Attraverso i confini.Traduzioni e diffusione di Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica di Maria Montessori. Uno studio comparato

Maria Montessori is one of the most famous and celebrated Italian pedagogists in the world. Due to its speed and geographical extent, the spread of her scientific pedagogy can surely be described as extraordinary, even more since we talk about a woman’s work in the beginning of the twentieth century. It was Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini, published in Italy in 1909, that brought Montessori to the forefront of the world scene, allowing her to be acclaimed internationally as one of history’s great pioneering educators. Since 1912, the number of translations multiplied, to the point of covering, before the end of the First World War, the European and American scene. In addition, international courses for the training of teachers (the first was organized in Italy in 1913), allowed the spread of the method in India, South America, Austrialia and Asia. My research focuses on the comparative analysis of the Metodo’s first translations, in particular the American edition (1912), the English edition (1912), the Swiss edition (1912) and the French edition (1916), placed in the historical, social, cultural and pedagogical context of reference. Furthermore, great part of the research is dedicated to the many figures who surrounded Maria Montessori and worked as hard as she did to help in the spreading of both her thought and book internationally. Indeed, editors, translators, journalists and intellectuals, as well as politicians and ambassadors played an essential role in her successful career. The project aimed to focus on Montessori’s process of building a scientific and cultural work constantly influenced by a plurality of different cultures, traditions, languages and voices, as well as on the hard work of the author to defend her philosophy from any external interference aimed at distorting it.