The Convitti Scuola della Rinascita (the Boarding Schools of Rebirth): an innovative pedagogy for democracy in post-war Italy (1945–1955)

In 1945, Italian society was in crisis. Twenty years of fascism and the aerial bombing and military offensives of the Second World War had left the civilian population suffering and the nation in need of reinvention. In this difficult context, certain anti-fascist intellectuals devised the interesting pedagogical experiment of the 11 Convitti Scuola della Rinascita (Boarding Schools of Rebirth) for adult learners, mainly those who had been partisans engaged in the Italian resistance during the war. This article reconstructs the birth of the Convitti within the general framework of education, war and reconstruction. It investigates the arduous search for and development of an adult education curriculum – outside the traditional models – suited to the ethical and political reconstruction of students. Finally, it situates the Convitti and their demise amidst the dilemmas that affected both the ruling classes and the teachers called to redefine their role in a newly democratic Italy.