History rather than a social science: on the importance of intellectual history for the history of education

Against the background of recent debates on methodology in educational historiography, this article raises questions concerning the disciplinary self-understanding of history of education often taken for granted within reflections on methods and sources. More particularly, our aim is to problematise the understanding of history of education as an empirical social science which rose to prominence in the wake of the social turn in historiography during the second half of the twentieth century and which seems to have remained largely unquestioned until today, despite debates on various subsequent turns (e.g. cultural, material, sensory). Topical debates on the place of history of knowledge within history of education are indicative of a desire to take into account more epistemological problems and perspectives in educational historiography as well. However, we argue that the history of knowledge risks perpetuating the understanding of historiography as an empirical social science, thereby sidelining philosophical questions that could challenge this assumed identity, such as debates about the meaning of time and knowledge, historical context, conceptual change, and the practice of reading and writing history. Drawing attention to the already established disciplines of history of ideas and intellectual history as ways of studying the past, we seek to open up a space for raising philosophical questions as a vital part of historical research.