Writing A Biography Based On A ‘Laundry List’: Ovide Decroly (1871-1932). Some Methodological Questions And Theoretical Considerations.

Author(s):

Marc Depaepe(presenting / submitting)Frank Simon(presenting)Angelo Van Gorp

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 09, Thinking about Equality in History

Paper/Poster Session

Time:

2016-08-25

13:30-15:00

Room:

OB-H2.40

Chair:

Beatrice Haenggeli-Jenni

Contribution

Recently two of us headlined with the statement that in historiography, as well in historiography of education, everything revolves around interpretation. Because an ‘objective’ reconstruction based on facts - an illusion frequently attributed to Ranke - seems impossible. The mere selection of facts is already part of a process of interpretation, even if we are not always as aware of it. This is why we have repeatedly called for the greatest possible exchange of viewpoints, because without diversity in the ‘ways of seeing’, multiple reading (in terms of the multi-layered, for example) of history, which is inherently complex, is virtually excluded. Consequently we believe that it is best to work with a collective team of researchers that complement each other perfectly in terms of content and on the methodological and/or disciplinary level. Nevertheless, this dismisses the fact that researchers do not remain focused on the historical reality in their representation of the past - each historical narrative constructs a story. Today, much of the so-called ‘grand theory’ - however inspiring it may be - appears to be very far removed from this empirical basis.

Obviously the biographic approach constitutes an excellent opportunity for bringing historical research closer to the reality once more, at least if one starts with the chronology that determines personal life. All too often subjects - educational celebrities included - are deemed to possess relatively stable ideals, motives, views, attitudes, personal characteristics and so on. But is this actually the case? In reality, interaction with the environment largely determines life; in other words, experiences that people undergo when confronted with specific historical circumstances.

Years ago, when we began our study of the role and significance of the Belgian educational reformer Ovide Decroly, we immediately came up against the need to dispel the ‘myths’, which led to fanciful ‘Dichtung’ about him, which not infrequently arose from self-interest, prompting appropriations from his environment (Depaepe, Simon & Van Gorp, 2003). Compiling a biographical ‘laundry list’ - a type of chronological, a posteriori agenda of Decroly - already appeared to be an important tool, which also created the need to produce a more reliable biography. Since confrontation with the everyday alone appeared capable of piercing the stereotype and hagiographic perceptions about Decroly, the question arose: where had he actually been? To which meetings, which conferences? What was he actually concerned with? And what was the input from his environment in all this? To what extent did he still have time to conduct his own research? For practical educational work? For the writing of books and articles?

The preparatory stage of our biography project ‘Ovide Decroly’ has essentially, in the meantime, come to an end. The time-consuming expeditions to numerous archives at home and abroad (Paris, Madrid, The Hague, Rotterdam, London and Geneva) are behind us. We have reviewed the primary (including the scientific oeuvre) and secondary literature, and - last but not least - our ‘laundry list biography’ (Tuchmann, 1981, 89) is almost ready for use. This chronologically ordered database of Decroly’s biographical data comprises approximately 1,100 items, primarily data from meetings, conferences and many other activities, up to and including sending and receiving letters. The Decroly agenda should soon enable a ‘traditional’ biography to be written that will also, in the context of history of science, shed new light on a figure that, through the careless use of evidence, was to some extent rashly branded as an ‘educational innovator’, educational ‘reformer’ and ‘pioneer’ of the testing movement or care of the disabled, independent of his medical expertise (Depaepe, Simon & Van Gorp, 2011).

Our predominantly theoretical and methodologically based conference paper will explore the ‘Decroly’ biography project in more detail.

Method

How can three people write a biography? There is almost always a loner that dares take on a biography and triumphs over the pitfalls. One assumes that the author possesses a certain affinity with his or her subject, a power of attraction, admiration, a passion, all characteristics that could be assigned to the ‘biographic illusion’ stigmatised by Bourdieu (2005). Whether that includes us is neither here nor there, but contributing to increased distance and objectivity is the fact that we have been working together for years, not only with regard to the figure of Decroly, but with a completely open research agenda, to which history of science of the international psycho-educational heritage belongs, as does Belgian history of education (in which the figure of Decroly is essential). According to the biography specialist Renders (2013), Romein already asserted that the ideal methodology for biography does not exist and therefore remains an ideal: “biography has no method, but is a method. And that is the way it is”. The method for writing the ideal biography has also been debated for centuries. Reworking Maugham’s famous quote on the novel, we could propose that: “There are three basic rules for writing a biography. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are”. In a reliable biography several levels of interpretation must be able to coalesce. Thus, in line with the traditional history of ideas, one must examine the construction and development of intellectual thought. The person occupies a central position, but his or her body of thought is contextualised and therefore placed in a broader perspective. Mutatis mutandis, the same applies to the social networks in which the person functions. Social relationships and professional contexts often determine which views will be upheld and which political and policy standpoints will be adopted. These are not necessarily constant throughout the entire period. In addition, consistent with the history of mentality, there is the individual’s personal development: his or her life history, experiences, perceptions and cultural baggage, etc. The fact that these three layers must be interwoven when constructing the biographical story could best be illustrated by woman’s place in Decroly’s work. Not only did gender-specific views from the bourgeoisie play a role herein, at the same time a hierarchically defined space developed, in which a woman could step out of her master’s shadow, as it were, and prove herself by taking on complementary i.e. practical teaching tasks.

Expected Outcomes

Using this methodological article and the final biography about Decroly, we hope to contribute to a more detached historiography of education. Biography has never been absent from the history of education research; one cannot speak of an interruption or of a booming biography. The discipline reveals a long tradition of studying great figures. Inevitably the unbridled efforts of these figures, their enthusiasm, their dedication, their work, and their charisma as an educator inspired those who had to face the challenges in the field every day. But this charisma and the resulting admiration also minimised the distance between biography and hagiography, not just because educational historiography about teacher training has long told such founding stories, but also because practitioners in general find it difficult to look at the past without ‘euphoric enthusiasm’. We too are educators and we too have a message, but this message is of a somewhat different order. As biographers we are trying to engage in dialogue with the biographical subject and with the narrative, trying to provide an insight into the way narratives are constructed, raising the issue of the function of the story within the research field. Aware of the dialogical relationship with our subject, we should not only, and perhaps it is best to, no longer recount histories, but look forward and present images that structure our lives in the future. With Maurice Rouvroy’s (1932) obituary of Decroly, let’s present the tolerant Decroly, as tolerance is certainly a characteristic we will need in the near future! Besides, teamwork is a wholesome way of learning to live with the diversity that surrounds us: diversity of methods, diversity of question formulation, diversity of sources, diversity of literature; in short, diversity of paradigm. We want to cherish this diversity and strive for a plurality of perspectives and interpretations.

References

P. Backscheider, Reflections on Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. P. Bourdieu, « L'illusion biographique », Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 62-63 (juin 1986) 69-72. B. Caine, Biography and History. Houndmills: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2010. M. Depaepe & F. Simon, “Sources in the Making of Histories of Education: proofs, arguments, and other reasonings from the historian’s workplace”, in: P. Smeyers & M. Depaepe (ed.), Educational Research: Proofs, Arguments, and Other Reasonings. Dordrecht: Springer, 2009, 23-39. M. Depaepe, F. Simon & A. Van Gorp, “The canonization of Ovide Decroly to a “saint” of the New Education”, History of Education Quarterly, XLIII, 2 (2003), 224-249. M. Depaepe, F. Simon & A. Van Gorp, « L’expertise médicale et psycho-pédagogique d’Ovide Decroly en action. Utiliser le “fardeau” qu’engendre inadaptation sociale au profit de la société », in: A. François, V. Massin & D. Niget (dir.), Violences juvéniles sous expertise(s) XIXe-XXIe siècles. Expertise and Juvenile Violence 19th-21st Century. Louvain-la-neuve : UCL Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2011, 39-54. F. Dosse, Le pari biographique. Ecrire une vie, Paris: La Découverte, 2005. Th. Etzemüller, Biographien. Lesen-erforschen-erzählen, Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 2012. C. Klein, (Hrsg.), Handbuch Biographie. Methoden, Traditionen, Theorien. Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2009. D. Livingstone, Putting Science in its Place. Geographies of Scientific Knowledge, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. J. Burr Margadant (ed.), The New Biography. Performing Femininity in Nineteenth-Century France. Berkeley/London: University of California Press, 2000. María del Mar del Pozo Andrés, Justa Freire o la passion de educar. Biografía de una maestro atrapada en la historia de España (1896-1965), Barcelona: Octaedro, 2013. H. Renders & B. De Haan (eds.), Theoretical Discussions of Biography. Approaches. from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2013. L. Rollet & Ph. Nabonnand (dir.), Les uns et les autres…Biographie et prosopographie en histoire des sciences, Nancy: PUN/Editions universitaires de Lorraine, 2012. M. Rouvroy, Revue belge de pédagogie, XIV, 1 (1er octobre 1932). B. Tuchmann, “Biography as a Prism of History”, in Id., Practicing History: Selected Writings, New York/Toronto: Random House Publishing Group, 1981. A. Van Gorp, Tussen mythe en wetenschap: Ovide Decroly (1871-1932), Leuven/Voorburg: Acco, 2005. S. Wagnon, Ovide Decroly, un pédagogue de l’Education nouvelle, 1871-1932. Bruxelles/…: P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2013. S. Wagnon & J.Ch. Lemaire (dir.), L’Alternative Decroly. Bruxelles: La Pensée et les Hommes, 2013.

Author Information

Marc Depaepe (presenting / submitting)

KU Leuven

Campus Kulak Kortrijk

Kortrijk

Frank Simon (presenting)

Ghent University

Education

ROOSDAAL

Angelo Van Gorp

UGhent, Belgium

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