Crises et Renouveau Educatif dans un Monde Complexe, 1870-1950 : Perspectives.

On the basis of the different contributions presented at this SWG, we propose to draw out the perspectives for the forthcoming sessions in order to enrich and develop the 4 areas considered. 1. The periods of war, particularly in France, with the debate after 1870 around a kind of love-hate towards the German model of education, seen as excellent and judged to have caused the defeat, in the face of a French model that needed to be revisited (Lecaillon, 2011). In Belgium, especially after the two world wars, the question also emerged as to how to erase the influence of pedagogues or educational reforms linked to the foreign enemy or, on the contrary, how to adopt new ideas and practices. In Italy, the arrival of the New Education movement after Fascism led to the development of innovative educational perspectives and practices with a democratic vocation, against a backdrop of profound questioning of the very concept of childhood and the function of education, which saw the coexistence of innovative impulses and conservative positions. 2. The periods of pandemics, with the example of open-air schools at the beginning of the 20th century, conceived with sanitary and hygienic intentions. The same intent can be found in the Italian countryside, which has been hit by the plague of malaria; hygiene was the primary objective of the kindergartens set up by a private institution founded by intellectuals who wanted to bring schools into contact with the peasants. The innovative practices of volunteer teachers who put their creativity at the service of literacy deserve to be explored in greater depth to see their real impact; it will also be interesting to analyse the impressions of eminent visitors (Ferrière, Lombardo-Radice, Patri...) who came into contact with these schools, to see whether this led to a better dissemination and facilitated, or not, State subsidies. 3. The Montessori method, in order to explore how it has been adopted in precarious contexts caused by wars and natural disasters or by the extreme poverty of families, and to understand whether it has undergone variations in its didactic implementation to adapt to real conditions. 4. The commitment of women, initiating a cross-cutting study of the itineraries of little-known women teachers who have been real links in the dissemination of teaching practices, particularly through professional training; at the centre is the notion of commitment, which develops in different ways depending on the context, in a field that can range from philanthropy to militancy.