Theoretical Problems With Chronology for History of Education

• In Event: Theory and Practice: Expanding Historical Models of Education

Abstract

For many historians, chronology is a foundation for historiographical methodologies, analysis and reporting. In conventional historiography, “problems with chronology” usually refers to a situation in which there are contradictions or ambiguities in archival material about when something happened. With this paper, I address issues that are different from those addressed by most conventional historical methodologies. For me, problems with chronology entail not only issues of contradictory sources, spurious inferences, perspectival bias, or the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc fallacy of interpretation. Some problems of chronology are more ontological and philosophical than methodological or documentary. The paper is organized in two sections. The first part outlines three theoretical problems with chronology. The second part asks, “What do problems of chronology have to do with education?”

Author

• Lynn Fendler, Michigan State University