MAESTRI "SPECIALI" ALLA SCUOLA DI PADRE GEMELLI. LA FORMAZIONE DEGLI INSEGNANTI PER FANCIULLI ANORMALI ALL'UNIVERSITA' CATTOLICA (1926-1978)

The “School for the special aids and assistants for disabled children”, opened in 1926 at the Catholic University of Milan by father Agostino Gemelli, was one of the very first in Italy to set up about disabled children teacher training. This School gives evidence of Gemelli’s work in the special education area and also represents the Italian path toward scholastic inclusion for disabled persons. The interest of Gemelli, one of the most famous psychologists in the XX Century Italian framework, towards disability reflects how the contemporary Catholic world cared about interventions for the weakest not only driven by a charity feeling but based on scientific studies. Moreover, the study highlights how teacher training has changed from the Twenties to the Seventies of the last Century, following the different way of looking at disabled children, from isolation in special schools to inclusion in common classes. The thesis contributes to improve Italian studies in the field of the history of special education, a subject that has, for the most part, to be written. The research is carried out through archival investigations with the purpose of shedding light on teachers, users, materials and textbooks of the School, since its origin until the Seventies.