364 Šolska kronika / School Chronicle • 3 • 2019
UDC 061.2:37.011.3-051(450)”19” 
1.08 Published Scientific Conference Contribution
Received: 10. 5. 2019
Fabio Targhetta*
The section of Padua of the Italian 
Pedagogical Association  
(Associazione Pedagogica Italiana)  
in the late 20th century
Padovanska sekcija Italijanskega pedagoškega združenja 
(Associazione Pedagogica Italiana) v poznem 20. stoletju
Izvleček
Italijansko pedagoško združenje (Associazi-
one Pedagogica Italiana), ustanovljeno leta 
1950 v Firencah, je še vedno dejavno po vsej 
državi, zahvaljujoč usklajenemu prizadevanju 
številnih lokalnih sekcij. Posebnost progra-
ma Italijanskega pedagoškega združenja je 
povezovanje učiteljev vseh ravni izobrazbe in 
univerzitetnih profesorjev, da bi izboljšali in 
prenovili šolo in katerokoli drugo izobraže-
valno ustanovo, kot tudi izboljšali študij in 
raziskave na področju pedagogike. Padovan-
ska sekcija se vse od ustanovitve odlikuje po 
organizaciji konferenc in osvežitvenih tečajev 
za osnovnošolske učitelje. Obsežna dokumen-
tacija, ki se nanaša na dejavnosti sekcije, se 
trenutno hrani v Muzeju izobraževanja (Mu-
seo dell'Educazione) Univerze v Padovi. 
Ključne besede: učiteljstvo, društva, Italija, 20. stoletje
Keywords: teachers, association, Italy, 20th century
15th Symposium on School Life, part 56. Visit us / obiščite nas - Sistory: 
http://hdl.handle.net/11686/37710
Abstract
The Italian Pedagogical Association (As-
sociazione Pedagogica Italiana), founded in 
Florence in 1950, is still active throughout the 
country, thanks to the coordinated effort of 
the numerous local sections. The distinctive 
feature of the Italian Pedagogical Associa-
tion is to bring together school teachers of all 
levels and university professors in order to im-
prove and renovate the school and any other 
educational institution, as well as to enhance 
studies and researches in the field of Peda-
gogy and education. The section of Padua 
has distinguished itself since its founding by 
the organization of conferences and refresher 
courses for teachers of elementary schools. A 
significant amount of documentation relating 
to the activity of this section is currently pre-
served at the Museum of Education (Museo 
dell'Educazione) University of Padua. 
* Fabio Targhetta, University of Macerata, Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and 
Tourism, Macerata, Italy; e-mail: fabio.targhetta@unimc.it
365Creating links in education. Teachers and their associations
»The Italian Pedagogical Association (Associazione Pedagogica Italiana, 
As.Pe.I.) was founded to unite all the people engaged in School of every level and 
those who have interest in the problems of education, beyond any difference of 
political, religious and doctrinal thought and of trade union, in order to enhance 
and increase studies and pedagogical experiences, and to disseminate the active 
interest in the improvement of School«.
This is the verbatim transcript – capital letters included [the word “school” 
appears twice with the first letter capitalized, to emphasize the importance, also 
symbolic, of this institution] – of the first article of the As.Pe.I. Statute, sub-
scribed by the founding members in Venice on May 1st, 1956; that was the last day 
of the Third National Congress.
Pluralism is one of the peculiar features of the association, together with 
the openness to figures who, for various reasons, are interested in educational 
matters, as can be seen in the Article number 9 of the original Statute. It states 
that the President's Council would be composed of eight university professors, 
three lecturers, four professors of secondary school and four elementary school 
teachers.
The "ecumenical" instance among teachers of different educational levels, 
which is the basis of As. Pe.I. since its foundation, as we have seen, it can appear 
to the colleagues who are not Italian – and to those who do not remember well 
that season – not only a practice dictated by common sense, but also a strategy to 
channel the energies in the direction of a common interest. But it is not so. Not 
in Italy and not in those years (and even today, in many ways).
The corporate defense of the interests of one side has often product divi-
sions more than shared "battles", in a variety of fields, from the union trade to 
the school one. In this last field, consider the bitter controversy and the "attacks 
of unusual roughness"1 that have been conducted in the Fifties, when the As.Pe.I. 
was born, between the two catholic associations of primary school teachers and 
teachers of secondary schools (AIMC and UCIIM). Although they were referring 
to the same ideological front – and to the same hierarchy – at that time strictly 
committed to contrast the "red menace", the two associations made  use of their 
own journals to support their proposals of school reform, often in open conflict 
between them.
The postwar period was characterized in Italy by deep divisions, divided the 
country by rigid ideological barriers imposed by the Cold War and by the splitting 
within the cultural context. Consider, to stay in the pedagogical field, that those 
years saw the end of the actualistic hegemony, started by Giovanni Gentile over 
1 See Roberto Sani, “Le associazioni cattoliche degli insegnanti e il rinnovamento democratico 
della scuola italiana”, in Chiesa e progetto educativo nell’Italia del secondo dopoguerra (1945-
1958), ed. Luciano Pazzaglia (Brescia: La Scuola, 1988), now in Roberto Sani, Sub specie edu-
cationis. Studi e ricerche su istruzione, istituzioni scolastiche e processi culturali e formativi 
nell’Italia contemporanea (Macerata: EUM, 2011), 540.
366 Šolska kronika / School Chronicle • 3 • 2019
thirty years ago. The scene was then occupied by the representatives of pedagogical 
trend called “personalism” and by those of laical current.
In a so divided scenario, the commitment of the As.Pe.I. Statute to over-
throw the divisions of status (between elementary teachers, middle and high 
school teachers and university professors) and the divisions of political, religious 
and doctrinal thought acquires a very significant relief.
Unique in its kind, therefore, the As.Pe.I. brings together school teachers 
of all levels to improve and renovate the school and any other institution dealing 
with education, as well as to enhance study and researches in the field of peda-
gogy and education. To this end, its work is mainly direct, then as now, to the 
creation and the planning of activities such as training, upgrading and qualifica-
tion of teachers and all the people involved in education.
When and how was the As.Pe.I. founded? We have already discussed about 
the ideological and political context. However, it is necessary to specify, espe-
cially to the benefit of the foreign colleagues, that those years were characterized 
by a considerable fervor in the educative field.
At the end of World War II, the work of “defascistisation” of the school2 was 
only the beginning of a season in which the theme linked to the school and the 
education was at the center of debates, comparisons, projects, discussions that 
involved teachers, intellectuals, political parties and grassroots.
Consider, for example, the importance assigned to the school in the work 
of the Constituent Assembly (1946-47), and in particular the debate between 
Concetto Marchesi, a member of the Italian Communist Party, and Aldo Moro, 
important spokesman for the Christian Democrats. 3 But consider, also, the Na-
tional Commission of Inquiry formed in 1947 by the Minister of Education Guido 
Gonella.4 The data relating to the impressive participation at the consultation by 
the entire teaching staff (211,000 teachers who replied to the questionnaire), and 
the staff gravitating toward schools (85,000 replies) testify not only the interest, 
but also the will to make education the keystone of a country that need to restart 
after more than two decades of dictatorship and the rubble of World War II.
In 1949, at the end of the work of collecting and analyzing records, the Min-
ister formed another committee, consisting of ministry officials and school staff, 
charged with drafting a plan for a comprehensive reform of the national educa-
tion system.5
2 F. Targhetta, “Tra selva normativa e schedature di massa: i procedimenti di epurazione degli 
insegnanti di scuola secondaria”, in Rivista di storia dell’educazione», no 1 (2018), 209-225.
3 See, in particular, Adolfo Scotto di Luzio, La scuola degli italiani (Bologna, Il Mulino: 2007), 
chapter VII, “La scuola alla Costituente”, 233-281.
4 Giorgio Chiosso, “Motivi pedagogici e politici nei lavori dell’inchiesta Gonella (1947-1949)”, in 
Scuola e società nell’Italia unita. Dalla Legge Casati al Centro-Sinistra, ed. Luciano Pazzaglia 
and Roberto Sani (Brescia: La Scuola, 2001).
5 Giorgio Chiosso, “Cattolici e riforma scolastica. L’Italia nel secondo dopoguerra (1949-1951)”, in 
Scuola e società nell’Italia unita. Dalla Legge Casati al Centro-Sinistra, edd. Luciano Pazzaglia, 
Roberto Sani (Brescia: Editrice La Scuola, 2001), 397-419.
367Creating links in education. Teachers and their associations
Some of the most famous Italian specialists of education brought their con-
tribution to the work of the above mentioned committees. Most of them were 
destined to become, between 1949 and 1950, the promoters of the Italian Peda-
gogical Association.6 Indeed, the first provisional presidential council saw the 
presence of Giovanni Calò, Ernesto Codignola and Raffaele Resta.7
In a meeting held at the end of September 1949, during which the foun-
dations were laid for the final structuring of the association, other famous 
researchers were added to them, starting from Giovanni Maria Bertin, in addition 
to membership in the meantime collected of Luigi Stefanini, Angiolo Gambaro, 
Nicola Abbagnano, and so on.
This short list of names shows that feature of the association is, as said ear-
lier, the plurality of voices and the search for dialogue among different cultural 
tendencies. An aspiration, the latter, intended to emerge especially at the na-
tional congresses, in those “conclusive motions” in which it was possible to see 
the effort of the speakers in order to represent all the positions.
In those years the dialectic within the Association arose from the debate, 
frequently intense, between two ideological tendencies: the pedagogical spiritu-
alism, represented by Calò, Caramella, Flores d’Arcais, Agazzi, Bongioanni and 
others, and the pedagogical sociologism, represented by Borghi, Mazzetti, De 
Bartolomeis, Bertin, Visalberghi, D’Alessandro.8 
The first of the mentioned symposiums was arranged in Florence from 5th 
to 8th April 1950. There were three major reports, which were entrusted to three 
leading figures of the Italian cultural and pedagogical scene: in addition to the 
president Giovanni Calò, attended Ernesto Codignola and Vito Fazio Allmayer.
They were assigned, respectively, the following themes: Training to the teach-
ing (La preparazione al magistero educativo); The ethical and social problem of 
education (Il problema etico-sociale dell’educazione); The problem of teaching and 
the innovative trends in secondary schools (Il problema didattico e le tendenze inno-
vatrici nella scuola secondaria). As we can see, the urgent need to renew the school 
was immediately felt, as well as the awareness that this renewal would necessarily 
be passed through the figure of the teacher and, in particular, through training, re-
cruitment and professional development of teachers. It is not by chance that those 
were the issues mainly debated during the periodic national conferences.
After the second national conference, organized in Sicily in the spring of 
1954, the national executive of As.Pe.I. landed in Veneto. From April 28th to May 
1st 1956, indeed, the section of Padua organized a symposium on the theme of 
6 Francesco De Vivo, “La storia dell’As.Pe.I. attraverso i Congressi”, in L’associazione Pedagogica 
Italiana (1950-1996), ed. Sira Serenella Macchietti (Roma: Bulzoni Editore, 1996), 16.
7 For the biography of these figures and others cited in the paper see DBE. Dizionario biografico 
dell’educazione 1800-2000, ed. Giorgio Chiosso and Roberto Sani (Milano: Editrice Bibliografi-
ca, 2013).
8 Gianfranco Pontini, I problemi della scuola italiana nei congressi dell’As.Pe.I. nel dopoguerra 
(diss., University of Padua, 1970/71), XVII-XVIII.
368 Šolska kronika / School Chronicle • 3 • 2019
The humanistic tradition and the problem of integration of the technical-scien-
tific culture in contemporary education (La tradizione umanistica e il problema 
dell’integrazione della cultura tecnico-scientifica nell’educazione contempora-
nea), emphasizing the co-responsibility of the productive forces of the Country 
in solution of the problem of the Italian school.
Founded since 1952 by Luigi Stefanini and Giuseppe Flores d'Arcais, the sec-
tion of Padua of the As.Pe.I. has been directed for decades by d’Arcais, a very 
significant figure in the Italian pedagogical scene and exponent of personalism, a 
current of thought of Catholic orientation based on the centrality of the person. 
D’Arcais was still presiding over the local section when, after a period of sleep 
that lasted for a few years, on March 3rd 1975 was reconstituted with a first group 
of 52 members.9
Those years were characterized by a lot of bottom-up initiatives in primary 
and secondary levels.10 The meetings, organized not only by As.Pe.I., but also 
by other important association (it is sufficient here to recall the activities of the 
Movement of Educational Cooperation, MCE, inspired by Célestin Freinet's “or-
ganic pedagogy”), corresponded to a strong demand from teachers to have many 
refresher courses. These teachers, along with those just graduated, renewed the 
teaching practices in elementary school, fixed to the ministerial programs of 
1955. Topics such as the extension of school hours in the afternoon for the work-
shop activities, the abolition of the votes in favor of the judgments, the abolition 
of failures, a greater dialogue with the families were at the center of the debate. 
These teachers became promoters of innovative experimental proposals, while 
institutions, from municipalities to the ministry, traditionally reluctant to accept 
the most advanced project, struggling to keep up, when not directly obstructed 
the most innovative experiments.11
For these reasons, the season opened in the mid-seventies was very full of 
meeting and commitments for the section of Padua. Step by step, indeed, it be-
came an esteemed institution for the training of teachers.
In 1975, for example, the theme debated at the lessons was the teaching of 
history and the experimentation in the first two years of the secondary schools. 
The following year the refresher course was addressed only to preschool teachers. 
In 1977 a series of lectures was dedicated to preschool teachers, to teachers and to 
principals of secondary school.
Then, in 1978 was organized a refresher course for teachers of Chioggia, a 
small town in the province of Venice, arranged in a series of ten lectures. The 
9 Bollettino della As.Pe.I., no. 10 (1975): 10. See also the minutes of the first meeting of the teach-
ers who marked the reconstitution of the section of Padua, dated February 19, 1975, in the 
archive group “AS.Pe.I.” preserved by The Museum of Education of University of Padua. 
10 Annalisa Tiozzo Caenazzo, Tra passato e presente. La sezione padovana As.Pe.I. dal 1950 ai gior-
ni nostri (diss., University of Padua, 2017/18).
11 See Quando la scuola si accende. Innovazione didattica e trasformazione sociale negli anni Ses-
santa e Settanta, ed. Luisa Bellina, Alfiero Boschiero and Alessandro Casellato, special issue of 
Venetica, no. 2 (2012).
369Creating links in education. Teachers and their associations
themes, from teaching Italian language to the teaching of Latin and mathemat-
ics, from the problem of evaluation to the teamwork, were discussed, in large 
part, by professors of the University of Padua, including Flores d'Arcais, Anna 
Maria Bernardinis and Sergio Baratto.
At the beginning of the 80s this annual activity assumed a systematic 
character, as evidenced by the progressive numbering which was adopted. This 
organization also meant a greater enlargement of the number of speakers, also 
called from other Italian universities on the basis of their specific expertise in 
the subject matter. So, for example, in 1983, when the subject of a series of meet-
ings was The current pedagogical and didactic problem of compulsory education 
(Attuali problematiche pedagogiche e didattiche della scuola dell’obbligo), were 
invited two professors who were working on the revision of the new programs 
teaching for the elementary school. «Considering the success and the wide inter-
est aroused» from this series of meetings, as stated by President Flores d'Arcais in 
the letter of presentation of seminars for 1984, it was decided, on an exceptional 
basis, to consider the theme even in following year. In 1983 the Association organ-
ized also an important conference in Padua on the occasion of the conferment 
of the honorary degree in Pedagogy to Bogdan Suchodolski. An opportunity for 
comparison, to use the words of the flyer, between Italian and Polish pedagogy.
I will not go beyond the limits of this report, which is supposed to be an in-
troduction to the topic, recalling themes and speakers of the cycles of meetings 
Flyer of the conference organized in 1983 on the occasion of the conferment of the 
honorary degree in Pedagogy to Bogdan Suchodolski (cover and inside).
370 Šolska kronika / School Chronicle • 3 • 2019
organized by section As.Pe.I. of Padua. I think that these few hint are sufficient to 
frame the activity of a section which between the eighties and the nineties lived 
a very intense period. The collaboration started with the education agency and, 
above all, with the IRRSAE Veneto (Regional Research Institute of Educational 
Testing and Update; Istituto di Ricerca Regionale di Sperimentazione e Aggior-
namento Educativo), an organization sponsored by the Ministry of Education 
in order to encourage and support the process of autonomy and innovation of 
school, allowed to enrich the educational offer of Padua section of As.Pe.I., which 
could rely on regional contributions to cover the costs of organizing lessons and 
symposiums.
This was the case, for example, of the international conference held in 
Padua in January 1996 on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of 
Pestalozzi. Scholars from the major universities in Europe and the United States 
were invited.
To conclude this brief presentation of the activities carried out by the sec-
tion of Padua of As.Pe.I. at the end of the century we must give at least a mention 
to the research on The university 
training of preschool teachers. A study 
over the schools of Veneto region (La 
formazione universitaria degli inseg-
nanti di scuola materna. Un’indagine 
nelle scuole del Triveneto), published 
as a supplement to the issue no. 6 
(November-December 1992) of the 
journal "Perspective EP".
Starting from this brief report, 
it is easy to see the potential for the 
research of the rich material, not 
yet used in studies, preserved in the 
Museum of Education of the Univer-
sity of Padua. It is possible to consult 
teachers’ meeting minutes, programs 
for refresher courses, lists of mem-
bers, notes, lessons plans, collections 
of photographs, administrative docu-
ments, correspondence with the other 
sections, and so on. This is an archivial 
collection yet to be inventoried. Nev-
ertheless it is important to retrace a 
very interesting and qualified experi-
ence of teachers’ association working 
in Veneto region during the second 
half of the twentieth century.
Cover of issue no. 6 (November-
December 1992) of the journal 
"Perspective EP" dedicated to the 
university training of preschool 
teachers. A study over the schools of 
Veneto region.
371Creating links in education. Teachers and their associations
Bibliography
Roberto Sani, “Le associazioni cattoliche degli insegnanti e il rinnovamento democra-
tico della scuola italiana”, in Chiesa e progetto educativo nell’Italia del secondo 
dopoguerra (1945-1958), ed. Luciano Pazzaglia (Brescia: La Scuola, 1988). 
Roberto Sani, Sub specie educationis. Studi e ricerche su istruzione, istituzioni scolas-
tiche e processi culturali e formativi nell’Italia contemporanea (Macerata: EUM, 
2011), p. 540.
Adolfo Scotto di Luzio, La scuola degli italiani (Bologna, Il Mulino: 2007), chapter VII, “La 
scuola alla Costituente”, pp. 233-281.
Giorgio Chiosso, “Motivi pedagogici e politici nei lavori dell’inchiesta Gonella (1947-
1949)”, in Scuola e società nell’Italia unita. Dalla Legge Casati al Centro-Sinistra, ed. 
Luciano Pazzaglia and Roberto Sani (Brescia: La Scuola, 2001).
Giorgio Chiosso, “Cattolici e riforma scolastica. L’Italia nel secondo dopoguerra (1949-
1951)”, in Pazzaglia and Sani.
Francesco De Vivo, “La storia dell’As.Pe.I. attraverso i Congressi”, in L’associazione Peda-
gogica Italiana (1950-1996), ed. Sira Serenella Macchietti (Roma: Bulzoni Editore, 
1996), p. 16.
Dizionario biografico dell’educazione 1800-2000, ed. Giorgio Chiosso and Roberto Sani 
(Milano: Editrice Bibliografica, 2013).
Gianfranco Pontini, I problemi della scuola italiana nei congressi dell’As.Pe.I. nel 
dopoguerra (diss., University of Padua, 1970/71), pp. XVII-XVIII.
Bollettino della As.Pe.I., no. 10 (1975): 10. See also the minutes of the first meeting of the 
teachers who marked the reconstitution of the section of Padua, dated February 
19, 1975, in the archive group “AS.Pe.I.” preserved by The Museum of Education of 
Padua University. 
Quando la scuola si accende. Innovazione didattica e trasformazione sociale negli anni 
Sessanta e Settanta, ed. Luisa Bellina, Alfiero Boschiero and Alessandro Casellato, 
special issue of Venetica, no. 2 (2012).
Annalisa Tiozzo Caenazzo, Tra passato e presente. La sezione padovana As.Pe.I. dal 1950 
ai giorni nostri (diss., University of Padua, 2017/18).
Summary
The section of Padua of the Italian Pedagogical Association 
(Associazione Pedagogica Italiana) in the late 20th century 
Fabio Targhetta
The Italian Pedagogical Association (Associazione Pedagogica Italiana), founded in Flor-
ence in 1950 by Giovanni Calò in cooperation with some of the major scholars of Pedagogy (Aldo 
Agazzi, Giovanni Maria Bertin, Giuseppe Flores d’Arcais), is still active throughout the country, 
thanks to the coordinated effort of the numerous local sections.
The distinctive feature of the Italian Pedagogical Association is to bring together school 
teachers of all levels and university professors in order to improve and renovate the school and 
any other educational institution, as well as to enhance studies and researches in the field of 
Pedagogy and education. To this end, its work is mainly direct to the construction and the plan-
ning of activities like training and upgrading of teachers and every person involved in education.
372 Šolska kronika / School Chronicle • 3 • 2019
The section of Padua has distinguished itself since its founding by the organization of 
conferences and refresher courses for teachers of elementary schools. A significant amount of 
documentation relating to the activity of this section is currently preserved at the Museum of 
Education (University of Padua). It is possible to consult teachers’ meeting minutes, programs 
for refresher courses, lists of members, notes, lessons plans, collections of photographs, ad-
ministrative documents, correspondence with the other sections, and so on. All these relevant 
documents, not yet studied, the proceedings of the National congress – including two sympo-
siums organized in Padua (1956 and 1996) – and the examination of the Italian Pedagogical 
Association bulletin have made possible the reenactment of a very interesting experience of 
teachers’ association during the second half of the twentieth century.
Povzetek
Padovanska sekcija Italijanskega pedagoškega združenja 
(Associazione Pedagogica Italiana) v poznem 20. stoletju
Fabio Targhetta
Italijansko pedagoško združenje (Associazione Pedagogica Italiana), ki ga je leta 1950 v 
Firencah ustanovil Giovanni Calò v sodelovanju z nekaterimi večjimi učenjaki pedagogike (Aldo 
Agazzi, Giovanni Maria Bertin, Giuseppe Flores d'Arcais), je še vedno dejavno po vsej državi, 
zahvaljujoč usklajenemu prizadevanju številnih lokalnih sekcij.
Posebnost programa Italijanskega pedagoškega združenja je povezovanje učiteljev vseh 
ravni izobrazbe in univerzitetne profesorje, da bi izboljšali in prenovili šolo in katerokoli drugo 
izobraževalno ustanovo, kot tudi izboljšali študij in raziskave na področju pedagogike. Delo 
združenja je usmerjeno predvsem v gradnjo in načrtovanje dejavnosti, kot sta usposabljanje in 
izpopolnjevanje učiteljev in vseh oseb, ki se ukvarjajo z izobraževanjem.
Padovanska sekcija se vse od ustanovitve odlikuje po organizaciji konferenc in osveži-
tvenih tečajev za osnovnošolske učitelje. Obsežna dokumentacija, ki se nanaša na dejavnosti 
sekcije, se trenutno hrani v Šolskem muzeju (Univerza v Padovi). Možno si je ogledati zapisnike 
pedagoških sestankov, programe za izpopolnjevalne tečaje, sezname članov, zapiske, učne načr-
te, zbirke fotografij, upravne dokumente, dopisovanje z drugimi sekcijami itd. Vsi ti pomembni 
dokumenti, ki še niso bili proučeni, zborniki nacionalnih kongresov – vključno z dvema simpo-
zijema, organiziranima v Padovi (1956 in 1996) - in pregled poročil Italijanskega pedagoškega 
združenja, so omogočili obnovo zelo zanimive izkušnje združenja učiteljev v drugi polovici 20. 
stoletja.