Joan Simon (1915–2005) was an English historian, specializing in education, the wife and close collaborator of the educationist and historian Brian Simon.

Joan Peel was born in 1915, a direct descendant of the 19th-century prime minister, Robert Peel.[1][2] She met her future husband Brian Simon while he was studying at Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] They married in 1941, and had two sons, Alan and Martin.[3] They entered into a close partnership in their work, which continued until Brian's death in January 2002.[2] It was said of Brian that " his partnership with Joan Simon cannot be extracted from Brian’s work as a whole".[4]

In the 1950s, she and her husband Brian investigated, described and publicized the views of A. R. Luria and L. S. Vygotskii, founders of cultural-historical psychology in the then Soviet Union.[5] In the Autumn of 1958 Brian was one of the founders of FORUM, a journal devoted to educational issues. She published articles in FORUM in 1964 and 1965 describing developments in comprehensive education in Bradford, Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester. In 1973 the magazine published a pamphlet written by Joan titled Indictment of Margaret Thatcher, Secretary of State 1970–1973.[6] In 1986 she published a biography of her mother in law, Shena Simon, who had been active in education reform in England in the 1930s and 1940s.[7]

Joan Simon continued to work until a few months before her death in 2005. In 2007 the journal History of Education posthumously published her last article: An 'energetic and controversial' historian of education yesterday and today: A. F. Leach (1851–1915).[8]

Bibliography

  • Joan Simon (1963). Educational psychology in the U.S.S.R. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0160-0.
  • Joan Simon (1970). The social origins of English education. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7100-6946-7.
  • Joan Simon (1979). Education and Society in Tudor England. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29679-3.
  • Joan Simon (1986). Shena Simon: Feminist and Educationist. Privately printed.

References

  1. ↑ Ruth Watts (January 2006). "Obituary: Joan Simon (1915–2005)". History of Education. 35 (1).
  2. 1 2 3 Anne Corbett (22 January 2002). "Brian Simon Communist party educationalist who advocated the comprehensive system and wrote a classic history of British schools". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  3. ↑ "Papers of Brian Simon (1915–2002)". Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  4. ↑ Tom Woodin (March 2008). "Brian Simon and educational change" (PDF). Research Intelligence: News from the British Educational Research Association (102). Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  5. ↑ Brian Simon, Alexander Bain and Aleksandr Luriya (10 June 2009). "Why no pedagogy in England?". Conductive World. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  6. ↑ CLYDE CHITTY (2008). "The Story of FORUM, 1958–2008". FORUM. 50 (3). Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  7. ↑ "Papers of Lady Simon of Wythenshawe". London Metropolitan University. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  8. ↑ Simon, Joan (May 2007). "An 'energetic and controversial' historian of education yesterday and today: A. F. Leach (1851–1915)". History of Education. 36 (3): 367–380. doi:10.1080/00467600600851185. S2CID 216592081.
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