Today's children spend more time than ever before watching television, playing computer games and reading comic and pulp fiction. Many of these are directly designed by the toy and media industry. Are children therefore simply being manipulated?
There is widespread concern that because of these kinds of popular fiction, children do not read quality' literature, resulting in lower standards of literacy. There is also the further fear that because many of these popular media portray highly stereotyped, gendered images, this too will have a damaging effect on children.
Mary Hilton's...

Inspired by the library archive of an 18th century nursery teacher, this is a collection of essays on the nature of childhood, learning, and the role of women educators, in English cultural life from the 1700s onwards.

Opening the Nursery Door is a fascinating collection of essays inspired by the discovery of a tiny archive: the nursery library of Jane Johnson 1707-1759, wife of a Lincolnshire vicar. It has captured the scholarly interest of social anthropologists, historians, literary scholars, educationalists and archivists as it has opened up a range of questions about the nature of childhood within English cultural life over three centuries: the texts written and read to children, the multifarious ways childhood has been considered, shaped and schooled through literacy practices, and the...

This book inspires teachers seeking to make their practice more genuinely educational. Authors Christine Doddington and Mary Hilton capture the current opinion that elementary schools can begin to reclaim some of their autonomy, be innovative, and become more creative. Based on wide ranging research, the book sets out to revive the creative alternative to the rigid and impoverished learning experienced by too many elementary school children. The authors trace the origins and history of the child-centered tradition; set out its fundamental beliefs and values; and explore its place in education...

This book inspires teachers seeking to make their practice more genuinely educational. Authors Christine Doddington and Mary Hilton capture the current opinion that elementary schools can begin to reclaim some of their autonomy, be innovative, and become more creative. Based on wide ranging research, the book sets out to revive the creative alternative to the rigid and impoverished learning experienced by too many elementary school children. The authors trace the origins and history of the child-centered tradition; set out its fundamental beliefs and values; and explore its place in education...

Part of a series, written for students, academics and interested general readers alike. It tackles themes in gender history from the early medieval period to the present day. This book looks at women, education and social progress between 1790 and 1930.