Education images and multi-disciplinary interests. Although the subject matter of education iconics reveals something of its significance through the lens of education history, the field is not a special preserve for education historians. Relevant contributions to understanding may come from many perspectives, e.g., art history, general intellectual or social history, cultural anthropology, as well as from cross-disciplinary studies of the kinds represented in such fields as Classical Traditions, Humanities, Religious Studies, Women's Studies, and American Studies. The rationale for assuming that valuable research on education iconics subjects might be contributed by scholars of different stripes derives from recent observations of elasticity between disciplinary divisions. In a climate where linguistics and anthropology have begun to serve as models for numerous scholars, a heightened sensitivity towards systems of symbols within cultures has produced a revision of iconology as a tool of analysis.
New perspectives reveal the limitations of previous frameworks of data selection and interpretation.
Hence, it can be reasonably expected that the new perspectives will yield new interpretations of the objects of inquiry, and possibly a fuller understanding. Attention might usefully focus on the prospect of a better use of iconic evidence across a wide range of disciplinary modes. There is much to do. The same criticism and similar prospects for development pertain to the history of education. Bringing the essays together between one set of covers may, it is hoped, demonstrate more of the potential of iconic studies of education while enabling a fuller appreciation of meanings historically associated with education in western culture.