UCLA History Graduate Colloquium

Abstract: This paper explores the development and transformation of Italian normal schools (State-run teacher training institutes), exposing them as central mechanisms in both the Italian nationalizing project and the changing public and symbolic roles of women. Utilizing government reform bills, normal school bylaws and annual reports, as well as the writing of pedagogical theorists and teachers themselves, the paper spans from the early inception of schools of method in the 1840s to the co-education of normal schools just before the First World War. As part of a larger project on the Italian public education system, this paper argues that the normal school played an essential role not only in the professionalization, but the feminization of the elementary school teacher. This development represents not just the economically expedient reaction to a need for inexpensive labor, but a transformation brought on by an increasingly centralized and secular State, new pedagogical theory, and profound shifts in gender and social relations.

Attached is Ms. Kazdan’s pre-circulated paper. After his opening remarks, guests are welcomed to ask questions and give feedback. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.