An Educational Pilgrimage to the United States: Travel Diary by Raymond Buyse, 1922 (Studia Paedagogica, 46) - Softcover

Buyse, Raymond

Softcover

ISBN 10: 905867875X ISBN 13: 9789058678751

Publisher: Leuven University Press, 2011

Synopsis

In 1922, Raymond Buyse, a young Belgian "pedologist," undertook a study tour of the United States of America. He made this trip together with Ovid Decroly, a founder of schools, educational reformer and professor of child psychology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Both men were keenly interested in the "scientific" study of the child and especially in applied American psychology as well as in psychological tests.

They met well-known American professors and visited universities that were developing these aspects of psychology. Back in Belgium, Buyse and Decroly dedicated several books and articles to the issues discussed during the trip. Less known is that Raymond Buyse noted his impressions and reflections of the three-month trip in a diary. Buyse writes in a lively style about his encounters with the great psychologists and pedagogues of that time.

This diary, unpublished until now and presented here as a unique "flip-book" with the original French version comprising half of the book and the English translation making up the other half, adds a new dimension to the study of the history of psychology and education in Belgium and far beyond.

About this title

About the Author:

Marc Depaepe is Professor of History of Education at the University of Leuven.

Review:

"These exceptional travel notes immerse us in the heart of America in the twenties, as discovered by the young Raymond Buyse, who was both dazzled by the Eldorado of democracy and baffled by the arrogance of its civilization of steel. Traveling to the most famous shrines of educational psychology, Busye (accompanied by the famous Ovide Decroly) meet in turn Dewey, Stanley Hall, Judd, Thorndike.... This singular work identifies the early effects of internationalization in education: the implementation of testing imported from continental Europe and global networks of influence, paradigms, and concepts."

(Rita Hofstetter, Université de Genéve)

"This book provides a fresh and fascinating view of the emerging science of educational psychology and progressive reform, seen through the eyes of a young Belgian scholar of education visiting the United States in 1922. What emerges from the journal of Raymond Buyse is an engaging mix of cultural critique and pedagogical tourism, along with miniature portraits of leading figures in the booming enterprise of educational progressivism."

(David Labaree, Stanford University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Leuven University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 905867875X
• ISBN 13: 9789058678751
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Depaepe Marc, D'hulst Lieven