Reimagining Teaching in Early 20th Century Experimental Schools

This book considers the diffusion and transfer of educational ideas through local and transcontinental networks within and across five socio-political spaces. The authors examine the social, political, and historical preconditions for the transfer of “new education” theory and practices in each period, place, and school, along with the networks of ideas and experts that supported this. The authors use historical methods to examine the schools and to pursue the story of the circulation of new ideas in education. In particular, chapters investigate how educational ideas develop within contexts, travel across boundaries, and are adapted in new contexts.

Alessandra Arce Hai is Associate Professor in the Education Department at Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil. She has published books and articles about early childhood education and the history of education in Brazil.

Helen May is Professor Emeritus at University of Otago, New Zealand. May has long engaged in political advocacy, policy, and curriculum development, and historical research in the fields of early years care and education.

Kristen Nawrotzki teaches at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Heidelberg, Germany. She has published numerous works in the history of education and care in the US, UK, and transnationally.

Larry Prochner is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research centres on the historical, comparative, and international dimensions of teaching and curriculum in early education.

Yordanka Valkanova is Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. She has published a number of books, articles, and chapters mainly in the areas of early learning and development, and history of childhood.