Towards the end of the nineteenth century Western education became exposed to new international ideas about how to organize a school, how to arrange a classroom and how to teach children (Depaepe, 2000). These reform pedagogical or progressive educational ideals were centered around the child, societal life and progress (Reese, 2001). In this presentation we want to expose the existing histories about progressive education to ideas and perspectives coming from new disability history and sound studies.

In line with the new cultural history of education historians of education started to reconsider the existing historical narratives about progressive education. If throughout the twentieth century historians of education often (implicitly) praised progressive educational reforms, new cultural scholarship emphasized the need to critically invest these reform pedagogical undertakings. (Depaepe, 2000; Oelkers, 1995; Stolk, 2015). Recently historians of education have also become interested in issues of diversity when examining the history of reform pedagogy. Weiler, for instance, has looked at the American history of progressive education through the lens of gender (2006). In this presentation we want to take up the new cultural history of education’s critical interest in the history of progressive education from a disability perspective.

Reform educational methods have often been developed on the basis of experiences with the education of children with disabilities (for instance Decroly and Montessori). Strangely enough, both progressive educators have received a lot of attention from historians of education (Wagnon, 2013; Van Gorp, 2005; Stewart-Steinberg, 2007; Moretti, 2011), but up till now no studies do exist that have thoroughly examined the impact of their educational methods on the history of special education for children with sensorial disabilities.

Besides looking at the history of reform pedagogy from a disability perspective, I also would like to examine the history of new education from an acoustic point of view. In a recent special issue published by Paedagogica Historica we have argued that historians of education can and should include the notion of soundscapes in their historical toolboxes as it is helpful in reconstructing and disentangling the complex ways in which education has shaped human beings (Verstraete, Hoegaerts & Goodman, 2017). Zooming in on educational soundscapes indeed enables historians of education to better identify and grasp shifting world views and societal expectations towards teachers and pupils. In this research proposal we aim to apply the notion of educational soundscapes in combination with disability to the history of progressive education. That a combination of sound and disability is a fruitful way to explore historical research questions has been proven by Scales and Sykes. Rebecca Scales, for instance, has pointed towards the intriguing role played by the radio in the rehabilitation of French blinded soldiers of the First World War (Scales, 2008). Ingrid Sykes created awareness for the important place occupied by the literal voices of blind beggars in the history of the Paris institute for blind beggars called Quinze-Vingts (Sykes, 2011).

What I will do concretely in this presentation is to present the work of Alexander Herlin. Alexander Herlin was a Belgian special educator who worked in one of the existing institutes for “deaf-mutes” that existed around 1900. Inspired by the work of Ovide Decroly Herlin developed what he called a demutisation method. It is this method – its origins, emergence and development – and its impact on the special educational soundscapes that I would like to analyse in this presentation.

While analyzing how progressive educational ideals were included in the discussions about and practical organization of special educational initiatives attention will be paid to the political presence of sound. The research will integrate both literal as well as metaphorical interpretations of sound. The former refers to actual sounds that can be heard. The latter refers to the reality of voices being suppressed and resulting in discriminatory silences. During the research period that we’ll focus on the deaf children were forced to produce sounds, to use their voice (cf. oral method and conference of Milan). An important methodological issue is related to the criteria for the presence and instrumentalization of particular sounds being used in special education. Where possible the PhD student will make use of literal historical sounds (sounds that were, for instance, registered on tape) and linguistic or visual representations of sounds (Thomson, 2004; see also: Müller, 2011; Rosenfeld, 2011; Walraven, 2013). Examples of sounds that will definitely be encountered are for instance the ticking of the glass bottles used in the sensorial education of the Brothers of Charity or the sound of pupils breathing in and out in a class where the teacher tries to de-mute (cf. méthode de démutisation) his or her pupils. What also needs to be stressed is the fact that we will not focus on sounds in an isolated way. In line with David Howes’ concept of intersensoriality, we therefore will be sensitive for the way that hearing and sounds interact with the other senses of touch and sight (Howes, 2011). Taste and smell will be taken up wherever possible but will not occupy a central place in this research proposal. I will make use of national archival material found in the collections of the Alexander Herlin institute and the institutes of the Brothers of Charity. Both archives are well ordered and accessible. Contacts have already been made with the archivists responsible for the collections. The archival source material will consist of written correspondence, personal documents, published books and book chapter. In particular the source material will contain the following 5 already identified journals that were published by the adult organisations of and by persons with sensorial disabilities: 1. L’Alexandre Rodenbach 2. Vers la Lumière, Algemeen Blindenverbond van Vlaanderen 3. Sint-Lutgardisblad 4. De Witte stok, Onder ons: informatieblad van de vereniging voor hardhoorenden 5. Onze vriend: Vlaams tijdschrift voor doven en vrienden

I still have to do the research, but I expect the outcomes to indeed demonstrate that reform pedagogy impacted upon the concrete educational soundscapes in Belgian special education. In this way I would like to highlight that new educational ideas absolutely where progressive, but that this did not prevent them to als entail discriminatory attitudes towards people who for one reason or another did not fit within the dominant ideas about how a human being had to look or sound like.

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