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.