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- Title
Frictions and fractions in the new education fellowship, 1920s-1930s: Montessori(ans) vs. Decroly(ans).
- Authors
Van Gorp, Angelo; Simon, Frank; Depaepe, Marc
- Abstract
The role of important figures and their interconnections has been vital in the existence and development of the New Education Fellowship (NEF). Already from the very beginning the NEF struggled with rivalries partly due to the adoration some of these coryphaei enjoyed by their followers. This affected the so highly-praised solidarity and close cooperation for the benefit of the child. During the 1920s and 1930s a conflict ran on between Montessorians and Decrolyans, culminated at the Locarno congress (1927) and actually held the potency to undermine the NEF. These two camps propagated Il Metodo (1909) or La Méthode Decroly (1922), and for this purpose made use of Pour l’ère nouvelle, one of the NEF journals. We particularly observed this rivalry within the context of the Low Countries, Belgium and The Netherlands, although the conflict had a wider international character. In The Netherlands, the controversy carried on by the ambiguous Montessorian-Decrolyan Cornelia Philippi-Siewertsz van Reesema, who supported an ‘experimental eclecticism’, ended in a division of the Montessori Society. Even Montessori’s son, Mario, interfered by publishing a «philippic». In the long run, top people as Ensor, Ferrière, Claparède and Bovet – the last two likewise advocates of experimental eclecticism – were compelled to take up a position in order to restrain the conflict, to emphasise again the NEF’s internationality and to guarantee its survival.
- Subjects
HISTORY of philosophy of education; MONTESSORI method of education; DECROLY, Ovide, 1871-1932; EDUCATION methodology; INTERNATIONAL cooperation on education; HISTORY
- Publication
History of Education & Children's Literature, 2017, Vol 12, Issue 1, p251
- ISSN
1971-1093
- Publication type
Article