Gary McCulloch is Professor of Education at the University of Sheffield. He has a History PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His recent published works include The Politics of Professionalism, Failing the Ordinary Child? and Educational Reconstruction. He is currently Editor of the international journal History of Education.William Richardson is Professor of Education at the University of Exeter. He has a D.Phil in history from the University of Oxford. In addition to his publications on the historiography of education he is currently preparing a series of entries on sixteenth and seventeenth century British educators for the New Dictionary of National Biography.

• AcknowledgementsGlossary of termsGetting startedWhat the textbooks say and what they don'tHistory or education?The challenge of the social sciencesUsing published sourcesMethodological issuesDesigning and carrying out a research projectReferencesIndex.

"I Shall put this valuable study into the hands of any of my students writing on historical topics in education, since it is an intelligent, scholarly and eminently sensible introduction to the kind of methodological issues it is actually helpful to address - David Phillips