In Search of the perfect (Decroly) School

Author(s):

Angelo Van GorpFrederik HermanMarc Depaepe Frank Simon

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 03, Educational spaces

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

14:00-15:30

Room:

HG, HS 34

Chair:

Helena Ribeiro de Castro

Contribution

In our last year’s paper we’ve focussed on the real situation (the building site and history, the architecture) of the Decroly Schools in Brussels, founded in 1907. In this year’s paper we will focus on rudimentary sketches, diagrammatic representations and unexecuted building plans representing the perfect school according to Decroly, Decrolyens and/or the architects involved. Confronting these sketches and plans with e.g. the existing school site and other school architecture (national as well as international, both traditional and 'modern'); correspondence, minutes, and other documents of the school archives; and Decroly’s scientific works (cf. Decroly method) we’ll try to answer the questions (1) which motives, factors, ideas, models, (educational, political, ideological, sociological, etc.) theories, sources of inspiration (national as well as international), etc. etc. determined these representations; (2) why the plans were not executed in the end; and (3) to which extent these sketches and plans were intended to be ‘petrified’ representations of the Decroly Method?

Method

We will examine the records of different archives: Centre d’Etudes Decrolyennes (archives of the Decroly School); Renaat Braem Archief; Les Archives de l’Architecture Moderne). To get some back-ground information on the architects, we will make use of oeuvre catalogues (e.g. Strauven, 1983). Centre d’Etudes decrolyennes (CED), Av. Montana, 15 - 1180 Bruxelles. Les Archives de l’Architecture Moderne (AMA), Rue de l’Ermitage, 55 - 1050 Ixelles. Renaat Braem Archief, Vlaams Instituut voor Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), Koning Albert II-laan, 19 - 1210 Brussel.

Expected Outcomes

We expect to gain a better insight in the 'idealistic' dimension of the Decroly Method and the Decrolyens as a Glaubensgemeinschaft as well as in the problematic relation between ideals and effects within the context of New Education (cf. grammar of schooling, paradox of educational innovations).

References

Bertels, I. (2008). Technical discourses on primary educational buildings: governmental publications in XIXth century Belgium, in J.P. Garric, V. Nègre & A. Thomine-Berrada (eds.), La construction savante : Les avatars de la littérature technique (pp. 263-273), Paris : Picard. D’hoker M. (2000).De lagere-schoolgebouwen in België in de 19de eeuw: een kwantitatieve, kwalitatieve en architectonische benadering, in F. Simon (ed.), Liber amicorum Karel De Clerck (pp. 43-58), Gent: CSHP. Dodde, N.L. (2000). Een geschiedenis van scholenbouw, in F. Simon (ed.), Liber amicorum Karel De Clerck (pp. 59-82), Gent: CSHP. Guillaume, F., Gutt, H. & Charlier, M. (2007). École Decroly. Cent Ans_Sans Temps, s.l. : Édition École Decroly l’Ermitage, Fondation Ovide Decroly, Centre D’Études Decrolyennes. Herman, F., Van Gorp, A., Simon, F. & Depaepe, M. (2009). The Organic Growth of the Decrolyschool in Brussels From Villa to School, in S. Braster, I. Grosvenor, and M. del Mar del Pozo (eds.), The Black Box of Schooling. A Cultural History of the Classroom, 1700-2000. Peter Lang. (submitted) Ministère de l'Intérieur (1852). Instructions ministérielles concernant la construction des maisons d’écoles primaires communales suivies d’une instruction spéciale sur le chauffage et la ventilation des salles d’école et d’une série de plans modèles, Bruxelles: Heger, 40 p. Ministère de l'intérieur (1875). Instructions concernant la construction et l'ameublement des maisons d'école suivies de plans et de devis types, Huy: Degrâce, 60 p. S.n. (1818). Over de belangrijkheid van goede schoolvertrekken, en derzelver vereischtens, benevens de schets van een op zich zelven staande schoolvertrek voor honderd leerlingen, Leyden: Du Mortier, 31 p. Strauven, F. (1983). Renaat Braem: de dialectische avonturen van een Vlaams functionalist, Brussel : Archief voor moderne architectuur, 235 p. Vander Fosse, C. (1822). Circulaire betrekkelijk de daarstelling van eene provinciale commissie voor het lager onderwijs, s.l. : s.n., 86 p. Vanmeirhaeghe, T. (2006). De school als apparaat. Een kleine geschiedenis van het Belgische schooltraktaat, in M. Van Den Driessche & B. Verschaffel (red.), De school als ontwerpopgave: schoolarchitectuur in Vlaanderen 1995-2005 (pp. 64-86), Gent: A&S/Books. Verpoest, L. (1992). Twee Eeuwen Scholenbouw, Brussels: Open Monumentendag Vlaanderen.

Author Information

Angelo Van Gorp

K.U.Leuven

Centre for the History of Education

Leuven

Frederik Herman

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Centre for the History of Education

Leuven

Marc Depaepe

K.U.Leuven Campus Kortrijk, Belgium

Frank Simon

Ghent University, Belgium

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.