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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