Women’s Activism and Innovation in Education: the Role of the Unione Femminile Nazionale in Sicily for the Transformation of Italian Pedagogy at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

• Main Author: Letterio Todaro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: FahrenHouse 2017-01-01
• Series: Espacio, Tiempo y Educación
• Subjects: Active school; Childhood; Democracy; School-Reforms; Women Organizations
• Online Access: http://www.espaciotiempoyeducacion.com/ojs/index.php/ete/article/view/111

The beginning of the twentieth century represented a special occasion in the development of women’s movements as a vehicle for a new culture of education. The growing role of women’s associations in modern society found fertile ground in the increasing demand for childcare. In Italy such a process reflected a meaningful phenomenon of social transformation, which was linked to the ascent of the lower classes and to the progression of democratic values. In a region like Sicily, the appearance of local branches of the Unione Femminile Nazionale in some principal cities of the isle, such as Catania, from 1909 onwards represented a crucial opportunity not only for the social and cultural elevation of working-class children, but also for the introduction of new models of schooling and the experimentation of new methods in education, within the wider framework of a general renewal in the science of education of the time. The most representative witness and «learner» of these innovative approaches to education was Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, who was to «transfer» many aspects of his experience into the reform of the entire primary school system in Italy (1923) in line with the design of «active schooling». A survey of the experience of the Sicilian sections of the Unione provides not only a significant example of civilization processes promoted by women’s activism, but also a key to better understanding the wealth of resources involved in the construction of a modern pedagogy in Italy before the coming of Fascism.