The document examines the past and present functions of educational history. By focussing on the contradictions between the organization of public education and the values upon which it is supposed to rest, critical history can be the most dynamic source of educational change. In the past, history as conceived in history departments differed greatly from the history of education which was primarily written within schools of education. The purpose of educational historians was to provide inspiration to educators-in-training; these historians demonstrated how the public school idea triumphed over its many enemies. Currently, however, the history of education has emerged as a serious, respectable branch of general historical scholarship as historians have grown to understand the role of education in intellectual, social, and cultural history. Present historians argue that the actual results of education have been different from its official goals, and that public education has contributed more to the reproduction than to the alteration of social structure. More specifically, contradictions between the schools and social order include: the contradiction between unequal education and democratic values, the continued production of highly skilled workers in a stagnant job market, and the demand for acceptance of diminished expectations confronted by a crisis of legitimacy. Since the critical version of educational history allows educators to comprehend their own experiences and to understand the reasons for apathy, hostility, and violence, the sources of educational change must be historical and grounded in the analysis of conflict. (Author/KC)