Medicalization of Educational Theory and Research. The Case of Norway, 1900--1940
This paper is part of a larger project at the intersection of intellectual, educational and cultural history, grounded in current public debates about the rise of mental health problems among younger generations in Norway and internationally. Inspired by a history-of-the-present approach that critically examines the present, the project seeks to investigate the historical role of education related to these issues. At the center of the investigation is the medicalization of education, that is, the treatment of non-medical problems as medical problems within education (Petrina 2006).
In the paper, we draw attention to early-stage educational research in Norway, described as the first and second generations of academic educationalists, approximately 1900 to 1940. While educational research was formally established as a separate university department in 1938, pedagogy as a subject had been developing through scholarship in teacher education from the turn of the century. During the same period, biological psychiatry emerged as a scholarly field, contributing to the transformation of traditional moral education toward naturalistic conceptualizations of the child and toward understanding childhood as a psychobiological phenomenon. The first professor of psychiatry in Norway, Ragnar Vogt (1915), also contributed to educational theory and practice by transforming schools into settings for identifying and addressing children’s psychological and developmental problems, by shaping school health services, and by influencing teacher education.
Against this background, we investigate the influence of psychiatric and medical perspectives on the development of educational research and theory in Norway from 1900 to 1940. In particular, we examine the extent to which progressive education and psychobiological conceptualizations of the child became mutually supportive. The analysis draws on academic theses and research by education scholars during this period, namely doctoral theses, journal articles, and textbooks for teacher education.
In the paper, we draw attention to early-stage educational research in Norway, described as the first and second generations of academic educationalists, approximately 1900 to 1940. While educational research was formally established as a separate university department in 1938, pedagogy as a subject had been developing through scholarship in teacher education from the turn of the century. During the same period, biological psychiatry emerged as a scholarly field, contributing to the transformation of traditional moral education toward naturalistic conceptualizations of the child and toward understanding childhood as a psychobiological phenomenon. The first professor of psychiatry in Norway, Ragnar Vogt (1915), also contributed to educational theory and practice by transforming schools into settings for identifying and addressing children’s psychological and developmental problems, by shaping school health services, and by influencing teacher education.
Against this background, we investigate the influence of psychiatric and medical perspectives on the development of educational research and theory in Norway from 1900 to 1940. In particular, we examine the extent to which progressive education and psychobiological conceptualizations of the child became mutually supportive. The analysis draws on academic theses and research by education scholars during this period, namely doctoral theses, journal articles, and textbooks for teacher education.
Publisert i International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISHE), 2026
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