Teacher’s training in the Montessori Approach: the debate on the pages of La Coltura Popolare (1911-1922)
In the first two decades of the Twentieth Century, reflections on teacher training were particularly rich, implying the lively and significant participation of a plurality of actors. Even Maria Montessori actively participated in this debate and the meeting with the Humanitarian Society in Milan, and with Augusto Osimo primarily, proved to be very fruitful on these issues. The specialist magazine La Coltura Popolare represents a faithful and interesting mirror of this relationship and of the many reflections and initiatives arose from it, promoting the propagation of the Montessori method and offering at the same time a space for dialogue and comparison of all the most innovative and vivifying voices of the pedagogical reflection of the time. This paper proposes a first and partial reconstruction of the significant role that La Coltura Popolare played, from 1911 to 1922, in soliciting the attention of its public on the topic of teacher training, in spreading the Montessori method, in stimulating a not biased and preconceived comparison between different approaches, experiments and views on childhood.