The influence of Hessen and Dewey in italian pedagogy of work (1945-1970)

In Italian history, the years from 1945 to 1970 are crucial because they lead the country towards democracy, through the consolidation of the republican government, industrialisation and cultural openness towards ideas, theories and practices from beyond the borders. In the pedagogical field, the thought of foreign scholars who were also involved in labour pedagogy was accepted and reworked. Dewey and Hessen belong to different pedagogical currents and have influenced different Italian pedagogical fields, their theories are sometimes similar, sometimes divergent. The comparison shows how anthropological conceptions with different assumptions give rise to ideas on work pedagogy that reflect Dewey's instrumentalism on the one hand and Hessen's spiritualist humanism on the other. For both scholars, work is considered a pedagogical tool for educational and scholastic renewal that presupposes play as an activity characteristic of the early ages of life.