Missionaries were major providers of education in the colonial world, and in many cases were the initial and exclusive agents of education for Indigenous and non‐European people, whom they hoped could be converted to Christianity through religious schooling. However, by the end of the 19th century many governments in colonial lands were keen to take more active roles in providing secular education for their subjects, which, in turn, engendered tensions between missionary groups, governments, and the Indigenous communities for whom education was provided. Although the article of missions has received increasing attention in the last few decades, especially with the advent of postcolonial studies, there are still many aspects of missionary schooling that are understudied. This research overview examines the debates and research directions which are evident in the article of missionaries and their education of Indigenous and non‐European peoples in the 19th century, and focuses particularly upon major themes emerging from the literature: Two of these themes—Church‐State relations and Indigenous action and reaction will be examined in this article, whilst the themes of race, class, and gender will be examined in the second part.