Learning in nowhere: individualism in correspondence education in 1938 and 1950.

Learning in nowhere: individualism in correspondence education in 1938 and 1950. [In correspondence education] there is no class work in theordinary sense. Each pupil's course is his own. The subjects thatcomprise it can be chosen to suit the individual pupil alone. Theemphasis can be laid where it is most needed. The pupil proceeds at hisown pace, independently of other pupils of the same grade. Pupils ofhigher than average ability can and do make faster than averageprogress; those of less than average talent may make slower than averageprogress ... The use of individual assignments develops a sense ofresponsibility, initiative and self reliance. (1) A.G. Butchers, quoted above, was the headmaster of the New ZealandCorrespondence School in Wellington in the mid twentieth century. He wasa most vocal proponent of individualistic learning in correspondenceeducation. His words illustrate several fundamental facets of thepedagogic individualism that was prevalent in correspondence educationat the time. Correspondence education was argued to be tailor-made forthe individual who studied at an individualised pace. The student was tobecome an independent learner who developed 'a sense ofresponsibility, initiative and self reliance' through the use ofindividual assignments. Individualism in correspondence education was, like otherindividualistic understandings of pedagogy and the human, connected tospecific practices of producing knowledge and ordering society. (2)Individualism in education, including the correspondence variant, wasintimately intertwined with educational progressivism, the psychology ofindividual differences, and developmental psychology. (3) This article seeks to investigate the individualistic ideas,practices, and student identities that developed in correspondenceeducation in the mid twentieth century. In doing so a number ofquestions about the individualistic pedagogy and identities incorrespondence education are posed. How was individualism to beachieved? What pedagogic practices were used? Who could students learnfrom? What was the desired identity of the students? How were thestudent's material circumstances understood? In attempting toanswer these questions the article aims to increase understanding of theindividual pedagogy and the construction of the independentlearner' at work in correspondence education during its golden age. Theoretical framework The article draws on the post-Foucauldian materialist tradition ofresearch, which has earlier been applied to a wide range of phenomenaincluding laboratories, hospitals, or disability, as well as psychologyand the child centred curriculum. (4) In doing so, it emphasises theinteraction of knowledge and materiality, thus paying special attentionto the architecture of the school and the seating arrangements of theclassroom to the curriculum materials and techniques ofassessment'. (5) This article approaches individualism in correspondence educationfrom a governmentality perspective by analysing the conduct of conductorgoverning, i.e. the shaping, guiding, correcting, and modifying ofindividuals by themselves and others. (6) In this article I accentuatethe heterogeneous nature of governing by analysing it as both a practiceand a mentality. A principal aspect of the conduct of conduct is theconstruction of identities and its role in governing humans.Consequently, a keystone of the article is the analysis of theindividualistic subject position of 'the independent learner'.(7) Furthermore, the governmentality perspective prescribes a concernfor the technologies that are employed to modify behaviour and thought.Moreover, as correspondence education is geographically dispersed, thearticle emphasises the technologies that make it possible to govern at adistance. (8) Technology in this sense is treated as a social apparatusconsisting of a heterogeneous array of things that shape practice andknowledge. (9) These technologies can be of two major types:technologies of discipline and technologies of the self. The formerdenotes the technologies that are employed to shape others'actions--the original examples being examination, surveillance, andnormalisation. (10) The latter refers to moral technologies that areemployed to problematise and shape one's own conduct--for example aself-produced workout or diet regime could be seen as a technology ofself. (11) Thus the two types of technologies work in different ways,one shaping the conduct of others, and the other shaping the conduct ofoneself. In line with the above outlined perspective on correspondenceeducation, the article investigates individualism as a result of aspecific formation of educational practices and knowledge as well as tothe construction of a subject position of independent learner'. Forexample, it analyses the design of courses in flexible modules; thepresupposition that it was an individual student that would work withthe correspondence material; the motivational tactics that wereemployed; as well as the calculating apparatuses of grading anddifferentiating. Material and methodology The proceedings from the first and third international conferenceson correspondence education provide the source material for theanalysis. These conferences, held in 1938 in Victoria, Canada, and in1950 in Christchurch, New Zealand, were part of the InternationalConference for Correspondence Education (ICCE) series that continue tilltoday. J.W. Gibson, director of high school correspondence instructionfor British Columbia, Canada, proposed the conferences during a USAnational meeting on Supervised Correspondence Study held at ColumbiaUniversity in New York. The aim was to deepen international exchange andcollaboration between distance educators. (12) The participants weremostly professionals involved in correspondence education or educationaladministrators with correspondence schools in their geographical areas.Five of the first six ICCE conferences were dominated by Canadian andUSA delegates, who accounted for more than 90 percent of theparticipants, except in the third conference, held in Christchurch, NewZealand, where 87 percent of the delegates came from New Zealand orneighbouring Australia. I have analysed the proceedings from the first and the thirdconference, as the proceedings from the second conference wereunavailable to me at the time of analysis. The two studied conferencesprovide a fascinating window into correspondence education in itsheyday, and give a clear picture of the ideas and practices that wereshaping distance education at the time. The analysed proceedingscomprise about 500 pages of transcribed addresses and discussions onvarying topics relating to correspondence education. It is important tonote that the proceedings consist not only of prepared addresses by thedelegates but also transcribed discussion sessions on how to organiseand carry out correspondence education. The discussion sessions takentogether with the formal presentations provide a rich source foranalysing how educators understood and wanted to organise theireducational practice. Successive sessions of coding, categorising, and analysing theconference proceedings were carried out in order to discern patterns inthe practice and in the manner of speaking. (13) In the first passthrough the proceedings, the open coding phase, I identified themes orterminology that could be grouped into more generalised categories. Theopen coding generated a number of analytical concepts, such as guidance,differentiation, motivation, etc. that were grouped into categories suchas education in a changing society, student handling, etc. (14) Thepreliminary concepts and categories from the open coding phase were thenanalysed in a secondary or axial coding phase looking for patterns inthe practices and organisation of distance education. Bringing thecharacteristics of the correspondence education process to the fore ledto a focus on different types of educational actions (like motivating,measuring, sorting, supervising, etc.). An important pattern thatemerged during the coding was the individualistic ways of thinking aboutand organising correspondence education. Correspondence education in context: individualism, expertise, andthe progressive movement Correspondence education in the early twentieth century came intobeing in societies in which the development of national educationalsystems was seen as necessary for dealing with a changing society andfor the refinement of nation's population. (15) Education was seenas indispensable for dealing with a number of issues: migration fromcountry to city, increasing need for labour with basic technicaleducation, mass unemployment in the wake of the great depression as wellas a route for meritocratic social climbing. (16) One can argue thateducation was an important part of the modern state that saw thepreservation of national interest, or raison d'etat, as its primarygoal. (17) Due to both a lack of teachers as well as a sparse population thedevelopment of national educational systems in countries like Australia,Canada, New Zeeland, Norway, Sweden, or the USA was problematic. Inthese countries correspondence education was developed as an attempt toremedy these difficulties. The first large organised correspondenceschools were founded at the very end of the nineteenth century and inthe first decades of the twentieth century. (18) A momentous influence on education at this time was the progressivemovement, which aimed to reform society in a democratic direction and tocome to grips with industrialism, urbanism and statism. (19) In thismovement it was argued that education should be organised on thechild's own experiences rather than on subject matters ordisciplinary blocks. (20) John Dewey, perhaps the most influentialfigure in the progressive movement, strove to organise education so thateach individual child's talents and aptitudes were used for thebetterment of society and the public good. (21) In the progressivevision meritocracy played a significant part, underscoring that theindividual's talents and aptitudes rather than social standingwould lead to success. (22) An important facet of the progressivemovement was its reliance on expertise, numbers and statistics. Thesebureaucratic tools of knowledge were often used to direct and definesocial reforms as well as to master social change. (23) Two aspects of expertise were pivotal in individualistic pedagogy:developmental psychology and the psychology of individual differences.The first, developmental psychology, divided children into differentstages depending on their physical and mental development, and broughtabout a standardisation and normalisation of children's behaviourand growth. (24) The second, the psychology of individual differences,entailed a combination of normal distribution statistics anddevelopmental psychology to produce the Binet test, which was the firstIQ-test. (25) Progressive individualism, developmental psychology, and thepsychology of individual differences had, as I will show empiricallybelow, a decisive impact on the organisation of correspondence educationaccording to individualist and child-centred principles. This contextprovided correspondence education with a milieu of thought thatinfluenced the development of a specific individualistic pedagogy. Thismilieu made the individuals' learning, development andclassification the cornerstone of educational thought and practice. The independent learner: the ideal correspondence student At the ICCE conferences delegates often argued that correspondenceeducation shaped the pupil into a successful citizen through its abilityto develop of independence and autonomous thinking. Initiative,concentration, independent judgement, self-dependency, andresponsibility were traits that defined a successful correspondencestudent. These traits were thought to be the hallmarks of a successfulcitizen and an important part of the legacy of a pupil'scorrespondence education are the defining characteristics of a subjectposition that I call the independent learner. An example of how the independent learner was articulated came fromG. M. Weir, the Minister of Education in British Columbia. He arguedthat, in comparison to regular schools, correspondence educationdeveloped initiative, independent habit of study and mental resourcefulness that carry the pupil forward'. (26) A similar sentiment wasexpressed by the Headmaster of Melbourne Correspondence School inAustralia, E.D. Pridgeon, who maintained, by quoting the Editor of'The Hospital Magazine. the character shaping virtues ofcorrespondence education. He argued that it could turn seeminglyhopeless little lives into self-dependent, self-respectingcitizens'. (27) Also H. R. Thomson, the Head of LanguagesDepartment of Correspondence School in New Zealand, contended thatcorrespondence courses developed qualities of initiative, ofconcentration, and of independent judgement far in advance of those forwhom the way is made easier'. (28) In correspondence education the independent learner was contrastedwith the pupil that could not think for himself. It was maintained thatindividual instruction, individual pace, personal corrections, andindividual assignments were to develop 'a sense of responsibility,initiative and self- reliance'. (29) This contrast was madeespecially visible by L.W. McCaskill, Associate Professor of RuralEducation at Canterbury Agricultural College in New Zealand who quoted aprominent educator in Australia, J. McIlraith: Your very isolation is, in many respects, both a protection and an aid; it saves you from mingling too often with the crowd and developing that herd instinct which tends to make you an unimaginative slave to the ideas of others. (30) Being an independent learner emphasised the student's abilityto think autonomously, and it was argued that in the large classes inordinary school too few pupils thought independently and that the restwere willing to adopt the ideas and solutions of the few. Thecorrespondence child must intellectually stand on his own feet'.(31) In his speech at the first conference Butchers contrasted thecorrespondence student and the regular student with each other: [There is] not enough quiet in the ordinary school, not enough time for reflection and thought. Things are always moving. The correspondence school pupil can put down his pen at times and indulge in day-dreams, or get up and have a scamper outside with his dog, and resume his studies the better for the interlude. He is a human individual, not merely a unit of a flock, moving or stopping just as the drovers and dogs direct. (32) The independent learner was the desired student and represented theidealised subject position of the correspondence student. The creationof the student of initiative, concentration, independent judgement,self-dependency, and responsibility was connected to a specificunderstanding of learning and of human beings. The emphasis onindependence and initiative connected the ideal image of learning, whichwas best undertaken alone, to the ideal human being--independent, free,and individualistic. This individual pedagogy was closely connected to the traditionalliberal philosophy of the seventeenth century, (33) and I argue that theindependent learner was articulated in line with the idea of atraditional liberal subject in which two basic premises coexisted Whatmakes a man human is freedom from dependence on the wills ofothers' and 'The individual is essentially the proprietor ofhis own person and capacities, for which he owes nothing tosociety'. (34) In the case of education the student was seen aslearning freely without becoming a slave to the ideas ofothers'--thus connecting a specific understanding of humanness tothat of the subject position of the independent learner. The subject position of independent learner was a crucial elementof correspondence education. This subject position was closely tied toan idealisation of individual work and independence. The vision of theideal human being and student was pivotal for the individualism ofcorrespondence education and underpinned many of the pedagogicalpractices that were developed. Of course this subject position needed tobe internalised by students in order to become effective. Learning to be an independent learner: technologies ofself-discipline and self-assessment A key aspect of producing independent learners was the developmentof self-discipline and self-assessment skills. In correspondenceeducation, students were encouraged to develop a motivation todiscipline themselves a sense of their own performance throughself-checking exercises. It was argued that students' characterwould be shaped using 'the fostering of pride in achievement, andthe development of concentration and self-denial'. (35) It wasstated that: The children strive to excel, not for the sake of reward or for the satisfaction of beating their classmates, but for the sake of the work itself, and for the satisfaction derived from self-activity. Pride of personal achievement is the main incentive [for the student]. Self-discipline, rather than discipline from without, is an important aspect of character-training. (36) Another example of the perceived advantages of self-discipline wasexpressed thus by M.S. Pitt, Senior Primary Assistant at the New ZealandEducation Department's Correspondence School: An attempt is made to create learning situations whereby the pupil identifies himself fully with the task in hand. This involves the best of all disciplines, a self-imposed discipline, as well as the cultivation of initiative and self-reliance. The sturdy independence of the Correspondence School pupil in general is well known ... assignments ... are written to create and maintain the interest of the child, to develop a self-imposed discipline and to cultivate initiative and self-reliance. (37) The correspondence student was to be fostered through the use ofindividual assignments that developed self-discipline and it was arguedthat self-discipline was the best discipline. It was by placingresponsibility completely on the student that they would becomeself-motivated and self-directed learners. (38) Another example fromA.G. Butchers, the Headmaster of New Zealand Correspondence School inWellington, showed how self-discipline was articulated: [O]ur attitude has been one of establishing the direct relationships between the correspondence teachers and the correspondence pupils, with the object of throwing the onus on the pupils entirely ... We desire to have the student motivate his own work. We desire to do away with the direct supervision; we wish children to work alone. (39) Motivation, supervision, and learning were described as individualactivities. It was argued that individual work created its ownsocialising grid of self-evaluation and self-discipline. Self-evaluationwas to be accomplished by creating self-checking exercises and byencouraging the students to set their own standards and evaluatethemselves. (40) It was stated that 'The students are sometimesmore critical about their own work than the teachers are'. (41)Another delegate expressed an idea that 'the initiative of thepupils is reflected in the manner in which they give helpful suggestionsregarding the way their work could be improved'. (42) In a summaryof one of the discussion sessions it was stated that Tests in such cases[of self evaluation] are of greater benefit to the student since helearns to gauge his own mastery. (43) The self-discipline and self-assessment practices in correspondenceeducation built on a long tradition of technologies of the self ineducation, which were designed to develop self-reflective andself-assessing capacities in the students. (44) But the development ofthe self-assessing capacities in the student also depended ondisciplinary technologies like tests, examinations and reminders thatwere brought to bear on the student in order to help them problematisethemselves and their morals and behaviour. This problematisation was toaid in the development of their self-reflective capacities and maketheir conduct available to intervention and governing both by the schooland by themselves. Through correspondence education practice the studentwas to learn to problematise his/her own behaviour and become anindependent learner. Thus, through a combination of technologies of selfand technologies of discipline the correspondence school governed thestudents at a distance, shaping both their behaviour and morals throughinterpellating them to a subject position. In order to organise a pedagogy that was in harmony with theindependent learner and the practices of self-reflection andself-assessment a number of particular practices developed incorrespondence education. These practices were closely connected to thesubject position of the independent learner and the individualistic andscientific progressivism that were dominant at the time. These practicesaimed to free the students from the herd, to tailor the courses to thestudent, and to provide individual tutoring for each and every student. Freeing students from the 'lock step' of the class In correspondence education the individualistic understanding ofthe student was inspired by the progressive trust in expertise andnumbers. In line with educational progressivism in general, and thepsychology of individual differences in particular, correspondenceeducation stressed that it was crucial o identify the student'scharacteristics like IQ, talent, interest, motivation or needs in orderto organise an individualised learning situation. M.H. Kellerman, theHeadmaster of Blackfriars School in New South Wales, Australia, arguedthat by 'the very nature of our work, teaching of this type must beindividual ... [and] must allow for as many variations as there arepupils on the roll'. (45) He also attested that supervision andcorrection must be adjusted to the needs of the pupil' and his/hersintellectual, emotional, social, and moral differences' as well ashis/her IQ. (46) It was argued that every lesson should be adapted tomeet precisely the interests, talents, and needs of the individualpupil. (47) The individualistic understanding of learning entailed an extremeversion of student differentiation, attained by disposing of the classsystem. This differentiation was sometimes understood as freeingstudents from the lock step' of the class and was based on acompletely individualised work-pace. Nancy J. Fitch the Headmistress ofAdelaide Correspondence School, Australia expressed it thus in the thirdICCE conference: Full advantage should be taken of the possibilities which correspondence instruction affords in the way of flexibility of grading and promotion. In a carefully worked out system of individual instruction, it is possible to make a child's rate of progress in any subject independent of any considerations except his ability in that subject and his industry. (48) The advantages of an individualised progress rate were argued to beseveral. Through freeing the student from the lock step of the class thetalented student would be freed from the tyranny of the underachievers,and the subnormal student would be allowed to progress at his/herindividual pace without developing an inferiority complex. Individualising through the differentiation of course materials Another scheme for making correspondence education individual wasto divide the courses into different ability levels. K.O. Broady theDirector of the Extension Division of the University of Nebraska, USA,maintained that correspondence courses seem much better adapted to thepupil of high or at least average ability than to the individual at thelower end of the scale' and that this could be remedied byintroducing different levels of instruction by introducing optionalunits and adapted syllabi. (49) It was argued that courses should beorganised on a minimum assignment basis so that different teachingtechniques could be used at different levels; or that there should bedifferent courses for different student ability levels. (50) It was alsoproposed that mastery work percentage or mastery tests could be used orthat the course could be adapted to different levels through theaddition of special leaflets, omission of certain sections, or theintroduction of 'at least three educational streams in which pupilswill be able to develop according to their needs and ability'. (51) The adaption of the course to individual talents, needs and desireswas to be achieved through several different means: some argued forproviding specific sets of work' or 'revision sets', (52)some argued for mimeographed special material or revision of courses(53) while others maintained that short flexible units of teaching, suchas those already in use in private correspondence schools, were mostadapted to individualisation. (54) It was asserted that a well-preparedsyllabus could provide the course with adaptability to the student. (55)'[F]lexibility for the individual', was to be achieved byphrasing questions and building projects so that there might be aselection that would tend to fit almost any student'. (56) An individualised organisation of education was to make up for thedeficit of classroom discussions, face-to-face socialisation, lack ofschoolroom, as well as school materials like laboratory material andvisual aids. The advantages of individualisation were argued to be sogreat that they would compensate amply for the considerable lack ofsocialisation in correspondence education. (57) The adaption of courses to the individual student articulated twoimportant aspects of individualism. First, the student was understood interms of his/her individual qualities such as IQ, talent, interest,motivation or needs--an understanding closely connected to progressiveexpertise in developmental psychology and individual differences.Second, the adaption of courses articulated that the student would bebest served by learning individually by studying tailored coursecontent. Thus, the subject position of the independent learner was builton an understanding of student's characteristics according to thethen prevailing dominant knowledge and expertise, and individualistlearning practices were organised in accordance with this. Learning through the unobstructed teacher-pupil relationship Although the ideal student was to learn independently it wasunderstood that the student needed guidance and help. This was to beachieved through an individual and unobstructed teacher-pupilrelationship. As expressed in the proceedings of the analysedconferences correspondence learning was understood to be an individualpursuit in which the pupil was guided by means of dialogue with theteacher. It was said that the: [R]elationships arising from close contact of pupil with teacher and pupil will alter greatly the necessity for handling' a pupil in correspondence teaching. The teacher-pupil relationship is the point of contact vital to the successful conduct of correspondence instructions. (58) Another example of the importance the teacher pupil relationshipcame from K.O. Broady, and also shows how the interaction betweenstudent and teacher was a focal point of correspondence education: [C]orrespondence courses may be as effective as courses studied in residence, since learning depends more on the student and on the teacher, absent or present, than on the classroom or lack of one. (59) The teacher pupil relationship was the seemingly natural route toeducating students in correspondence education. This unobstructedrelationship was deemed so important that it was seen as a compensationfor material factors like the lack of a classroom. The route of communication between teacher and student was deemedso vital that it was emphasised that it had to be kept unobstructed,undistorted, and free of interference. It was argued that parents had tobe restrained from doing most of the thinking; that it was of utmostimportance to keep the teacher-pupil relationship clear, and to realisethat the correspondence teacher was the real teachers. (60) It was alsostated that the supervision of correspondence pupils by supervisors orparents should not '... obstruct in any way the pupil-teacherrelationship'. (61) There were also delegates who maintained thatthe teacher-pupil relationship had to be safeguarded against outsidedisturbing influences from parents or tutors, and that it would buildfriendship and trust. (62) For example: All visitors to the school are surprised by the evidence to be seen in every teacher's record book of the extent and depth of the personal relationships that are developed between individual teachers and pupils. With the coming and going of every set of work letters pass to and fro. Snapshots are exchanged and real friendships are established which naturally have an excellent bearing on the work of both teacher and pupil. (63) The communication and relationship between teacher and student wereseen as paramount to teaching and motivating the correspondenceeducation students. It was seen as the vital point of contact andstressed the importance of the friendship between teacher and pupil. Theimport of the relationship between the student and the teacher wasdeemed so considerable that material factors like the classroom orcollaboration with other pupils were deemed unimportant in comparison. Parallel to the acknowledgement of the importance of guidance andfriendship, the teacher pupil communication excluded and idealised therelationship between teacher and student to such a degree that help fromparents was seen to be detrimental to the learning process. Thus, theidea of the teacher pupil relationship emphasised the contradictorypattern of guided as well as individual learning, where the connectionbetween the teacher and student was seen as more important than materialcircumstances, and excluded other influences than the ones sanctioned bythe correspondence school. The teacher-pupil communication pattern was problematic for theindependent learner. Although the student, it was argued, was to rely onhis/her own capacities and judgement the student was seen as cruciallydependent on the teacher and correspondence school for help andguidance. Thus the individualistic understanding of the student asindependent and autonomous was the desirable way of acting, but at thesame time the actions of guiding and teaching show how the organisationof correspondence education stands in stark contrast to the subjectposition of the independent learner. The rupture between the independentlearner and the organisation of correspondence education shows thecontradictions inherent in the liberal ideal of independent learning,and that independence crucially depended on a grid of governingtechnologies that created independence. Learning in nowhere: the social, cultural, and materialdisembodiment of the student Correspondence education individualism exhibited quite specificpractices that aimed to individualise education and produced a certaineducational apparatus, outside of which it was extremely difficult tothink and act. Progressivism, developmental psychology, the psychologyof individual differences formed a library of knowledge and expertisethat helped define individualism in correspondence education. The'independent learner' was shaped through a number ofeducational practices that emphasised individualism in different ways. The individualistic practices that developed in correspondenceeducation were a combination of technologies of discipline that coercedthe students to work in the desired manner, and technologies of the selfthat encouraged the students to problematise themselves. These two typesof technologies constituted a grid that aimed to govern students at adistance through multiple vantage points: through the development ofmorals of self-motivation and self-assessment, friendship, as well asthe skill to choose between a plethora of individualised courses. Theindependent learner was thus assembled through an apparatus oftechnologies that stressed autonomy, independence, and self-reliance.Thus, through the combination of technologies it was stressed that theindependent learner was independent of the wills of others, independentin time and space, in the choice of courses. I argue that in correspondence education the independent learnerwas treated as a disembodied free agent--a free-floating cogito that wasto learn through the materialised flow of friendship and knowledgebetween the teacher and student. I argue that the independent learnerwas understood as existing outside of the structures of society, in astate of nature, and that this understanding was built on a liberalhumanist subject position similar to that of seventeenth century liberalphilosophy, in which the individual was essentially seen as theproprietor of his own person or capacities, owing nothing to society forthem'. (64) Consequently, the student was constructed as existingin a context-less nowhere in which his/her social, material, economic,or cultural situation was obscured. The individualism that was prevalent in correspondence educationalong with its educational practices were extremely influential for atime and reached far beyond the confines of traditional correspondenceeducation. Correspondence education was used, for example, both inSweden and the USA to enrich the educational offerings of small schoolsin programs called supervised correspondence study. This phenomenon wasargued to offer freedom of choice to the student, while stillmaintaining an individualised rather than social emphasis. (65) It can be contended that correspondence education and theindependent learner developed into a highly liberal educationalapparatus that attempted to realise the progressive dream of achild-centred curriculum for each and every child. But it can also beargued that this liberal ideal failed to account for the actualidiosyncrasies of each pupil's educational situation. In essencethe practical failure to account for individual differences can be saidto be the constant failure of the child-centred curriculum under thepressure of democratic mass education. Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Ulf Mellstrom, Boel Berner,Sven Widmalm, Jenny Lee, Vasilis Galls, Martin Hultman, Pal Aarsand,Lucas Forsberg, and Mason Lee as well as the seminar groups P6 and TVOPPfor comments on successive drafts on this article. FRANCIS LEE Linkoping University, Sweden (1) 'Report of the First International Conference onCorrespondence Education', (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada,August 2224 1938), 60. This statement is repeated in the foreword to thethird conference, which Butchers was the chairman of. See the'Proceedings on the Third International Conference ofCorrespondence Educators', (Christchurch, New Zealand, April 18-271950), xxviii-xxix. (2) Mark Olssen, 'Science and Individualism in EducationalPsychology: Problems for Practice and Points of Departure [ElectronicVersion]', Educational Psychology 13/ 2 (1993): 155-172. (3) Ibid, Valerie Walkerdine, 'Developmental Psychology andthe Child-centered Pedagogy: The Insertion of Piaget into EarlyEducation', in Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulationand Subjectivity ed. Julian Henriques, et al. (London: Methuen, 1984),153-202, Kevin J. Brehony, 'Montessori, Individual work andIndividuality in the Elementary School Classroom', History ofEducation 29/2 (2000): 115-128. (4) Developmental psychology: Nikolas Rose, 'The Gaze of thePsychologist', in Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the PrivateSelf (London & New York: Routledge, 1989), 132-150. Disability:Ingunn Moser, Road Traffic Accidents: The Ordering of Subjects, Bodiesand Disability (Oslo: Oslo University, 2003), Vasilis Galls, FromShrieks to Technical Reports: Technology, Disability and PoliticalProcesses in Building Athens Metro, Linkoping Studies in Arts andScience (Linkoping: Linkoping University, 2006). Hospital practices:Annemarie Mol, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Scienceand Cultural Theory (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002). Laboratorystudies: John Law, Organizing Modernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994). Childcentred curriculum: Walkerdine, 'Developmental Psychology and theChild-Centered Pedagogy'. (5) Walkerdine, 'Developmental Psychology and theChild-Centered Pedagogy', 155. (6) In analysing correspondence education this article followsGilles Deleuze and Mitchell Dean in scrutinising four discrete butentwined levels of a practice. The first level analyses the discursivelevel, the level of thought or rationality that makes the practiceintelligible; the expertise and knowledge that informs and modifiesit--for instance pedagogy, psychology, or sociology. The second level,the grid of perception, attempts to understand the processes by whichobjects of knowledge are constituted through statistics, testing orexamining. The third level directs the research effort toward theformation of subject positions, such as suitable way of living,acceptable conduct, or ideas of intelligence. The fourth level analysesthe lines of power, the techne of the practice, for instance thedisciplinary modes of organising, or the technologies of the self.Gilles Deleuze,'What is a Dispositif?', in Michel Foucault:Philosopher (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992), 159-168, MitchellDean, Governmentality: Powerand Rule in Modern Society (London: SAGEPublications, 1999). See also Francis Lee, 'Technopedagogies ofMass-Individualization: Correspondence Education in the Mid 20thCentury', History and Technology 24/3 (2008): 239-253. (7) Michel Foucault, 'Governmentality', in The FoucaultEffect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon,and Peter Miller (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991),87-104; Graham Burchell, 'Liberal Government and Techniques of theSelf', in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-Liberalismand Rationalities of Government, ed. Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne andNikolas Rose (London: UCL Press, 1996), 19-36; Ian Hunter,'Assembling the School', in Foucault and Political Reason:Liberalism, Neo-Liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. AndrewBarry, Thomas Osborne, and Nikolas Rose (London: UCL Press, 1996),143-166; Colin Gordon, 'Governmental Rationality: AnIntroduction', in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality,ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller (Chicago: TheUniversity of Chicago Press, 1991), 1-52; Thomas S. Popkewitz and MarieBrennan, 'Restructuring of Social and Political Theory inEducation: Foucault and a Social Epistemology of School Practices',in Foucault's Challenge: Discourse, Knowledge, and PowerinEducation, ed. Thomas S. Popkewitz and Marie Brennan (New York andLondon: Teachers College Press, 1998), 3-38. (8) Peter Miller and Nikolas Rose, 'Governing EconomicLife', Economy and Society 19/1 (1990): 9-10. (9) Cf. Deleuze, 'What is a Dispositif?'. (10) Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of thePrison, second ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1995). (11) Michel Foucault, 'Technologies of the Self [ElectronicVersion]', in Technologies of the Self. A Seminar with MichelFoucault, ed. L. H. Martin and et al (London: Tavistock, 1988), 16-49. (12) Cf. Ellen L Bunker, 'Gaining Perspective for the Futureof Distance Education from Early Leaders', The American Journal ofDistance Education 12/2 (1998): 46-53. (13) In the article coding techniques developed by Strauss andCorbin have been utilised, but the article does not attempt to be afully-fledged grounded theory approach. What has been in the foregroundis the methodology for finding patterns in qualitative data. AnselmStrauss and Juliet Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: GroundedTheory Procedures and Techniques (London: SAGE, 1990). (14) To guard against cherry picking each analytical category wassupported by multiple subcategories with a number of utterances. Theutterances chosen as an illustration in this article are not alwaystypical of the utterances, but are chosen for their illustrativecharacter in bringing out the general pattern of the analytical categoryor concept. (15) For a general discussion of educational developments see forexample Adrian Wooldridge, Measuring the Mind: Education and psychologyin England, c. 1860-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994);Hunter, 'Assembling the School'. (16) 'Pre-Conference Bulletin: International Conference onCorrespondence Education', (Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, August 22-241948). (Henceforth referred to as ICCE 2) (17) Hunter, 'Assembling the School'. (18) 'ICCE 2'. (19) Paula S. Fass, 'The IQ: A Cultural and HistoricalFramework', American Journal of Education 88, no. 4 (1980), 434. (20) Ibid, 436. (21) Ibid, 435. (22) Patricia Broadfoot, Profiles and Records of Achievement: AReview of Issues and Practice, (London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,1986). (23) Fass,'The IQ', 437, Hunter, 'Assembling theSchool', 154-55. (24) Rose, 'The Gaze of the Psychologist', 142,Walkerdine, 'Developmental Psychology and the Child-CenteredPedagogy'. (25) The Binet test was the first administrative tool that wasdesigned to connect academic performance to age and an idealised normalperformance. The statistical visualisation of the Gaussian curve playeda central role in the development of the psychology of individualdifferences and was related to human intelligence, cognitive abilities,and eugenics through Francis Galton's 1869 work Hereditary Genius.Galton's work opened up for the field of measuring humanintelligence: which was materialised in the IQ test that was developedby Alfred Binet in France and brought to popularity in the rest of theworld through various networks of actors. See Leon Kamin, The Scienceand Politics of LQ. (Potomac, Maryland: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates,Publishers, 1974); Rose, 'The Gaze of the Psychologist';Wooldridge, Measuring the Mind; Rikard Eriksson, Psykoteknik: KulturellFabricering av Personlig Identitet (Stockholm: Carlssons, 1999). (26) 'ICCE 3', 51. (27) Ibid, 15 (28) Ibid, 75. (29) Ibid, 23. (30) Ibid, 15 (31) 'ICCE 1', 61-62. (32) Ibid. (33) Cf. James D. Marshall, Michel Foucault: Personal Autonomy andEducation (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); Olssen,'Science and Individualism in Educational Psychology', MarkOlssen, 'Foucault, Educational Research and the Issue ofAutonomy', Educational Philosophy and Theory 37/3 (2005): 155-173. (34) C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of PossessiveIndividualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967),263. (35) 'ICCE 1', 28. (36) Ibid, 29. (37) 'ICCE 3', 18-19. (38) 'ICCE 1', 201. (39) Ibid, 195. (40) Ibid, 170. (41) Ibid, 29. (42) Ibid, 200. (43) Ibid, 13. (44) Cf. Hunter, 'Assembling the School'. (45) 'ICCE 3', 37. (46) Ibid, 39. (47) 'ICCE 1', 191. (48) 'ICCE 3', 12. (49) Ibid, 68. (50) 'ICCE 1', 178. (51) 'ICCE 3', 40. (52) Ibid, 48. (53) 'ICCE 1', 173. (54) Ibid, 173. (55) 'ICCE 3', 68. (56) 'ICCE 1', 176. (57) 'ICCE 3', 75, 'ICCE 1', 58. (58) 'ICCE 1', 199. (59) 'ICCE 3', 62. (60) 'ICCE 1', 95. (61) Ibid, 201. (62) 'ICCE 3', xxix. (63) 'ICCE 1', 69. (64) Marshall, Michel Foucault; Olssen, 'Foucault, EducationalResearch and the Issue of Autonomy'; Macpherson, Political Theoryof Possessive Individualism, 3. (65) 'ICCE 1', 30. Author: Francis Lee is a Ph.D. Student at the Department ofTechnology and Social Change at Linkoping University in Sweden. He iscurrently researching the co-production of technology and pedagogy indistance education from an STS perspective. Email: francis.lee@liu.se