Between production and circulation: Carleton Washburne’s studies viaNew Education Fellowship’s publications

Abstract:

By retracing Carleton Wolsey Washburne’s professional journey, this study sought to evidence the circumstances under which his educational ideas were produced. With the intention to learn more about his journey and educational actions, important communication networks revealed themselves, showing that his actions were not isolated, but intertwined with international networks, whose discourses and practices were incorporated by individuals and institutions adept at the Éducation Nouvelle advocated by the New Education Fellowship (NEF). Specifically, it is interesting to know which of Washburne’s ideas were disseminated internationally by the NEF’s founding journals. To this end, this research, inserted in the History of Education and Cultural History fields, uses documentary analysis based on Michel de Certeau’s and Peter Burke’s studies. Results showed that the circulation of Washburne’s ideas, via NEF’s publications, did not privilege his work as a whole, but the self-instructional materials, especially those referring to the teaching of arithmetic.

Keywords:
protestantism; education of the body; history of the body; health