András NEMETH, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

The reform of teacher’s training as a part of the Bologna process of the higher education is one of the key questions of the educational reforms in the European Union today. One of the most important elements of the Hungarian reform, that started to become faster and faster from 2003 is that the two main branches (kindergarten - elementary school teachers and secondary school teachers) should become a part of the Bologna process in a way that none of them should be redundant or arrive at a dead-end street. This reform however aims to transform the historically shaped pattern of teachers’ training model, that followed the patterns of the European trends that were formed inbetween the beginning of 19th century and the middle of 20th century - with some time-lag of course in the different regions. Our research aims to follow the process of the institutionalization of Hungarian teachers’ training which was characterized by the above mentioned ’dual system’. This process passed off under the influence of the national traditions as well as the central European tendencies. In the centre of our research stand those elements of the progression of teachers’ profession in which the two different professional knowledge (elementary and secondary school teachers’) was formed, and also the contents of the theoretical reflection which appeared in the fields of science. Our lecture focuses on this very complex process and analyses the events of the late 19th and early 20th century.

At the turn of the 20th century, several pedagogical movements such as the New Education (Education nouvelle – Reformpädagogik) promoted global school reform in order to adapt teaching to the child and to modern society. Among the actors of this movement theosophists, and anthroposophists who split from them, were numerous and constituted a large network of teachers and education reformers. The New Education Fellowship, founded in 1921 by Beatrice Ensor, Adolphe Ferrière, Elisabeth Rotten and others “pioneers of education” grew rapidly during the 1920’s aided by several international networks. Among them, the Theosophical Society’s branches which were present in various countries such as England, India, Australia, Spain, Italy, Germany and France contributed to the diffusion of the New Education. Several leading figures in the movement, such as Montessori, Ensor, Sadler, Solà de Sellarés, Steiner and Baillie-Weaver were theosophists or anthroposophists. This panel aims at studying the part of theosophy and anthroposophy in the expansion of educational reform movements at an international level. Through the analysis of central figures, the study of the various sources such as journals or correspondence, and a comparison of New schools such as Waldorf Schools in Spain and England, this panel aims at a better understanding of the part of theosophy played in the New Education movement: how did it allow or prevent the expansion of the New Education movement in various countries during the 1920’s and 1930’s?

What was the nature of the international connections between the Waldorf school and the New Education Movement?

Patricia QUIROGA, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain

In 1919, parallel to the expansion of the New Education, called Reformpädagogik in Germany and Éducation Nouvelle in France, the Waldorf school opened its doors in Stuttgart (Germany), aimed at the children of the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria Zigarettenfabrik factory owned by Emil Molt. Rudolf Steiner, the leader of the recently created Anthroposophical Movement, was the ideologist and who helped Molt to accomplish this project. Year by year the school became more and more famous and the number of children who attended it steadily increased. Meanwhile other schools were created in Germany and in Central Europe. The New Education and the Waldorf schools, inspired by Romanticism and German Idealism, share many theoretical aspects. The aim of this paper is to clarify whether there are connections between both educational practices, or if the Anthroposophical Movement followed its own unique Sonderweg. Steiner first school remained open till 1938, and some others were created by that date in Germany and neighboring countries. This increasing process will be also analyzed, and even though the number of schools continued to expand until today when there are more than 1000 Steiner schools in the world, the research will cover till the beginning of the Second World War. The methodology used to prepare this paper is documentary analysis based on several archives in England, Germany and Spain. Rudolf Steiner’s conferences during the period 1905-1925 form a very important source. His discourse will be examined in order to find references to the educational initiatives undertaken by the New Education Movement. On the other hand, the journals published during the flowering influence of the new pedagogical tendencies as Education for the New Era and Revista de Pedagogía now located in archives at the Froebel Archive (at University of Roehampton, London) or Museo de Historia de la Educación Manuel Bartolomé Cossío (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), will be analyzed. They will be essential sources for affirming or denying the connections between the international movement of the New Education, and the Steiner Waldorf schools.

Éducation, sociabilité et Théosophie en Espagne (1891-1939): le dialogue éducatif entre l’Occident et l’Orient

Les théosophes français au congrès international de Calais (1921), des fondateurs occultés de la Ligue internationale pour l’éducation nouvelle

Le congrès international d’éducation, tenu à Calais en 1921, est considéré comme le moment fondateur de la Ligue internationale pour l’éducation nouvelle. Encore mal connu –bien que constamment cité, tant par les historiens de l’éducation nouvelle que par ses militants d’aujourd’hui- ce congrès a été en partie conçu et animé par des représentants de la théosophie internationale. Ceux-ci y ont vu une occasion d’agrandir leur audience et de donner une assise élargie à leur projet éducatif lequel avait déjà reçu un début d’application, sous formes d’écoles nouvelles, spécialement en Angleterre et en France. Dans cette communication, nous nous proposons de mettre en lumière cette contribution occultée en restituant qui furent les théosophes français présents au congrès, le rôle qu’ils y ont joué et les idées éducatives qu’ils y ont défendues. Nous replacerons également leur participation à ce congrès dans la dynamique d’ensemble du mouvement théosophique confronté à la question de l’éducation. Outre l’analyse des actes du congrès et de différents comptes rendus auxquels il a donné lieu, nous appuierons notre communication sur un dépouillement des périodiques théosophiques en langue française et sur des recherches biographiques concernant les théosophes «calaisiens» qu’on peut y repérer.

Internationalizing frameworks for promoting the recreational and work opportunities of disabled children and young people: the Girl Guide Association, 1909-1950

The Girl Guide Association, founded in 1910 shortly after the publication of Scouting for Boys, and the founding of the Scout movement of 1908, was an international organization which spread rapidly. While some girls started their own patrols and companies, the overarching structures of governance which existed at local, national and international levels provided some continuity of underlying principles and methods, while allowing for regional variation. Underpinning the whole was the inclusive mission statement, “A Guide is a sister to all other Guides” expressed in the Guide Law. This paper will explore the ways the Association developed in response to the perceived needs of disabled children and young people, with selected examples of practices around the globe. This will be located in the context of the Association’s little-known commitment to the promotion of career opportunities and female employment, as evidenced in its publications for girls.

Despite the spate of publications stimulated by the centenary celebrations of 2010, there has been little research about the Association’s practices and policies in relation to the disabled, and even less on pedagogy. Yet the commitment to enabling universal youth participation in Scout and Guide activities, within a structured framework, led to the development of a range of initiatives. By March 1940, The Guider was claiming that “Ours is the only youth movement which caters so well for handicapped girls”. The value attached to contact with nature, and of health and exercise made members particularly enthusiastic about promoting outdoor and physical activities with disabled children and young people. Guiding for the disabled expanded rapidly in the UK and overseas. Increasing numbers of residential institutions had companies, from 1909 onwards. From 1921, the “Extension Branch” was set up to enable “invalid, cripple, blind and deaf girls living in their own homes to become Guides”. Rules such as those for badge requirements were adapted to enable disabled Guides to achieve, and special camps were organized. The Handicraft depot, which sold handwork goods produced by disabled Guides and enabled them to earn some money, was considered to be extremely popular and continued well into the second half of the twentieth century. The paper also considers how the Association aimed to promote opportunities for friendship, support and peer-group mentoring.Whereas some Brownie packs for the under-elevens might exist in institutions, Rangers (the over-16s) were particularly urged to attend to the after-care of those who left at sixteen and might be lonely, or alternatively, just starting work. The complex boundaries between belonging, “difference” and normalization will be further explored in the paper.

The internationalization process of Musical Education: the Italian Conservatories of Naples and Venice as a European model of economic development (18th - 20th Centuries)