Pour une école coopérative et socialement engagée: diffusion et révision de l’œuvre de Célestin Freinet en Italie

For a cooperative and socially committed school: the dissemination and reworking of Célestin Freinet’s pedagogy in Italy ABSTRACT: After the Second World War and during the difficult years of material and social reconstruction in Italy, the school system remained fundamentally the same as that created by fascism. Not only the organisation and general management of the schools, but the culture among the teachers and headmasters was strongly linked to the past and an idealist concept of education. The birth in 1951 of the Cooperative Education Association (MCE) – directly inspired by Célestin Freinet’s work – represented the cultural renewal of schools, both in terms of the didactical method and, above all, the theory of education and its relationship with society. Freinet’s opinion, together with that of Dewey and American progressive education, made people think of the school as an institution with democratic education as its main objective. Above all, Freinet’s communitarian and popular ideal allowed Italian teachers to leave the vestiges of state employees, who obey ministerial orders, to do those of intellectuals, who aspire to make a contribution to improve the living conditions of marginalised classes. The contrast with the middle class culture and the lay concept of the educational and political inspiration of Freinet’s pedagogy were the reasons for its success among Italian teachers. These teachers developed a version that was well-tuned to the founder’s intentions, where were gradually updated depending on the new social, economic and cultural frameworks that the school encountered. Nevertheless, the diffusion and efficacy of these characteristics were limited. The laboratory cooperative approach was a significant yet minor part that was isolated from Italian teaching and it was not able to past the confines of primary school. Towards the end of the twentieth century, this became an experience that could not regain the momentum and international dimension of its origins.