La pratica educativa: storia, memoria e patrimonio. Atti del 1° Congresso nazionale della Società Italiana per lo studio del Patrimonio Storico-Educativo (Palma de Mallorca, 20-23 novembre 2018), a cura di Anna Ascenzi, Carmela Covato e Juri Meda, EUM, Macerata 2020, pp. 301-322, 2020
IT: Il presente contributo – partendo dalle categorie di «lieux de mémoire» e «place memory» elab... more IT: Il presente contributo – partendo dalle categorie di «lieux de mémoire» e «place memory» elaborati rispettivamente da Pierre Nora e Paul Connerton – intende determinare in cosa consistano i «luoghi della memoria scolastica» e quali siano le dinamiche che li governano. Sono state individuate cinque varietà di «luoghi della memoria scolastica», ovvero, nell’ordine: i musei della scuola; le scuole-museo e aule-museo; le scuole storiche; le «scuole dimenticate», ovvero le scuole cadute in rovina; quelli che abbiamo preliminarmente definito i «sancta sanctorum della scuola», ovvero quei luoghi (in genere per l’appunto scuole) che hanno costituito gli incubatori spaziali di esperienze educative tanto innovative da potersi considerare uniche ed essere annoverate come tali negli annali della pubblica istruzione nazionale. Il contributo presenta le principali caratteristiche di queste diverse tipologie, evidenziandone linearità e asimmetrie, e traccia un quadro interpretativo che – seppur con alcuni distinguo – documenta la dimensione eminentemente localistica della memoria scolastica.
EN: This paper, starting from the categories of lieux de mémoire and place memory developed respectively by Pierre Nora and Paul Connerton, is aimed at determining what constitute «sites of school memory» and the dynamics that govern them. Five kinds of «sites of school memory» have been identified, namely, in order: school museums; schoolhouse museums and schoolroom museums; historic schools; «forgotten schools», i.e. schools which have fallen into ruin; those that we have previously defined as «sacred places of education», namely those places (usually schools) that constitute the spatial incubators of innovative educational experiences so as to be considered unique and be counted as such in the annals of the national education system. This paper presents the main characteristics of these different types, highlighting linearities and asymmetries, and tracks an interpretive framework that documents the highly localistic character of school memory, albeit with some distinctions.
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Books by Juri Meda
ES: "Mario Lodi: maestro, intellettuale, scrittore" traza la aventura humana y cultural del célebre maestro de Vho di Piadena. Entre los años sesenta y setenta, Lodi revolucionó la forma de concebir la escuela, que, gracias a sus innovadores métodos pedagógicos, se convirtió en un instrumento de liberación y en un lugar de afirmación de la infancia como temporada de autoridad cognitiva y creativa. Este libro restituye el perfil completo de un maestro que fue, al mismo tiempo, un intelectual militante, un escritor sensible y un ensayista extraordinariamente incisivo en un periodo de la historia italiana animado por tensiones y contrastes y en el que creer en la escuela significaba pensar de poder cambiar el mundo.
EN: "Mario Lodi: maestro, intellettuale, scrittore" traces the human and cultural adventure of the famous teacher from Vho di Piadena. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, Lodi revolutionised the way of conceiving school, which - thanks to his innovative teaching methods - became an instrument of liberation and a place for affirming childhood as a season of cognitive and creative authority. This book restores the complete profile of a teacher who was, at the same time, a militant intellectual, a sensitive writer, and an extraordinarily incisive essayist in a period of Italian history animated by tensions and contrasts and where believing in the school meant thinking that it was possible to change the world.
EN: The historiographical debate of the past thirty years has been dominated by an essentially political interpretation of the processes of mass schooling adopted in Western societies in the contemporary era through the creation of modern national education systems, and this has tended to highlight the role of the school as a tool for forging national identity. This subordination to the historical perspective of nation-building has led to the sidelining of alternative paradigms for interpretation such as the economic aspect of mass schooling – the aspect that this book sets out to explore. While the liberal ruling classes pursued the policy of mass schooling for the express purpose of forging patriotic sentiment and consolidating political consensus around their institutions, in order to achieve that purpose they had no option but to involve private businesses with their industrial ability to manufacture, on a vast scale, the materials required to lay the groundwork for “mass education”. Using industrial yearbooks, professional bulletins, advertisements published in education journals, prizes awarded in the context of national and world fairs, patents and other sources not usually used in this field of study, the book shows how serially produced “tools of mass education” manufactured on an industrial scale by those same industries ended up fostering the broad standardisation of teaching methods, of learning processes and of educational content, spawning a capitalistic educational model which has yet go into decline.
This volume draws on the rich and largely unique archival heritage
preserved in the institutes and documentation centers specialized in the history and memory of the Italian workers’ movement. It is also an important contribution to the wider international debate on the emergence of “politicized childhood” during the 20th century, which is becoming more and more intense."
The school exercise book in the contemporary age can be seen both an essential teaching aid and as a formidable tool for communication, thus as a unique source for exploring school culture and the approach to education in a given historical context. From cover to content, and including the codification process in its capacity as a material object, the school exercise book can tell us a great deal about the history of schools and education, about teaching methods and language, and about the educational projects and policies that the various nation states sought to implement in the 19th and 20th centuries. Within that framework, the history of education and literacy goes hand in hand with the history of educational ideas and of concrete educational practice, offering hitherto unexplored scenarios for research. These proceedings – which include papers submitted by scholars from all over the world (Europe, America and the Far East) – offer a broad panorama of the potential (and the limits) of such a complex source with its wealth of implications. They represent a corpus of study and enquiry based on a truly exhaustive and complete range of methods and tools of investigation. The exercise book seen as a vessel for writing, as a testimonial of educational practice as implemented by teachers, and as an essential part of the political and cultural socialisation pursued in schools, helps us to focus the historical and educational dynamic on the relationships that impart concrete substance to the rapport between educational theory, teachers, institutes of education and education policy on the one hand, and the real-life players – the men, women and children – who experienced those relationships in the first person.
Papers by Juri Meda
EN : The history of education in Italy – since the Nineties – has progressively passed the history of pedagogical theories and educational institutions to devote itself to the study of the evolution of teaching methods and learning processes, of educational practices and more generally of school culture. These studies, however, have focused more on teachers, especially those of primary schools, than on students, on their subjectivity, their experience and the possible autonomous spaces allowed to them in the context of the pedagogical project developed by adults. Studies on these protagonists of learning processes have hitherto focused on specific topics and cases (such as the history of material life in educational institutions, of the school discipline and the study of children’s graphic products, such as writings and drawings) often from a quantitative or micro-historical perspective, while still is missing a history of students able to overturn the perspective from which the learning processes were studied, ranging from kindergarten to high schools.
EN: In recent years, “historic schools” have been cropping up in public debate and in scientific literature ever more regularly. But what exactly does this term mean? Just when should a school be considered “historic” in all of its aspects, and what particular requisites must it fulfil in order to receive this name? We can affirm beyond all doubt that today no common definition exists, especially if we take into account the different national scenarios in which this category of school has become more prominent.
EN: This paper, starting from the categories of lieux de mémoire and place memory developed respectively by Pierre Nora and Paul Connerton, is aimed at determining what constitute «sites of school memory» and the dynamics that govern them. Five kinds of «sites of school memory» have been identified, namely, in order: school museums; schoolhouse museums and schoolroom museums; historic schools; «forgotten schools», i.e. schools which have fallen into ruin; those that we have previously defined as «sacred places of education», namely those places (usually schools) that constitute the spatial incubators of innovative educational experiences so as to be considered unique and be counted as such in the annals of the national education system. This paper presents the main characteristics of these different types, highlighting linearities and asymmetries, and tracks an interpretive framework that documents the highly localistic character of school memory, albeit with some distinctions.
also analyse the social-cultural dynamics underlying both the commemoration of innovative educationalists and educators, and the celebration of those places where the memory of schools and education has become part of community memory and identity. This paper constitutes the presentation of the special issue «Memories and Public Celebrations of Education in Contemporary Times» (HECL, n. 1, 2019), edited by Juri Meda, Marta Brunelli and Luigiaurelio Pomante.
memory developed respectively by Pierre Nora and Paul Connerton, is aimed at determining what constitute «sites of school memory» and the dynamics that govern them. Five kinds of «sites of school memory» have been identified, namely, in order: school museums; schoolhouse museums and schoolroom museums; historic schools; «forgotten schools», i.e. schools which have fallen into ruin; those that we have previously defined as «sacred places of education», namely those places (usually schools) that constitute the spatial incubators of innovative educational experiences so as to be considered unique and be counted as such in the annals of the national education system. This paper presents the main characteristics of these different types, highlighting linearities and asymmetries, and tracks an interpretive framework that documents the highly localistic character of school memory, albeit with
some distinctions. This paper has been published in the special issue «Memories and Public Celebrations of Education in Contemporary Times» (HECL, n. 1, 2019) edited by Juri Meda, Luigiaurelio Pomante, Marta Brunelli.
ES: La difusión de una determinada imagen pública de las escuelas rurales —desde siempre las escuelas más pobres y desfavorecidas— ha sido utilizada frecuentemente por las clases dirigentes y/o los partidos políticos de la oposición para documentar la tasa de modernización y/o de atraso del sistema educativo nacional, de acuerdo con las respectivas necesidades propagandísticas. El artículo —moviéndose entre las primeras encuestas fotográficas realizadas en las regiones del Sur de Italia por asociaciones meridionalistas en los años 20 y los reportajes fotoperiodísticos publicados en algunas revistas en los años 50, pasando por la cesura fascista— pretende estudiar las alteraciones de la imagen pública de este tipo particular de escuelas comprobables en Italia en el período de tiempo indicado a través del análisis de fotografías escolares publicadas en periódicos diarios y revistas, centrándose en el uso propagandístico que de las mismas se hizo a lo largo de treinta años.
IT: La diffusione d’una determinata immagine pubblica delle scuole rurali – da sempre le scuole più povere e disagiate – è stata frequentemente utilizzata dai ceti dirigenti e/o dai partiti politici per documentare il tasso di modernità e/o di arretratezza del sistema scolastico nazionale, a seconda delle esigenze propagandistiche espresse dagli uni piuttosto che dagli altri. L’articolo – muovendosi tra le prime inchieste fotografiche condotte nelle regioni del Mezzogiorno italiano dalle associazioni meridionaliste negli anni ’20 e i reportage foto-giornalistici pubblicati su alcune riviste negli anni ’50, passando attraverso la lunga cesura fascista – si propone di studiare le alterazioni dell’immagine pubblica di questo particolare tipo di scuola registrabili in Italia nel lasso di tempo indicato attraverso l’analisi delle fotografie pubblicate su quotidiani e riviste, evidenziando l’uso propagandistico che di essa è stato fatto nel corso del tempo.
ES: "Mario Lodi: maestro, intellettuale, scrittore" traza la aventura humana y cultural del célebre maestro de Vho di Piadena. Entre los años sesenta y setenta, Lodi revolucionó la forma de concebir la escuela, que, gracias a sus innovadores métodos pedagógicos, se convirtió en un instrumento de liberación y en un lugar de afirmación de la infancia como temporada de autoridad cognitiva y creativa. Este libro restituye el perfil completo de un maestro que fue, al mismo tiempo, un intelectual militante, un escritor sensible y un ensayista extraordinariamente incisivo en un periodo de la historia italiana animado por tensiones y contrastes y en el que creer en la escuela significaba pensar de poder cambiar el mundo.
EN: "Mario Lodi: maestro, intellettuale, scrittore" traces the human and cultural adventure of the famous teacher from Vho di Piadena. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, Lodi revolutionised the way of conceiving school, which - thanks to his innovative teaching methods - became an instrument of liberation and a place for affirming childhood as a season of cognitive and creative authority. This book restores the complete profile of a teacher who was, at the same time, a militant intellectual, a sensitive writer, and an extraordinarily incisive essayist in a period of Italian history animated by tensions and contrasts and where believing in the school meant thinking that it was possible to change the world.
EN: The historiographical debate of the past thirty years has been dominated by an essentially political interpretation of the processes of mass schooling adopted in Western societies in the contemporary era through the creation of modern national education systems, and this has tended to highlight the role of the school as a tool for forging national identity. This subordination to the historical perspective of nation-building has led to the sidelining of alternative paradigms for interpretation such as the economic aspect of mass schooling – the aspect that this book sets out to explore. While the liberal ruling classes pursued the policy of mass schooling for the express purpose of forging patriotic sentiment and consolidating political consensus around their institutions, in order to achieve that purpose they had no option but to involve private businesses with their industrial ability to manufacture, on a vast scale, the materials required to lay the groundwork for “mass education”. Using industrial yearbooks, professional bulletins, advertisements published in education journals, prizes awarded in the context of national and world fairs, patents and other sources not usually used in this field of study, the book shows how serially produced “tools of mass education” manufactured on an industrial scale by those same industries ended up fostering the broad standardisation of teaching methods, of learning processes and of educational content, spawning a capitalistic educational model which has yet go into decline.
This volume draws on the rich and largely unique archival heritage
preserved in the institutes and documentation centers specialized in the history and memory of the Italian workers’ movement. It is also an important contribution to the wider international debate on the emergence of “politicized childhood” during the 20th century, which is becoming more and more intense."
The school exercise book in the contemporary age can be seen both an essential teaching aid and as a formidable tool for communication, thus as a unique source for exploring school culture and the approach to education in a given historical context. From cover to content, and including the codification process in its capacity as a material object, the school exercise book can tell us a great deal about the history of schools and education, about teaching methods and language, and about the educational projects and policies that the various nation states sought to implement in the 19th and 20th centuries. Within that framework, the history of education and literacy goes hand in hand with the history of educational ideas and of concrete educational practice, offering hitherto unexplored scenarios for research. These proceedings – which include papers submitted by scholars from all over the world (Europe, America and the Far East) – offer a broad panorama of the potential (and the limits) of such a complex source with its wealth of implications. They represent a corpus of study and enquiry based on a truly exhaustive and complete range of methods and tools of investigation. The exercise book seen as a vessel for writing, as a testimonial of educational practice as implemented by teachers, and as an essential part of the political and cultural socialisation pursued in schools, helps us to focus the historical and educational dynamic on the relationships that impart concrete substance to the rapport between educational theory, teachers, institutes of education and education policy on the one hand, and the real-life players – the men, women and children – who experienced those relationships in the first person.
EN : The history of education in Italy – since the Nineties – has progressively passed the history of pedagogical theories and educational institutions to devote itself to the study of the evolution of teaching methods and learning processes, of educational practices and more generally of school culture. These studies, however, have focused more on teachers, especially those of primary schools, than on students, on their subjectivity, their experience and the possible autonomous spaces allowed to them in the context of the pedagogical project developed by adults. Studies on these protagonists of learning processes have hitherto focused on specific topics and cases (such as the history of material life in educational institutions, of the school discipline and the study of children’s graphic products, such as writings and drawings) often from a quantitative or micro-historical perspective, while still is missing a history of students able to overturn the perspective from which the learning processes were studied, ranging from kindergarten to high schools.
EN: In recent years, “historic schools” have been cropping up in public debate and in scientific literature ever more regularly. But what exactly does this term mean? Just when should a school be considered “historic” in all of its aspects, and what particular requisites must it fulfil in order to receive this name? We can affirm beyond all doubt that today no common definition exists, especially if we take into account the different national scenarios in which this category of school has become more prominent.
EN: This paper, starting from the categories of lieux de mémoire and place memory developed respectively by Pierre Nora and Paul Connerton, is aimed at determining what constitute «sites of school memory» and the dynamics that govern them. Five kinds of «sites of school memory» have been identified, namely, in order: school museums; schoolhouse museums and schoolroom museums; historic schools; «forgotten schools», i.e. schools which have fallen into ruin; those that we have previously defined as «sacred places of education», namely those places (usually schools) that constitute the spatial incubators of innovative educational experiences so as to be considered unique and be counted as such in the annals of the national education system. This paper presents the main characteristics of these different types, highlighting linearities and asymmetries, and tracks an interpretive framework that documents the highly localistic character of school memory, albeit with some distinctions.
also analyse the social-cultural dynamics underlying both the commemoration of innovative educationalists and educators, and the celebration of those places where the memory of schools and education has become part of community memory and identity. This paper constitutes the presentation of the special issue «Memories and Public Celebrations of Education in Contemporary Times» (HECL, n. 1, 2019), edited by Juri Meda, Marta Brunelli and Luigiaurelio Pomante.
memory developed respectively by Pierre Nora and Paul Connerton, is aimed at determining what constitute «sites of school memory» and the dynamics that govern them. Five kinds of «sites of school memory» have been identified, namely, in order: school museums; schoolhouse museums and schoolroom museums; historic schools; «forgotten schools», i.e. schools which have fallen into ruin; those that we have previously defined as «sacred places of education», namely those places (usually schools) that constitute the spatial incubators of innovative educational experiences so as to be considered unique and be counted as such in the annals of the national education system. This paper presents the main characteristics of these different types, highlighting linearities and asymmetries, and tracks an interpretive framework that documents the highly localistic character of school memory, albeit with
some distinctions. This paper has been published in the special issue «Memories and Public Celebrations of Education in Contemporary Times» (HECL, n. 1, 2019) edited by Juri Meda, Luigiaurelio Pomante, Marta Brunelli.
ES: La difusión de una determinada imagen pública de las escuelas rurales —desde siempre las escuelas más pobres y desfavorecidas— ha sido utilizada frecuentemente por las clases dirigentes y/o los partidos políticos de la oposición para documentar la tasa de modernización y/o de atraso del sistema educativo nacional, de acuerdo con las respectivas necesidades propagandísticas. El artículo —moviéndose entre las primeras encuestas fotográficas realizadas en las regiones del Sur de Italia por asociaciones meridionalistas en los años 20 y los reportajes fotoperiodísticos publicados en algunas revistas en los años 50, pasando por la cesura fascista— pretende estudiar las alteraciones de la imagen pública de este tipo particular de escuelas comprobables en Italia en el período de tiempo indicado a través del análisis de fotografías escolares publicadas en periódicos diarios y revistas, centrándose en el uso propagandístico que de las mismas se hizo a lo largo de treinta años.
IT: La diffusione d’una determinata immagine pubblica delle scuole rurali – da sempre le scuole più povere e disagiate – è stata frequentemente utilizzata dai ceti dirigenti e/o dai partiti politici per documentare il tasso di modernità e/o di arretratezza del sistema scolastico nazionale, a seconda delle esigenze propagandistiche espresse dagli uni piuttosto che dagli altri. L’articolo – muovendosi tra le prime inchieste fotografiche condotte nelle regioni del Mezzogiorno italiano dalle associazioni meridionaliste negli anni ’20 e i reportage foto-giornalistici pubblicati su alcune riviste negli anni ’50, passando attraverso la lunga cesura fascista – si propone di studiare le alterazioni dell’immagine pubblica di questo particolare tipo di scuola registrabili in Italia nel lasso di tempo indicato attraverso l’analisi delle fotografie pubblicate su quotidiani e riviste, evidenziando l’uso propagandistico che di essa è stato fatto nel corso del tempo.
EN: The purpose of this article is to describe the process of mass schooling in Italy between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, referring only to the primary schools and with changing speeds according to local contexts, by analysing the evolution of pedagogical models, educational practices and the material needs determined by them, with the proliferation of teaching aids and items that went to make up a student's equipment and the start of their manufacture on an industrial scale.
The assumption upon which this paper rests is that school desks have
always been signifiers charged with multiple meanings related to the evolution of curriculum, pedagogic ideas and daily school practices, which have often been forgotten, abandoned or, for some reasons, underrepresented in the official history of education as well as in the collective memory of school. In order to rebuild this forgotten history, and retrace the possible theoretical-pedagogical basis underlying such practice, the authors have systematically reviewed the Italian manuals on gymnastics between desks from the 1870s to the 1970s, retraced sources documenting this practice in the daily school life (government rules, school programmes, school hygiene prescriptions, iconographic sources, teachers and school managers’ testimonies) and finally, compared with other foreign practices (such as “calisthenics”).
The convergence between many differentiated sources has demonstrated the longevity of this school practice, which was not only the fruit of educational theories of gymnastic teachers but was also determined by the backwardness and logistic inadequacies of many Italian schools. The paper reveals how this gymnastic practice, after establishing itself in the post-Unification Italian schools, continued almost uninterrupted until the Second World War and even until the 1970s, evidencing how gymnastic teachers, hygienists, educationalists and lawmakers continued, over almost a century, to scientifically legitimise ( from the top downwards) an educational practice that was actually driven from the bottom upwards, i.e. determined by an endemic lack of adequate spaces and tools for physical education in Italian schools.
ES: La contribución presentará los resultados de una investigación en curso sobre el uso por el régimen fascista de la propaganda del ahorro como factor de nacionalización de la infancia en la escuela primaria. La declinación ideológica de la propaganda del ahorro empezó durante la Segunda Guerra Ítalo-Etíope, cuando el régimen sintió por la primera vez la necesidad de organizar de forma masiva el frente interno, pero llegó al pico con la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Los institutos de crédito, de hecho, bajo la presión del aparato propagandístico del régimen, empezaron a producir carteles, folletos, cuadernos escolares y periodicos para niños, centrados en la participación de las jóvenes generaciones al esfuerzo bélico nacional a través del ahorro, incluso a distribuir el “salvadanaio di guerra” (caja de dinero). La “batalla del ahorro” fue, sin embargo, una batalla incruenta: el tributo que la nación iba pidiendo a sus niños en tiempos de guerra no era un tributo de sangre (no obstante eso se contaba entre los deberes incluidos en el juramento oficial de los miembros de la organización juvenil fascista), sino un homenaje de fe y obediencia.
EN: The contribution will present the results of an ongoing investigation into Fascist propaganda’s use of money-saving as a ploy for the nationalisation of children in primary school. The ideological exploitation of money-saving propaganda began during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, when the Fascist Regime felt the need for the first time to organise the domestic front on a massive scale, but it reached a peak with World War II. Under pressure from the Fascist propaganda apparatus, the banks began to produce posters, flyers, school notebooks and newspapers for children focusing on the younger generations’ participation in the nation’s war effort through money-saving, and to hand out “war money boxes”. The “battle of savings” was, however, a bloodless battle: the tribute that the nation was asking of its children in wartime was not a blood tribute (although it was listed as one of the duties required of Fascist youth organization members), but a tribute of faith and obedience.
The research project focuses on forms of school memory, understood as the individual, collective and public practice of remembering a common school past (Yanes-Cabrera et al., 2017). Individual school memory consists of self-representation supplied by former teachers, members of the school administration, and pupils through oral and written testimonies (e.g., diaries, autobiographies and memoirs in general). Ego-documents have also been widely used as historical sources in the field of historical-educational research (Viñao Frago, 2005) to reconstruct the history of schooling using the lived experiences of its protagonists rather than legislative and institutional sources, in an attempt to open what has been defined as the “black box of schooling” (Julia, 1995).
Collective school memory, on the other hand, is composed of the many ways in which the culture industry (literature, cinema, music, etc.) and the world of information represent school time, teachers and pupils, and it is subject to appreciable transformations. These representations of school past become layered from generation to generation, partly superimposing themselves on personal memories, corrupting factual reality and consolidating themselves into stereotyped narrations. They may also alter our awareness of the past, which is thus transformed into a real space in our imagination that cannot be separated from scientifically-based historical reconstructions (Alfieri, 2019).
Finally, public school memory consists of how schools and teachers are represented in official contexts and public commemorations promoted by local and national institutions based on a precise policy of memory, or public use of the past aimed at gaining consensus and reinforcing the feeling of belonging to a specific community (Yanes-Cabrera et al., 2017). Unlike individual school memory, collective memory and public memory have barely been touched on in historical-education research as they have not been considered a subject of historiographic importance for some time.
In recent years, however, school memory – in its various meanings – has been included in international historiographic thought and has become the subject of studies of notable interest in the field of the history of education both in Latin-American countries and in the Anglo-Saxon world. The study of memory allows us to define how the present looks at the past and interprets or reinterprets it. In this sense, school memory does not interest us merely as a channel to access the schools of the past, but as a key to understanding what we know today or believe we know about schools of the past and how far what we know corresponds to reality, or whether our understanding is merely the result of prejudices and stereotypes that have become ingrained in the common sentiment, and difficult to uproot. The subject of this historical research therefore, does not consist simply of exploring school environments as they once were but consists instead of exploring the complex process of defining the sentiment that has developed over time regarding schools at an individual and collective level, based initially on lived school experiences, followed by other social and cultural agents which have contributed in part to redetermine it.
This new research perspective allows us to address an aspect whose historical dimension has up to now escaped the attention of experts in the field: the evolution of the perceived social status of the various professional profiles involved in the processes of schooling and the public status of education within a community, as well as the public image of schools and the national school system. Studying the methods of collective symbolic representation of schools and teaching over time will help to define the origin of certain burdens that continue to weigh on the public image of schools, as well as making us aware of the overall cultural dimension of these historical phenomena. In addition, studies will restore awareness to all actors in public education of themselves and their roles.
There is no unique, unequivocal school past. There are many of them, which often coexist and alternate with one another. They may conform more or less to historical reality, but they are nevertheless real and influence the views individuals or communities have of that past. This international conference aims to discover these school pasts.
By 30th September 2017, each author must submit a draft of an article in English, using the attached submission form. This form must be sent to the email address: roberto.sani@unimc.it.
By 30th November 2017, each author will be notified the outcome concerning the preliminary assessment and whether the submitted articles have been accepted or rejected.
The subsequent deadline for submitting the final papers, written in English according to the editorial standards of the journal and not longer than 7,000 words (including footnotes, references, tables and captions), is scheduled for 30th September 2018.
Both the drafts and the final articles will be subjected to anonymous peer review, according to the journal’s standards; the Editor will appoint a specific peer-review committee consisting of nationally and internationally renowned scholars with proven expertise in the various thematic areas of this call for papers.
By 30th November 2018, the editors of the issue will notify the authors of any amendments to be made to their contributions, which must be returned by 31st January 2019.
The organizing board of the symposium received an amount of 186 proposals from around the worlds, but only 71 have been accepted: 31 proposals for the session «Individual Memory», 32 for the session «Collective Memory» and 8 only for the session «Politics and Places of Memory». Such a high percentage of rejection (62%) was necessary to make the Symposium the most adhere as much as possible to the scientific programme declared in the call for papers, in order not to weaken the epistemological foundations of the reflection that we want to undertake with the help of all the participants.
This first international review has highlighted different methodological approaches to a theme – the memory of the school – on which the historical reflection has been focusing for some years now, especially in the Iberian and Latin American area alike.
This confirmed how even more necessary it was to organize an international meeting able to put a solid scientific basis to the development of a fertile research field.
Las preguntas a las que pretendemos responder son básicas. ¿Qué queremos decir exactamente con memoria escolar? ¿Puede esa misma ser objeto de investigación histórica? Podemos decir que la memoria escolar constituye una práctica de evocación y recreación individual, colectiva y/o pública de un pasado escolar común y –como tal– puede ser utilizada para estudiar el pasado, así como para definir la forma en que el presente mira al pasado y lo interpreta o reinterpreta. En este sentido –desde un punto de vista histórico-educativo– la memoria escolar no interesa el historiador de la educación sólo como un medio para acceder al pasado escolar, sino también como llave para entender lo que la sociedad actual sabe, o cree saber de la escuela del pasado y cómo eso corresponde con la realidad o es el resultado de los prejuicios y estereotipos ya arraigados en el sentido común. El objeto de estudio del historiador, por lo tanto, no consiste simplemente en considerar la escuela como lo que realmente era, sino en el complejo proceso de definición del sentimiento que de esa escuela ha sido desarrollado a través del tiempo a nivel individual y colectivo, inicialmente sobre la base de una experiencia escolar real y entonces sobre la base de otros agentes sociales y culturales que han contribuido en parte a determinarlo.