Community and the myth of the ideal school: Circulation and appropriation of the Hamburg Gemeinschaftsschulen in Spain (1922–1933)

The progressive education movement was known in Spain from its very inception, and in fact many of its pedagogical theories and practices reached Spain before reaching other European countries. Yet traditional historiography has always maintained that Spain was never integrated in the progressive education movement, a misconception that helps explain the lack of research in the field. Recent historiographical research, however, has shown that numerous Spanish schools served as laboratories for the implementation of progressive education methods in the 1920s and 1930s. The Spanish educational system proved itself to be especially open to international innovation in general and Spain actually enjoyed a privileged position for the study of how innovative pedagogical ideas could be incorporated and appropriated. Proof of this affirmation can be found in the introduction and dissemination throughout Spain of the experimental public school movement of Hamburg known as Gemeinschaftsschulen.

This article will focus on the way this movement was received in Spain. We will examine the phenomenon from a double perspective, corresponding to the different positions that scholars found themselves in within the educational panorama of the time. On the one hand we will examine the role of the “grass-roots” educators who wished to change schools “from below”, starting with classroom practices. On the other hand we will take a look at the representatives of “high pedagogy”, who were intent on formulating a pedagogical theory on which to base a political–ideological model that would serve to change the school “from above”. Tensions arising among the different pedagogical groups, along with the ambiguity of the translation into Spanish of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, led to the different groups appropriating the concept in different ways. The evolution of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, from its original identification with a localised school experiment in Hamburg to its becoming a symbol for virtually all European school vanguards, will be addressed at the conclusion of the article.     

Silence as borderland: a semiotic approach to the “silent” pupil in nineteenth-century vocal education

Abstract

At the heart of the nineteenth-century educational soundscape lies a paradox. Whilst “modern” classrooms generally strived for orderly silence, the goal of its educational practices was the production of competent “citizens”. Middle-class boys in particular were expected to acquire a voice fit for business, the professions, or even (political) public speech whilst quietly listening to a teacher. This silence within the educational institution has generally been understood as an element of discipline. In this paper I want to examine the paradox of the silent classroom and the speaking citizen. I will focus specifically on those instances where the clear goal of education was vocal sound (i.e. fluent speech, civilised pronunciation, and song) and look at how silence was mobilised by educators. I will argue that the silences employed in these educational practices were not (only) tools of order and discipline, but rather means to create a “borderland” where the leap between childhood and its uncivilised noises, and adulthood and its rational speech, could be made.

I will draw upon the interpretations of silence as “in between” signs as it has been developed by semioticians to analyse a corpus of sources consisting mainly of French, German, and English pedagogical literature focusing on the development of children’s voices. Reframing the place of silence in “institutionalised” education allows us to delve deeper into the specific ways in which “discipline” (re)produced and articulated dichotomies of power.     

European Influences in Spanish Popular Education: The Case of the Socialist Casa Del Pueblo of Madrid and the Belgian Model (1897–1929)

In Spain from the late nineteenth century, the ‘People’s Houses’ (Casas del Pueblo) corresponded to a desire to provide and organize a space of sociability for workers and their families. This formed part of the diverse Spanish popular education movement. This article focuses on the project to translate the model of the Belgian Maison du Peuple into the Spanish context, and the plans and activities of two cultural and educational socialist institutions directly inspired by similar Belgian institutions: the Central de Educación Socialista (Centre of Socialist Education) founded in 1913 on the model of the Centrale d’Éducation Ouvrière (Centre of Labour Education), and the Escuela Obrera Socialista (Socialist Labour School) founded in 1929 and based on the École Ouvrière Supérieure (Upper Labour School). The comparison with the Belgian models allows us to see the distance between hope and reality. In fact, what interested the Spanish Socialists in the Belgian experience was more the general idea, the name and the concrete means to formalize it, rather than the pedagogic methods used, which inscribed both in a national and international perspective.     

对教育史学科困境的再思考

自21世纪初期,学者提出“教育史危机”（或谓“问题”）说之后,直到今日仍然是学界争论的焦点。笔者梳理了目前的主要观点为:其一,认为教育史学科生存现状存在诸多问题,包括认为教育史学科课程被压缩、学术队伍呈现缩减趋势、成果难以发表;其二,对教育史学科属性也存在着争论,如有学者认为教育史应为历史学科的一门分支学科,有学者则认为教育史应为教育学科的一门分支学科;其三,认为本学科研究者缺乏理论指导,亦不善于将理论与实践相结合;其四,对学科体系也存在着不同的认识和争论。其主要原因为:“史学”危机产生的辐射、国家宏观政策的调整、教育学学科属性独立的争论及师生代际文化的差异,并结合学者们的诸多论点提出对策为:争取教育史学科的独立性、突显学科的教育属性、加强课程设置和学生培养、加强教育史学理论的研究以及将历史学、社会学、文化学等多学科研究方法融入本学科研究等。     

“Listen Then,or, Rather,Answer”: Contemporary Challenges to Socratic Education

The popularity of Jacques Rancière in recent work in educational philosophy has rejuvenated discussion of the merits and weaknesses of Socratic education, both in Plato's dialogues and in invocations of Socrates in contemporary educational practice. In this essay Jordan Fullam explores the implications of this trend through comparing Rancière's educational thought to an analysis of the relationship between dialectic and stultification in Plato's Republic. This task clarifies what is useful in the recent wave of scholarship that brings Rancière's work to bear upon Socratic education, and what we might redeem in the practice of teaching that Plato assigns to the character of Socrates in the Republic. Fullam also draws on the educational literature on Socratic education to provide further context to explore the usefulness of both Rancière and Socrates for contemporary teaching.     

Key concepts in postgraduate certificates in higher education teaching and learning in Australasia and the United Kingdom

Post‐colonial theories about liminality, hybridity, unhomeliness, and identity form a novel lens through which to re‐theorise educational development work. Applying these conceptual frameworks allows practitioners and the academics they work with the opportunity to problematise some of educational development’s colonial underpinnings and assumptions. They also enable an exploration of the states of betweenness that form educational developers’ identities and impact implicitly and explicitly upon the nature of their changing practices. This paper seeks to read educational development and research supervisor development in particular “against the grain”. It also seeks to illustrate these concepts through some vignettes of my academic development practice.

Les théories postcoloniales portant sur les notions de “liminality”, “hybridity”, “unhomeliness”, ainsi que sur la notion d’identité constituent un nouvel angle sous lequel nous pouvons réenvisager les travaux dans le domaine du développement pédagogique. L’application de tels cadres conceptuels offre aux praticiens, ainsi qu’aux universitaires auprès de qui ils/elles oeuvrent, l’occasion d’envisager les problèmes associés aux bases et pré‐supposés colonialistes du développement pédagogique. Ces cadres facilitent aussi l’exploration des états reliés à la notion de “between‐ness”, lesquels contribuent à la formation de l’identité des conseillers pédagogiques et ont un impact à la fois implicite et explicite sur la nature des pratiques en mutation. Cet article cherche à effectuer une lecture du développement pédagogique et du développement de la supervision de recherche en adoptant plus particulièrement une approche “against the grain”. L’article cherche aussi à illustrer ces cadres par des vignettes de ma pratique.     

The pedagogical foundations of primary school inspector Leonor Serrano (1914–1939)

This article aims to reconstruct the pedagogy of Leonor Serrano, a Spanish school inspector working and developing her theories between 1914 and 1939. We use an interrogative-analytical methodology based on content analysis of her texts to reconstruct her educational theory. The theoretical deductive elements are uncovered in the analysis of the answers Leonor Serrano gives to the “basic questions of education”, issues that provide the bases for the scientific field of the theory of education to define a specific pedagogy and are identified through a process of historical-educational review. The study outcome is an explanatory narrative. The paper ends with a discussion of the method and the results.     

The development of research supervision: “Turning the light on a private space”

Educational development for research supervisors is still a recent phenomenon. Early optional sessions on research supervision have now been replaced, particularly in the UK, continental Europe, and Australasia, by comprehensive and, in some cases, mandatory programs. Yet some of these programs focus solely on the administrative roles and responsibilities of supervisors, attempting to provide technical “fixes” that deny the genuine difficulties and complexities involved in supervision relationships. Some research supervisors resent the intrusion of educational developers into what many of them have regarded as a private pedagogical space. They interpret such programs as further instances of the quality assurance agendas of governments and university administrators, and are justifiably suspicious of what some describe as the colonial underpinnings of educational development. These reactions create tensions for educational developers. This article explores why educational development can be problematic for research supervisors. It then charts some current supervision educational development programs that seek to go beyond administrative interpretations of supervision. Finally, it examines whether the “Compassionate Rigour” supervision program, developed to address these difficulties, manages to respond respectfully and sensitively to supervisors’ educational development needs.

Le développement pédagogique des superviseurs de recherches demeure un phénomène récent. Les séances optionnelles portant sur la supervision de recherches de jadis ont été remplacées, particulièrement au Royaume‐Uni et en Australasie, par des programmes approfondis et, parfois, obligatoires. Pourtant, certains de ces programmes se concentrent seulement sur les rôles et les responsabilité des superviseurs au plan administratif, cherchant de la sorte à fournir des ‘trucs’ qui ne tiennent pas compte des difficultés et complexités réelles sous‐jacentes aux relations de supervision. Certains superviseurs de recherches n’apprécient guère l’intrusion des conseillers pédagogiques au sein de ce que d’aucuns considèrent être un espace pédagogique privé. Ils interprètent de tels programmes comme des composantes additionnelles des programmes de maintien de la qualité mis en place par les gouvernements et les administrations universitaires. Ces superviseurs redoutent, à juste titre, ce que d’aucuns décrivent comme les bases coloniales du développement pédagogique. De telles réactions instaurent créent des tensions pour les conseillers pédagogiques. Cet article explore pourquoi le développement pédagogique peut apparaître problématique aux yeux des superviseurs de recherches. Ensuite, il décrit certains programmes actuels de développement pédagogique reliés à la supervision qui cherchent à dépasser les interprétations strictement administratives de la supervision. Finalement, il examine le programme de supervision ‘Compassionate Rigour’, développé dans le but de palier à ces difficultés, pour voir si celui‐ci répond à la fois respectueusement et sensiblement aux besoins des superviseurs en matière de développement pédagogique.     

“什么是教育”辨证

基于心智成熟、拓展自我与自我完善三个维度给"什么是教育"进行新的界定和辨别,并围绕教育的基本属性提出判断"什么是教育"的标准,纠正处于教育发展潮流中那些不知不觉地将不是教育的东西纳入到教育之中的行为。鉴于此,在现代教育发展进程中,需要回到原点自觉地彻底地反思"什么是教育",运用新思维方式对"教育究竟是什么"进行再思考,更需要人们去容纳并利用这种对教育新的定义。     

American colonial education policy and Filipino labour migration to the US (1900–1935)

Public mass schooling was the major instrument used by the Americans in the performance of their mission to “civilize” Filipinos. Free primary education was implemented right after the islands’ annexation in 1899 and was a critical component (alongside armed force) of the programme for their “pacification”. For the elite, education formed a route into collaborative involvement in the management of the colonial state. By the second decade of colonization, Filipinos were managing the civil service, participating in elected institutions and installed as mayors and governors. Like that of the Spanish, American colonial governance was profoundly reliant on the collaboration of members of the haciendero class, and thus implicated in the maintenance of long-established social and political hierarchies. But what did the maintenance of that status quo imply for ordinary Filipinos, now increasingly educated and literate in the language of the colonial power? Specifically, to what extent did this combination of socio-economic stasis and educational progress contribute to spurring early labour migration? This article investigates how far labour migration was seen to be, or functioned as, a mechanism for maintaining social and political stability in the American colonial period. It examines how this phenomenon was related to the free and English-based mass education programme undertaken out of an urge to fulfil what Kipling – writing of the American colonial enterprise – termed “the White Man’s Burden”.     

Envisioning the industrial present: pathways of cultural learning in Luxembourg (1880s–1920s)

Abstract

This article examines how and to what extent Luxembourg society was “exposed” to visual representations of the prospering steel industries and labour and working-class culture(s) from the 1880s until the 1920s – a period of massive industrialisation – and how it thus gradually “learned to labour”. Indeed, modern visual media were seen as ideal catalysts for the circulation, transmission, and production of meaning, since they were considered to be appealing, objective, direct, and capable of inspiring the imagination. The article takes the reader through various mundane moments and events of industrial enculturation (annual funfair, slide lecture, vocational school, etc.) and engages with different “technologies of display” (photographs, fair albums, postcards, scale models, etc.) that subtly calibrated, conveyed, and inculcated the new industrial reality “through the eye” and, in the process, (re)produced national identifications. By zooming in on these different “visual encounters” with industry and by bringing these isolated encounters together in one story, the article (re)constructs a “learning route” – one among many possible pathways through this huge dynamic field of learning resources (or, “cultural ecology”) – and thus suggests how (informal) “cultural learning” might have taken place at the time. While accompanying us on this journey, the reader gains insights into how this field of resources evolved and how the industrial present was (re)framed, visually performed, and (re)configured over time.     

Hallway Conferencing: Achieving Teacher Buy-In to the Writing Center

Technology education, not to be confused with educational technology, has an “official curriculum.” This article explores this “official curriculum” and answers the following questions; what are the goals of technology education, what should technology education look like in classrooms, and why technology education is important. This article provides a primer on technology education that would be helpful to educational professionals interested in helping students become more technological literate.     

Zwischen Selbsttätigkeit und Erziehungsbedürftigkeit: das Kind in der “Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung”

In the history of education it is rather common to distinguish two opposing ideas of childhood: the romantic image of the innocent child on the one hand and the image of the evil child that has to be rescued on the other. According to historiography at the beginning of the twentieth century this dichotomy has gained a particular shape in German pedagogy: the exponents of Progressive Education recover the child and founded their pedagogy on trust in its good nature. Their agenda tries to overcome the prevailing Herbartian pedagogy. Those “conservative” educators stress the importance of the technological aspects of education. They are said to have no explicit understanding of the child as they would regard it only as the negative counterpart to an education that aims to overcome its nature. This article claims to prove that such a simple dichotomy is not sufficient to describe the complex image of the child in the German pedagogical debates at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century. For this purpose the article concentrates on the first volumes of the “Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung” (Journal of Child Studies) that was founded in 1896. The ideology of the main editors of the journal is attributed to Herbartianism. In the “Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung” those Herbartians aim to bring together pedagogy with child studies as well as with medicine and psychiatry. Moral education is an important topic within the journal’s discussion but the child is usually not morally judged itself and therefore regarded neither as evil nor as good. Instead the knowledge of natural research and child studies is adapted to learn about the nature of the child and its development. According to the journal’s authors the results of child studies form a crucial background for professional education in general. Later on, those children that do not develop as scientifically expected can be declared the object of special pedagogical care. Should the deviating development be classified as pathological, this “treatment” will be inspired by medicine and psychiatry. Thus the religious or ethical categories of “good” and “evil” are partly replaced by scientific ones such as “normal” or “pathological”. Nevertheless pedagogical theorising remains highly moral in its goals – and setting these goals is regarded as the duty of adults. Although the child is understood as an active being, the educational authority has to be borne by the grown‐up generation. Altogether the educational programme of the “Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung” conforms to the attitude of the Wilhelminian era. In contrast to most of the “progressive” movements, the ideas are not utopian – they aim neither for a republican society nor for the improvement of the German race as the basis for a new nation. The editors explicitly neglect the notion of a child as a political subject with its own rights. Later they remain highly sceptical about the character of human nature itself and do not believe that a new society can be built only upon the faith in it. Nevertheless some of the key authors are regarded as representatives of Progressive Education today – for example Karl Wilker, who acted as an editor of the journal and was also engaged in the New Education Fellowship later on. Also the journal authors’ claims for a renewal of education resemble those of the “progressive” movements: They also call for a turn to the child as the basis of pedagogy. These findings lead to the result that a history of childhood and education may not start out from a distinction between a child‐centred progressive education on the one hand and a conservative education on the other. Phrases like “the child” or “child‐centred” are to be found in very different pedagogies and hence are not sufficient to characterise a particular educational programme. In fact a great number of very different pedagogues recovered “the child” at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century and founded their model on this idea. In consequence “the child” turns out to be more like a metaphor. This insight does not mean that “the child” was an empty and useless phrase for historiography. On the contrary: as a medium of education it may help to gain a deeper understanding of the contrasts and similarities between different pedagogical approaches – regardless of whether they turn out to be more “progressive” or “conservative”. Therefore it is necessary to analyse in which contexts within the pedagogical discourse “the child” arises and which special functions it is meant to contain.     

The Free Schools “Riddle”: Between traditional social democratic,neo‐liberal and multicultural tenets

The question of what role free schools should perform in the Swedish educational system has been a contested subject between three ideological, theoretical, political and policy tenets. The first, “contribution to pedagogical diversity in a controlled school market” reflects a traditional social democratic view. The second, “contribution to a better education on a competitive school market” reflects a neo‐liberal approach. The third tenet, “contribution to the maintenance of groups' and individuals' cultural and religious identity” reflects a multicultural view insisting on the thesis that a family's cultural and religious identity should be a steering motive for the school choice. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at what the three tenets that constitute the “riddle” contain—including their claims, responses to critics, arguments and empirical evidence—and to discuss some of their practical impacts on the shaping of educational policy.     

Emancipating subjects in science education: taking a lesson from Patti Lather and Jacques Rancière

This paper extends the conversation started by Patti Lather in her forum response to “Neoliberal ideology, global capitalism, and science education: engaging the question of subjectivity”, in terms of engaging the thought of Jacques Rancière. Rancière can offer (science) educators a more definitive example of (possible) emancipatory political subjectivities. His notion of radical equality can also aid in developing new pedagogical spaces in science education. This latter point is taken up in the concluding sections of this short essay.     

A SYSTEMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF PUBLICATIONS RELATIVE TO THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

“The accent in cultural history is on close examin‐ ation — of texts, of pictures, and of actions — and an open‐mindedness to what those examinations will reveal, rather than on elaboration of new master narratives.”

Lynn Hunt (Ed.), The New Cultural History (Berkeley, Calif., 1989), p. 22.

“[Films] are a legitimate way ... of representing, interpreting, thinking about and making meaning from the traces of the past ... that seriously deals with the relationship of past and present.”

Robert A. Rosenstone (Ed.), Revisioning History (Princeton, N.J., 1995), p. 3.

One of postmodernism's major lines of development collapses the boundaries and hierarchical distinctions between elite or academic culture and popular culture, giving us new opportunities to cross boundaries separating history from literature and the arts, the “academic” from the “popular”, the archival from the imaginative. I embrace the freedom that postmodernism offers to entertain new ideas, play different kinds of language games, challenge established “ways of seeing”.

I propose here that we extend the range of what we regard as historical “source” to include film, and that film be accepted by historians of education as a legitimate form of textual representation and important evidentiary “source” for our exploration and interpre‐ tation of culture and of education. What follows is an attempt at integrating film into the historiography of education. For illustrative purposes, I've chosen Peter Weir's “Dead Poets Society” ("DPS”, 1989) for my text. I don't presume to give “the” meaning of “DPS” for understanding recent American educational history, but to suggest some of its possible meanings, which, given the problematic nature of “meaning” in our postmodern epoch, is about all we can hope for, but which may be enough to continue the conversation about movies after the movie is over.     

心态史学及其对教育史学方法论的启示

20世纪80年代以来,教育史学科的方法论问题逐渐被置于议事日程。心态史学法是法国年鉴学派的成果之一,经历了萌芽、降格和方兴未艾三个阶段,开辟了史学研究新领域。心态史学法在具体应用中,聚焦于群体的无意识心态,注重研究的整体性和微观性,从跨学科的研究视角解构问题,并运用一切可用之资料解决问题。教育史作为历史学和教育学的分支学科,在当前全球化视野下,研究心态史学对教育史学大有裨益,有利于拓宽教育史学研究领域的深度和广度,并树立整体的教育史观,强化教育史研究的反思性和问题意识,从而使教育史学在反思的基础上化解“危机”、骎骎日上。     

From the editor

It is argued that much of the ineffectiveness of schools in producing change is due to the educational psychologists’ moral relativity, identified with an “industrial psychologist”; model. Such relativity can result in defining educational aims in terms of “social adjustment,”; an approach that is said to have no empirical basis, or in terms of a “bag of virtues,”; an approach that is said to suffer from lack of agreement on what the virtues should be. A developmental‐philosophic strategy for defining aims of education is proposed as a solution. In this approach, the assumption is made that each later stage of moral development reflects a more adequate equilibration with the environment, and it therefore follows that what is at later stages is what ought to be. The universality of moral stages is documented and the stimulation of moral development in school and prison settings through a cognitive conflict procedure is illustrated.     

论人才培养中的教育起始规律--从“右脑教育”到“左脑教育”

教育的起始问题是“什么是教育”或“什么是正确的教育”。正确的教育绝不会脱离教育所属的人,应站在对人进行教育的起点上,透过认识人脑和教育的关系问题来把握教育的正确性与科学性：根据人脑演化规律,把握一个人在教育起点上那种不可颠倒的教育时机（教育秩序）,选择恰切的教育内容,采用与时机、内容契合的教育方法,才能在人接受教育的开端上使左脑教育为右脑教育留有余地,才能从根源上反思并理顺真正的人才培养之道。     

Towards an assessment of educational theory: An historical perspective

Throughout the last twenty-five years all areas of educational thought have been preoccupied with the continuing conflict between conservative middle-class dominance of the schools and a liberal movement determined to provide a theory of equality and provisions for access. The radical extreme of this movement has gone further and demanded the total reconceptualization and reconstruction of education. This movement has attacked the standard histories of education which have their origins in the late nineteenth century. At that time, it is now argued, education was dominated by anarriviste bourgeoisie embracing a version of late-Hegelian philosophy with a doctrine of Eurocentric progress. Seeking legitimacy, the middle class supported the classical revival which stressed liberal education, expressed aspaideia, and mediated through the limited access to grammar school and university. Traditional educational historiography is now seen as reflecting these assumptions through “grand histories” written around “great educators” and “noble ideals”. As educational thought expanded throughout the twentieth century with the emergence of the contributing disciplines, this tradition was challenged as critical historians had a wider data-base from which to draw. By the 1930s and 1940s in the seminal work of R. H. Tawney and Lloyd Warner a literature of dissent began to appear, which, by the late 1960s had increased to a torrent, issuing in violently provocative criticisms of educational assumptions and practices, accompanied by an equally strident literature of historical interpretation, which, drawing from revisionist work in the contributing disciplines, chiefly sociology, began to re-interpret the past twenty-five years of frenetic activity as the legitimate aspirations of the world's masses. Yet the methodology of both positions is itself being reinterpreted in the present post-empiricist stage, which is characterised by phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. Both history as the events of the past (data-base) and as interpretation (historiography), are now being seen as facets of the one activity, and, with education considered as part of a wider social process, both traditional and radical positions are themselves becoming criticised for their inadequate positivist assumptions and methodology.