Whither Education? The Long Shadow of Pre-Unification School Systems into Italy's Liberal Age (1861-1911)

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Milan; University of Siena
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050723000219
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 149-190
• 关键词: economic-growth; literacy; landownership; institutions; INEQUALITY

摘要

This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of the expansion of mass schooling and the long-term legacy of educational institutions. Based on a new provincial-level dataset for Italy in the period 1861-1911, we argue that different models of schooling provision adopted by the different pre-unification polities influenced primary-education organizations across macro-regions up to WWI. As a result, school access and the capability to generate literacy given current rates of enrollment differed substantially, with the Northern regions aiming to increase schooling for all, while the Center and the South implemented a more elitist model.[ horizontal ellipsis ] the improvement and advances made so far concerning [public] schools, more than moral, are material; they satisfy the eye of the inexperienced visitor more than they provide effectively for the intellectual development of the pupils. [ horizontal ellipsis ]From a Letter of the Ministry of Public Education (Emilio Broglio) to the Prefect and President of the Provincial School Board of Abruzzo Ulteriore II (Aquila). Florence, 18 February 1868, as reported in the Documenti sulla Istruzione elementare nel Regno d'Italia (Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione 1872), first part, p. 33 (our translation).