The purpose of this contribution is to show how Labriola’s “Dell’insegnamento della storia" provides a valid opportunity to bring together teaching, history and community. 

Antonio Labriola (1843-1904), was one of the main philosophers and pedagogists who contributed to the Italian cultural debate between the nineteenth and the twentieth century. He was the first recognized interpreter of Marx and Engels in Italy, and discussed and influenced the thought of authors like Gentile, Gramsci and Croce. With the latter, Labriola developed a long friendship of mutual intellectual enrichment. From the pedagogical point of view, he is particularly remembered for developing the main theoretical framework of the pedagogy of praxis, linking Education to economic and social development. The 1876 essay “Dell’insegnamento della storia" is part of the author's complex production in which the topic of Education emerges in a transversal way, following the evolution of his theoretical insights. 

After exploring the particular meaning of Education, Labriola analyses the organization of pedagogical knowledge following the Herbartian approach. Labriola then focuses on the teaching of history: history is indeed a privileged subject to encourage the empirical interest of students. By learning it, students have the unique opportunity to relate their field of experience to what they can touch and see here and now (phenomenal experience), to their past and their identity.

Through what he calls the “Taste for curiosity”, Labriola discusses the importance of nourishing the learner's soul by encouraging the establishment of connections between historical data and personal experience.  This empirical interest is awakened through curiosity, but also needs to be brought back to unity in order to answer the questions that historical research and the quest for discovery lead to.

Besides the empirical interest, the author also stresses the importance of rational interest, which brings with it critical feeling and logical thought. This interest naturally stimulates the search for meaning and the inference of causal connections from historical contexts and life events. Indeed, finding relations between historical facts and emotional life allows a better understanding and a collective sharing of historical events.

Labriola therefore seems to anticipate Dewey's conception of history as an account of the forces and forms of social life. For this reason, historical facts must be placed within a precise historical, social and community context in order to understand their peculiar characteristics and dynamics. Thereby students will develop and enhance their sympathetic interest, which is one of the major aspects of social life. Teaching history requires overcoming prejudice and suspending judgement to let the facts speak for themselves. This historicist and causal attitude offers the possibility of breaking free of our often self-indulgent interpretations of reality, and of reconnecting people and communities by encouraging feelings of sympathy and understanding towards our fellow human beings. Ultimately, all behaviors and phenomena are the result of a complicated but also interesting interweaving of facts awaiting a new interpretation.

The first methodological problem encountered was understanding which hermeneutical approach should be adopted to deal with the historical/pedagogical data. The goal was to remain faithful to the open issues of historical-pedagogical knowledge according to their time frame, while proposing a new approach to understand the present. The critical Hermeneutic-Historical approach was chosen, in order to correctly contextualize the texts within their historical framework while at the same time grasping their future perspectives. A proper contextualisation allows a more pedagogical experience and promotes in turn inclusion and democracy.

We will show the relevance of Labriola's thought on history teaching, which can strengthen the social fabric more than any other subject. Doing away with a dogmatic and authoritarian paradigm, the historical approach can promote the democratization of society through the development of an empowering pedagogical thought. Based on “taste for curiosity”, empirical interest and sympathetic interest, Labriola’s approach fosters a common awareness of the importance of history education, which can make the school curriculum grow qualitatively, and encourage an inclusive and democratic sense of community.

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