The long and arduous path to the Unification of Italy, officially celebrated on 17 March 1861, began a new phase in the life of the nation. As is widely known, thanks to copious historiographical debate, the central objective of the complicated construction of Italy’s nationhood was industrial and social modernization; this could not be achieved without a constant struggle against the illiteracy and lack of education that characterized large swathes of the population, who had traditionally been excluded from schooling opportunities. The strategy for adapting the Italian manufacturing industry in line with that of the other, more advanced European nations was based on two fundamental pillars: the nationwide spread of elementary schooling, based on a national curriculum and coherent quality standards, and the introduction of a policy for teacher recruitment. Due to the impossibility of preparing and launching a commission of experts that could give life to a national plan for the development and dissemination of schools, the government, led by Prime Minister Camillo Benso di Cavour, decided to adopt a procedure destined to have lasting consequences on the educational structure of Italy: the previous school legislation that had been proposed by Minister Gabrio Casati for the Kingdom of Savoy and enacted in 1859 was extended across the entire nation. The Casati law thereby became the fundamental legal framework until the additions and amendments made by subsequent laws and decrees, beginning in the 1880s. The statistics of the time confirm that it was almost impossible to combat illiteracy: the census carried out in 1861 reminds us that the average male illiteracy rate stood at 72%, while for women it was 84%, with peaks of 95% in the southern regions. The urgency of creating numerous schools from scratch to meet the emerging need for literacy also brought to light the lack of qualified personnel: there were very few teachers, and those that did exist had limited cultural and didactic skills. This professional void was readily filled by women; after attending the Normal Schools and obtaining their diploma, they rapidly took up posts among the teaching staff in elementary schools. The profiles of the women who ventured into the only sector of the world of work guaranteed by their cultural training were varied and differentiated: from daughters of the petty bourgeoisie to those of humble families—girls endeavouring to escape poverty thanks to benefactors and philanthropists who paid for their studies; there were also girls maintained by charity institutions who studied under the protective wings of nuns, who instructed them on how to pass exams. In this first phase of the national education rollout, we rarely find figures belonging to the upper bourgeoisie or the petty nobility: work for women was still equated with a loss of dignity, or perceived as a distraction from their real vocation: a suitable marriage. The obvious contradictions of the school system and the impact of a class of children with urgent need of hygiene and health care, in addition to instruction, prompted the ruling classes to reflect on the levels of professionalism it was feasible to acquire. Despite the revolutionary school programmes that had been set up towards the end of the century, the system was still largely inefficient, and the weakness and cultural limitations of the Normal Schools were exposed, ultimately reducing the formative role attributed it. The need to carry out the work in the best possible way and improve professional training gradually developed into an emergency, for which convincing solutions had to be proposed; the most suitable found, and the one that proved to be fully responsive to the expectations that arose from various environments of the educated class were the pedagogical journals; these were aimed at teachers and educators, and, innovatively, it was the teachers themselves, the directors of the Normal Schools and the boarding schools to launch themselves into these publishing enterprises. This gave them a space for dialogue with their readers, where they could provide advice and suggestions, as well as information on positions to be filled. The experiment created a network that seemed to work well, despite the financial problems and lack of experience they had previously in the journalism sector. We can highlight two distinct phases of their focus: the first had the aim of elevating the pedagogical and didactic culture of the teachers, providing them with materials, insights and texts to be used with the students, and the second to develop the precise profile of a professional identity; this would involve the capacity to organize demands at the national level, among these trade union rights, wage claims, and recruitment protocols. Among the various examples of pedagogical journals printed, we decided to look deeper into La educatrice italiana, published in Florence from 1863 to 1865, under the aegis of Luisa Amelia Paladini, teacher, instructor, and then director of the Normal Schools of Florence.
Building a Professional Identity as Women Teachers in the Late Nineteenth Century
Antonella Cagnolati
2023-01-01
Abstract
The long and arduous path to the Unification of Italy, officially celebrated on 17 March 1861, began a new phase in the life of the nation. As is widely known, thanks to copious historiographical debate, the central objective of the complicated construction of Italy’s nationhood was industrial and social modernization; this could not be achieved without a constant struggle against the illiteracy and lack of education that characterized large swathes of the population, who had traditionally been excluded from schooling opportunities. The strategy for adapting the Italian manufacturing industry in line with that of the other, more advanced European nations was based on two fundamental pillars: the nationwide spread of elementary schooling, based on a national curriculum and coherent quality standards, and the introduction of a policy for teacher recruitment. Due to the impossibility of preparing and launching a commission of experts that could give life to a national plan for the development and dissemination of schools, the government, led by Prime Minister Camillo Benso di Cavour, decided to adopt a procedure destined to have lasting consequences on the educational structure of Italy: the previous school legislation that had been proposed by Minister Gabrio Casati for the Kingdom of Savoy and enacted in 1859 was extended across the entire nation. The Casati law thereby became the fundamental legal framework until the additions and amendments made by subsequent laws and decrees, beginning in the 1880s. The statistics of the time confirm that it was almost impossible to combat illiteracy: the census carried out in 1861 reminds us that the average male illiteracy rate stood at 72%, while for women it was 84%, with peaks of 95% in the southern regions. The urgency of creating numerous schools from scratch to meet the emerging need for literacy also brought to light the lack of qualified personnel: there were very few teachers, and those that did exist had limited cultural and didactic skills. This professional void was readily filled by women; after attending the Normal Schools and obtaining their diploma, they rapidly took up posts among the teaching staff in elementary schools. The profiles of the women who ventured into the only sector of the world of work guaranteed by their cultural training were varied and differentiated: from daughters of the petty bourgeoisie to those of humble families—girls endeavouring to escape poverty thanks to benefactors and philanthropists who paid for their studies; there were also girls maintained by charity institutions who studied under the protective wings of nuns, who instructed them on how to pass exams. In this first phase of the national education rollout, we rarely find figures belonging to the upper bourgeoisie or the petty nobility: work for women was still equated with a loss of dignity, or perceived as a distraction from their real vocation: a suitable marriage. The obvious contradictions of the school system and the impact of a class of children with urgent need of hygiene and health care, in addition to instruction, prompted the ruling classes to reflect on the levels of professionalism it was feasible to acquire. Despite the revolutionary school programmes that had been set up towards the end of the century, the system was still largely inefficient, and the weakness and cultural limitations of the Normal Schools were exposed, ultimately reducing the formative role attributed it. The need to carry out the work in the best possible way and improve professional training gradually developed into an emergency, for which convincing solutions had to be proposed; the most suitable found, and the one that proved to be fully responsive to the expectations that arose from various environments of the educated class were the pedagogical journals; these were aimed at teachers and educators, and, innovatively, it was the teachers themselves, the directors of the Normal Schools and the boarding schools to launch themselves into these publishing enterprises. This gave them a space for dialogue with their readers, where they could provide advice and suggestions, as well as information on positions to be filled. The experiment created a network that seemed to work well, despite the financial problems and lack of experience they had previously in the journalism sector. We can highlight two distinct phases of their focus: the first had the aim of elevating the pedagogical and didactic culture of the teachers, providing them with materials, insights and texts to be used with the students, and the second to develop the precise profile of a professional identity; this would involve the capacity to organize demands at the national level, among these trade union rights, wage claims, and recruitment protocols. Among the various examples of pedagogical journals printed, we decided to look deeper into La educatrice italiana, published in Florence from 1863 to 1865, under the aegis of Luisa Amelia Paladini, teacher, instructor, and then director of the Normal Schools of Florence.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
