A Cultural History of Education in the Renaissance by Jeroen J. H. Dekker;

Author:Jeroen J. H. Dekker;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

CHAPTER SIX

Teachers and Teaching

JEAN-LUC LE CAM

The period from 1450 to 1650 was marked by an upheaval of educational structures unequalled in earlier times, and by the progressive development, in every European cultural area of Europe, of new approaches and educational organizations, which would then prevail with little change until the nineteenth century. Secondary education gradually separated from the university or from elementary schools and, following the Reformation, the “little church” of catechism was born, prefiguring the primary school or popular education. In this period, together with humanist questioning of the practices of scholasticism, can be found a considerable increase in reflection on pedagogy, a disruption of teaching content and aims, an abundance of textbooks and editions for use in schools, the setting of new methods, and the standardization of curricula. To achieve this, it was necessary to mobilize ever more human resources and support to build and maintain this school system and to accommodate the school and university population, which continued to grow.

While there was much more similarity in terms of content and teaching methods than often imagined beyond the political, cultural, and religious dividing lines, the institutional framework in which these activities emerged underwent great variation across Europe, generating different types of school systems. These gave the teachers who served it very different positions and statuses, modes of exercising, and economic foundations. It is impossible to explain all this diversity in a single chapter. Examples have therefore been selected from two different cultural and political systems and areas, namely the Holy Roman Empire in its Protestant part including the Netherlands, and at the same time the kingdom of France and more generally the area of ​​Jesuit Europe, while briefly using some examples taken from the English-speaking world. Similarly, higher education is not included except where it was involved in general educational issues.

AN EXPONENTIAL INCREASE, WITH CONTINUING CHURCH INFLUENCE

The upsurge in demand and the stimulation of the Reformation naturally led to a considerable growth in the number of people devoted to the role of teaching from the mid-sixteenth century. This of course involved the establishment of teaching organizations. But we should also include all those who at some point in their career, or even in their training, took part in this while preparing for another profession. Much teaching was in fact given in the form of private or domestic tutoring. I have shown how in Germany the function of tutor was very often already exercised by pupils of Latin schools,1 and that as a result the students found the means to finance at least their accommodation and food, to the point of weakening Latin schools in small German university towns.2 Nobles who went to higher colleges or on training trips were accompanied by mentors who were themselves often at the end of their studies while waiting for a fixed place. Even teachers in public schools in the Protestant system in the sixteenth century were generally there by default before they could be accepted for promotion to be pastors. It was also a fairly common complaint that this lack of commitment to teaching caused a high turnover.

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