Children of Empire
How Discourses of Empire Permeated British Victorian Childhood Before and After the 1870 Education Act
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.13.156Keywords:
British Empire, Education, 1870 Education Act, Discourse of Empire, Childhood, Victorian HistoryAbstract
While the British Empire is acknowledged to have functioned from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was during the nineteenth century that its greatest expansion in terms of size, population, and wealth occurred. Dominating the nineteenth century, the Victorian Era (1837-1901) is considered by scholars such as Amy Lloyd and Peter Marshall to be the period in British history in which the monarchy became increasingly identified with empire. Queen Victoria was granted the title of Empress of India in 1876; this, as well as occasions such as Queen Victoria’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees 1887 and 1897, continued to rouse imperialism towards the end of the nineteenth century. In the context of this essay, discourses of empire can be understood as texts, discussions, and ideals concerning imperialism; Pramod Nayar suggests in Colonial Voices: The Discourses of Empire that discourses are not only a reflection of events, but serve to define reality for viewers, giving insight into lived experiences. Accordingly, this article will examine the way in which discourses of empire permeated Victorian experiences of childhood before and after the 1870 Education Act.
References
Armytage, Walter, ‘The 1870 education act’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 18, no. 2, (1970): 121-133.
Beaven, Brad, ‘Educating the future citizens of empire: Working-class schooling, 1870–1939’, Visions of empire, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017): 125-149.
Burnett, John, Destiny Obscure: Autobiographies of Childhood, Education and Family from the 1820s to The 1920s (London: Taylor & Francis Group, 1982).
Burstyn, Joan, Victorian education and the ideal of womanhood (London: Routledge, 2016).
Childs, Michael, Labour’s apprentices: working-class lads in late Victorian and Edwardian England (Montreal: McGill Queen’s Press, 1992).
CRO, CEE/log/15/1, ‘St Michael’s Church of England School log book’, 9 March 1883; 3 March 1897.
Dunae, Patrick, ‘Boys’ Literature and the Idea of Empire, 1870-1914’, Victorian Studies (1980), 24: 105-121.
Dyhouse, Carol, ‘Towards a “feminine” curriculum for English schoolgirls: The demands of ideology 1870-1963’, Women’s Studies International (1978), 1: 297-311.
Edgerton, David, The rise and fall of the British nation: A twentieth-century history, (Penguin UK, 2018).
Fraser, Derek, The Evolution of the British Welfare State, fifth edition, (London: Palgrave, 2017).
Frost, Ginger, Suzanne, Victorian Childhoods, (Dawson Books, 2009).
Harris, Bernard, The origins of the British welfare state: society, state and social welfare in England and Wales, 1800-1945, (Macmillan International Higher Education, 2018).
Humphries, Jane, Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Hyam, Ronald, Britain’s imperial century, 1815-1914: a study of empire and expansion, (Springer, 2002).
King, Greg, Twilight of Splendor: the court of Queen Victoria during her diamond jubilee year, (John Wiley & Sons, 2007).
Lloyd, Amy, J, ‘The British Empire’, British Library Newspapers, (Detroit: Gale, 2007).
Marshall, Peter, James, eds. The Cambridge illustrated history of the British Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
McDermid, Jane, The schooling of working-class girls in Victorian Scotland: gender, education and identity, (London: Routledge, 2013).
Middleton, Nigel, ‘The Education Act of 1870 as the Start of the Modern Concept of the Child’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 18, no. 2, (1970): 166-179.
Mitchell, Sally, Victorian Britain: An Encyclopaedia, (London: Routledge, 1988).
Nayar, Pramod, K, Colonial voices: the discourses of Empire, (John Wiley & Sons, 2012).
Porter, Bernard, The absent-minded imperialists: Empire, society, and culture in Britain, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Steinbach, Susie, Understanding the Victorians: Politics, culture and society in nineteenth-century Britain, (London: Routledge, 2016).
Stephens, William, Brewer, Education in Britain, 1750–1914, (Macmillan International Higher Education, 1999).
Tholfsen, Trygve, ‘Moral Education in the Victorian Sunday School’, History of Education Quarterly (1980), 20: 77-99.
Winter, Thomas, ‘Victorian Era’, American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopaedia (2004): 473-475.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Molly Finlay
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The CC BY 4.0 license is a Creative Commons license. This is a non-copyleft free license that is good for art and entertainment works, and educational works. It is compatible with all versions of the GNU GPL; however, like all CC licenses, it should not be used on software. People are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. But they must conform to the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Please check individual article PDF copies to see if any additional restrictions apply.
