History of education: a discipline at risk? The Italian case Storia della pedagogia: una disciplina a rischio? Il caso italiano

The history of education is an academic subject that in Italy is experiencing a period of tension. From a purely scientific point of view, in the last decades the discipline has undergone a process of deep renewal. Aside the traditional history of pedagogical ideas and of schooling, new research fields have been opening: history of childhood and children’s literature, of women education, of special education, of school subjects, of pedagogical press and publishing houses, of school text-books, exercise-books and didactic materials, of visual sources, etc. A parallel process of internationalization took place, so that now the discipline can boast a good level of internationalization among many of its members. A new society, dedicated to School and pedagogical museums and educational heritage (SIPSE) was set up in 2017, near the traditional society for history of education (CIRSE), born in 1980. The discipline has three journals, all rated A by the Italian Agency for research evaluation (ANVUR), all with a strong international dimension and one (HECL) both in WoS and Scopus. In spite of these signs of successful scientific life, from a political point of view the discipline is at risk. The number of professors has been decreasing in the last years, and its presence in the teacher training courses is constantly threatened, in correspondence with a political polarization on today’s issues, mainly media education and new technologies, and special education (very important in Italy, where all disabled pupils are mainstreamed since 1977). This trend is not typical of Italy, but seems to be widespread and is linked with the more general loss of historical perspective of our age.