Jolanda Cervellati, pioneering special education teacher in the early 20th century

Abstract

In the long history of social and school inclusion, it is interesting to study the professional figures who established institutions for the care and education of ‘abnormal’ children in the 19th and 20th centuries. This contribution sets out to investigate the historical and educational profile of Jolanda Cervellati (1897-1965), a primary school teacher and pioneer in the education of ‘retarded’ children. Based on published and other sources – printed and archive materials – we will focus our attention on Cervellati’s educational journey, which led her to manage the first special school for retarded children in Bologna in 1923, an innovative school for pupils who until then had been considered to be ineducable within the public school system.