Abstract/Notes: Purpose In Australia as elsewhere, kindergarten or pre-school teachers’ work has almost escaped historians’ attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lives and work of approximately 60 women who graduated from the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College (KTC) between 1908 and 1917, which is during the leadership of its foundation principal, Lillian de Lissa. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a feminist analysis and uses conventional archival sources. Findings The KTC was a site of higher education that offered middle class women an intellectual as well as practical education, focusing on liberal arts, progressive pedagogies and social reform. More than half of the graduates initially worked as teachers, their destinations reflecting the fragmented field of early childhood education. Whether married or single, many remained connected with progressive education and social reform, exercising their pedagogical and administrative skills in their workplaces, homes and civic activities. In so doing, they were not only leaders of children but also makers of society. Originality/value The paper highlights the links between the kindergarten movement and reforms in girls’ secondary and higher education, and repositions the KTC as site of intellectual education for women. In turn, KTC graduates committed to progressive education and social reform in the interwar years.
Abstract/Notes: The role of important figures and their interconnections has been vital in the existence and development of the New Education Fellowship (NEF). Already from the very beginning the NEF struggled with rivalries partly due to the adoration some of these coryphaei enjoyed by their followers. This affected the so highly-praised solidarity and close cooperation for the benefit of the child. During the 1920s and 1930s a conflict ran on between Montessorians and Decrolyans, culminated at the Locarno Congress (1927) and actually held the potency to undermine the NEF. These two camps propagated Il Metodo (1909) or La Méthode Decroly (1922), and for this purpose made use of Pour l’ère nouvelle, one of the NEF journals. We particularly observed this rivalry within the context of the Low Countries, Belgium and The Netherlands, although the conflict had a wider international character. In The Netherlands, the controversy carried on by the ambiguous Montessorian-Decrolyan Cornelia Philippi-Siewertsz van Reesema, who supported an ‘experimental eclecticism’, ended in a division of the Montessori Society. Even Montessori’s son, Mario, interfered by publishing a «philippic». In the long run, top people as Ensor, Ferrière, Claparède and Bovet – the last two likewise advocates of experimental eclecticism – were compelled to take up a position in order to restrain the conflict, to emphasise again the NEF’s internationality and to guarantee its survival.
Language: Italian
ISSN: 1971-1093, 1971-1131
Article
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Maria Montessori et la France: Genèse d’une histoire [Maria Montessori and France: Genesis of a History]
Abstract/Notes: This article deals with the first twenty years (1911-1934) of the presence of the Montessori Method in France. The reconstruction is based on written evidences and on the main actors’ experiences in the implementation of Maria Montessori’s ideas. This historical outline allows to better recognise the reasons why Montessori’s educative principles were not welcomed in France so warmly as in other European countries. Several initiatives took indeed place, but they remained insubstantial because they were almost always the result of efforts carried by single persons rather than institutions.
Abstract/Notes: Maria Montessori is not generally known as a philosopher. She is best known for the Montessori schools around the world that bear her name and for her (oft-misunderstood) pedagogical ideas about children's liberty. But after completing her medical degree and spending several years in professional medicine and psychiatry, including working with children, Montessori left most of her professional responsibilities to enroll in a PhD program in philosophy at the University of Rome, in order, as she put it, to "undertake the study of... the principles on which [pedagogy] is based" (MM, 33). There she studied under philosophers such as Giacomo Barzellotti (for history of philosophy), Pietro Ragnisco (moral philosophy), and one of the most important Italian philosophers of the early twentieth century, Antonio Labriola, not to mention philosophically inclined psychologists and anthropologists (Foschi 2012, Trabalzini 2003). At the same time, her personal interest in psychology intersected with Italian interest in American pragmatism (particularly William James), whose philosophical-psychological writings she cites throughout her works. Despite this philosophical background, Montessori's philosophical thought has not been taken seriously. At most, some have focused on her philosophy of education, and there has been some discussion of her feminism (Babini 2000; Babini and Lama 2000) and her place in the history of psychology (Babini 2000; Foschi 2012; Kramer 1976; Trabalzini 2003). Through providing an overview of her moral epistemology, the present essay aims to show that Montessori is a moral philosopher worth taking seriously.
Language: English
ISSN: 0740-0675
Article
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New Zealand Theosophists in “New Education” networks, 1880s-1938
Abstract/Notes: Purpose It is well-known that Beatrice Ensor, who founded the New Education Fellowship (NEF) in 1921, was a Theosophist and that from 1915 the Theosophical Fraternity in Education she established laid the foundations for the NEF. However, little research has been performed on the Fraternity itself. The travels of Theosophists, texts, money and ideas between Auckland, India and London from the late nineteenth century offer insights into “New Education” networking in the British Commonwealth more broadly. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on archival documents from the Adyar Library and Research Centre, International Theosophical Society (TS) headquarters, Chennai, India; the archive at the headquarters of the New Zealand Section of the TS, Epsom, Auckland; the NEF files at the archive of the London Institute of Education; papers past digital newspaper archive. Findings New Zealand’s first affiliated NEF group was set up by the principal of the Vasanta Gardens Theosophical School, Epsom, in 1933. She was also involved in the New Zealand Section of the Theosophical Fraternity, which held conferences from 1917 to 1927. New Zealand’s Fraternity and Theosophical Education Trust had close links with their counterparts in England and India. The setting up of New Zealand’s first NEF group was enabled by networks created between Theosophists in New Zealand, India and England from the late nineteenth century. Originality/value The contribution of Theosophists to the new education movement has received little attention internationally. Theosophical educational theory and Theosophists’ contributions to New Zealand Education have not previously been studied. Combining transnational historiography with critical geography, this case study of networks between New Zealand, Adyar (India) and London lays groundwork for a wider “spatial history” of Theosophy and new education.
Abstract/Notes: The Basque School, as well as a type of school, is an educational phenomenon that emerged and underwent most of its development during the twentieth century. Some initial confusion existed between the terms “Basque school,” “bilingual school” and “ikastola,” due to the undefined nature of the Basque model of schooling during this early period. These schools introduced a new model of education and pursued a common aim: to restore the Basque language and culture. Past research on ikastolas during the time of the Republic shows that the choice of term varied in Navarre according to the school's geographical location. Though there had been earlier initiatives, the Basque schools appeared in Navarra with the advent of Spain's Second Republic in 1931 and survived until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. During the Franco regime, Basques attempted to restart the educational project throughout the whole of Spanish Basque Country. Navarra's first ikastola of this new era was set up in 1963, giving rise to an educational movement that continues to maintain a strong impetus in the new millennium and has become a point of reference for both linguists and educationalists.
Montessori Pedagogy, an educational alternative, from Romania: Evolution from the beginning of the 20th century until the Second World War contribution
Abstract/Notes: Montessori Pedagogy, having as a founder M. Montessori, Italian physician and pedagogue, is one of the alternatives that entered Romania at the beginning of the 20th century, due to the opening of the occupants of those times. We present in this paper the evolution in Romania of Montessori pedagogy and educational alternative, from the beginning to the Second World War. We will refer to the interest that the ideas of M. Montessori have made, translations of her works in Romanian, as well as the writings of some Romanian specialists who have popularized and supported her. We will bring readers’ attention and involvement issues by attending conferences and training courses for teachers, by setting up the Montessori schools and the role of renowned personalities in the development of the Montessori alternative and the Montessori Association, an expression of the interest and appreciation.
Language: Italian
ISSN: 1971-1093, 1971-1131
Article
✓ Peer Reviewed
Hélène Lubienska de Lenval (1895-1972): Montessori et l’audace de l’intuition [Hélène Lubienska de Lenval (1895-1972): Montessori and the audacity of intuition]
Abstract/Notes: The article focuses on the first part of the atypical path of Helene Lubienska de Lenval (1895-1972), an educationalist without formal qualifications: from her early collaboration and breake with Maria Montessori, to a personal interpretation and integration of the Montessori method, which she would later pass on to thousands of French teachers through her many different contributions. The A. goes beyond the apparent simplicity of Lubienska’s practice by analyzing the wealth of her contributions – which were inspired, among other things, by the Christian liturgy. The article explores the reasons for the lack of recognition during her life, despite her dense and diversified literary output and her novel pedagogical approach.
Language: French
ISSN: 1971-1093, 1971-1131
Article
✓ Peer Reviewed
Grazia Honegger Fresco, Maria Montessori, una storia attuale [Maria Montessori, a current story]
Abstract/Notes: What may be the continent’s first two Montessori Native language immersion schools opened on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana in January.
