Angelo Van Gorp

The school desk: from concept to object

In the authors’ aim to go beyond the ‘silent’ school desk they returned to sources such as public contracts, photographs, advertising leaflets and (the often neglected) patents kept in the municipal archives of Brussels. In this article, they focus on the first half of the twentieth century and two phases of the ‘life‐cycle’ of the school desk, namely the design phase on the one hand and the production phase on the other hand. What desks were designed and by whom (cf. patents)? Which desks were effectively produced for use in the municipal schools of Brussels? The transition between these two phases – the place where only some designs were brought to ‘life’ – occupies a special place. The paper concludes with a case study on the school furniture of Oscar Brodsky, a designer who kindled the authors’ interest through his publicity campaign of the 1920s and 1930s.

About Pedagogization: From the Perspective of the History of Education

For history researchers, it is not a needless luxury to consider from time to time the content and the significance of the basic concepts they use, certainly if they have the ambition to interpret and/or explain history in addition to purely describing it. This self-reflection, compelled by the annually recurring dialogue with educational philosophers (cf. Smeyers & Depaepe, 2006),2 need not necessarily place an emphasis on philosophical abstraction but can just as well start from an examination of the history of one’s own research. Such an approach need not succumb to navel-gazing. Instead, such historical self-reflection possibly points to the creeping (and thereby largely unconscious) shifts in meaning that accompany various fashions (consider the swirling ‘turns’ of recent years), which affect the social scientific vocabulary (historiographic, philosophical, pedagogical, psychological sociological, etc.). By rendering such developments explicit, the epistemological wrestling with the stream of experiences we call ‘history’, a process that can be chaotic, may in the future perhaps be somewhat less sloppy. Admittedly, even the most critical concepts that emerged from our own work (which is discussed here) were not always used with methodological care and/or theoretical purity.

Education in Motion: Uses of Documentary Film in Educational Research.

This paper explores the challenges for social and cultural historians of education of using documentary films on schools and schooling as a research resource. It draws upon the outcomes of the British Academy-funded Documentary Film in Educational Research project, an international study that focused on developing methodological frameworks for researching school documentaries. The paper offers definitions of the notion of documentary and considers the range of styles and forms that constitute “school documentaries”. Among the salient methodological issues examined is the potential for documentary film to be used both as a source and an object of study. These multi-dimensional possibilities raise a series of questions about different status and usages of documentary footage according to research context and about the myriad social, production, genre and technological contexts in which readings of school documentaries are embedded. The paper argues the need for historians of education to develop networks that can contribute not only to academic study of school documentaries but also to the urgent work of archiving and circulating films.

The myth of The Phoenix: progressive education, migration and the shaping of the welfare state, 1985–2015

Abstract Since the 1970s, many western welfare states have been subject both to increased migration and to a renewed interest in progressive education. The present article addresses the question of whether these two phenomena are related and how changing notions of the welfare state shape and are shaped by this relationship. To answer the question, we concentrate our attention on the case study of Ghent (Belgium), which from the 1970s onwards has been characterised not only by a growing ethnic diversity but also by a renewed interest in progressive educational initiatives. Drawing on oral history with key figures in the local educational field and research in school archives, this article indicates that progressive initiatives in the last few decades have indeed emerged as an answer to migration patterns. But whereas initial initiatives in the 1980s arose from an endeavour to cater for the migrant child, some recent initiatives arose from an attempt to exclude the same child.

The Decroly School in Documentaries (1930s-1950s): Contextualising Propaganda from within.

Propaganda is conspicuous for what it conceals and always cautious about what it reveals. Starting from the assumption that all documentaries on the Decroly School in Uccle (Brussels), the school Ovide Decroly (1871–1932) founded in 1907, are propaganda, this article tackles the question as to how to “read” this particular set of Decrolyan propaganda documentaries. The author will do that on the basis of two documentaries – Pour la vie, par la vie (1946–1947) and Le Jardin d’enfants à l’École Decroly (1952–1953) – and focus on what he calls a contextualising “from within”: a filmic reading as part of a historical reading. What does the “genre” of the propaganda documentary, the way these films are constructed, reveal about the Decroly Method, the Decroly School and the Decrolyans? This implies that one needs to try to unravel the “grammar” or “semiotics” of the films. As a result, this article is starting with a methodological reflection on how to read (propaganda documentary) film, after which the author outlines briefly the production context of the Decroly films. The subsequent sections relate this context to a contextualisation “from within”, focusing on the voice-over and the sounds, the framed images and the camera work, particularly related to the way space, children and adults are depicted, and finally the editing work, particularly referring to some striking sequences.Propaganda is conspicuous for what it conceals and always cautious about what it reveals. Starting from the assumption that all documentaries on the Decroly School in Uccle (Brussels), the school Ovide Decroly (1871–1932) founded in 1907, are propaganda, this article tackles the question as to how to “read” this particular set of Decrolyan propaganda documentaries. The author will do that on the basis of two documentaries – Pour la vie, par la vie (1946–1947) and Le Jardin d’enfants a l’Ecole Decroly (1952–1953) – and focus on what he calls a contextualising “from within”: a filmic reading as part of a historical reading. What does the “genre” of the propaganda documentary, the way these films are constructed, reveal about the Decroly Method, the Decroly School and the Decrolyans? This implies that one needs to try to unravel the “grammar” or “semiotics” of the films. As a result, this article is starting with a methodological reflection on how to read (propaganda documentary) film, after which the author...

Persistenz einer Nischenschule: Hundert Jahre Decroly-Schule in Brüssel, Belgien

Im Fruhjahr 2007 begingen die Decrolyaner den hundertsten Grundungstag der von dem belgischen Reformpadagogen Ovide Decroly (1871–1932) in Ukkel (Brussel) errichteten Ecole de l’Ermitage (auf die wir im weiteren Verlauf als „Decroly-Schule“ verweisen). Aus diesem Anlass wurde ein reichhaltig illustriertes Buch mit dem bekannten Slogan „Fur das Leben, durch das Leben“ als Leitfaden herausgegeben. Dieses Buch will vielleicht mehr noch als fur die Ikone Decroly eine Ehrbezeugung fur die Decroly-Methode und Decrolys Anhanger, die Decrolyaner, sein, die diese Methode bis zum heutigen Tage unvermindert propagieren und in der Praxis anwenden (vgl. Guillaume et al. 2007). Ein erster Teil des Buches wendet sich anhand eines ABC dem Satzteil „durch das Leben“ zu. Dieses Verzeichnis besteht aus gut vierzig Schlusselbegriffen, die unter anderem auf Charakteristika der Decroly-Methode wie z.B. observer, association, expression und globalisation verweisen. Der Satzteil „fur das Leben“ wird im zweiten Teil anhand von 50 Portrats ehemaliger Schuler ausgearbeitet, die, wie es dort heist, inzwischen ihren Weg im Leben gefunden haben.

Dewey in Belgium: A Libation for Modernity?

Frans De Hovre (1884–1956), the (anglophile) pioneer of Catholic pedagogical theory in Flanders, repeatedly1 attributed to the American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859–1952) worldwide renown as well as an impressive impact on the educational world of the time. But did this presentation of things by De Hovre ever actually correspond to the reality? When we summarily consider the history of Belgian education, we observe that any great presence of the non-Catholic Dewey is probably not so very obvious.2 Even the Catholic primary school teacher Edward Peeters had to take refuge in pseudonyms and was forced to resign because his interest in the New Education allegedly gave non-Catholic modernists too loud a voice.3

Du choc des idées jaillit la lumière: thinking with Eric Broekaert’s integrated and holistic paradigm of education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how Eric Broekaert perceived “Ortho-pedagogy” as an academic discipline. Design/methodology/approach The authors try to get a grasp on Broekaert’s point of view while cross-reading three central articles in which he explains his integrated and holistic paradigm of education. Findings One could argue that, while claiming that the different epistemological, ontological and methodological approaches underlying Eric Broekaert’s paradigm of holistic education are not easily integrated, the potential paradoxes he produced in this claim also enabled a “choc des idees” and challenged and enlightened a wide diversity of researchers and practitioners in taking a partial, locatable, critical, reflexive and temporary stance in educational praxis (Lather, 1991). Originality/value The authors discuss how Broekaert, as a companion in life, enabled them to cautiously embrace tensions, paradoxes and complexities in the development of an educational praxis.

Springing from a Sense of Wonder: Classroom Film and Cultural Learning in the 1930s.

Abstract This article makes an “exercise in the archaeology of education” and focuses on the City of Birmingham (UK) in the year 1935 where the Education Committee allowed an experiment on the use of classroom film in senior elementary schools. Arrangements were made to provide projectors, films, operators, and screens for a series of exhibits at 80 schools. The aim of the experiment was to test the value of cinema for class teaching purposes. This article argues that this experiment with sound film could equally be considered an experiment in cultural learning. The first section describes the experiment and the local context in which it took place. The second section broadens the perspective by providing context beyond the local level that puts the experiment in time and place. The third and final section picks up on some of the findings of the first two sections and considers contemporary sources, mainly articles published in the British Film Institute’s film magazine Sight and Sound, as well as recent scholarship on both educational and documentary film in order to discuss the notions of “background” and “excursive” film and to show that the experiment was a genuine adventure in cultural learning.AbstractThis article makes an “exercise in the archaeology of education” and focuses on the City of Birmingham (UK) in the year 1935 where the Education Committee allowed an experiment on the use of classroom film in senior elementary schools. Arrangements were made to provide projectors, films, operators, and screens for a series of exhibits at 80 schools. The aim of the experiment was to test the value of cinema for class teaching purposes. This article argues that this experiment with sound film could equally be considered an experiment in cultural learning. The first section describes the experiment and the local context in which it took place. The second section broadens the perspective by providing context beyond the local level that puts the experiment in time and place. The third and final section picks up on some of the findings of the first two sections and considers contemporary sources, mainly articles published in the British Film Institute’s film magazine Sight and Sound, as well as recent s...

'What kind of silence is being broken?' : a visual-rhetorical history of the out-of-home placement of children in poverty in 1990s Belgium

Abstract In this article it is assumed that the documentary impulse that gave the impetus to Courage, a photobook on people in poverty published in Belgium in 1998, is related to how the General Report on Poverty, published in 1994, accused the child welfare sector and protection services of having far too authoritative and coercive an approach. This article analyses Courage in relation to the issue of out-of-home placement of children in poverty following the framework proposed by Cara A. Finnegan in order to explore a rhetorical history of visual images. In this deductive approach the article pays attention to important moments in the life of photographs: production, reproduction, and circulation. This is combined with an inductive approach to generate a rhetorical understanding of the distinct generic characteristics of the visual artefact, in which attention is paid to the substantive as well as the stylistic characteristics of the images. The article attempts to analyse and explain systematically how symbolic acts and artefacts construe rhetorical processes on poverty, and explore how images of children and parents in poverty situations in the “rhetorical artefact” Courage can become “objects to think with”.