Froebelian Leadership in Early Years

As part of our research, we are exploring translations of Froebel’s own writing to see what we might find there when it comes to understandings and conceptualisations of leadership within the Froebelian vision of the kindergarten.

But, honestly, we find ourselves stumped.

Take The Pedagogics of the Kindergarten for example. It starts promisingly enough, with essays on the importance of reflection and thoughtfulness. The mother-educator is told that part of being an educator is to reflect on her own experiences and what they might mean:

“It is essential that parents and nurses for the benefit of their children and for the blissful results of their efforts to educate the children, should recall as much as possible the first phenomena, the course and the limitations of the development of their own total life, and to compare them with the phenomena…”

But then, as the details of the Froebelian gifts and use take over, the figure of the mother-educator is talked to in an increasingly patronising tone. This tone leaves little room for invitations to assume leadership. She is told how to position the objects in front of the child, what to say as she holds the objects and warned that should she deviate from these patterns of interaction, she risks the future health and happiness of her child! Where are the possibilities for leadership in such restricted guidance?

With much more enthusiasm, we turn to examples of Froebelian leadership in the form of early women leaders of the Froebel movement. Take Julie Schwabe for example, Jewish German by birth who converted to Unitarianism and moved to England upon the event of her marriage to her cousin. As part of her philanthropic explorations in education, particularly women’s education, she founded the Instituto Froebeliano in Naples in the 1870s. The institution was hugely successful, growing to 1000 pupils, including a kindergarten programme, and a renowned training package for kindergarten teachers.

Is the secret to our project therefore in encounters with the Froebelian approach and the leadership of this approach globally, rather than in Froebel’s own words?