Wiara Rosa ALCÂNTARA, Faculté d'Éducation de l'Université de São Paulo – USP, Brasil

Circulation and Apropriation of the Educational Technology in Brazil: international agreements and institutions of audiovisual resources difusion (1960 – 1970)

New conceptual and aesthetic perspectives of school and community spaces in post-revolutionary Mexico

In this paper I discuss rural school experiences in the first half of the twentieth century. I have special interest in exploring important aspects of school buildings projects, how came the new school models of farm-school, rural hygiene, community-school and socialist-school in Mexican towns and transformations in the space, furniture and concepts for building the new choreography and community relations in rural and indigenous towns. It is important to consider that studies on the post-revolutionary Mexican and rural worlds, where the school and schooling were largely absent, also make visible the work of a new teaching where teachers and women rural teachers were creators of the school, with implementing themselves strategies. Rockwell (2009) shows that these teachers and others rural actors were able to "do school" and managed to be the contact between communities and the state (“do state”) as never before with new relationships and strengthen this political agreements. Also these were teachers who designed a school aesthetic as gardens, school buildings, outdoor theaters, farm areas, and houses for rural families, public spaces for sports and civic celebration and the first school health services etc. The material improvement action went beyond the classroom and became a project aiming at the state's relationship with the communities intervening in ways visible and immediate previous local structures in the decades of 1924-1940. By then the teachers and even the Cultural Missions and their agents, were carriers of an educational revolution, collectivist and socialist democratization seeking short-term impact on improving the material conditions of peoples and rural schools. However, the situation of poverty in the villages was the first he had to face in order to address disease, famine, drought, violence and customs which imposed farm work for children before schooling. The paper will recover projects, oficial documents, designs, photographs and the voices of teachers and women teachers on the rules, dreams and forms that used to give material life to schools and to develop educational projects in villages where school supplies, books, sports equipment and furniture were poor and scarce. It is noteworthy that the applicators of government projects (teachers, parents and local, political and educational authorities ), of course were interested into to put in practice his initiative and them agency, often using what they had at their disposal or interpreted their own sense of government's plans, so the results were unexpected. The reports about these actions were interesting, for example as imposing building schools in desert regions in the form of fortresses and castles (taken in any postal card), with a high cost for people but without any water service, or removing fields of growing to sports fields, among many other cases.

The Maverick: Polio, Disability, and Rehabilitation

The history of education, childhood, and disability converge with the study of the internationalization of Sister Elizabeth Kenny’s rehabilitation therapy. An Australian nurse, she personally introduced this innovation to American society, eventually founding the Kenny Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There she trained and certified “Kenny Technicians.” Her therapeutic treatment won instant popularity among parents anxious to see their children’s physical disabilities eliminated or, at least, mitigated. Many medical facilities likewise adopted the Kenny treatment. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP)—the March of Dimes—funded her early work through the auspices of the University of Minnesota. Nurses and physical therapists from all over the country traveled to Minnesota, supported by NFIP grants, to learn Kenney’s methods. This paper argues that individual agency changed the teaching and implementation of rehabilitative methods for children disabled by polio during the 1940s and 1950s. It further explores the roots of her conflict with the American medical community and a leading philanthropic organization. Ultimately Elizabeth Kenny represented the “other” to orthodox medical professionals. This did not represent a new phenomenon. During the nineteenth century, female homeopaths faced the same opposition. Not only were they demeaned because they practiced nontraditional medicine but had to battle the male-dominated medical establishment. Kenny’s struggle therefore was rooted in the rich tradition of alternative medical beliefs and practices. This study, through a blend of archival documents, secondary sources and oral histories, describes how her ideas became defused in American society, summarizes her therapeutic techniques, analyzes her impact on aftercare, treats her disputes with many medical professionals, dissects her NFIP split, and explores the experiences of the children she treated.

The globalisation of disability: Rise and fall of facilitated communication in Germany

Sebastian BARSCH, University of Cologne, Germany

Beginning in the mid/late 1970s the Australian teacher for Special Education Rosemary Crossley developed a method of physical support to enable nonspeaking students with cerebral palsy to communicate. She called this method ”facilitated communication”. While initially it was used for students with physical disability it soon became popular as a way to empower non-verbal people diagnosed with autism. During the 2nd half of the 1980s the use FC expanded first in the USA and then swept over to Europe. In Germany Special Education massively promoted this method for the use in (special) schools for autistic pupils. But soon FC was discussed quiet controversially. Critical voices concerned themselves with two observations above all. Especially in the USA some court trials have been issued due to the use of FC – mainly in the field of sexual abuse. Analysis of a videotaped testimony in a certain case produced negative results because communications didn't provide any factual information that the facilitator did not know or could have imagined. Furthermore studies incorporating control procedures only found little or no support for the efficacy of this method. Nowadays the number of people who are promoting FC is decreasing and the efficacy of this method remains a controversial issue. So matter of this paper isn't a reflection of pros and cons. In contrast to contemporary discussions that do tend to argue for or against FC in this contribution I would like to use the historical development of FC in German special education in order to show how knowledge not only travels across geographical spaces, but is also affected by the divergent intellectual spaces it encounters. This will be exemplified by theory and practice of facilitated communication with autistic people in special education and its effects on public opinion. Further research priorities will concentrate on how this method affected the way autism was viewed by science and the public. Did it support a new way of being autistic? Are people diagnosed to be autistic than seen as the ”more abled” disabled now? And finally, did Special Education promote over-exaggerated notions of performance that cannot be fulfilled by all people labelled ”autistic”? Exemplified by the case of the young man Birger Sellin, given intensive treatment by the German media in the 1990s, I'll show how the image of autism changed within German society in general and special education in particular. Based on media related sources (documentaries, newspapers, magazines) and specialised literature I'll try to show the shift from autism as being a symptom for intellectual disability then to a globalized concept of autism now.

Making new "productores": continuity and change in the education of children with disabilities in Franco's Spain (1939-1950)

With the beginning of the twentieth century starts a growing concern in Spain for children with disabilities. Such concern was linked to the growing interest in infancy in Spain and it was further stimulated by the incorporation of new ideas related to the rationalization of the workforce. A relevant expression of this situation would be the appearance of discourses intending to establish new ways of carrying out the education of children and adolescents. These discourses were clearly influenced by the flow of the ideas that were generated in Europe in that moment. Thus, the school began to be seen as the space where future citizens should be educated and the place where future workers should be selected and get trained. An important consequence of this situation for the child with disabilities was that he was subjected to a double process of pedagogical intervention. On the one hand, he became the subject of implementation of educational innovations that were generated abroad; and on the other hand, a special treatment was applied to deal with his physical, sensorial and/or intellectual disabilities, so they would cease to be an obstacle for their future incorporation into the production process of the nation. As a result of this situation, it began to spread and put into practice the idea of establishing institutions that would put into action this double process of pedagogical intervention for this 'special' group of children. Our aim in this paper is to highlight the processes of continuity and change regarding this issue within the political framework of Franco´s dictatorial regime, using as a source the legislation developed at the time, as well as archival documentation of the aforesaid institutions and educational and medical publications. Spain under General Franco´s regime represented a new scene on the way to consider and implement the ideas regarding children and education imported from abroad, as they had to be subjected to a review process conditioned by the new ideological structure –represented by the so-called National Catholicism– and the social protection policies designed by the new government. We will also put emphasis on the fact that under these new circumstances the child was seen as a future productor (a term used by Francoist argot for the ones hitherto called workers) and this contributed to transform the social identity of people with impairments and to promote the development of a medical model of disability in Spain.

Body and mind institutionalized: raising children with polio in Cold War Hungary

Dora VARGHA, Rutgers University, U.S.A.

Poliomyelitis swept over Hungary in several outbreaks between 1952 and 1959, attacking children and threatening to undermine efforts to recover the war-stricken society. The disease symbolized a destructive threat to the communist and modernist projects: it affected children in a post-war society, leaving crippled bodies behind at a time of heightened industrial production and recuperation from the war. The relatively new communist government, which positioned itself as the answer to a bright and productive future, had to deal with the traumatic effects of polio epidemics that threatened communist ideals at the foundations. Polio's effect on Hungarian society was considered so significant, that revolutionary prime minister Imre Nagy took steps to establish a polio hospital for children amidst the turbulent events of the 1956 revolution. Children with polio often spent years in state hospitals. These institutions were sites of treatment, medical and technological innovation, but also served as sites of everyday life: a school, a home away from home, and its staff as family away from family. These hospitals can serve as a terrain where changing power relations can be observed in the interactions of medical professionals, party members, educators and children. It was considered to be crucial that children with polio would not lose contact with the outside world, would be able to participate and interact in society, and would engage in some kind of productive work in the future. For this reason, some hospitals, broadcasted regular radio programs for the children, operated a small zoo in the garden, and were equipped with a library. Others organized plays with the participation of the children. Most institutions operated fully accredited schools so that the children would not fall behind during their treatment and would be prepared to acquire a profession to support themselves. Based on hospital documents, oral history interviews, medical texts and archival material, this paper argues that polio care was perceived as an organic process of forming body and mind, and was embedded in Cold War ideology and concepts of communist production. Innovative medical technology, psychology, and education were recruited in order to ensure the success of the permanently or temporarily institutionalized polio patients. Success, for these children, was defined as creating a productive, "fully valued member" of society, mostly meaning acquiring a profession and capable of physical work.

Leyde - Helmstedt: un cas unique de transfert de réforme de l'école entre Hollande et Allemagne au XVIIe siècle

L'internationalisation dans le champ éducatif ne commence certes pas avec le XVIIIe siècle. L'influence des humanistes de premier plan déjà n'avait guère de frontières et des réformateurs de la pédagogie comme Ratke et Comenius ont été accueillis au XVIIe siècle par plusieurs États, sans grand résultat il est vrai. Un cas étonnant de transfert effectif de politique scolaire au XVIIe siècle est toutefois passé inaperçu. Il s'agit de la réforme des programmes et des manuels des écoles latines confiée par les États de Hollande à l'université de Leyde en 1625. Elle a fortement inspiré la réforme scolaire du duché de Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel à la fin de la guerre de 30 ans également menée par des professeurs de l'université d'Helmstedt. L'un d'eux, Christoph Schrader, ancien étudiant de l'université de Leyde, rédigea l’ordonnance scolaire et pilota ensuite le système comme inspecteur général des écoles. Les voies de transfert ont été les échanges entre étudiants et professeurs de ces deux villes universitaires dans le premier tiers du XVIIe siècle. L'objet de ces réformes était l'unification des programmes et des manuels autour d'une restauration de l'humanisme arc-boutée contre les empiétements d'une conception uniquement religieuse de l'école. Le moyen en était le transfert de la définition des programmes et du contrôle du fonctionnement de l'Eglise à l'Université. Des adaptations ont évidemment eu lieu, mais la philosophie générale de la réforme a bien été respectée et ce sont les manuels conçus pour la Hollande qui ont été ordonnés et même imprimés sur place pour les écoles du Brunswick. Ce cas illustre le rôle dans ces transferts des relations interpersonnelles, de la République des lettres, du mécénat (les étudiants allemands étaient invités à Leyde par par un riche marchand hollandais qui avait fondé des bourses à cette fin), mais aussi des structures collectives et institutionnalisées telles que ces universités qui jouent désormais un rôle officiel d'expertise auprès des instances politiques qui déterminent la politique scolaire. Il s'explique sans doute aussi par des effets de conjoncture et les différences de pression entre une aire connaissant son âge d'or économique et intellectuel et une zone en pleine dépression à tous les sens du terme du fait de la guerre.