The “Educational Laboratory”: American Educators Visit Soviet Schools, 1925–1929

Progressive educators who travelled to the Soviet Union in the 1920s were often enthusiastic about the schools they visited, despite the fact that early Soviet educational reform had been chaotic and largely unsuccessful. The accounts of five such visitors, John Dewey, Scott Nearing, Lucy L.W. Wilson, Carleton Washburne, and George S. Counts are examined here. They show that this discrepancy between perception and reality was not the result of naivety or even self-censorship. Rather, I argue that the progressive education movement’s utopian outlook was a key factor in these educators’ reception of Soviet schools, enabling them to recognize serious shortcomings, while maintaining they were among the most important schools in the world. In their orientation to the future, they viewed Soviet schools as a laboratory, whose findings could advance the cause of the broader progressive education movement.

Memoria e educação: "O Espírito Victorioso", de Cecília Meireles

Procura reconstituir a trajetória de Cecília Meireles, uma das pioneiras da Escola Nova, focalizando três estações por ela percorridas cujo eixo principal é sua tese O Espírito Victorioso, com a qual se submete ao concurso público para ocupar a cátedra de Literatura Vernácula da Escola Normal do Distrito Federal. O nome próprio Cecília Meireles representa a forma socialmente instituída que lhe assegura a constância através do tempo e a unidade através dos espaços sociais, que são a manifestação de sua individualidade nos mais diversos campos: educacional, jornalístico e literário, isto é, em todas as suas histórias possíveis. A moldura do movimento da Educação Nova que se desejava implantar foi, em parte, obra plástica de Cecília Meireles. Abstract This article is intended to reconstruct the trajectory of a pioneer of the Progressive Education Movement in Brazil, whose name is Cecília Meireles. It highlights the three seasons that she went through, which the main axis is her thesis on The Victorious Spirit. This thesis made it possible for her to go through the examination to occupy the chair of Vernacular Literature at Escola Normal do Distrito Tederai. The proper name Cecília Meireles portrays the institutionalized social form that assures her constancy through the years and the unity through the social spaces, which are the manifestation of her individuality in various fields: Educational, Journalistic and Literary; that is to say, in all her possible histories. The Progressive Education movement's molding, intended to be implanted, was, in part, Cecília Meireles ' plastic art. Résumé Le travail essaye de reconstituer la trajectoire de Cecilia Meireles, une des pionières de l'Ecole Nouvelle, en y détachant trois saisons par elle parcourues dont l'axe principal c'est sa thèse L'Esprit Vainqueur, avec laquelle elle se soumet au concours pour occuper le Cadre de Littérature Vernacule de l'Ecole Normale du Distrito Federal. Le nom propre Cecília Meireles représente la forme socialement instituée que lui assure la continuité dans le temps et l'unité à travers les espaces sociaux, qui sont les manifestations de son individualité dans plusieurs champs: l'éducatif le journalistique et le littéraire, c 'est-à-dire, dans toutes ses histoires possibles. L'encadrement de l'Ecole Nouvelle qu'on voulait implanter a été, en partie, une oeuvre plastique de Cecília Meireles. Resumen El trabajo busca reconstituir la trayectoria de Cecília Meireles, una de las pioneras de Ia Escuela Nueva, destacando tres estaciones recorridas por ella cuyo eje principal es su tesis "El Espíritu Victorioso ", con la cual se somete al concurso para ocupar la Cátedra de Literatura Vernácula de la Escuela Normal del Distrito Federai. El nombre propio Cecília Meireles representa la horma socialmente instituida que le asegura la constancia a través del tiempo y la unidad a través de los espacios sociales, que son la manifestación de su individualidad en los más diversos campos: educacional, periodístico y literario, es decir, en todas las sus historias posibles. La moldura del movimiento de la Escuela Nueva que se deseaba implantar fue, en parte, obra plástica de Cecília Meireles.

SCHOOL REFORM AS PROGRESSIVE STATECRAFT: EDUCATION POLICY IN NEW YORK UNDER GOVERNOR ALFRED E. SMITH, 1919–1928

Since the Progressive Era itself, scholars have exhibited strong interest in the connections between progressivism and education. Historical studies have elucidated countless ways that such reformist impulses as the settlement house movement, the country life movement, the progressive education movement, the “cult of efficiency,” and battles against social ills like child labor influenced early twentieth-century education policy.1Indeed, as historian Lawrence Cremin has contended, “the Progressive mind was ultimately an educator's mind, and … its characteristic contribution was that of a socially responsible reformist pedagogue.”2

Mediating the Sources and Benefits of Teacher Self-Efficacy for Systemic Transformative Meaning-Making

Educating the whole child, the basis of U.S. education and the progressive education movement, is imperative for teacher candidates to understand and implement their work associated with teaching, learning, and schooling P-12 learners. Thus, educating the whole teacher candidate is essential for teacher educators to emphasize and facilitate in their work in teacher preparation to optimize candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Recognizing candidates' immediate concerns and their pre-existing conditions, teacher educators strive to build teacher capacity. Framing teacher candidates' personal growth, professional development, pedagogical expertise, and political astuteness on the four sources of self-efficacy leads to a life-long journey of critical consciousness and systemic transformative meaning-making. From this research, teacher candidates provide insights and inspirations beneficial for both teacher educators and teacher candidates to improve their practices and increase their self-efficacy evident in their educator preparation programs and future P-12 classrooms.

Educating for Peace: The Role and Impact of International Organisations in Interwar and Post-War Danish School Experiments, 1918–1975

In the aftermath of the two world wars, strong international networks and organisations manifested themselves with promotion of peace through education on their agenda. Danish pedagogical experiments and experimental schools were strongly influenced by these trends and played a role in subsequent school practices and policies. Drawing on the notions of “the transnational” and “trading spaces” as well as the theoretical concepts of transfer, translation, and transformation, this article addresses the following research question: How were international ideas, knowledge and practice of promoting peace through education transferred, translated, and transformed in Danish school experiments in interwar and post-war scenarios? In exploring this question, the article uses transnational and Danish archival sources as well as journals and reports linked to the Danish progressive education movement. Thus, the article contributes to our understanding of the entanglements of educational ideas and to how trends of internationalisation and globalisation work.

The Possibility of an Unbiased History of Steiner/Waldorf Education?

In many respects, and certainly with regard to his educational ideas, Rudolf Steiner was a child of his time. Trust in the natural goodness of the child that became more and more central, belief in an evolutionist development of both individuals and humanity as a whole, the emphasis on a holistic education realised through a community of teachers, parents and children; all of these were ideas that Steiner shared with other key figures of the progressive education movement, which began in the late nineteenth century. In line with the existing historiography on progressive education (Reformpädagogik) in general, historical research on the figure of Steiner, and particularly on the development of the schools and the educational system named after him, is characterised by paying considerable attention to the years of foundation in the interwar period on the one hand and to current practices on the other, in that way largely neglecting the developments during the second half of the twentieth century.

Lost Childhoods in a New China: Child-Citizen-Workers at War, 1937–1945

This article examines the emerging discourse of child-citizen-workers in wartime China and demonstrates how this concept of children’s citizenship was put into practice in work training programs within wartime children’s homes. This article argues that the idea of child-citizen-workers grew from three pre-war antecedents that converged and were greatly accelerated by China’s war with Japan: the new idea of an autonomous sphere of childhood articulated during the early Republican period; a progressive education movement to introduce labor training and experiential learning as essential elements of modern education; and Nationalist state-building and activist efforts at family reform, which viewed traditional parents with distrust and increasingly intervened in family life. The second half of the article focuses particularly on orphans, who were considered potentially unstable social elements due to their position outside the control of families, and whose lack of parental protection made them available for appropriation. This article demonstrates that the war opened up a space in which Guomindang state-builders, working with educators and childcare workers, attempted to restructure orphans lives within wartime child welfare institutions to realize a vision for China’s future: the ideal of child-citizen-workers habituated toward sacrifice for the nation.