Forms of confession versus forms of governing: An appraisal of a double analytical concept as a precondition for educational nationalism research and beyond

The field of education is generally under-researched in the scholarship of nation-state building and nationalism. As pointed out by Daniel Tröhler (Croatian J Educ 22(Sp.Ed.2):11–27, 2020a; J Curric Stud 52(5):620–635, 2020b), education often appears in the margin as a taken-for-granted example not analyzed in depth. For scholars aiming at progressing the state of the art concerning the history of nation and nationalism and its dialectic relation to the crafting of the education systems, Tröhler’s work on the relation between form of governing and forms of confession as generating factors in ‘the languages of education’ (Languages of education. Protestant legacies, national identities, and global aspirations. Routledge, New York/London, 2011) is a fruitful theoretical precondition and analytical tool not to be overlooked. This is also the case with regard to other social- and cultural-history research programs beyond the history of the nation and the history of education such as for instance the history of institutional secularization and welfare state history.

The double concept of ‘confessional languages’ and ‘forms of governing’ as an analytical tool for exploring the national and globalized ‘languages of education’—and the theoretical framework behind it—makes it possible to understand the historical development of the relation between religion and the educational system, including the shifting educational social epistemologies dominant in a state-, including nation-state-, system, as an ongoing transformation process. This paper will revisit the double concept and analytical distinction tool and discuss its further and future potential for historical research