Session Information
Contribution
This paper examines ways in which the approach to an embodied and sensory curriculum developed by Dalcroze was facilitated in England in the inter-war period through the networks linking the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, the UK Dalcroze Society and wider European networks linking back to Geneva. The central questions of the paper focus around a) how the physical, the aural, and the intellectual interlinked in embodied and sensory approaches based on Dalcroze practice that contested music education as practised in English schools in the interwar period and b) how the intellectual underpinnings of Dalcroze's ideas linked with developments in 'New' Education and 'Special' Education within a wider European context of internationalisation. The paper will contribute to understandings of the intellectual traditions underpinning English classroom practice in a wider European context. It will examine the traces in Dalcroze's work of Spencerian organic theory and theories of race recapitulation and the ways these informed the inter-related areas Dalcroze saw as integral to his experiential approach. The paper will explore the relation proposed by Dalcrose between a system of musical education in which the body itself was thought to play the role of intermediary between sounds and thought. Dalcroze described his system as 'a new system of gymnastics applied to the nervous system' (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921). The paper will locate Dalcroze's ideas and practice in the context of an inter-war period increasingly focussing on the 'inner' via psychology and a Genevan context of the development of Special Education, linked to ideas of 'New' Education (Van Gorp, 2005), both of which are apparent in Dalcroze's work. The paper will also link Dalcroze's ideas for music education to an increasing internationalisation of education in the interwar period exemplified by the League of Nations located at Geneva (Fuchs, 2004; Goodman, 2007). The paper will trace how views of internationalisation informed by notions of 'nations', national characteristics and the need for harmonious relations between nations were embodied in the sensory curriculum developed by Dalcroze. The paper will add value to current scholarship by adding an embodied, sensory and particularly an aural element to classroom historiesThe paper adopts a documentary research approach. The analysis is underpinned by Bourdieu's thinking tools, network theory and approaches from 'geographies of knowledge' in examining archival material and primary theoretical and practice-based textsThe paper continues the revision of classroom histories and histories of networks of knowledge-production. It contributes to newer approaches that have been enhanced by the adoption of visual and material methodologies. It does this by exploring embodied, sensory and aural curricula through interrogation of Dalcroze's work in the wider European context of the development of New and Special Education in Europe during the internationalisation of the interwar period. It enhances understanding of how the physical, the aural, the visual and the intellectual have interlinked in histories of classrooms and points to their importance to both to the grammar of schooling and the grammar of educationalisation.Fuchs, Eckhardt. 'Educational sciences, morality and politics: international educational congresses in the early twentieth century." Paedagogica Historica 40, nos.5&6: 757-784 Goodman, Joyce. "Working for change across international borders: the Association of Headmistresses and Education for international citizenship." Paedagogica Historica 43, no.1 (2007): 151-165 Jacques-Dalcroze, Emile. Rhythm, Music and Education, trans.H.F.Rubenstein. Geneva: Dalcroze Society, 1921 (1973 edn.) Van Gorp, Angelo. "From special to new education: the biological, psychological and sociological foundations of Ovide Decroly's educational work (1871-1932). History of Education 34, no.2: 135-150. Either international journal or special network collection
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