The Freinet Movements of France, Italy and Germany, 1920-2000 - Versions of Educational Progressivism (Hardcover)

This book plugs a serious gap in the English-language literature on progressivism in education in the twentieth century. It provides a coherent account of the techniques, ideals and impact of the French educator Celestin Freinet (1896-1966), and shows how Freient's work in classrooms, and his tireless activity in organizing a teachers' movement to support and disseminate his approach, both reflect the conditions in French primary schools and the professional attitudes of French primary teachers. All teachers work against the grain. Their efforts are troubling because learners react in unexpected ways. They work, therefore, in situations where the outcomes cannot be anticipated. In short, teaching is risky. Put another way, there is a paradox at the heart of all teaching. By using the word paradox, I am suggesting that such activity is practically possible yet logically unreasonable. Teachers are always searching for the key to learning, knowing that they dare not find it. A paradigm case of this educational paradox is provided by the phenomenon of self-instruction. How is it possible for the same person to be both teacher and learner? For the same reason, bittersweet is the emotional outcome of this paradox. The existential sweetness of the teacher's claim that 'they learned everything I taught them' might also be forced to co-habit with the bitterness of 'but, in turn, they used their learning to reject everything I taught them'. Such contradictory feelings may be aroused elsewhere in education. Educational researchers constantly wrestling with the classical paradox: if you don't know what you are looking for, how will you know when you have found it? And, if you know what you are looking for, why are you looking? Likewise, teachers find it difficult to live with imponderable questions like 'how can I teach intellectual autonomy?', knowing that the consequence of success could be teaching themselves out of a job. Yet they continue.