From one generation to the next: teachers and teaching in the German colonies in South Russia 1804-1914

• Autores: Neta Steinberg
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 45, Nº. 3, 2009, págs. 329-353
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Among the ethnic groups that composed the population of the Russian Empire, one unique group was that of the Ethnic Germans (Volksdeutschen) who had immigrated to Russia since the second half of the eighteenth century. Over the years, there had been a change in the process of the settlers' assimilation as an outcome of their geographical dispersion. This article focuses on Ethnic Germans who were living in the colonies along the coasts of the Black Sea and in Bessarabia. These settlers managed to preserve their ethnic uniqueness until First World War, in part because of the central role their teachers and schools played in their communities. The teachers were not only agents of knowledge, but also had spiritual-religious roles and were in charge of imparting their unique heritage. An examination of the social origins of the teachers reveals that many of them followed in their fathers' footsteps when choosing an occupation. Hence, it was common that teachers who taught in a certain colony and its surroundings for dozens of years belonged to the same family. The fact that the profession was passed on from one generation to the next as well as marriages between teachers' families and getting teaching positions on this basis had implications beyond the professional-pedagogical domain. This guaranteed the teachers' loyalty to their heritage, their authority in the community and the sense of sharing fate with its members. It was a significant factor in the preservation of the German colonists' ethnic heritage in the face of the increasing Russification of the educational system in their colonies as of the last quarter of the nineteenth century.