Marking Time, Making Community in Medieval Schools

The medieval elementary and grammar-school pupil is a partially-hidden figure in the documentary sources of the period. Their existence, and their existence in abundance, is clear from the fact that so many schools and teachers were operating in the later Middle Ages. Evidence specific to the schoolchild, however, is lacking and the researcher has to explore documents in lateral way in order to find information on their everyday experiences. Even identifying individual pupils by name can be difficult. This article will explore the archival sources available in French cities, in this case the city of Lyon, in an effort to identity possible sources of data on the medieval schoolchild. It will look at sources that name pupils, either as groups or as individuals, and it will discuss what evidence for their daily lives can be extrapolated from a selection of documents. The documents examined in the article include the proceedings of ecclesiastical chapters, school statutes, obituaries, wills, proceedings of the municipal council, and pedagogical literature. Some of these must be closely read in order to find the children and pupils within their pages but they are there, often in surprising circumstances, such as the illegitimate children who received legacies from the parents and other family members in order to pursue their education and the pupils who had early-printed works dedicated to them. This article will serve as a map for other scholars seeking to study pre-modern school children.

New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession

This essay responds to the cluster "Medieval Studies and Secondary Education" by suggesting that we shift our attention away from our understandable, but often unproductive, anxieties about the obsolescence of Medieval Studies within school curricula and towards the promotion of the professional health and intellectual pleasure of the exhausted and harried secondary school teacher. In addition to lauding the efforts of medievalists to enhance and expand the appeal and relevance of our disciplines through immersive activities and the provincialization of Europe, this response explores and evaluates the feasibility of proposals to offer online and in-person summer seminars on medieval topics, to augment easily accessible online resources for teaching the Middle Ages, and to develop mentorship structures within universities and professional societies that connect prospective and practicing teachers with medievalists in educator preparation programs.

This introduction outlines the rationale behind the essays collected in this book, aiming to unearth the Middle Ages as a site of the multiple and the queer, which, in turn, serves to disrupt temporal and spatial stereotypes and to uncover the disruptive presence of a present that is far more incoherent than generally understood.

As I believe, anthropology is about understanding people and cultural anthropology focuses on people creating and being influenced by culture. In this article, by presenting the category of time in western Middle Ages and comparing it to our times, I would like to make understanding of thinking patterns of people living in the Middle Ages, as well as ours, a bit easier. The knowledge about how a person and specific groups of people see, treat, organize and describe time can be one of the tools without which an explanation of some behaviours (not only in the past) becomes impossible.

History of Education Quarterly

This issue of the History of Education Quarterly (HEQ) focuses on education in medieval and early modern Europe (c. 1100-1750), a period that has received limited attention in the journal. Within this chronological and geographical scope, our five authors examine diverse topics that shed light on the roots of modern educational traditions and structures. For example: What was the form and function of the medieval academic and daily calendar, which schools and universities generally follow today? What educational opportunities were available to girls and women inside, and especially outside, the medieval and early modern classroom? How should we account for private tutoring, domestic training, self-instruction, peer-based pedagogy, and other opportunities? In reconstructing the educational past (and present), should we focus on those Natalie Zemon Davis has termed "women worthies" for whom we have more abundant sources, or should we explore women (and men) at all social levels, even if they have left us fewer records? Lastly, how has the Catholic Church approached the education of young people from the sixteenth century to the present? Exploring such questions offers an opportunity to better understand those who provided and received instruction at all levels in the premodern era. The importance of this subfield is even more evident in light of the steady decline in the number of such studies within HEQ and across the history of education field. During the sixty years of its existence (1960-2020), HEQ has published forty-six articles about medieval and early modern Europe. 1 This subset constitutes 4.8 percent

OCTAEDRO, 2021

Through the review of the relevant bibliography, one can see that the Middle Ages contain elements of knowledge production and culture, although it is usually presented as an empty spiritually historical period. The constant quarrels and barbaric raids seem to have given the false impression that in the Middle Ages ignorance of education prevailed. However, what appears in the writings of historians is that, during the medieval years, humanity was in need and sought to be educated. Thus, educational systems were formed, being based on the triptych: Christianity, Ancient Greek Culture and Roman Philosophy. The medieval educational system, however, despite its efforts to shape a cultural environment, highlighted and reinforced social inequalities. As shown in bibliography, in the medieval years, education presented elements of authoritarian pedagogy with abusive practices against young students. This work will bring to light all of the above, proving that social justice was an unknown word to medieval teachers.

2015

The medieval elementary and grammar-school pupil is a partially-hidden figure in the documentary sources of the period. Their existence, and their existence in abundance, is clear from the fact that so many schools and teachers were operating in the later Middle Ages. Evidence specific to the schoolchild, however, is lacking and the researcher has to explore documents in lateral way in order to find information on their everyday experiences. Even identifying individual pupils by name can be difficult. This article will explore the archival sources available in French cities, in this case the city of Lyon, in an effort to identity possible sources of data on the medieval schoolchild. It will look at sources that name pupils, either as groups or as individuals, and it will discuss what evidence for their daily lives can be extrapolated from a selection of documents. The documents examined in the article include the proceedings of ecclesiastical chapters, school statutes, obituaries, wills, proceedings of the municipal council, and pedagogical literature. Some of these must be closely read in order to find the children and pupils within their pages but they are there, often in surprising circumstances, such as the illegitimate children who received legacies from the parents and other family members in order to pursue their education and the pupils who had early-printed works dedicated to them. This article will serve as a map for other scholars seeking to study pre-modern school children.

Acta Technologica Dubnicae

On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, this essay analyses those educational innovations in the history of central European education that were introduced by the Church reform in the 16th century, following these modernizations and their further developments through the spreading of the universal school systems in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Drawing examples from the innovations in the college culture of the period, the author emphasises that those pedagogical values established in the 16th century are not only valid today, but are exemplary from the point of view of contemporary education. From these the author highlights: pupils’ autonomy (in the form of various communities), cooperation with the teachers and school management and the relative pluralism of values.

2016