Primary school teachers in French-speaking Switzerland and New Education, between enthusiasm and resistance (1920s)

Abstract

The Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute played a key part in the development of Progressive Education and educational sciences in Romandy. Its founders sought to involve the members of primary education in the creation of experimental teaching methods and spurred them to engage in novel approaches. But the exchanges between theorists and practitioners, both in the educational press and in congresses, led to a number of disagreements, resistances and controversies, the analysis of which highlights the difficulties related to any reforming process in the field of education.