Prof Kevin J. Brehony

Job Title: Professor of Early Childhood Studies, ECRC Research Centre Director, Programme Convener (MA Social Research Methods) Qualifications: BA, PhD. TCert Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3881 Email Address: K.Brehony@roehampton.ac.uk

Biography

Kevin J. Brehony is Froebel Professor of Early
Childhood Studies, Director of the Early Childhood
Research Centre and Programme Convenor of the MA
in Social Research Methods.
He is a Trustee of the National Froebel Foundation,
a member of the Froebel Research Committee and a
committee member of the International Froebel
Society.
Previously he was Senior Lecturer in Education at the
University of Reading and prior to that he was Lecturer
in Sociology of Education at Edge Hill College of
Education.
He also taught for the Open University and began his
career in education in the West Midlands. where he
taught in three Primary Schools.

Research

Research Interests: Education Policy, Public Policy, New
Managerialism, School Governance, History of
Education,
Child-centered Education, Froebel, Montessori, Dewey,
Social Theory, Ideologies, discourse, texts
and textuality, historiography, historical
sociology, social theory, qualitative methods.

Enquiries from prospective PhD students who wish to
do research in any of these areas are welcome.

Teaching

MA in Social Research Methods for MPhil/PhD students
Education Policy for EdD
BA/BSc Education
MA/PGDip Early Childhood Studies
MA Education

Inaugural Lecture 16th February 2004

Working at Play or Playing at Work: A Frobelian
Paradox Re-examined"

The full text of the lecture and the accompanying
PowerPoint presentation are available from a link on
the left.

Publications

(2009) Lady Astor’s campaign for nursery schools in Britain 1930-1939: Attempting to valorize cultural capital in a male dominated political field , History of Education Quarterly , 49, 196-210.

(2009) Transforming theories of childhood and early childhood education: child study and the empirical assault on Froebelian rationalism, Paedagogica Historica, 45, 585 – 604.

(2008) The genesis and disappearance of Homer Lane's Little Commonwealth: A Weberian analysis, in Göhlich, M., Hopf, C. & Tröhler, D. (Eds.) Persistenz und Verschwinden. / Persistence and Disappearance: Pädagogische Organisationen im historischen Kontext. / Educational Organizations in their historical Contexts Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften., 237-253.

Cutler, T. and Waine, B (2007) A New Epoch of Individualisation? Problems with the ‘Personalisation’ of Public Sector Services, Public Administration,, 85, 847-855.

(2006) Early Years Education: some Froebelian Contributions , History of Education, 35, 167-172.

(2006) Representations of Socialist educational experiments in the 1920s and 1930s:, in Hofstetter, Rita and Schneuwly (Ed) Passion, fusion, tension. New Education and Educational sciences - Education nouvelle et Sciences de l'éducation (end 19th-middle 20th century - fin 19e-milieu 20e siècle. Bern, Peter Lang, 271-304.

(2006) The Froebel movement in England 1850-1911: texts, readings and readers, in Heiland, Helmut, Gebel, Michael and Neumann, Karl (Eds) Perspektiven der Fröbelforschung, Wurzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 49-64.

Valkanova, Yordanka (2006) The 'Gifts' and 'Contributions'. Friedrich Froebel and Russian education from 1850 to 1920, History of Education, 35, 189-207.

Deem, Rosemary (2005) Challenging the post-Fordist/flexible organisation thesis. The case of reformed educational organisations, British Journal Sociology of Education, 26, 395-414.

Deem, R. (2005) Management as Ideology: the case of ‘new managerialism’ in Higher Education, Oxford Review of Education, 31(2), 213–231.

(2005) Primary schooling under New Labour: The irresolvable contradiction of excellence and enjoyment, Oxford Review of Education, 312(1), 29-46.

(2004) A New Education for a New Era: creating International Fellowship through Conferences 1921-1938, Paedagogica Historica, 40(5&6), 733-755.

(2004) Education as a 'social function': sociology and social theory in the histories of Brian Simon, History of Education, 33(5), 545-558.

(2004) Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August (1782-1852). Encyclopedia of children and childhood: in history and society in P.S. Fass (Ed), New York, Macmillan Reference USA, 2, 374-5.

(2004) Montessori, Maria (1870-1952). Encyclopedia of children and childhood: in history and society in P.S. Fass (Ed), New York, Macmillan Reference USA, 2, 601-2.

(2004) Nursery Schools. Encyclopedia of children and childhood: in history and society in P.S. Fass (Ed), New York, Macmillan Reference USA, 2, 625-7.

(2004) Theories of play. Encyclopedia of children and childhood: in history and society in P.S. Fass (Ed), New York, Macmillan Reference USA, 3, 826-32.

(2003) A socially civilising influence? Play and the urban ‘degenerate’, Paedagogica Historica XXXIX, 1-2, 87-106.

Rosemary Deem (2003) 'Education policy', in Ellison, N. and Pearson, C. (Eds.) Developments in British social policy. London, Palgrave, 177-193.

Rosemary Deem (2003) New Labour and Education, Nick Ellison and Chris Pierson (eds), Developments in British Social Policy 2, London: Palgrave, 177-193.

(2003) The reception and obstacles to the implementation of the kindergarten in England 1850-1900, Bakker, N., van Crombrugge, H. and Rietveld-van Wingerden, M (eds) Naar duits model: De receptie van Duitse pedagogische idealen uit de vroege negentiende eeuw (Jaarboek voor de geschiedenis van opvoeding en onderwijs) Assen, van Gorcum, 21-42.

(2002) Researching the ‘Grammar of Schooling’: an historical view, European Educational Research Journal, 1:1, 178-189.

(2001) Developments in the Sociology of Education since 1950: From structural functionalism to “policy sociology, Developments in Sociology, Eds. R. G. Burgess and A. Murcott, London: Prentice Hall, 165-84.

(2001) From the particular to the general, the continuous to the discontinuous: progressive education revisited, History of Education, 30: 5, 413-432.

(2001) The origins of nursery education : Friedrich Froebel and the English system, London: Routledge.

(2000) Montessori, individual work and individuality in the elementary school classroom, History of Education, 29, 2, pp. 115-128.

(2000) 'Revising Froebel: English revisionist Froebelians and the schooling of the urban poor', in Hilton, M. and Hirsch, P. (Eds.) Practical Visionaries: Women, Education and Social Progress 1790-1930, London, Addison, Wesley, Longman, 183-199.

(2000) 'The kindergarten in England 1851-1918', in Wollons, R. (ed) Kindergartens and Cultures: the global diffusion of an idea. Yale, Yale University Press, 59-86.

(1999) 'Even far distant Japan' is 'showing an interest': the Froebelian movement's turn to Sloyd, History of Education, 27, 3, pp.279-295.

Membership of Professional Bodies

British Sociological Association
History of Education Society
British Educational Research Association
The Society for Educational Studies

Postgraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Early Childhood Studies [MA/PGDip]
Education [MA/PGDip]
Education [MPhil/PhD]
Education (Doctorate) [EdD]
Social Science Research Methods [MA]