The professor of pedagogy and Italian textbooks between the 19th and the 20th centuries
The aim of the present contribution is to chart the history of how pedagogy was taught in Italy by analysing the professional figure and teaching activities of the professors of pedagogy, as well as the textbooks they used in their work. Two periods are considered separately: one from the early 1880s up until 1897, during which the Italian positivist culture made a serious effort to renew its teaching programmes and methods; the other from the turn of the century until just before the Great War, when the positivistic cultural and professional model began to lose ground, partly due to a new, radically different – even opposite – way of thinking. The lively debate that developed in the years before the war led to a severe criticism of the outcomes of the previously implemented innovations, paving the way to new proposals founded on the philosophical and pedagogical thinking of neo-idealism. This took concrete shape in the reform of the educational system that, even today, remains associated with the name of Giovanni Gentile (Minister for Public Education in Mussolini's government), who launched the reform. (DIPF/Orig.) ; Der Autor analysiert die pädagogischen Handbücher für die Lehrerbildung (der Primar- und Sekundarstufe) in Bezug auf die Epoche des Positivismus. (DIPF/Orig.)
