Several aspects of school science education in England and Wales during the present century have received attention from researchers. In contrast, the science education of primary school pupils during the nineteenth century has been largely overlooked, despite the broader literature concerned with progressivism in teaching young children.

This book seeks to remedy the lack of historical attention to the science education of pupils of junior school age. It explores some of the complex factors that have shaped such education since 1900 and examines, in their historical context, fundamental problems relating to the educational function of science.