Pieter Verstraete
Biographic Data
| ID | 1634010 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pieter Verstraete |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pieter |
| FAMILY NAME | Verstraete |
| SIGNATURE | VERSTRAETE P |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1482-3687 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Warm, Clear or Firm?! Power and the Teacher’s Voice Tone in Educational Journals, 1880–1914
Studies in the history of education have shown that embodied practices are closely related to teachers’ authority and that these practices are not inherent to the classrooms. While topics such as the senses and the body are gaining popularity in this field, research on vocal practices remains limited, especially concerning teachers’ vocal techniques. Consequently, this article investigates educational beliefs regarding teachers’ vocality in Belgi…
From idealism to efficiency
This paper examines how the tension between John Dewey’s pedagogical progressivism and Edward Thorndike’s administrative progressivism was reconfigured in early Republican China through the selective adaptation of Herman H. Horne’s The Psychological Principles of Education (1906) by Chinese schoolteacher Shu Xincheng (1893–1960). By analysing his translation of Horne’s book in Chinese, Practical Pedagogy Based on Psychological Principles (1920/19…
Medieval Histories of Disability and Emotions
sponsorship: This special issue features selected contributions from the 'Histories of Disability and Emotions' conference, organized by Ninon Dubourg, Sara Scalenghe and Pieter Verstraete and held from June 13-15, 2023. The conference was sponsored by KU Leuven, the University of Liege, and Loyola University Maryland. (KU Leuven, University of Liege, Loyola University Maryland)
Paedagogica Historica themed issue
status: Published
Introduction to Scholar in Focus
Gezi’s Many Women in Red
In this essay for Performance Research's special theme 'On Protest', I suggest revisiting the importance of the image of the ‘woman in red’ from the 2013 Gezi Park protests in engendering a whole lineage of signifiers of indignation that would later solidify in theatrical form in performances inside and outside Turkey. It is my contention that the remediation of this iconic image through social media, street performance and theatre constitutes a …
The silent child
In the existing historical and sociological studies devoted to shyness scholars have identified the second half of the Twentieth century as an important period in which shy feelings have become a problem for Western societies. On the basis of the work of the American cultural historian Warren Susman, and especially his ideas about the move from a character society towards a personality society, it is argued that the turn of the nineteenth centu…
Between dream and reality
Este artículo pretende contribuir al creciente interés por la historia de la discapacidad, la historia de la educación de personas con discapacidad y la historiografía existente sobre la Gran Guerra. Se centrará en la rehabilitación de los soldados belgas ciegos y físicamente discapacitados. El artículo toma como punto de partida la ceremonia del Soldado Desconocido, que se celebró a principios de los años veinte. Aunque a todo el mundo le result…
Making sense of HIV/Aids
Since the 1990s historians, in general, have increasingly engaged in critical analyses of the emergence and development of what has come to be known as ‘the HIV/AIDS pandemic’. Historians of education have also become interested in the role-played by education in the history of HIV/AIDS. Although the existing educational histories have successfully examined the multiple and far-reaching power structures that helped shape the educational responses…
Let us entertain you
Following recent studies that have mapped history of education research practices, this article aims to map contemporary history of education teaching practices. Drawing on data from interviews with history of education university lecturers and a global digital survey, we explore the rationale behind teaching practices and teaching beliefs in history of education. The starting point for our interest was a shared “sense of unease”: we had the impr…
Educational soundscapes
In order to introduce the special issue on “educational soundscapes” the editors, first of all, explore the intimate link between silence, sound and the production of social meaning. An acoustic history of education, so it is argued, cannot solely focus on silence nor can it solely focus on sound. After having demonstrated the necessity of taking into account sounds and silences at the same time, the term “educational soundscapes” consecutively i…
Silence or the sound of limpid water
In this article the history of silence is looked at from an educational perspective. By closely examining the way three nineteenth-century authors – who all based their educational theories on concrete experiences with persons with disabilities – have related themselves to silence, it will be argued that silence has been educationalised. Silence has been increasingly integrated in the teacher’s official tool box in order to make sure a new kind o…
Lessons in Silence
Drama and Performance Studies
This chapter reflects on work in Drama and Performance Studies published in 2013 and 2014 and is divided into two sections: 1. Performing Anthropology; 2. Performance and Capitalism. Section 1 is by Daniël Ploeger and examines publications that consider performance in anthropology, archaeology and game studies through both theoretical analysis and practice-based enquiry. Section 2 is by Pieter Verstraete and focuses on developments in theatre and…
The Possibility of an Unbiased History of Steiner/Waldorf Education
In many respects, and certainly with regard to his educational ideas, Rudolf Steiner was a child of his time. Trust in the natural goodness of the child that became more and more central, belief in an evolutionist development of both individuals and humanity as a whole, the emphasis on a holistic education realised through a community of teachers, parents and children; all of these were ideas that Steiner shared with other key figures of the prog…
Happiness disabled
To date, the historical entanglement of disability and happiness has not been considered an object worth of historical inquiry. Nor has the intersection of disability and emotions been used as a lens to examine the history of disability. Our paper aims at filling this academic void by analysing a wide range of philosophical, anthropological, pedagogical, popular and poetic texts dealing with the following question: “Who is unhappiest, the blind o…
From Comparison to Indices
Who should be considered the most unhappy, the blind or the deaf? The intensive debate over this issue in the early 19th century is the outset of our study of how during the last two hundred years disability and happiness have become inextricably connected. On the basis of our historical analysis we have identified characteristics that also can be found in current happiness interpretations, namely the persistent role played by activation, profess…
Living in the presence of others
One of the core characteristics of inclusionary discourses and practices is their emphasis on living in the presence of others. Despite this self-evident character, the question of what is understood by living in the presence of others only sporadically has been the object of critical inquiry. By turning ourselves towards Stengers' conceptual figure of the idiot and the work of a rather unknown French educator Fernand Deligny, we - opposed to wha…
Savage solitude
In this article an old question with relation to disability history is dragged up and looked at from a rather new perspective. By referring to Foucault’s notion of problématisation a new insight is presented into the way in which disability at the turn of the eighteenth century became a problem for contemporary politics and how a particular kind of education offered itself as an appropriate means to solve it. In order to enlighten this crucial pa…
Towards a Disabled Past
In this article a humble attempt is made to bridge the gap between the history of education and the philosophy of education with reference to what has been called Disability Studies since the 1980s. After outlining some of the internal tensions within New Disability History concerning 'critique', 'power' and 'history' the suggestion is made to consider the possibilities of the word 'experience' in order to construct a 'new' way of approaching the…
Educational soundscapes
In order to introduce the special issue on “educational soundscapes” the editors, first of all, explore the intimate link between silence, sound and the production of social meaning. An acoustic history of education, so it is argued, cannot solely focus on silence nor can it solely focus on sound. After having demonstrated the necessity of taking into account sounds and silences at the same time, the term “educational soundscapes” consecutively i…
Living in the presence of others
One of the core characteristics of inclusionary discourses and practices is their emphasis on living in the presence of others. Despite this self-evident character, the question of what is understood by living in the presence of others only sporadically has been the object of critical inquiry. By turning ourselves towards Stengers' conceptual figure of the idiot and the work of a rather unknown French educator Fernand Deligny, we - opposed to wha…
Towards a Disabled Past
In this article a humble attempt is made to bridge the gap between the history of education and the philosophy of education with reference to what has been called Disability Studies since the 1980s. After outlining some of the internal tensions within New Disability History concerning 'critique', 'power' and 'history' the suggestion is made to consider the possibilities of the word 'experience' in order to construct a 'new' way of approaching the…
Happiness disabled
To date, the historical entanglement of disability and happiness has not been considered an object worth of historical inquiry. Nor has the intersection of disability and emotions been used as a lens to examine the history of disability. Our paper aims at filling this academic void by analysing a wide range of philosophical, anthropological, pedagogical, popular and poetic texts dealing with the following question: “Who is unhappiest, the blind o…
Savage solitude
In this article an old question with relation to disability history is dragged up and looked at from a rather new perspective. By referring to Foucault’s notion of problématisation a new insight is presented into the way in which disability at the turn of the eighteenth century became a problem for contemporary politics and how a particular kind of education offered itself as an appropriate means to solve it. In order to enlighten this crucial pa…
Towards a Disabled Past
In this article a humble attempt is made to bridge the gap between the history of education and the philosophy of education with reference to what has been called Disability Studies since the 1980s. After outlining some of the internal tensions within New Disability History concerning 'critique', 'power' and 'history' the suggestion is made to consider the possibilities of the word 'experience' in order to construct a 'new' way of approaching the…
Savage solitude
In this article an old question with relation to disability history is dragged up and looked at from a rather new perspective. By referring to Foucault’s notion of problématisation a new insight is presented into the way in which disability at the turn of the eighteenth century became a problem for contemporary politics and how a particular kind of education offered itself as an appropriate means to solve it. In order to enlighten this crucial pa…
Living in the presence of others
One of the core characteristics of inclusionary discourses and practices is their emphasis on living in the presence of others. Despite this self-evident character, the question of what is understood by living in the presence of others only sporadically has been the object of critical inquiry. By turning ourselves towards Stengers' conceptual figure of the idiot and the work of a rather unknown French educator Fernand Deligny, we - opposed to wha…
From Comparison to Indices
Who should be considered the most unhappy, the blind or the deaf? The intensive debate over this issue in the early 19th century is the outset of our study of how during the last two hundred years disability and happiness have become inextricably connected. On the basis of our historical analysis we have identified characteristics that also can be found in current happiness interpretations, namely the persistent role played by activation, profess…
Happiness disabled
To date, the historical entanglement of disability and happiness has not been considered an object worth of historical inquiry. Nor has the intersection of disability and emotions been used as a lens to examine the history of disability. Our paper aims at filling this academic void by analysing a wide range of philosophical, anthropological, pedagogical, popular and poetic texts dealing with the following question: “Who is unhappiest, the blind o…
Drama and Performance Studies
This chapter reflects on work in Drama and Performance Studies published in 2013 and 2014 and is divided into two sections: 1. Performing Anthropology; 2. Performance and Capitalism. Section 1 is by Daniël Ploeger and examines publications that consider performance in anthropology, archaeology and game studies through both theoretical analysis and practice-based enquiry. Section 2 is by Pieter Verstraete and focuses on developments in theatre and…
The Possibility of an Unbiased History of Steiner/Waldorf Education
In many respects, and certainly with regard to his educational ideas, Rudolf Steiner was a child of his time. Trust in the natural goodness of the child that became more and more central, belief in an evolutionist development of both individuals and humanity as a whole, the emphasis on a holistic education realised through a community of teachers, parents and children; all of these were ideas that Steiner shared with other key figures of the prog…
Lessons in Silence
Educational soundscapes
In order to introduce the special issue on “educational soundscapes” the editors, first of all, explore the intimate link between silence, sound and the production of social meaning. An acoustic history of education, so it is argued, cannot solely focus on silence nor can it solely focus on sound. After having demonstrated the necessity of taking into account sounds and silences at the same time, the term “educational soundscapes” consecutively i…
Silence or the sound of limpid water
In this article the history of silence is looked at from an educational perspective. By closely examining the way three nineteenth-century authors – who all based their educational theories on concrete experiences with persons with disabilities – have related themselves to silence, it will be argued that silence has been educationalised. Silence has been increasingly integrated in the teacher’s official tool box in order to make sure a new kind o…
Let us entertain you
Following recent studies that have mapped history of education research practices, this article aims to map contemporary history of education teaching practices. Drawing on data from interviews with history of education university lecturers and a global digital survey, we explore the rationale behind teaching practices and teaching beliefs in history of education. The starting point for our interest was a shared “sense of unease”: we had the impr…
Between dream and reality
Este artículo pretende contribuir al creciente interés por la historia de la discapacidad, la historia de la educación de personas con discapacidad y la historiografía existente sobre la Gran Guerra. Se centrará en la rehabilitación de los soldados belgas ciegos y físicamente discapacitados. El artículo toma como punto de partida la ceremonia del Soldado Desconocido, que se celebró a principios de los años veinte. Aunque a todo el mundo le result…
Making sense of HIV/Aids
Since the 1990s historians, in general, have increasingly engaged in critical analyses of the emergence and development of what has come to be known as ‘the HIV/AIDS pandemic’. Historians of education have also become interested in the role-played by education in the history of HIV/AIDS. Although the existing educational histories have successfully examined the multiple and far-reaching power structures that helped shape the educational responses…
The silent child
In the existing historical and sociological studies devoted to shyness scholars have identified the second half of the Twentieth century as an important period in which shy feelings have become a problem for Western societies. On the basis of the work of the American cultural historian Warren Susman, and especially his ideas about the move from a character society towards a personality society, it is argued that the turn of the nineteenth centu…
Gezi’s Many Women in Red
In this essay for Performance Research's special theme 'On Protest', I suggest revisiting the importance of the image of the ‘woman in red’ from the 2013 Gezi Park protests in engendering a whole lineage of signifiers of indignation that would later solidify in theatrical form in performances inside and outside Turkey. It is my contention that the remediation of this iconic image through social media, street performance and theatre constitutes a …
Introduction to Scholar in Focus
Paedagogica Historica themed issue
status: Published
Medieval Histories of Disability and Emotions
sponsorship: This special issue features selected contributions from the 'Histories of Disability and Emotions' conference, organized by Ninon Dubourg, Sara Scalenghe and Pieter Verstraete and held from June 13-15, 2023. The conference was sponsored by KU Leuven, the University of Liege, and Loyola University Maryland. (KU Leuven, University of Liege, Loyola University Maryland)
Warm, Clear or Firm?! Power and the Teacher’s Voice Tone in Educational Journals, 1880–1914
Studies in the history of education have shown that embodied practices are closely related to teachers’ authority and that these practices are not inherent to the classrooms. While topics such as the senses and the body are gaining popularity in this field, research on vocal practices remains limited, especially concerning teachers’ vocal techniques. Consequently, this article investigates educational beliefs regarding teachers’ vocality in Belgi…
From idealism to efficiency
This paper examines how the tension between John Dewey’s pedagogical progressivism and Edward Thorndike’s administrative progressivism was reconfigured in early Republican China through the selective adaptation of Herman H. Horne’s The Psychological Principles of Education (1906) by Chinese schoolteacher Shu Xincheng (1893–1960). By analysing his translation of Horne’s book in Chinese, Practical Pedagogy Based on Psychological Principles (1920/19…
Sociology (13 works) · Aesthetics (10 works) · Historical Education Studies Worldwide (9 works) · Art (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)