National Education and Universal Method: Dynamics of Global Diffusion and Culture-Specific Forms of Adoption of the Bell-Lancaster Method in the 19th Century I

The global spread of the Bell-Lancaster method during the early 19th century is one of the most remarkable examples of the internationalisation of pedagogical concepts. The method, named after two English schoolmen, Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, seemed to be an adequate solution to basic organizational problems of instruction that occurred when increasingly inclusive elementary school systems were established. The basic idea of the method was that in the classes, which used to be very large at that time and comprised a wide range of ages, the abler pupils be systematically used as helpers whose activities were to be coordinated by the teacher. With the help of this cheap teaching model, it was hoped to decisively promote the inclusion of considerable parts of the younger age groups in institutionalised school education. Moreover, the surprisingly dynamic dissemination of the model was further supported by political conditions. The method was, for instance, embedded in processes of nation building and also supported by the imperialistic notions of the time. In the historiography of education, however, the international dimensions of this issue have not yet been examined. This is why this proposal, which sees itself as a contribution to the history of internationalisation, aims at examining the worldwide dynamics of the diffusion of the Bell-Lancaster method, its regional-specific adoption and adaptation as well as its eventual failure. In doing so, the study will focus on several central and semi-peripheral Western European states (Schleswig, Holstein and Prussia on the one hand, Spain on the other) as well as on some peripheral societies in the proto-colonial (British India) and in the post-colonial context (Argentina).