by questions at colloquia such as this, cannot do much
else than distance themselves occasionally from the concrete, chaotic dynamics
involved in the development of science. If not, it would be completely impossible
to make general statements regarding, for example, the historical relationship of
psychology with respect to educational sciences/educational theory (and vice versa).
Interesting for the further development of our argument is that their findings do not
necessarily point in the same direction as suggested by our hypothetical consider-
ations in the first paragraph.
At a colloquium organised almost 10 years ago in Fribourg (Switzerland) (see
Reichenbach & Oser, 2002), none other than Jürgen Oelkers (2002), starting from a
historical perspective, took the edge off the basic question (or rather the basic fears
of the organisers) to a possible ‘psychologising’ (and therefore also, the possible end)
of educational theory. In his view, the educationalists did not need to be concerned
as yet with a possible takeover by psychology. According to him, the dependence of
educational theory on psychology is, certainly as far as educational resources are
concerned, a structural fact that has played a part in the continuity of the history of
the discipline of education. Therefore, the idea of an increased dependence is out of
the question for Oelkers. Instead, such is, according to him, the ‘normal’ relation-
ship—a constant which has unfolded throughout history. Oelkers illustrated this
view with several historical examples: the sensory psychology adopted as the basis
for education in the eighteenth century, the role of Herbartian psychology and, in
particular, the ‘mathematicising mechanics of ideas’ (mathematisierende Mechanik
der Vorstellungen) in Herbart’s scheme of educational theory, Preyer’s basic principles
from the Seele des Kindes [1882] for the construction of a sort of physiological
pedagogy, the role of psycho-pedagogical research in Meumann’s design of experi-
mental pedagogy and, of course, the reform pedagogy which was searching for a
suitable activity principle.
18 M. Depaepe
Oelkers’ continuity hypothesis was supported by Fritz Osterwalder (2002) who

likewise concluded, at the same colloquium, that the underpinning of educational
theory by psychology was certainly not a new phenomenon. This tendency was
already visible from the end of the seventeenth century onwards, as the then norma-
tive, ethical and absolute notion of psychology within secular educational theory
replaced the sacred heritage of the theology of piety.
But this possible continuity did not take away the fact that throughout history,
there was a constant fear of a ‘psychologising’ of educational theory/science and
that this had perhaps even increased with the passage of time (even though Oelkers
argued that psychology was incapable of taking over the public role of educational
theory within the context of the justification of education). That was, at any rate, the
idea of Walter Bauer (2002) who—also at the same colloquium and on the basis of
a historical overview of the primarily German ‘pedagogical’ psychology—reached
the conclusion that it was mainly empirical educational science that had made use
of (pedagogical) psychology (and after the realistische Wende de facto more or less
coincided with this). Nevertheless, in his opinion, psychology and educational
theory, whose collaboration via pedagogical psychology could assume various
forms (ranging from advisory to applied to fundamental research), remained ‘familiar
strangers’ (vertraute Fremde) after all despite the fact that this cooperation could
indeed improve the status of educational theory. According to Bauer, the historical
axes of conflict which emerged were dual in nature: Should ‘pedagogical’ psychology
be developed as an applied or as a fundamental science and should it orient itself, in
terms of methodology, towards the positivist, non-normative standpoint or the rather
normative, geisteswissenschaftliche point of view?
Of course, this conclusion was far from new. Walter Herzog (1999) had also
reached more or less similar conclusions based on a historical overview of the role
of psychology in educational innovations. In his opinion, the aversion of the educa-
tional field was, as it were, preprogrammed because psychology continued to pledge
to physicalism, elementarism, individualism, fictionality, methodolatry and positivism
and, as a result, could hardly establish any interdisciplinary links with the ultimately
more normatively oriented educational theory.
In order to test further these still rather general insights, I thought that it would
be a good idea to focus below (based on the professional journal of the same name)
on German ‘educational psychology’ during the National Socialist period. Although
I have drawn attention to this earlier (Depaepe, 1993, 1997), this has always been,
as with the above-mentioned authors, in the context of broader, more general studies.
Supposedly, the ideological pressure exerted by the National Socialist dictatorship
on psychological and educational sciences was so intense that—partly due to all
kinds of distortions and possible aberrations—this period reveals, better than any
other context, precisely which factors and processes were at stake in shaping educa-
tional theory, psychology and their mutual relationship. Furthermore, several works
have meanwhile been published in Germany that adequately map the ‘blind spot’ of
Nazism, also with respect to the history of science (see, e.g., Hartens, Neirich, &
Schwerendt, 2006). One of these was even—with respect to its hypothesis—fairly
provocative and therefore elicited a lot of controversial reactions. While most
researchers asserted that the ideological preoccupation of the Third Reich had a
pernicious influence on the development of science, Ulfried Geuter (1992) explic-
itly stated that German psychology during this period was actually heading towards
an increased degree of professionalisation—a process that, however, already started
during the First World War, not so much in Germany but in the United States (see,
in this respect, Depaepe & D’hulst, 2011)! Setting aside all Geuter’s ideologising
(in his opinion, the development of a Nazified typology and racial psychology were
detrimental to the practical challenges accompanying the mobilisation and the war),
applied psychology, through the application of its ‘normal’ theories and methods
(in this case, tests and diagnostics), was gaining popularity. Not only did industrial
psychology get a tremendous boost due to the build-up to the war and the war
economy, but a specific military psychology, for the selection and recruitment of
officers (e.g. pilots for the Luftwaffe [Air Force]), also came into being. All this
resulted in 1941 in the introduction of a specific regulation for the certification of
psychologists at the universities—the so-called DPO (Diplom Prüfungsordnung)
which, again according Geuter, ushered in the definitive liberation of German
psychology from philosophy.
2.4 Far Too Broad Generalisations: The Case of Educational

Psychology in Nazi Germany
Het is niet omdat iets voorbij is, dat het niet heeft bestaan3
(Kristien Hemmerechts, 2005, p.162)
It goes without saying that, in the context of National Socialism, educational

psychology, just as much as other social sciences, was assigned a legitimising role
with respect to the national ideology. This discourse has already been described
several times in terms of the paradigmatic and programmatic articles published on
this topic in the Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie of the time. But it is also
important to look—as Geuter (1992) did for (applied) psychology in general—at
what actually happened in the workplace under this official banner. We successively
examine both levels, with the central question in mind of the interdependence of the
discipline of education and psychology.
2.4.1 The Discursive Surface Layer of National Socialism
Starting from the change of power in 1933, the notion of ‘totality’ (Ganzheit), which
had already made its appearance during the 1920s in German psychology in general
and in juvenile studies in particular, began to be applied more and more explicitly to
serve the needs of the Nazi totalitarian regime. The role of ‘pedagogical’ psychology
20 M. Depaepe
was redefined on the basis of the emerging ‘revolutionary’ reform of all aspects of
social life (Depaepe, 1997; Oberfeld, 1996). To summarise, the social task of edu-
cational psychology was the following. Through a study of the characteristics and
developmental stages of an ‘organically’ conceived psychological functioning of
child, youth and man, pedagogical psychology was to get to the very core of the
educational process (both within and outside the school). In this way, it could
contribute to ‘national education’, that is, to giving ‘organic’ shape to public life in
the new Germany (which had to be put into effect within the church, state, art,
science, justice and education). As a result, educational psychology was described
as ‘ideological’ (Weltanschaulich; see, e.g., Glaeser, 1933). It was part of a broader
biological-intellectual whole that could be defined as a ‘popular human science’.
The best exponent of this rhetoric was Oswald Kroh—successively Professor
of Psychology and Pädagogik in Tübingen (1924), Munich (1938) and Berlin
(1942). Almost every year, he would publish an article explaining the theoretical-
methodological position of the field (see consecutively Kroh, 1933, 1934, 1937,
1938, 1940, 1943). In 1933 (when he replaced William Stern, who had immigrated
to the United States as editor on the main editorial board), he pointed out that the
concept of total education, in the service of the ‘race’ that was to be newly devel-
oped, must be imbued with the principles of the Führeridee—the concept of the
leader (Kroh, 1933, p. 318). Five years later, he refuted the criticism that implied
that applied psychology was inferior with respect to pure psychology. Rather, the
opposite was true according to him. This purely hypothetical science, perceived
as being divorced from reality, could finally serve the purposes of a social project.
In 1940—when the realisation of this project began to take clear shape—he called
for a permanent closing of the ranks. That also applied, and especially so, to the
scientists whose duties were viewed in a particular light due to the social needs of
the war. And in 1943, he reiterated that education was a social task in the service of
the people, which implied, among other things, the Reinhaltung des rassischen
Erbguts [preserving the purity of the racial genotype] (Kroh, 1943, p. 14).
Apart from Kroh, who was not only a member of the NSDAP (National Socialist
German Workers’ Party) but who also reportedly taught lessons in uniform, it was
mainly Erich Rudolf Jaensch (Marburg—the President of the Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Psychologie who died in 1941), Wilhelm Hische (Hannover) and Gerhard
Pfahler (Giessen [1934], Göttingen [1938], Tübingen [1938]) who served as spokes-
men for the regime, along with various epigones following in their footsteps. They
repeated in various ways (Hische, 1937, 1939; Jaensch, 1938; Pfahler, 1939) the
importance of a practically oriented pedagogical psychology in the service of the
German people. Rooted in German mysticism, the Sturm und Drang and neo-
humanism, this science could not be international: just as psychopathology, military
psychology and vocational guidance, it had to lead to a better understanding of the
German youth, bearer of the ‘popular destiny’ (Schicksal)—youth who had to com-
mit themselves to defending the national community (an idea whose foundations
had already been laid after the debacle of First World War; see, e.g., von Bühler,
1990). It goes without saying that the introduction of the DPO was used as a unique
opportunity to deal with the ‘unworldly’ nature of the hitherto apolitical psychology.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
What was Kenneth Fortescue doing that day? Was he
still living in that poor dismal neighbourhood? Was he still
denying himself in countless different ways for their sakes?
Or had he discovered the missing word in the letter? Had he
found the father who had cast him off as a child? Had he
been owned and reinstated in his rightful position? Perhaps
he had; perhaps now he was taking his place amongst the
great ones of the earth, and they would hear of him no
more.
But no; in that case he would write to her mother, she

was sure of that. If he was rich and was able to do so, that
money would be repaid. She knew that he would never
forget his promise, and that the revelation made to him in
that letter would in no way alter his former determination.
What if her mother had already heard from him? What if
she were keeping the secret as a pleasant surprise for her
on her return? So her busy thoughts wandered on, as the
busy engine, puffing hard at times as they got into the hilly
country of the North, bore her onwards towards
Cumberland.
Then, as she drew nearer home, her thoughts were all

centred on Keswick station. Who would be there to meet
her? Which of the home faces would she see first? How
eagerly she gazed out of the window long before the station
came in sight! How anxiously she scanned the platform as
the train began to stop!
Yes, there they were, her mother and Phyllis and Louis
Verner. It seemed too good to be true! What a drive home
that was, and how much they had to say to each other!
How beautiful it all looked! She had never thought that the
mountains were so high, or the Lake so lovely, or
Borrowdale so fine, or Castle Crag so magnificent. She had
loved them all from her childhood; but she thought she had
never fully appreciated them until that day.
And then they reached home, her dear cosy home, so

free from smoke and dirt and everything ugly or depressing.
Little Carl was at the gate. How he had grown since she saw
him last! And Leila was at the door, looking much better and
stronger, and old Dorcas came running out of the kitchen to
welcome her. And now she was in the cheerful dining-room,
how lovely it all was! The table seemed laden with good
things. It was all so tasteful and pretty, and it was home,
and that was best of all.
The days flew very quickly after that. There were so

many friends to be seen, there was so much to be said and
to be done, that the first ten days seemed to fly on the
wings of the wind. Old Mary and her other old women were
overjoyed to see her, and sometimes she felt as if she had
never really been away. Daisy Bank appeared to her like a
dream from which she had awakened.
She went alone one day up the steep pass towards

Honister Crag, and thought of the photo which she had seen
over the mantlepiece at Birmingham. She wondered where
he had bought it, and why he had chosen it. Was it in
remembrance of the walk they had had there together? Oh
no, of course it could not have been that. It was a beautiful
place, and any one who had seen it would be glad to have a
picture of it.
Marjorie was charmed to find how well Phyllis had taken

her place in her absence. She had shaken off to a great
extent the natural indolence of her nature, and had risen to
the occasion in a way which Marjorie would hardly have
thought possible. Her mother had been cared for and Leila
had been waited on, almost as well as Marjorie had done it
before she left home, and she felt that she would go back to
Daisy Bank with a happy heart, knowing that all was going
on well in the home she had left.
Louis Verner was, of course, a constant visitor at

Fernbank, and was just the same easy, good-natured fellow
as he had ever been. He was now in his third year at
Oxford, and was still trying to discover his vocation. His
father, however, declared that if Louis came to no decision
during that vacation, he should settle the matter for him. It
was finally decided that Louis should try to get into the
Consular Service, and should sit for an examination to be
held the following year. Whether he would be able to
succeed in this was, Marjorie thought, extremely doubtful,
for Louis had no love for work, and went through life doing
as little of it as he possibly could. His motto seemed to be
that Irish one which advises you to 'Take it easy, and if you
can't take it easy, take it as easy as you can;' and it needs
one of life's hardest and sternest lessons, to make men like
Louis Verner realize its importance, and shake themselves
free from their natural inclination to slackness and inertion.
Nevertheless, Louis was a most amusing companion and

a good-hearted affectionate fellow, too affectionate
sometimes, Marjorie thought; but she made fun of all his
pretty speeches, and treated him, as she always had done,
with sisterly candour. He did not mind what she said to him,
although she spoke very plainly to him at times, and they
were ever the best of friends.
But when Marjorie had been at home about a fortnight,

something happened which brought a great cloud over her
happiness.
"A letter for you, Marjorie," said Phyllis, who had gone
to meet the postman at the gate, "and it has such a black
border."
Marjorie took it hastily from her; she knew the writing

well; it was Patty Holtby's. Such terrible news the letter
contained, poor Patty had been almost broken-hearted as
she wrote it. Her father had gone to the works the day
before, apparently quite well, but a short time after he
arrived there, he had been seen to stagger and fall, and
when they went to him, they found that he was dead. It had
been an awful shock to them all, and Patty said that she
could hardly yet believe that it was true.
Marjorie felt as if all the brightness of her holiday had

passed away. She realized now how fond she had become of
the people with whom she had lived for the last year, and
she longed to be with them in their time of trouble. She
wrote at once, offering to return immediately if it would be
the least comfort to them; she would only be too glad to
come to them.
Marjorie waited anxiously for the answer. It came in

poor Mrs. Holtby's writing. It would be an unspeakable help
to have her there, she said, but their plans were so
undecided now that she thought it would be better for her
to wait for a few days. Her brother had come for the
funeral, and he was helping her to arrange matters, and she
would write again shortly.
When Mrs. Holtby's next letter came, it was a very sad

one. She was grieved to have to say that it would be
impossible for Marjorie to return to them. They were leaving
Daisy Bank, and her brother, who was now a widower, had
invited them to come and live with him. Of course now she
would have to be very careful of expense, and could no
longer afford to have a mother's help. She added that she
could never thank Miss Douglas enough for all she had done
for them; she would miss her more than words could say;
but she felt sure that she would rejoice to know that Patty
had profited so much by the good training she had received
from her, that she was becoming the greatest comfort and
help to them all. She ended by saying that she could hardly
bear to think that Marjorie was not coming back to them; it
was one of the most painful consequences of her heavy
bereavement.
So that chapter of Marjorie's life was ended. Daisy Bank

was, as far as she was concerned, nothing but a memory of
the past. Never more would she climb the pit mounds, or
watch old Enoch tending his roses, or walk amongst the
furnace débris. A year ago she would not have believed that
she would have felt the parting so much as she did, nor that
she would have so many pleasant remembrances of their
Black Country.
Now she must begin life again somewhere, and where

would it be? She dreaded the thought of going once more
amongst strangers, and even Colwyn House had become a
kind of second home to her. Well, she must not be faint-
hearted; she had been guided so far, and she knew that her
Guide would not forsake her.
But January passed away, and February came, and no

opening had been found for her. Marjorie was beginning to
feel anxious on the subject of the family finance, when one
day, returning from a walk, she found Colonel Verner's
carriage at the door.
Louis had long since returned to Oxford, and Mrs.

Verner was an invalid and not able to call, so she was
somewhat surprised to see the carriage, and wondered
whom she should see when she went into the house.
She heard voices in their little drawing-room, and her
mother came to the door and culled her in. Marjorie found
Colonel Verner, and with him a lady whom she had never
seen before. The Colonel introduced Marjorie, and she found
that the lady's name was Mrs. St. Hellier, the Honourable
Mrs. St. Hellier, she discovered afterwards. She was Colonel
Verner's cousin, and she was spending a few weeks with
him at Grange.
Mrs. St. Hellier seemed an exceedingly pleasant woman,

and Marjorie felt much drawn to her. After a little
conversation on general subjects, she told them that a
friend of hers was most anxious to find some one who
would be willing to act as companion to her daughter. This
young lady had met with an accident in the hunting-field,
and was confined to her room, or rather to her rooms, for
she was wheeled on an invalid couch into an adjoining
apartment where she lay during the day, unable to move or
to raise herself from her recumbent position.
The poor girl of course felt the confinement; the

monotony of such an existence was a sad change for her,
after the active life which she had been accustomed to lead,
and her mother was therefore anxious to find some one
who would be willing to come to them as her daughter's
companion. She would have no work of any kind to do; the
lady's maid would undertake, as usual, all that was
necessary in dressing and otherwise waiting upon her
daughter. She simply wanted one who would be a cheerful
companion, and who would be ready to read to her, to
amuse her, and to turn her thoughts as much as possible
from her helpless condition.
Then Mrs. St. Hellier went on to say that she had heard
from Colonel Verner that Miss Douglas was looking for
something of the kind, and she wanted to know whether
she would like her to name her to Lady Earlswood. She
thought she was at liberty to tell her that the remuneration
would be a handsome one; fifty pounds a year was the
amount mentioned by Lady Earlswood when she spoke to
her on the subject.
Marjorie felt that this was indeed an answer to the

prayers she had offered, and she gratefully accepted Mrs.
St. Hellier's proposal that she should write to her friend
without further delay.
In the course of the following week, Marjorie received a

kind letter from Lady Earlswood, and in a very short time,
all the preliminary arrangements were made, and she once
more took leave of her home, and set off for Grantley
Castle.
What a wonderful contrast she found on her arrival to

her reception at Daisy Bank! A footman with a cockade on
his hat came up to her on the platform, and told her that he
would see after her luggage, and that the carriage was
outside waiting for her. During the five miles' drive to the
Castle, Marjorie leant back amongst the cushions of the
luxuriously comfortable brougham, and wondered very
much what was in store for her in the new home to which
she was going.
When the carriage stopped, she was taken through the

marble hall, and at the top of the long flight of steps, she
found the housekeeper awaiting her.
"Lady Earlswood is out this afternoon, Miss Douglas,"

she said, "so she asked me to receive you. May I take you
to your room? You will find a good fire, I think, and I will
send you some tea in a few minutes. Lady Violet has had
tea, so perhaps you would like to have it in your own
room."
Marjorie thanked her, and followed her up the wide

staircase into the bedroom which she was henceforth to call
her own. It was not a large room, but it was most
beautifully furnished. A pretty French bedstead, with dainty
rosebud-covered hangings, a comfortable sofa covered with
the same delicate chintz, an easy-chair by the bright fire, a
writing-table, with inkstand, blotter and pens, at which she
would be able to write her home letters—all these made
Marjorie feel that she had come to a home where comfort
and ease abounded.
Then she went to the window. It was not yet dark, and
she could see hills and woods in every direction, whilst close
to the house were three long terraces, one above another,
from the various heights of which glorious views of the
surrounding country could be obtained. What a strange
contrast to the views from her bedroom window in Colwyn
House!
Then there came a knock at the door, and a maid

brought in a tray, on which was a small silver tea-pot and
cream-jug, a china cup and saucer, and a plate of delicately
cut bread and butter. It seemed strange to Marjorie to be
thus waited upon, for she had been waiting upon others all
her life, and as she sat in the armchair by the fire, pouring
out the tea which had been placed on a small table beside
her, she felt that, so far as she could see at present, the
lines had indeed fallen for her in pleasant places.
CHAPTER XX
THE PHOTO OF A FRIEND
WHEN Marjorie first saw Lady Violet, she thought that

hers was the most beautiful face that she had ever seen;
yet she was very pale, and had a weary look in her eyes
which told of pain and weakness. She held out her hand as
Marjorie entered.
"Miss Douglas, I am glad to see you."
Marjorie took the low chair by Lady Violet's side, and

told her that she hoped she would tell her exactly what she
would like her to do, and that she would let her help her in
any way that she could.
"Oh! I don't want you to do anything," she said, "only to

amuse me. I'm so sick of seeing nobody but Collins; my
mother and sister come up as often as they can, but we
have so many visitors, and they have so many calls to
make, and there is so much going on of one kind and
another, that they are obliged to leave me hours alone
sometimes. This is my worst time; I get so tired in the
evening, and awfully cramped with lying so long in one
position. You mustn't mind if I am cross sometimes; I often
am."
Marjorie laughed, and told her she did not think that
was possible.
"Oh, but it is. I worry poor Collins to death. Now I am

tired and can't talk; will you talk to me?"
Marjorie found it very difficult to know what to say. It is
one thing to join in a conversation, and quite another thing
to talk to a silent person without having anything particular
to say. She could not imagine how to begin, and then a
bright thought struck her.
"Shall I tell you about my home, Lady Violet?"
"Yes, do; it will be just like a story."
So Marjorie began by describing Borrowdale and their

pretty house on the hill; she told her about her mother,
Leila, Phyllis, and little Carl; she spoke of the garden with
its spring flowers, of the walk through the woods to
Watendlath, at the top of the hill, of the quiet village
church, of her old women and the quaint cottages in which
they lived, of her life at home and of how she spent her
days;—all this she told her, in her own bright, pleasant way,
until the poor girl beside her was soothed and interested,
and forgot her pain and weariness whilst she listened.
"Thank you," she said, when Marjorie stopped. "I can

see it all as if I had been there. May I have another chapter
to-morrow evening, and will you call Collins now to help me
into bed? And do you mind telling me your Christian
name?? I should like to call you by it if I may; Miss Douglas
sounds so formal."
"Please do; my name is Marjorie. I shall feel I am at

home, Lady Violet, if I hear you say it."
As the weeks went on, Marjorie soon became

accustomed to her new life in the Castle. Beyond going for a
walk daily in the lovely park and gardens, she spent all her
time with Lady Violet. They had meals together in the pretty
sitting-room, and Marjorie saw very little of the other
members of the family. When they came to see Lady Violet,
she generally went into her bedroom to write her letters, or
strolled along one of the grassy terraces, or gathered
primroses and moss in the copse wood to adorn Lady
Violet's room.
By degrees, very slow degrees at first, Lady Violet let

her companion know a little of what her thoughts and
feelings were. She had been most reserved at first, and at
one time Marjorie had felt as if she would never really know
her. But one evening, when Marjorie had been at Grantley
Castle about a month, the ice was broken for the first time.
Lady Violet had been very restless and impatient all day;
nothing was right that was done for her; she found fault
with every one, and Marjorie herself experienced some
difficulty in keeping bright and cheerful when all her efforts
to cheer the patient seemed such an utter failure.
But after dinner, when Marjorie was sitting beside her

with her work in her hand, Lady Violet suddenly said—
"Marjorie, I've been horrid all day; why don't you tell
me so?"
Marjorie laughed. "Do you want a scolding?" she said.
"I don't mind one from you; but I do think it's a shame,
a horrible shame."
"What is a shame?" asked Marjorie.
"My being laid on my back like this. Do you know,

Marjorie, I was to have been married in May?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Marjorie. "I had not heard about
it."
"Oh, didn't you know? We were going to London to get
my trousseau the very week that this accident happened.
We were making all the plans about the wedding, and
actually had patterns in the house for choosing the
bridesmaids' dresses; and now here I am, lying helpless on
my back, and my wedding put off indefinitely. It is an awful
shame!"
"Don't say that, Lady Violet," said Marjorie, "because

God has sent the trouble; hasn't He?"
"Then I think God is very cruel! What pleasure can it be

to Him to punish me like this?"
"He doesn't like to see you suffer, Lady Violet. Oh, don't
ever think that! It is because He loves you He has let this
trouble come."
"I don't see much love in it! I suppose you mean that
God thinks I need punishing; but I've never done anything
to deserve it, and I do think it's a horrid shame!"
"Oh, don't say that!" said Marjorie. "Dear Lady Violet,

don't say that!"
"But I must say it," she answered impatiently, "because

I feel it, and it does me good to come out with it."
Marjorie did not speak for a few minutes, and Lady

Violet said—
"Talk to me, Marjorie, scold me, if you like, only don't

sit quiet like that. Tell me what you were thinking about."
"I was thinking about the eagle's nest, and that you
were like one of the eaglets."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know how the eagle makes her nest on the ledge
of some high rock, building it of sticks and briars, and then
lining it with moss, and hay, and wool, and soft feathers out
of her own breast."
"Well," said Lady Violet, as Marjorie stopped, "go on."
"And then she lays her eggs, and the eaglets are
hatched, and they lie down in the soft nest, and are so cosy
that they never want to leave it. But, as they grow older,
the mother-bird wants them to learn to fly, that they may
be able to soar up with her towards the sun. So she hovers
over them and tries to persuade them to stretch their
wings; but the nest is far too cosy and snug for them to
want to leave it, and they nestle down again in the moss
and hay. But the mother knows all they will lose if they do
not learn to fly, so she rakes out the wool and feathers with
her strong beak, and makes the thorns and briars come to
the top. Then, when all the soft lining is gone, the young
birds shuffle about uncomfortably. The nest is not such a
nice place after all, and by degrees they creep to the edge
of it and sit there very miserably. And now the mother-bird
again tries to get them to fly, and they spread their small
wings, and she puts her great strong wing underneath
them, so that they may not fall, and soon they are soaring
with her into the glory above."
"Yes, go on," said Lady Violet.
"Do you remember that God says He is like that eagle?

And so He rakes up the comfortable home nest, and lets us
feel the prickles of pain and sorrow, not because He is cruel,
not because He wants to punish us, but because He wants
us to rise to something brighter and better, to the City of
Sunshine. Now, Lady Violet, I'm afraid I've been preaching
quite a sermon, and it is very good of you to listen; but
don't you think this illness is one of the sharp thorns in the
nest, to bring you to the edge, and make you care for
something better?"
"Perhaps. I don't know, I'm sure."
They were silent for some time after this, and then Lady
Violet said suddenly—
"It seems a pity now that I was ever engaged."
"Why?"
"Oh, it's such a nuisance for him, you see."
"Do you mean for the gentleman you are going to

marry?"
"Yes. You see, he wanted me to marry him a long time

ago, but I refused him; at least, I didn't actually refuse him,
but there were reasons why I couldn't marry him then, one
reason especially. But all that is over now, and I had just
accepted him, and all was nicely settled, when this
happened."
"But the doctor hopes you will be all right soon; doesn't
he?"
"Oh yes, in time. But it's an awful nuisance for him

having to wait; he wants to get settled. You see, he has
only just come into his property; it's a nice little place, and
he has a fair amount of money. It belonged to his mother's
father; but some day he will come into a much grander
estate, and be awfully rich. His brother owns it now, but he
is getting an old man, and has no children. It's really a very
good match for me, but it's a long time to wait, and I think
he's getting rather impatient, and I did so want to have
next season in town."
"Has he been to see you?"
"Oh yes, once or twice. Just before you came, he was

here; but he lives a long way off, and I don't really want
him to come too often—it's so tiring seeing people when
you're ill."
Marjorie rather wondered at this remark. Surely if Lady

Violet were very fond of her fiancé, she would not find his
company tiring, although she was ill. However, she made no
remark, but went on quietly with her work.
"Marjorie," said Lady Violet, presently, "you've never

seen my photographs. I have two large albums full. Would
you like to look at them?"
"Very much indeed. May I get them?"
"Yes, do. They're on the bottom shelf of that bookcase

in the corner. Switch on more light, and sit in that armchair;
you will see them better there."
Marjorie brought the albums, and sat down to look

through the hundreds of photos with which they were filled
—views of the park and the woods, of the church and the
village, groups of various friends who had stayed at the
Castle, photos of Lady Violet's horse and of the two St.
Bernard dogs, river scenes and lake scenes, photos taken at
all seasons of the year, some with the trees in full leaf,
others with bare and naked branches, some showing the
broad shadows of a hot summer's day, others taken in
snow, with every tree and shrub looking as if it were
growing in fairyland.
"They are lovely, Lady Violet," she said, as she laid
down the first volume, and took up the one lying on the
table.
SHE GAZED A LONG TIME AT THIS PICTURE.
"Oh! Those are foreign views. I don't know whether you

will care for them so much. They are in the Riviera chiefly.
We were there for a month about two years ago, and had
an awfully jolly time."
Marjorie was turning over the leaves of the album, and

had just been admiring a beautiful view of Monaco, when
she suddenly came to one which brought all the blood
rushing into her face. It was a photo of Lady Violet sitting
on a rock near the sea, and close by her side and looking
over the same book with her was Captain Fortescue.
Marjorie would have known him anywhere; but she had

never seen him look quite as he looked then. There was not
a vestige of care on his face; he was evidently enjoying life
to the full. She gazed a long time at this picture, and Lady
Violet, glancing round, noticed how she coloured when she
looked at it, and then how all the colour faded out of her
face.
"Oh! That is a very great friend of mine," she said. "He

helped me to take nearly all those Riviera photos. Evelyn
took several of us together, and they came out very well.
What is the matter, Marjorie?"
"Oh! Nothing; only it reminded me of some one I

know."
"Did it? Isn't it awfully funny how one sees likenesses

sometimes! Turn over; there are some more of him in that
book. Isn't he good-looking?"
Marjorie did not answer; her heart was beating too

quickly.
So he knew Lady Violet—yes, and admired her too; she

could see that by his face in several of the photos where
they were taken together. And what a handsome pair they
made! They were just suited to each other. And now he was
a lord; she had no doubt of it from that letter she had read.
Had he discovered his parentage? Had he, in those long
months since she had heard of him, found his father, and
claimed his fortune? Could it be that he was the one whom
Lady Violet was about to marry, the one who had admired
her long ago, but whom she had refused because of some
reason which stood in the way? Could that reason have
been the loss of his money, and his being compelled to
leave the army?
If so, Marjorie could quite understand that now this

difficulty was probably removed. If he had found his father,
if he had inherited a title, if he was heir to a large property,
then surely no objection to their engagement could be
urged.
Now, of course, she could see the reason of his long

silence. It was now the end of March, and she had never
seen him or heard of him since that October night when he
had brought her home from Birmingham. Why had she
expected to see him or to hear from him? How blind and
foolish she had been!
Lady Violet seemed impatient that she should close the

book, and Marjorie put it back in its place on the shelf. She
wanted to ask her if Captain Fortescue was the one to
whom she was engaged, but she felt that she could not
bring herself to do so. She was so strongly convinced in her
own mind that she was right in her conclusion, that she felt
as if she could not steady her voice sufficiently to frame the
question. Not for worlds would she have Lady Violet know
what she had felt when she saw that photograph. How silly
she had been! How foolish it was to have dwelt on what was
merely a passing feeling of gratitude for a little service
which she had rendered him! No one should know; no one
should ever guess what she had sometimes thought and
hoped. Least of all should Lady Violet know or guess.
So Marjorie talked to her on all manner of subjects, and

was apparently never in better spirits, until at last the long
evening wore away, and alone in her own room she could sit
by her fire, and gazing into its red blaze she could pull down
stone after stone of her fragile castle in the air, and then,
when it was all laid in ruins, could pray for contentment and
for peace. Surely she ought to be glad to hope that his
troubles were over. Surely she should rejoice, if the desire
of his heart had been granted unto him.
CHAPTER XXI
LORD KENMORE
THE spring ran its course, and the beautiful days of

early summer began, and Marjorie sometimes felt as if she
had lived at Grantley Castle all her life. It was a most restful
time for her after the hard work of the year before, and she
felt that she had much for which to be thankful. Lady Violet
was still obliged to lie still, although her health and spirits
were daily returning, and she was far less easily tired than
she had been when Marjorie first came.
The house was now full of company, and Lady

Earlswood, whose time was much occupied, was the more
gratified that Lady Violet was so charmed with her
companion, and that the arrangement she had made had
thus turned out so satisfactorily. She was always very
gracious to Marjorie, and Lady Maude thanked her several
times for cheering up "poor dear Vi," as she called her. Lady
Maude was full of life and spirits, and was certainly not cut
out for a sick room. Her energy knew no bounds; she
delighted in golf, motoring, and bicycling, and though she
was fond of her sister and very sorry for her, she was of too
restless a nature to stay long in the sick room, and was
therefore very glad to feel that Marjorie's presence there
enabled her to go to her various amusements with a clear
conscience.
"Vi likes Miss Douglas," Lady Maude would say to her

friends, "they get on wonderfully well together, and she
keeps her in a far better temper than I can do."
So Marjorie had very few difficulties to contend with in

her new position; even Collins the maid was glad that she
had come and was able to relieve her from constant
attendance on her young mistress, and from the fretful
fault-finding to which she had been obliged to submit before
Miss Douglas arrived.
Marjorie was very thankful for all this, and for the
letters from home, which were very cheering. Leila was
becoming quite strong again, and the money Marjorie was
earning, and which she had been able to send home at the
end of her first three months at Grantley Castle, had
enabled her mother to buy many much-needed things for
the household, and had considerably relieved the strain
consequent upon the loss of the insurance money.
Marjorie searched the home letters carefully for any

mention of Captain Fortescue, as she still called him to
herself, but there was no allusion whatever to him. They
had evidently heard nothing of him or from him.
Lady Violet did not speak to her again about her fiancé.
She knew that she often had letters from him, and she
wrote to him in pencil from her couch, but this was in the
afternoon after luncheon, when Marjorie had gone out for
her daily walk and when Collins was in attendance, and the
letter had been carried down to the post-bag before her
return.
But one wet day in the beginning of June, when Collins

was lying down in her room, with a swollen face, Lady Violet
said—
"Marjorie, will you get me my writing-case? I want to

write to Lord Kenmore."
That was his name, then—Lord Kenmore. She would

have thought that the missing word in the letter was a
longer word than that; but she remembered that old Mr.
Fortescue's writing was most uncertain and irregular, and he
would probably spread out this name more than the rest of
his writing, in order to make it clearer and more distinct.
Lord Kenmore. Could she ever think of him by that

name? It all seemed so strange, so difficult to understand!
But why was she letting these thoughts come into her
mind? She had resolved never to think of him in that way
again, never to recall that walk from Deepfields to Daisy
Bank, or the grasp of his hand when he had said good-bye
to her. She had been a foolish girl in the past; she would be
a wise one in the future.
Lady Violet Kenmore. What a pretty name it would be!

"Thank you for all you have done for me to-day." Of course
he was thinking of Lady Violet when he said those words.
He knew that she had not been able to accept him because
of the loss of his money; but all that time, he had loved her,
even though it had appeared hopeless. But now that the
letter was found, which might enable him to prove his noble
birth, and to find the clue which might lead him to recover
his rightful possessions, he would feel that Lady Violet
might still be his.
No wonder, then, that he had said so earnestly, "Thank

you for all you have done for me to-day." No wonder that he
had pressed her hand in gratitude, when she had been the
means of bringing him hope. She saw it all now, and she
marvelled at her former folly.
But all that was over now, and she took the letter from
Lady Violet, when it was finished—the letter to him,—and
carried it down to the bag.
"LORD KENMORE,
"Rockcliffe Castle."
That, then, was his address. She saw that, but she saw
no more. What right had she to look at the letter to see his
address? She would put it in the letter-box at once. It was
nothing to her where he lived.
It was about a week after this, that one morning, as

Marjorie was going out, Lady Earlswood asked her to go into
the village to take five shillings, which she had promised to
an old man, living in a cottage near the church, and who
had once been a gardener at the Castle. She called at the
cottage, had a chat with old Hill, and then went through the
lodge gates, and began to climb the long ascent to the
Castle.
The beech trees looked very lovely that morning in their

pale spring dress, the moss by the side of the road being
covered by the pale brown covering of the buds, which had
fallen off as the leaves opened. The colouring was perfect,
and Marjorie was thoroughly enjoying her walk.
But suddenly, as she turned a corner of the long

avenue, far ahead of her, about a hundred yards or more,
she saw something which took all the brightness out of her
face. She saw Captain Fortescue walking rapidly towards
the Castle. Yes, she was sure it was he. She could not see
his face of course, but he was the same height, he had the
same figure and hair, and he walked in the same erect way.
All the feelings which she had been repressing and keeping
down for so long rushed back into her heart.
It was hard work to walk steadily on towards the house.

She felt dizzy and faint for a few minutes, and turned off
the road and sat down upon the gnarled roots of a giant
beech tree. But she prayed for strength and courage, and
soon walked on again to the Castle. The road was empty
now; she could see the great pillars of the portico and the
closed door between them; he had evidently gone inside.
Once a wild hope darted across her mind that after all
she had jumped to a wrong conclusion. Perhaps Captain
Fortescue and Lord Kenmore were after all not the same;
and if so, could it be that he had found out where she was,
and had come to see whether she was happy at Grantley
Castle, just as once before he had come to Daisy Bank?
But this faint hope was dispelled as she went upstairs,

for Collins met her as she was going to her room, and said
—
"Miss Douglas, perhaps you had better not go to my

lady just now. Lord Kenmore has come to see her
unexpectedly. His motor broke down just outside the
village, and he had to walk the last part of the way."
Marjorie went on into her room, determined to be very

busy and to give herself no time to think. She hoped,
fervently hoped, that she would not see him. Perhaps he
would not be able to stay long, and he would probably go
downstairs for luncheon, and then afterwards she would go
out in the garden or take a long walk on the hills.
Meanwhile she would tidy her drawers, change her dress,
and write home.
Marjorie found, however, that the writing was an

impossibility; her thoughts would wander to the next room.
How well she could picture him sitting in her usual place by
Lady Violet's couch! How good he would be to her; how
much he would feel for her in her suffering! What a comfort
his sympathy and tender care would be to her!
And so more than an hour went by, and then came the
sound of a bell, the bell of Lady Violet's sitting-room. This
bell rang upstairs in Collins' room, so that her mistress
could summon her whenever she required her. She heard
Collins come down and go into the next room, and soon
afterwards there came a knock at her bedroom door.
"Come in, Collins."
"If you please, Miss Douglas, my lady would like you to

go to her."
Marjorie's heart died within her. He was still there, and

now she would have to meet him. She wondered whether
he knew that she was at Grantley Castle, or would he be
surprised to see her there? Probably Lady Violet had told
him, and, hearing that he knew her, had sent for her to
come and see him.
With a prayer in her heart for help, Marjorie crossed the
landing and went into the next room.
"Marjorie," said Lady Violet, "come here; I want to

introduce Lord Kenmore to you."
Fearfully, almost tremblingly, Marjorie went forward,

but, to her utter astonishment, a perfect stranger stood
before her. His face was as unlike that of Captain Fortescue
as it was possible for two faces to be. The figure, the build,
and the colour of the hair were exactly similar, so that
Marjorie was not surprised that, as he walked before her in
the drive, she had imagined that he was Captain Fortescue;
but the features, the eyes, and, above all, the expression of
his face, were totally different.
Lord Kenmore was an exceedingly plain man, with the

palest of blue eyes, which seemed wholly devoid of
expression, with thin lips, a pallid, unhealthy-looking face,
and a most cynical and unpleasant expression. How could
she think for a moment that this was Captain Fortescue? He
bowed stiffly when Lady Violet introduced him to her
companion, and sat down again in the low chair beside the
couch.
"Marjorie, I have been telling Lord Kenmore about the

kind of paper I print my photos on; he is a photographer
too. Would you mind getting those books you looked
through the other day?"
Marjorie brought the albums from their place on the

shelf, and handed them to Lord Kenmore. She was going to
leave the room when Lady Violet called her back.
"Don't run away, Marjorie. Lord Kenmore is going down

to lunch in a few minutes, and I shall want you then."
So she took her work-bag from the table, and sat down
in the window, busy with a table-centre which she was
working for her mother. She felt as if a great weight had
been lifted off her heart; she had never realized how
crushing the weight had been, until she felt the relief she
experienced now that it had gone. Captain Fortescue was
not Lord Kenmore! It seemed too good to be true, and he
had not been thinking of Lady Violet when he said good-bye
to her at Daisy Bank.
Meanwhile Lord Kenmore was turning over the photos,

commenting on them as he did so. He was opening the
Riviera book now.
"These are pretty!" she heard him say.
"Yes; we had a lovely time there two years ago."
"Hullo! Who's this?"
He had come to the very photo which had made

Marjorie's face flush as she looked at it.
"Oh, that's a friend of Evelyn; they were at Sandhurst

together, and we met him out there."
"I can't think who he reminds me of," said Lord

Kenmore; "he's like some one. Dear me, who is it?"
"That is just what Marjorie said when she looked at that

photo," said Lady Violet, laughing; "he is just like some
friend of hers; he seems to be like a good many people."
"What's his name?"
"Captain Fortescue; perhaps you knew him at

Sandhurst."
"No, I was at Woolwich; I can't think whom he reminds
me of."
"There's another of him on the next page."
"Yes," he said, turning over the leaves, "he seems to

have been fond of being taken with you, Vi."
"Yes, you see we saw a good deal of him there. He is

very good-looking, isn't he?"
"Well, yes, I suppose he is. I don't care for that kind of

face, though; he looks like a fellow in a cheap music-hall."
Marjorie was not half satisfied with Lady Violet's answer.
"Oh no, he isn't like that at all."
"Why, there he is again! A conceited sort of fellow, I

should think."
Was he jealous? Marjorie wondered.
"No, he wasn't at all conceited," Lady Violet replied.

"You would have liked him, I'm sure."
"Have you seen him lately?"
"No, not for ages; he has lost all his money, poor fellow,
and is as poor as a church mouse. I don't know what has
become of him."
Lord Kenmore seemed relieved to hear this, and there

followed a long discussion on the relative merits of Ziga and
Paget printing-papers, which lasted until the gong
summoned Lord Kenmore to the dining-room.
"Will you put these books by, Marjorie?" said Lady
Violet. "It was too bad of him to run down poor Captain
Fortescue."
Marjorie saw no more of Lord Kenmore, for he had gone

when she returned from her afternoon walk. Lady Violet
seemed tired and out of spirits, she thought; perhaps she
had felt the parting with him, it was only natural that she
should; and Marjorie devoted herself to her more than ever
that evening, and was determined to do all that she could to
cheer her. She had such a light heart herself that it was not
a difficult task to be bright and cheerful.
CHAPTER XXII
MR. NORTHCOURT'S OPINION
WHEN Kenneth Fortescue had left Marjorie at the door

of Colwyn House, he blamed himself very much that, for
even a single moment, he had allowed his feelings to be
seen by her. Perhaps she had not noticed; he hoped not. For
what right had he, a practically homeless and penniless
man, to allow any girl to see that he loved her, or to
attempt, in however small a degree, to win her love in
return? It was cruel, utterly heartless and unworthy of a
man, he said to himself.
For what hope of future happiness could such love ever

bring? As long as he was so heavily in debt to her mother
(for he refused to allow that the letter she had found had in
any way cancelled that obligation) every penny of his salary,
beyond what he actually required for food and clothing and
the other small necessaries of life, must be sent to
Rosthwaite. He intended to send it in future at the end of
each year, and as his salary was a fairly good one, he hoped
to be able to remit a substantial sum the following
Christmas. But four thousand pounds was a considerable
amount to reach, and he realized that it would take years
before he could return it all, if indeed his life were spared
long enough for him to do so. Meanwhile the thought of a
home of his own was one of the many things denied to him,
one of the indulgences which he had told Mrs. Douglas that
he should renounce.
Moreover, as he travelled back to Birmingham, whilst he

could not help a feeling of satisfaction that his origin was
not so humble as he had imagined, yet at the same time,
he reflected that his own father, whether he were a lord or
not, was by no means a father of whom he could be proud.
His foster-father, poor common miner though he was, had
shown far more feeling than his real father, and had
behaved in a manner which was vastly superior to that of
the heartless man who had deserted his own helpless child,
and had left him to the care of complete strangers. Still, if
only that word had not been blotted out of the letter, he
might have been able to prove his claim on that father's
consideration, and might have compelled him to reinstate
him in the position which was his by birth.
As it was, he knew not what steps to take. He decided

at length to go to Sheffield, that he might see Mr.
Northcourt, his father's lawyer, and take his advice in the
matter.
Accordingly, the following week, Captain Fortescue

travelled northward, and reaching Sheffield went at once to
Mr. Northcourt's office.
The lawyer was much interested in the information laid

before him. He read and re-read the letter several times; he
took a magnifying glass and tried to discover the word
covered by the ink; but at last he was obliged to confess
that it was hopeless to attempt to decipher it. He was,
however, strongly of opinion that the missing word or words
had undoubtedly been the correct name. Watson and
Makepeace would not have made that name illegible, had
they not known beyond all doubt that it was the name of his
lost father. What use they had made of that knowledge Mr.
Northcourt said it was impossible to tell.
Probably the story that Miss Douglas had heard from

the old woman in the cottage at Daisy Bank, and which
Captain Fortescue had just told him, was perfectly true.
They had found this name mentioned in the letter as the
possible name of Captain Fortescue's father; they had then
sought out and discovered the man named, and, by
threatening to disclose what they knew of his past history,
they had extracted large sums of money from him, money
which they were now spending abroad, or which, quite
possibly, lay buried with them at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Mr. Northcourt asked Captain Fortescue to leave the

letter in his charge, as it would prove most valuable
evidence, should the case ever come to trial, and he
promised meanwhile to make all inquiries that were
possible. At the same time he was obliged to tell Captain
Fortescue that he much feared that no solution of the
mystery would be forthcoming; the two guilty persons had
evidently made good their escape, and he was therefore
sorry to say that, in his opinion, they had not yet found the
clue which would lead them to the discovery of Captain
Fortescue's family.
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Educational Research The Attraction of Psychology

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Educational Research The Importance and Effects of

Educational Research Discourses of Change and Changes of

International Handbook of Philosophy of Education 1st

Educational Psychology Anita Woolfolk

Visual Research Methods in Educational Research 1st

How Learning Happens Seminal Works in Educational

Educational Psychology ISE, 8th Edition Unknown Author

The Psychology of Perfectionism Theory Research

Aims & Scope

For further volumes:

ISBN 978-94-007-5037-1 ISBN 978-94-007-5038-8 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949848

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

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Educational Research: Why ‘What Works’ Doesn’t Work

1 Making Sense of the Attraction of Psychology:

8 The Attraction of Neuropsychological Findings in Contemporary

About the Authors ........................................................................................... 175

Author Index.................................................................................................... 181

Subject Index ................................................................................................... 183

Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe

Psychology studies a great variety of processes (e.g. conflict, aggression, frustration,

P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: The Attraction 1

Quantitative empirical research belongs to the paradigm of causality, which

in Nazi Germany. Offering an analysis of the Zeitschrift für Pädagogische

she argues, calls for a different investigative approach. Specifically, in order to

successes and failures of the development of theories of mathematics education

Turning to the exaggerated pretensions of ‘scientific’ psychology, David Bridges

2.1 Far Too Easy Hypotheses?

La ciencia (…) consiste en un ‘prurito’ de plantear problemas1

P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: The Attraction 11

application of a successful, generally accepted psychological theory could be just

2.2 Far Too Easy Phrasing of the Questions?

There is no such thing as ‘normal’ science in history

philosophical (i.e. geisteswissenschaftliche) component in these fields (see, e.g.,

editorial offices of Pedagogische Studiën, for example, the already mentioned

2.3 Far Too Superficial Conclusions?

Il y a plus d’une sagesse, et toutes sont nécessaires au monde;

Oelkers’ continuity hypothesis was supported by Fritz Osterwalder (2002) who

2.4 Far Too Broad Generalisations: The Case of Educational

It goes without saying that, in the context of National Socialism, educational

2.4.1 The Discursive Surface Layer of National Socialism

But no; in that case he would write to her mother, she

Then, as she drew nearer home, her thoughts were all

And then they reached home, her dear cosy home, so

The days flew very quickly after that. There were so

She went alone one day up the steep pass towards

Marjorie was charmed to find how well Phyllis had taken

Louis Verner was, of course, a constant visitor at

Nevertheless, Louis was a most amusing companion and

But when Marjorie had been at home about a fortnight,

Marjorie took it hastily from her; she knew the writing

Marjorie felt as if all the brightness of her holiday had

Marjorie waited anxiously for the answer. It came in

When Mrs. Holtby's next letter came, it was a very sad

So that chapter of Marjorie's life was ended. Daisy Bank