Author Description

Product Description This groundbreaking book combines a historical interpretation of Victorian educational debate with a critical overview of contemporary educational thought. Traces the roots of contemporary educational practice in the values of Victorian thinking Combines detailed consideration of Victorian sources, literary and non-literary, with reflections on their legacy in the 21st century Reflects on questions of social class, religion, and gender as the Victorians defined them in relation to educational ideals Suggests challenging connections between literary and social history and contemporary dilemmas Review "Dinah Birch's aims, in this recent addition to the Blackwell Manifestos series, are bold....Birch has performed not only a scholarly but also a civic service." ( Brontë Studies, November 2009) From the Back Cover As Victorian philanthropy evolved into public policy, a cultural unease developed between attempts to assimilate the fractured legacies of Romanticism and Christianity with the push for education. For some, education represented a denial of the autonomous ‘inner life’ that so richly defined Romantic and Christian thought. This troubling divergence between ‘knowing’ and ‘feeling’ shaped attitudes towards education throughout the nineteenth century. This groundbreaking volume combines an historical interpretation of Victorian debates on teaching and learning with a fresh overview of contemporary educational thought. Written for a diverse audience, the book explores the roots of modern educational anxieties in nineteenth-century thinking and reflects on questions of social class, religion and gender in relation to Victorian educational ideals. About the Author Dinah Birch is a Professor of English Literature at Liverpool University. Her work on Victorian literature includes Ruskin’s Myths (1988), Ruskin on Tur