Der "Personalbogen für Kinder der Hilfsschule". \u27Schwachsinn\u27, Wissenspraktiken und Bürokratie in Berlin um 1900

Wie im Folgenden gezeigt werden kann, ist die Quellengattung individueller Aktenführung eng mit den institutionellen Entwicklungen der ‚Schwachsinnigenpädagogik‘ verbunden. Zunächst wird ihre Bedeutung für die Hervorbringung und Stabilisierung der Kategorie ‚Schwachsinn‘ studiert, wobei der Fokus auf ihrer Funktion in der Organisation der Überweisung in die Nebenklassen bzw. Hilfsschulen liegt. In einem zweiten Schritt wird die Weiterentwicklung der Personalbogen, wie sie im Zuge der Zusammenlegung von Nebenklassen zu Hilfsschulsystemen stattgefunden hat, analysiert. Hierbei kann gezeigt werden, dass der Beitrag der Bogen zur weiteren Schärfung der Diagnose ‚Schwachsinn‘ gering bleibt, sie aber für die Etablierung eines hilfsschulpädagogischen Expert:innenwissens und der Festschreibung des Umgangs mit ‚schwachsinnigen‘ Kindern eine nicht zu unterschätzende Wirkung entfalten konnten. (DIPF/Orig.

From record keeping to a new knowledge regime: the special school pupil as a new pedagogical object in Prussia around 1900

The history of the Hilfsschule (special school) is contested and multifaceted. For the German context, most research to date has focused on institutions or professional pioneers in special education. This paper, through a “New Historicism” perspective, asks how a group of pupils, described as “retarded”, could become a new pedagogical object within a discourse among teachers, psychiatrists, school doctors and local administrations at the end of the nineteenth century. Linking national and local discourses, this paper analyses the emergence of the special school pupil (Hilfsschulkind) in Germany within a broader discourse of educability as well as through knowledge practices, namely record-keeping systems

Knowledge in the making: methodological considerations on the production, dissemination, and usage of "small forms in education"

Collecting and producing mass data has offered an appealing way to condense educational phenomena. However, thus far, little attention has been given to the seemingly insignificant preprinted forms that represent the basis for compiling and aggregating data. Taking inspiration from science and technology studies and the ensuing development of so-called paper technologies, this article highlights the potential of small forms in education that were used to record, evaluate, and aggregate data for educational statistics. By suggesting a multi-level methodological approach that we frame as 3D hermeneutics, we seek to contribute a methodological proposal on how to analyse these materials and showcase what lies beneath – or what comes before – the knowledge produced by educational statistics. These analyses draw on pre-printed forms collected by the Prussian educational administration at the turn of the nineteenth century, and re-trace the contexts they were embedded in, examine their materiality, and reconstruct their usage

Fabricating spaces and knowledge: the Berlin-Dalldorf Municipal Asylum for “Feeble-Minded” Children (1880–1900)

PurposeThis paper has two purposes. One is to examine the ways mentally disabled children were disciplined and cared for in Berlin, Germany/Prussia, at the end of the 19th century, by considering the way the architecture of the asylum affected the practices within it. The second purpose is to examine the manner in which the practices at the Dalldorf Asylum, especially the administrative paperwork, fabricated and stabilized the medico-pedagogical category of “feeble-mindedness”.Design/methodology/approachThis paper engages with reflections on asylum architecture and its connection to disciplining bodies as shown in Disability History and linking these insights to recent scholarship from the field of Science and Technology Studies on the fabrication of knowledge through observation. Drawing on microhistory as methodology it examines the fabrication of “feeble-mindedness” with and within the Dalldorf Asylum, focusing on architecture and design as well as administrative practices.FindingsThe analysis of the asylum's architecture reveals how certain ideas of hygiene and control derived from 19th century psychiatry, along with personal attentiveness and individualized learning were incorporated into the building, creating the notion of a “feeble-minded child” as being simultaneously dangerous and in danger. The paper further shows how the professionals involved were struggling with diagnosing these children, further showcasing that the space as well as the categorization of children, oscillating between psychiatry and pedagogy, has to be understood as contested.Originality/valueThis paper engages findings on the disciplining structures organizing everyday life within the asylum with concepts of fabricating knowledge as central to science studies. The Dalldorf Asylum, the earliest state-funded asylum for mentally disabled children in Germany and largely understudied, is used as the main research object. A microhistorical approach allows to make visible the intricate yet mundane practices involved in stabilizing the category of “feeble-mindedness”

Vergehen, Verhör, Verschriftlichung — Wahrheitspraktiken und die Pädagogisierung von Entweichungen aus dem Landerziehungsheim Albisbrunn (1938–1982)

Bei Regelverstößen in Erziehungsheimen setzten in unterschiedlichen Akzentuierungen Wahrheitspraktiken zur Klärung der Ereignisse ein. Am Beispiel des Fortlaufens aus dem Schweizer Landerziehungsheim für schwererziehbare Knaben Albisbrunn untersucht der Beitrag in praxeologischer Perspektive für zwei Zeiträume im 20. Jahrhundert (1938–1952 und 1968–1982), mit welchen konkreten Praktiken (etwa Verhöre, Berichte, Isolation), Wahrheit über die Zeit der Flucht hervorgebracht und stabilisiert werden sollte. Sowohl Kontinuität als auch Wandel der Wahrheitspraktiken, die mitunter auf den Körper der Zöglinge zielten, werden so nachvollziehbar gemacht. Abschließend wird die Bedeutung von Wahrheitspraktiken, mit einem besonderen Fokus auf die Pädagogisierung von Regelverletzungen diskutiert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass sich die Möglichkeiten der pädagogischen Bearbeitung von Flucht innerhalb des Heims über das 20. Jahrhundert hinweg veränderten, jedoch abhängig von stabilen Praktiken der Wahrheitsfindung blieben

Knowledge in the Making : Methodological Considerations on the Production, Dissemination, and Usage of “Small Forms in Education”

Collecting and producing mass data has offered an appealing way to condense educational phenomena. However, thus far, little attention has been given to the seemingly insignificant pre-printed forms that represent the basis for compiling and aggregating data. Taking inspiration from science and technology studies and the ensuing development of so-called paper technologies, this article highlights the potential of small forms in education that were used to record, evaluate, and aggregate data for educational statistics. By suggesting a multi-level methodological approach that we frame as 3D hermeneutics, we seek to contribute a methodological proposal on how to analyse these materials and showcase what lies beneath – or what comes before – the knowledge produced by educational statistics. These analyses draw on pre-printed forms collected by the Prussian educational administration at the turn of the nineteenth century, and re-trace the contexts they were embedded in, examine their materiality, and reconstruct their usage