New School and democracy in Italy and Europe

Abstract

The article reconstructs the characteristics and nature of the relationship between innovative practices of the educational forefront of active teaching, the processes of democratisation and the movement of the New School in the framework of the process of renewal of Italian and European educational culture in the early 20th century. This area of research, poorly developed in Italy, revises the set of connections linking the Italian educational renewal with the processes of democratic expansion of the instruction, the horizons of progress that the incipient experimental pedagogy proposes and the changing role of education recognised as a driving force for social, civil and economic development of society. This is a period with numerous and significant educational and pedagogical practices that promote the processes of transformation and school reform, which mature in a democratic sense, associated with social and philanthropic work for the protection of children’s rights, the literacy process and popular education. In such a context, the basis for a new relationship between New School and democracy arise, which will suffer a serious setback with the progressive consolidation of the fascist regime.

Keywords: New School, democracy, education, Popular Education; Experimental Pedagogy.