The spatiality of geography teaching and cultures of alternative education: the ‘intuitive geographies’ of the anarchist school in Cempuis (1880–1894)

Abstract

As part of current studies focusing on geographies of education and spatiality of teaching and learning, this article addresses the didactic experiences of historical anarchist schools, which opened in several countries at the end of the 19th century. The article deals especially with the example of the Cempuis School (1880–1894) in France, which was run by the anarchist activist and teacher Paul Robin. The aim here is twofold. First, the article clarifies the function of space and spatiality in the teaching and learning practices of the anarchist schools, at least according to the available sources; second, it reconstructs the international cultural transfer, still little known, of the geographical knowledge produced by scholars like Reclus and Kropotkin in the field of educational practices. Finally, the article hopes to contribute to the understanding of spatial educational practices in current alternative, democratic and radical schools.

Amenity as educator: Geographies of education, citizenship, and the CPRE in 1930s England

“…This focus on the spatiality and materiality of education has allowed academics to explore various forms of pedagogy, and educators (Burke, ; Grosvenor, ) such as school buildings (Kozlovsky, ) that can become in essence a “third educator” (Kemnitz, , p. 605). The countryside (Gruffudd, ; Matless, ; Ploszajska, ) and nature (Ferretti, ) have also been understood as educators, though of course not all natures are understood as desirable learning spaces (Kraftl, ). Here, nature is understood as “fluid, complex, and emergent from situated interactions and interconnections” (Lorimer, ; p. 2047).…”

Geographies of peace and the teaching of internationalism: Marie‐Thérèse Maurette and Paul Dupuy in the Geneva International School (1924–1948)

“…From a pedagogical standpoint, the birthplace of Rousseau had long been considered the ‘crossroad’ of the most advanced pedagogical theories (Hofstetter ). Geneva was also one of the centres of the ‘International Switzerland’ of exiles and political refugees between the 19th and the 20th centuries; some members of this community, like Reclus, Kropotkin and Charles Perron, were inspirers of the experiments in the Modern School and Anarchist Education ( éducation libertaire ) (Ferretti ). As recent research shows, geography played an outstanding role in shaping theories and practices of anarchist education (Ferretti ).…”

“…The model which inspires the organisation of our co‐educative community is the family: we are simply following nature, as in the family’ (Walker , 26). If the rhetoric naturalising educational relations is typical of Pestalozzi's and Fröbel's thinking, it should be pointed out that mixed‐sex education was a point in common between Ecolint and anarchist education, one that scandalised the supporters of more traditional methods, as in the case of the anarchist school in Cempuis (France) run by Paul Robin, which was the object of conservatives' campaigns against the mixed education practised there and called by them ‘a pigsty’ (Ferretti ).…”

“…The leçon de choses was one of the key methods for both Ferdinand Buisson's secular education and the anarchist experiments in Cempuis (Ferretti ). In geography, this method was endorsed by Élisée Reclus and Franz Schrader, two of Paul Dupuy's main inspirers, as I explain below.…”

Habiter l’école

“…L'intérêt pédagogique des relevés, de la mesure, des calculs, les prolongements vers l'étude de la climatologie et de ses relations avec les activités humaines apparaissent, au premier abord, comme la finalité d'un tel lieu. Mais la station de Cempuis fait aussi partie du réseau de postes de mesure qui couvre la totalité du territoire national et qui est coordonné par le bureau central de météorologie (Ferretti, 2016). Par ce biais l'école dirigée par Paul Robin est en contact avec l'extérieur, ouverte sur le monde, participant de manière utile à la compilation de données météorologiques et à la prévision indispensable aux agriculteurs et aux marins notamment.…”