In recent decades, within the history of education there has been a crisis of historiographical method based on the linear reconstruction of theories of thinkers. This change has been fruitful, but can result in an abandonment of the history of ideas, and it is accompanied by a widespread perception that the study of the classics is an operation of useless erudition. Furthermore, in the training of teachers and educators there has been an imbalance towards practical knowledge and expertise, as a response to urgent questions (migration, violence, social and family transformations), and an abandonment of the proper study of theories and models that would offer the possibility of consciously designing educational interventions. The paper illustrates how the study of the classics can still constitute an indispensable training because it is not an operation of erudition; it is an opportunity to reflect on tradition, on how and why some texts and authors are foundational, on how they have been interpreted differently, on how they have been variously implemented and transferred.

Received 05 April 2021. Revised 03 May 2021. Accepted 09 June 2021. Published online 11 July 2021

Classics in history of education, History of ideas and history of education, Classics and teacher training, Tradition in the history of education, History of ideas in teacher training,

http://dx.doi.org/10.26106/8bfv-z004