X. Biennial Conference: Universal Schooling in Central Europe

X. Biennial Conference: Universal Schooling in Central Europe

The Czech Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the National Pedagogical Museum and Library of J. A. Comenius are pleased to announce the X. Biennial Conference of the Czech Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies: Universal Schooling and School Reform in the Late 18th Century: Perspectives from the Habsburg Monarchy and Central Europe

Precisely 250 years ago, in 1775, Ignaz Felbiger's Book of Methods (Methodenbuch) was published in the Habsburg Monarchy, the first concrete step resulting from the Education Law issued in December 1774. On the basis of Felbiger's School Law, the organizational School Code for Hungary, Ratio educationis totiusque rei literariae per regnum Hungariae et provincias eidem adnexas (System of Education and Schooling in the Kingdom of Hungary and its provinces), was also adopted on 2 August 1777.

Concurrently, other major developments in the sphere of elementary education in Central Europe were initiated, which invite a comparative perspective. In 1774, the Philantropinum educational institute was founded in Dessau, and in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, on the initiative of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, the Commission of National Education was established in 1773—the first central institution for education in the world to take over the staff and buildings of the suppressed Jesuit schools. Two years later, the Society for Elementary Books was founded in Warsaw to produce textbooks.

The aim of the X. Biennial Conference of the Czech Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is to map and compare the new educational and teaching models that were taking shape at that time in various countries of the Habsburg Monarchy, but also in other regions of Central Europe, especially in the German- and Polish-speaking regions.

Contributions may cover the following general areas:

• Establishment of the school network, organisational and financial conditions and obstacles
• Organisation of state supervision of education
• Scholarisation and alphabetisation of common subjects; possibilities and limits of schooling
• School as an instrument of disciplining and civic loyalty
• The role of secondary schools, their relation to the traditional grammar schools (Latin/ordinary schools)
• School buildings and their equipment
• School everyday life, teaching and teachers
• The role of the teachers in society
• Teaching methods and textbook production
• Training of teachers and their material conditions
• The development of Protestant and Jewish education
• Home education and its control
• The upbringing and education of children
• Intellectuals and their role in educational reform
• University reforms after the suppression of the Jesuit order
• Faculties of philosophy and theology

The venue will be specified.

Selected papers will be published in the Cornova journal of the Czech Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ERIH+, SCOPUS, DOAJ).

Submission:
Those interested in participating should submit an abstract of their paper in English, ranging from half a page to one page in length (approximately 400 to 700 words), by 15 June 2025, at:
osmnacte.stoleti@gmail.com

Organisers:
Doc. Daniela Tinková, PhD., Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy; SVOS
daniela.tinkova@ff.cuni.cz
Mgr. Martina Halířová, PhD., Národní pedagogické muzeum J. A. Komenského