A educação de meninas no início do Século XX a educação de Aurelia Josz e a didática da experimentação [The education of girls in the Early 20th century Aurelia Josz’s educational and didactic experimentation]

This paper illustrates the results of historical research on educational experimentation in the field of education of girls. In the early 20th century in Italy, the debates on how girls and women were to be educated were very lively. Italy, which had recently been unified, saw for the first time, legislation that established that primary schooling should also be open to young girls and women. Even though the law established compulsory schooling for boys and girls at the time, actually, educational paths accessible to or reserved for girls were extremely limited. Within this framework, the experimentation of Aurelia Josz is interesting and little known: she was a teacher, trainer and writer who founded in 1902 the Women’s Practical School of Agriculture (Scuola Pratica Agraria Femminile). It was a training course for girls who wanted to become professionals in agriculture, breeding, floriculture, and gardening. Aurelia Josz carried out largely innovative experimentation as to curriculum, methodologies, and design of spaces and materials. This contribution will analyze Josz’s experimentation and compare it with the contemporary pedagogical debate, starting from studying the documents present at the Historical Archives of the Società Umanitaria and at the Contemporary Jewish Documentation Centre of Milan.