03554 - History of Schooling

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will:

• know and understand the history of Italian school system since Italian unification to the present, considering both legislation and actual school;

• know and understand the history of the teaching profession with a focus on the initial training and on-the-job training, the career mobility, the teachers' associations and the practical tools of the profession, also from the gender perspective;

• know and undestand the historical dimension of didactics tools as school manuals, scholastic equipment or the management of the disscipline in the classroom;

• understand the historical dimension of contents and tools of the school subjects;

• know the recent debate related to the history of education and history of schooling.

 

Course contents

 

Where are we really entering when we come in a classroom? Are we just looking at the present, or as a product of historic change ? Why are students lined up in pairs?  Why do children play with Lego in pre-school? Why are there posters hung on the wall? Why do we study spelling and arithmetic? Where do subjects come from? Have they always been taught like this? 

How has the present school setting been designed? Were there alternative models during the history?

What is a textbook and which kind of textbooks should we choose?

Moreover, who is a teacher? Historically, how has been teaching profession developed during the time? 

The coursework will commence and develop these issues that belong to everyone's life. Indeed, we all have been students, often unaware of the history of schooling. Therefore, the Course of History of Schooling aims to offer to the students knowledge and useful elements for a historical-critical reflection about the scholastic institution, in its inner aspects, and in the teaching profession, helpful to reach a greater awareness of their role as teachers in the future.

One part of the course will give the fundamental coordinates about the history of Italian school system, since the nineteenth century to the present through both legislative perspective, including cultural and educational elements, with a particular focus on the historic evolution of the teaching profession: initial and in progress training, social identity and mobility, associations and political participation, particularly significant figures of past teachers of pre-school and primary school as case study. This will be provided by theoretical lesson about the historical framework, power point, videos, DVD, readings of books of that time and meetings with witnesses of the school during the 70s and the 80s which will tell us about the active school practiced following Freinet and Ciari's footsteps. Individual research about teachers biographies and histories of local school will be promoted, meant as forms of citizenship and heritage education.

An other part of the course will focus on a critical and historical analysis of the black box of schooling, in other words the complex educational practice used by the teachers between the past and the present, which is contained in didactis practices and which is still used too often unconsciously. In particular, we will discuss the teaching tools of teaching profession and school system, analysing: scholastic handbooks, school notebooks, subjects and teaching tools as blackboard or didactic museums, and time and space management. Power point, videos, and also guided visits to museums, schools, libraries and meetings will be used along with meetings with witness of schooling during the 70s and the 80s.

Possible changes will be promptly communicated before the beginning of the Course, that is expected during the first cicle of lessons in autumn 2018.

PLEASE NOTE: This program is for a.a. 2018/2019. Students from past years must refer to the program of their year of enrollement that can be find through the menu.

Readings/Bibliography

• The attendance is highly recommended. During the course, the volumes to sudy and the best way to do it will be extensively explained.

A) Attending students (students who will attend 2/3 of the lessons) must study the following 3 texts:

Mandatory for everyone

• M. D’Ascenzo, Alberto Calderara. Microstoria di una professione docente tra Otto e Novecento, Bologna, CLUEB, 2011.   

• M. D’Ascenzo, Per una storia delle scuole all’aperto in Italia, Pisa, ETS, 2018.

A text chosen from the following

• M. Attinà, La scuola primaria. L’anima della tradizione, le forme della modernità, Milano, Mondadori, 2011.

  A. Bernardini, Un anno a Pietralata, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1968.

  P. Bianchini, Le origini delle materie. Discipline, programmi e manuali scolastici in Italia, Torino, SEI, 2011 (solo introduzione e due capitoli a scelta).

  M. Castoldi, Insegnare libertà. Storie di maestri antifascisti, Roma, Donzelli editore, 2018.

• B. Ciari, I modi dell’insegnare, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1972.

  F. Codello, I. Stella, Liberi di imparare. Le esperienze di scuola non autoritaria in Italia e all’estero raccontate dai protagonisti, Firenze, Aam Editrice Terra Nuova, 2011.

  M. D’Ascenzo, Col libro in mano. Maestri, editoria e vita scolastica tra Otto e Novecento, Torino, SEI, 2013 (escluso il capitolo II). Il volume è scaricabile al seguente link http://campus.unibo.it/id/eprint/293742

  M. D'Ascenzo, R. Vignoli, Scuola, didattica e musei tra Otto e Novecento. Il Museo didattico 'Luigi Bombicci' di Bologna, Bologna, CLUEB, 2008 (primi tre capitoli).

  M. D’Ascenzo, Tra centro e periferia. La scuola elementare a Bologna dalla Daneo-Credaro all’avocazione statale (1911-1933), Bologna, Clueb, 2012 (esclusi i capp. 1 e 2).

  M. D’Ascenzo (a cura di), Tutti a scuola? L’istruzione elementare nella pianura bolognese tra Otto e Novecento, Bologna, CLUEB, 2013 (studiare fino a p. 69 e scegliere altri due saggi).

  M. D’Ascenzo, G. Ventura (a cura di), Dalla parte delle maestre. La stagione pedagogica di Virginia Predieri, Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, 2016 (solo introduzione e primi tre capitoli).

  C. Edwards, L. Gandini, G. Forman, I cento linguaggi dei bambini. L’approccio di Reggio Emilia all’educazione dell’infanzia, Bergamo, Junior, 1995.

  F. Fadda Silvetti, La mia Asinara. Ricordi di una maestra, Sassari, Carlo Delfino editore, 2011.

  R. Farnè, Alberto Manzi. L’avventura di un maestro, Bologna, BUP, 2011.

  R. S. Di Pol, L’istruzione infantile in Italia. Dal Risorgimento alla Riforma Moratti, Torino, MarcoValerio, 2005.

  R. S. Di Pol, Cultura pedagogica e professionalità nella formazione del maestro italiano. Dal Risorgimento ai giorni nostri, Torino, Marco Valerio, 2003.

  A. Escolano Benito, La cultura empirica della scuola, Ferrara, Volta la Carta, 2016.

  J. Meda, Mezzi Di Educazione Di Massa. Saggi di storia della cultura materiale della scuola tra XIX e XX secolo, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2017 (solo introduzione e due capitoli a scelta).

  R. Nigrisoli, La mia scuola, a cura di F. Borruso, Milano, Unicopli, 2011.

  D. Ragazzini, Tempi di scuola e tempi di vita. Organizzazione sociale e scolarizzazione dell’infanzia, Versione 2.0., GoWare, 2012 (versione digitale).

  M. Rossi Doria, Di mestiere faccio il maestro, Napoli, L'ancora del Mediterraneo, 1999.

  O. Rossi Casottana, Giuseppina Pizzigoni e la ‘Rinnovata’ di Milano, Brescia, La Scuola, 2004.

  G. Zavalloni, La pedagogia della lumaca. Per una scuola lenta e nonviolenta
  Bologna, EMI, 2008.

B) Non attending students (students who will not attend 2/3 of the lessons) must study:

• S. Santamaita, Storia della scuola, Milano, Mondadori, 2010.
• M. D’Ascenzo, Alberto Calderara. Microstoria di una professione docente tra Otto e Novecento, Bologna, Clueb, 2011.
• M. D’Ascenzo, Per una storia delle scuole all’aperto in Italia e il caso di Bologna, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2018.

 

Erasmus students and students who are coming from different courses of study are invited to contact the professor directly by mail or during the weekly teacher's office hours to define ad hoc coursework and exam methods.

Teaching methods

 

Frontal lessons about the general framework and in-depth analysis with an invite to discussion.

View of videos and seminar lessons directed to involve students in the different researches developed in the course.

Guided visits on the territory and participation to external events are planned as well, into the Festa Internazionale della Storia.

An educational trip will be made to one of the following possible destinations: Villaggio CEIS di Rimini, Museo dell’Educazione di Padova, Scuola di Barbiana, Scuola Rinnovata ‘Pizzigoni’ a Milano, Scuola città ‘Pestalozzi’ a Firenze, Scuola del Progetto ‘Saltafossi’ a Cadriano (Bologna).

It will be possible to plan individual or small group work about themes of interest proposed by the students during the lessons, also in a perspective of knowledge and protection of the scholastic heritage of the past. These works will be eventually discussed by the students during the course and will contribute to the final grade of the exam.

Assessment methods

 

The exam will consist in an oral test for attending students, a written test for non attending students.

The exam will consist in a written test of four questions and will last 120 minutes.

It will be organised on four questions that have to be answered with a short essay. To pass the exam it is necessary to answer to all the four questions. Each answer will be valued with a scale of 30 and the final grade will be resulted from the avarage grade.

The grade point avarage is express with a scale of 30.

The result of the exam will be communicated on the platform "Almaesami".

The evaluation criteria, both for oral and written test, will follow these indicators:

• ability to analyse a topic properly, synthetically and exhaustively;

• theoretical clarity, linguistic accuracy and the use of the specific discipline language;

• ability to re-elaborate critically and personally, also with references to the lessons.

PLEASE NOTE: to attend the exam it is necessary to enroll through the platform "Almaesami" respecting the deadlines. Those who failed to enroll for technical problems by the deadline, must communicate promptly the problem to the teaching secretariat before the official closure of the enrolling list. It will be faculty of the professor admit them to attend the exam.

 

 

Teaching tools

Power point, videos, and other materials will be used during the lessons. They will not be uploaded on the web site.

Participation in events within the program of the International Festival of History, and guided visits to library, archives, schools and museums are planned.

Office hours

See the website of Mirella D'Ascenzo