The British Psychological Society‘s History of Psychology Centre has begun a monograph series, and its first publication is now available: British Educational Psychology: The First Hundred Years. The volume is edited by Christopher Arnold and Julia Hardy. As described on the Centre’s website,

In 1913 the first applied psychologist took up his post with the London County Council. His job was to assess children for special educational programmes and develop tools to identify children who may need alternative kinds of education. With this post, the profession of educational psychology was born. The numbers of educational psychologists have steadily grown over the subsequent hundred years and the practices, roles and functions that they adopt have similarly developed.

This book outlines the development of the profession in the United Kingdom during its first century of existence. It describes a number of different themes that have emerged over time and documents key points in the profession’s development.

The book’s contents follow below,

Monograph No.1
British Educational Psychology: The First Hundred Years
Edited by Christopher Arnold & Julia Hardy

Chapter 1 Origins by Christopher Arnold
Vignette 1: Defining Psychology, British Journal of Psychology,January 1904, Vol 1 No1

Chapter 2 The rise of education by Christopher Arnold
Vignette 2: Part of Cyril Burt’s contract with the London County Council

Chapter 3 An evolving discipline: Exploring the origins of educational psychology, educational selection and special education by Vivian Hill
Vignette 3: Edited extract from the transcript of Burt’s 1964 speech, made on being made a Patron of the Association of Educational Psychologists: ‘The School Psychological Service: Its History and Development’

Chapter 4 ‘Challenging behaviour’ and the challenges educational psychologists by Adrian Faupel & Julia Hardy
Vignette 4: An encounter with Sir Cyril Burt by Alan Labram

Chapter 5 From ascertainment to reconstruction: 1944–1978 by Harriet Martin
Vignette 5: Memories of training in the 1960s by Chris Reeve

Chapter 6 Psychology for all: Everything you need to know about why it all went wrong and how to put it right by Jonathan Solity
Vignette 6: Memories of practice in the 1970s: Was this indeed the optimal time to work as an educational psychologist? by Sue Morris

Chapter 7 The changing nature of assessment by educational psychologists: Yesterday, today and tomorrow by R.J. (Sean) Cameron & Julia Hardy
Vignette 7: My last thirty years as an educational psychology practitioner by R.J. (Sean) Cameron & Julia Hardy

Chapter 8 Giving it (psychology) all away in the 1990s! by Mike Hymans
Vignette 8: Setting up a special educational needs audit in the 1990s by Mike Hymans

Chapter 9 The development of educational psychology in Scotland by Tommy MacKay & James Boyle
Vignette 9: David Kennedy-Fraser, MA, BSc, FBPsS, FEIST by Tommy MacKay

Chapter 10 The move to doctoral training: A study in systems change by Norah Frederickson
Vignette 10: Memories of training in the 2000s by Juliet Whitehead

Chapter 11 Working across diverse contexts with wider populations: The developing role of the educational psychologist by Vivian Hill
Vignette 11: Memories of recent training by Reem Dean

Chapter 12 The future of educational psychology by Andy Allen & Julia Hardy