Freinet, Gramsci, Sujomlinski: Progressive Educational Thinkers
Celestin Freinet (1896-1966)
French teacher Celestin Freinet‘s life and pedagogy were shaped by his teacher training, Communist affiliation, and lung injury from World War I. This injury limited his ability to lecture traditionally, leading him to innovate with printing within the school system. Influenced by the New School movement, Freinet’s social and political concerns led him to join the French Communist Party and travel to Moscow in 1925.
In 1926, he created the Cooperative of Secular Education, facing political repression from 1932-1933. He later opened a private school with his wife, Elise, which was closed during World War II when he was jailed. Post-war, the Freinet method gained recognition, but he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1953 for criticizing Soviet education. The Freinet movement fragmented in 1961, giving rise to institutional pedagogy.
Characteristics of Freinet’s Teaching
Freinet was influenced by Rabelais, Montaigne, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Montessori, and Piaget. His child-centered approach emphasized trusting the child to develop their potential. Learning is driven by student choice and interest, with the school providing resources and the teacher guiding. Education through labor (action-based learning) is central, conceived as work-play aligned with children’s needs. Cooperative work fosters fraternity, exemplified by the Cooperative School. Classes revolve around the school print shop, producing newspapers and interscholastic letters. Freinet used experimental trial and error, encouraging students to do, produce, process, and verify, emphasizing thinking through doing.
Freinet’s pedagogy is refreshing, active, popular, natural, anti-capitalist, open, student-centered, work-focused, cooperative, and methodological. He advocated for popular public schools serving the working classes.
Institutional Education Trends
Institutional Education emerged from the 1961 Freinet Movement Congress. A split led to the Educational Techniques Group (EWG), which developed institutional pedagogy. Internal disagreements led to further divisions into research groups focusing on nursery education, theoretical studies, and psychosocial aspects.
Two main streams of institutional pedagogy developed in France, represented by Lobrot and Fernand Oury with Aida Vasquez, with distinct characteristics.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
Italian pedagogue and Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci abandoned his studies for politics, co-founding the Communist and Socialist parties. Imprisoned in 1926, he continued his reflections despite harsh conditions. His pedagogical interest stemmed from personal concerns for his children’s education and broader social concerns.
Gramsci believed culture is grounded in equality and that all individuals are intellectuals, though not all exercise this role in society. He opposed both liberal and authoritarian education, advocating a balance between discipline and spontaneity. Gramsci envisioned a state-led school providing equal opportunities, fostering critical thinking, and active learning, with the teacher maintaining authority for personal autonomy.
Vasile Sujomlinski (1918-1970)
Soviet educator Vasile Sujomlinski, alongside Makarenko, is considered a major figure in 20th-century education. His experiences in World War II, where he was wounded and his wife murdered, deeply impacted him. He believed education should be based on children’s happiness, play, imagination, and desires.
Sujomlinski’s work, spread across numerous articles, emphasized child-centeredness and community development. His School for Joy aimed to develop each student’s potential through joy and freedom. Learning occurred through play and a “stress field” conducive to independent study and research. He saw community as a means to develop communist individuals.
Reproduction Theories
French sociologists Bourdieu and Passeron’s Reproduction, Baudelot and Establet’s Capitalist School in France, and Althusser’s theories analyze the school system through a Marxist lens. They argue that schools reproduce social inequalities, perpetuating students’ social class destinies.
Bogdan Suchodolski
Polish educator Bogdan Suchodolski advocated for education preparing youth for a future civilization without exploitation, based on respect, creativity, and social participation. He criticized traditional education for failing to instill responsibility and values. Suchodolski proposed integrating general and vocational education, the social and individual, throughout life. He envisioned a new civilization developing all human capacities through intellectual, moral, and artistic pursuits in social cooperation.