The New Education Fellowship, the Progressive Education Association, and the US Department of State: South America as part of a complex entanglement

ABSTRACT

In 1943, a report sent to the executive board of the New Education Fellowship (NEF) informed the board that, during a trip to South America in 1942, Carleton Washburne had formed sections in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Brazil on the NEF’s behalf. In some publications, Washburne mentions that it was a study trip commissioned by the US Department of State but does not refer to the NEF. These documents lead to different narratives when analysed separately, but they reveal unexpected connections when confronted together. In 1941, the NEF’s Eighth International Conference was held in the USA in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The conference in the USA was a unique opportunity to strengthen the bonds with Latin American countries that, until that moment, had barely participated in NEF activities. However, the conference also coincided with the US political agenda related to the Good Neighbour policy. Some months later, Washburne started his trip to South America, which was commissioned by the Division of Cultural Relations, a division of the US Department of State. Between April and September 1942, he visited schools, met political authorities and renowned educators, and delivered lectures on the New Education. Based on Washburne’s trip to South America, the following article explores how the New Education Fellowship, Progressive Education Association, and US Department of State were intertwined. Thus, using the vestiges and traces left in different documents such as correspondence, reports, magazines and newspapers, I explore the notion of networks while turning the scales of analysis towards a connected history.

Resumen

En 1943, un informe enviado a la junta ejecutiva de la New Education Fellowship (NEF) informó a la junta que, durante un viaje a Sudamérica en 1942, Carleton Washburne había formado secciones en Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay y Brasil en nombre de la NEF. En algunas publicaciones, Washburne menciona que fue un viaje de estudios encargado por el Departamento de Estado de EE. UU. Pero no hace referencia a la NEF. Estos documentos conducen a diferentes narrativas cuando se analizan por separado, pero revelan conexiones inesperadas cuando se confrontan juntos. En 1941, la Octava Conferencia Internacional de la NEF se celebró en los Estados Unidos en Ann Arbor, Michigan. La conferencia en Estados Unidos fue una oportunidad única para fortalecer los lazos con países latinoamericanos que, hasta ese momento, habían participado poco en las actividades de la NEF. Sin embargo, la conferencia también coincidió con la agenda política estadounidense relacionada con la política del Buen Vecino. Unos meses después, Washburne inició su viaje a Sudamérica, encargado por la División de Relaciones Culturales, una división del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos. Entre abril y septiembre de 1942 visitó escuelas, se reunió con autoridades políticas y educadores de renombre e impartió conferencias sobre la Nueva Educación. Basado en el viaje de Washburne a Sudamérica, el siguiente artículo explora cómo la New Education Fellowship, la Progressive Education Association y el Departamento de Estado de EE. UU. se entrelazaron. Así, a partir de los vestigios y rastros dejados en diferentes documentos como correspondencia, informes, revistas y periódicos, exploro la noción de redes mientras dirijo las escalas de análisis hacia una historia conectada.

KEYWORDS:

• South America
• good neighbour policy
• Carleton Washburne
• new education
• study missions
• networks

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Rockefeller Archive Center; the University of Arkansas Libraries, Special Collections Division; the University of Illinois Archives Research Center; the Winnetka Historical Society; the Winnetka Public Schools Archive; and the Institute of Education Library and Archive/University College London.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ In 1966, the New Education Fellowship was renamed the World Education Fellowship, the name of the collection in the Institute of Education in London.

² The Division of Cultural Relations papers are part of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Historical Collection.

³ I rely mainly on the ideas of clues and indiciary paradigm by Ginzburg. See Carlo Ginzburg, “Morelli, Freud and Sherlock Holmes: Clues and Scientific Method,” History Workshop 9 (1980); and Mitos, Emblemas, Sinais: morfologia e história (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2016).

⁴ On networks, see Eckhardt Fuchs, “Networks and the History of Education,” Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 2 (2007): 185–97. On journeys as an element that brings characters together and the different kind of journeys (displacements in space and time, inner journeys that change the self, etc.), see Fernanda Arêas Peixoto, A viagem como vocação (São Paulo: FAPESP, Edusp, 2015).

⁵ Further analysis of Carleton Washburne’s trip to South America is still on course, focusing a more detailed itinerary in each country he visited, South American networks, and the US Department of State’s connections. Some partial results have been presented in Rafaela Silva Rabelo, “Carleton Washburne e o Departamento de Estado dos EUA: a educação latino-americana em meio à política de boa vizinhança,” in Estado e lutas sociais na América Latina, ed. Vivian Urquidi et al. (São Paulo: Prolam-USP, 2019), 835–44; and Rabelo, “A educação sul-americana nas narrativas de Carleton Washburne: uma análise sob a lente da política de boa vizinhança,” in Sujeitos e artefatos: territórios de uma história transnacional da educação, ed. Diana Gonçalves Vidal (Belo Horizonte: Fino Traço, 2020), 105–27.

⁶ Document 68. To Members of the Executive Board. A brief review of Headquarters activities since the war, August, 1943 (World Education Fellowship papers, Institute of Education, London, WEF/A/I/35).

⁷ Patricia Albjerg Graham, Progressive Education: From Arcady to Academe (New York: Teachers College Press, 1967), 97–8.

⁸ See e.g. News and Notes, no. 11, September, 1942 (WEF/A//VII/306 – File 1/2). See also Christopher Clews, “The New Education Fellowship and the Reconstruction of Education: 1945 to 1966” (PhD diss., University of London, 2009), 35.

⁹ Carleton Washburne, A Living Philosophy of Education (New York: John Day, 1940); and Carleton Washburne and Sidney Percy Marland, Winnetka: The History and Significance of an Educational Experiment (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1963).

¹⁰ Patricia Alberj Graham, “Carleton Wolsey Washburne: A Biographical Essay,” Teachers College Record 72, no. 6 (1971): 487–94; Carleton Washburne, Progressive Tendencies in European Education (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1923); and Carleton Washburne, Remakers of Mankind (New York: John Day, 1932).

¹¹ Carleton Washburne, “Notes on a South American Trip,” School and Society 57, no. 1463 (1943): 29–32; Washburne, “South American Education,” School and Society 32, no. 4 (1943): 97–8; and Washburne, “Building South American Friendship,” Illinois Teacher, November (1942): 80a, 80d.

¹² Carleton Washburne, “Carleton Wolsey Washburne: An Autobiographical Sketch,” Teachers College Record 72, no. 6 (1971): 457–81; Washburne, What is Progressive Education? (New York: John Day, 1952).

¹³ At the last minute, Laurin Zilliacus, NEF’s chairman, was not able to attend because of the war. An alternative to having Europeans attend the conference was to engage Europeans living in the USA. See e.g. Redefer to Berliner, July 16, 1941 (PEA Records, Box 2, Folder: Edgar Berliner) and News and Notes, no. 10, April, 1941 (WEF/A/VII/306 – File 1/2).

¹⁴ See e.g. Redefer to Berliner, January 6, 1942 (PEA Records, Box 2, Folder: Edgar Berliner) and Redefer to Zilliacus, July 25, 1941 (PEA Records, Box 7, Folder: NEF Zilliacus).

¹⁵ For a comprehensive view on the history of the PEA and the NEF, see e.g. Albjerg Graham, Progressive Education; Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education (1876–1957) (New York: Vintage Books, 1964); William Boyd and Wyatt Rawson, The Story of the New Education (London: Heinemann, 1965); M.D. Lawson, “The New Education Fellowship: The Formative Years,” Journal of Educational Administration and History 13, no. 2 (1981): 24–8; Celia M. Jenkins, “The Professional Middle Class and the Social Origins of Progressivism: A Case Study of the New Education Fellowship, 1920–1950” (PhD diss., University of London, 1989); Sue Middleton, “New Zealand Theosophists in ‘New Education’ Networks, 1880s–1938,” History of Education Review 46, no. 1 (2017): 42–57; and Clews, “The New Education Fellowship.”

¹⁶ See e.g. At a meeting of the members of the Consultative Committee of the New Education Fellowship, August 2, 1932; At a meeting of the member of the Executive Board of the New Education Fellowship and representatives of the Progressive Education Association and of the American Committee on International Education, August 7, 1932 (WEF/A/I/34).

¹⁷ See e.g. The New Education Fellowship, its history and program with a report of a conference on the establishment of an American group to cooperate with the international movement, November 3, 1930 (Rockefeller Foundation papers, Rockefeller Archive Center – RAC, RG 1.1, Series 100, Box 25, folder 202: New Education Fellowship, 1930–1931); Document 15, to members of the Consultative Committee of the NEF, February 1932 (WEF/A/I/34).

¹⁸ On the connections of the NEF with the Fraternity in Education, see Middleton, “New Zealand Theosophists.”

¹⁹ Programme, Education in a World of Nations, Eight International Conference, New Education Fellowship, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1941.

²⁰ Adolphe Ferrière to Frederick L. Redefer, July 25, 1941 (PEA Records, Box 7, folder: NEF-London Headquarters #2, 1939–42).

²¹ See e.g. Interviews: represented by Ensor, Boyd, Mattson, Rawson, with David H. Stevens, October 15, 1930; and Interviews: Ensor, with David Stevens, December 14, 1931. (Rockefeller Foundation papers, RAC, RG 1.1, Series 100, box 25, folder 202: New Education Fellowship, 1930–1931).

²² The issue of the NEF-PEA partnership appears in different reports, more often in 1931 and 1932. See e.g. documents in the folder WEF/A/I/34.

²³ Graham, Progressive Education, 42.

²⁴ Willard B. Beatty, Report of the Nice Conference of the New Education Fellowship (1932): 5 (Rockefeller Foundation papers, RAC, RG 1.1, Series 100, box 25, folder 203: New Education Fellowship, 1932–1933).

²⁵ On the role Ferrière had in Latin America, see Joseph Coquoz, “Le Home ‘Chez Nous’ comme modèle d’attention à l’enfance,” Educació i Història: Revista d’Història de l’Educació, no. 20 (2012): 27–46; and Joan Soler Mata, “Entre Europa i América Llatina: Adolphe Ferrière i l’Escola Nova a Barcelona,” Temps d’Educació, no. 35 (2008): 229–50.

²⁶ The name of the Office has changed over the years. In August 1940, when it was founded by Franklin Roosevelt, its name was Office for the Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relation between the Americas. In 1941, it was renamed as Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. In 1944, Office of Inter-American Affairs. In 1946, during Harry Truman presidency, it was extinguished. In this article I refer to it as the Office of Inter-American Affairs or just the OIAA: Tota, O imperialismo sedutor.

²⁷ Programme, Education in a World of Nations, Eight International Conference, New Education Fellowship, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1941.

²⁸ Ibid.

²⁹ Progressive Education 18, no. 4 (April, 1941).

³⁰ A digital copy is available from Hathi Trust, although the cover is black and white: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015076543985&view=1up&seq=3 (accessed October 31, 2020).

³¹ Gustavo Adolfo Otero (Bolivia) and Luis Sanchez Ponton (Mexico).

³² Gisele Shaw (National Council of Women, Argentine); Noemy da Silveira Rudolfer (University of Sao Paulo); Agustín Nieto Caballero (Colombia); Calixto Suarez Gomez (Cuba); Madeleine Sylvain (Haiti); Ofelia Mendoza (Honduras); Luis Padrino (Venezuela); Ceição Barros Barreto (Brazil); Maria Capdevila (Cuba); Carlos Davila (Chile); Marina Nunez del Prado (Bolivia); Salvador Salazar Arrue (El Salvador); Cora B. de Sigren (Chile); Pedro Cebollero (Panama); Carlos Davila (Former Chilean Ambassador to the United States).

³³ Luis Sanchez Ponton, the Mexican Minister of Education, was among the honorary chairmen. The general committee included Nieto Caballero (Gimnasio Moderno, Bogota), Moises Saenz (Mexican Ambassador to Peru), and Irma Salas (University of Santiago, Chile).

³⁴ See e.g. documents in the folder 202: New Education Fellowship, 1930–1931 (Rockefeller Foundation papers, RAC, RG 1.1, Series 100, box 25).

³⁵ See e.g. documents in the folder 29: Educational Interests, Progressive Education Association (Rockefeller Family papers, RAC, RG 2, Series G, box 4).

³⁶ Antonio Pedro Tota, O imperialismo sedutor (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2000). See also Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch, Americas Unidas! Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940–1946) (Madrid; Frankfurt: Iberoamericana; Vervuert, 2012).

³⁷ Albjerg Graham, Progressive Education, 171.

³⁸ See e.g. Nelson A. Rockefeller to Carleton Washburne, March 16, 1943 (PEA Records, Box 6, Folder: Latin American Grant).

³⁹ NEF Conference delegates that received PEA’s publications included: Luis Padrino (Venezuela); Rafaela Escobar Lara (Venezuela); Jesualdo (Uruguay); Lino Gonzales M. (Nicaragua); Gaspar N. Cabrera (Paraguay); Nicanor Rivera Caceres (Peru); Sabas Olaizola (Venezuela); Angel G. Hernandez (Honduras); Madeleine G. Sylvain (Haiti); Miguel Angel Ayala (Guatemala); Francisco Espinosa (El Salvador); Salvador Salazar Arrue (El Salvador); Julio C. Larrea (Ecuador); Calixto Suares Gomez (Cuba); Maria Capdevilla (Cuba); Emma Gamboa (Costa Rica); A. Nieto Caballero (Colombia); Ester Aranda (Colombia); Cora de Sigren (Chile); Noemy da Silveira Rudolfer (Brazil); Maria de Sellares (San Salvador); Joaquin H. Reyes Diaz (Peru); Emilio Fournie (Uruguay); Alvaro A. Araujo (Uruguay); C. Oliver Schneider (Chile) (PEA Records, Box 6, Folder: Latin American Grant).

⁴⁰ See correspondence and receipts in the folder “Latin American Grant” (PEA Records, Box 6).

⁴¹ Redefer was the executive secretary of the PEA between 1932 and 1943: Graham, Progressive Education, 166–7.

⁴² Edgar Berliner was an important financial supporter of the NEF, which explains the number of letters sent to him giving accounts on the Ann Arbor conference’s activities.

⁴³ Redefer to Berliner, May 12, 1941 (PEA Records, Box 2, Folder: Edgar Berliner).

⁴⁴ Redefer to Berliner, July 16, 1941 (PEA Records, Box 2, Folder: Edgar Berliner).

⁴⁵ Redefer to Berliner, November 13, 1941 (PEA Records, Box 2, Folder: Edgar Berliner).

⁴⁶ Redefer to Berliner, January 6, 1942 (PEA Records, Box 2, Folder: Edgar Berliner).

⁴⁷ See Tota, O amigo americano. See also Darlene J. Sadlier, Americans All: Good Neighbour Cultural Diplomacy in World War II (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012).

⁴⁸ Citation in the original: “Rockefeller expandiu bastante a área de atuação do Office, mas, muitas vezes, a cada passo que dava para satisfazer sua imensa ambição e sede de poder, chocava-se de modo violento com chefes de outros importantes setores do governo”: Antonio Pedro Tota, O amigo americano (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2014), 132.

⁴⁹ Willard Beatty was president of the PEA between 1933 and 1936: Graham, Progressive Education, 166.

⁵⁰ Most of the information retrieved so far is related to the trip to Colombia and Brazil.

⁵¹ In all, nine letters of the same documentary set written during the trip were located; they were marked as “Family letter” in the letter header (sent to be shared with family and friends) or “Letter” (apparently these were Heluiz’s chronicles for later publication). The first six family letters were located. Four of them were written from Colombia, one from Ecuardor, and the last one was written when they landed in southern Brazil. It is not possible to say if other family letters were written during their stay in Brazil. Only Letter #21 of Heluiz’s chronicles was located, which indicates that another 20 chronicle letters were written. Two letters written from Colombia do not carry a rating, precede the first family letter, and provide general information about the beginning of the trip; these were also apparently meant to be shared with family and friends (Winnetka Public Schools Archive). What seems to be Heluiz’s last chronicle of the trip was translated and published in Brazilian newspapers.

⁵² The Brazilian National Library has a digital newspaper repository (Hemeroteca Digital) available on its website, which has enabled the extensive mapping of mentions of Washburne’s trip, at least in Brazil. All Brazilian newspapers cited in this text were consulted on Hemeroteca Digital unless otherwise stated. The trip was also reported on in a Winnetka weekly magazine, Winnetka Talk.

⁵³ The World Education Fellowship papers include Caballero’s letters between the 1920s and 1970s.

⁵⁴ According to newspapers, Washburne visited Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, and Belém.

⁵⁵ The INEP was created in 1938 and was linked to the Ministry of Education during Getúlio Vargas’s government.

⁵⁶ Lourenço Filho was the first director of the INEP, a position that he held until 1946.

⁵⁷ Conferência de Educação Nova, Diário de Notícias, Rio de Janeiro, May 4, 1941, 8.

⁵⁸ On the NEF’s Brazilian section and the role played by Lourenço Filho and Noemy Rudolfer, see Rafaela Silva Rabelo and Diana Gonçalvez Vidal, “A seção brasileira da New Education Fellowship: (des)encontros e (des)conexões,” in Movimento Internacional da Educação Nova, ed. Diana Gonçalves Vidal and Rafaela Silva Rabelo (Belo Horizonte: Fino Traço, 2020), 25–47.

⁵⁹ On the struggles the NEF and the PEA went through, see Graham, Progressive Education; Clews, The New Education Fellowship.

⁶⁰ Tota, O amigo americano; Cramer and Prutsch, Americas Unidas!

⁶¹ Washburne’s immigration records are available on the Family Search website.

⁶² In the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Historical Collection, which includes the Division of Cultural Relations papers, there is a folder containing the forms of the retired files, including Washburne’s. When the collection was donated to the University of Arkansas, Washburne’s files were not part of it anymore (Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Historical Collection, University of Arkansas Libraries, Special Collections Division, box 233, folder: Retired Files).

⁶³ “Carleton Washburne Reports Briefly on South American Tour,” Winnetka Talk 31, no. 28, September 17, 1942; “Talks on South America to be Given by Washburne,” Winnetka Talk 31, no. 31, October 8, 1942 (Winnetka Historical Society).

⁶⁴ Carleton Washburne to members of PEA’s Board of Directors (25 set. 1942) (PEA Records, Box 2, folder: Board of Directors 1940–43).

⁶⁵ Rabelo and Vidal, “A seção brasileira da New Education Fellowsip.”

⁶⁶ Carleton Washburne, “Carleton Wolsey Washburne: An Autobiographical Sketch,” Teachers College Record 72, no. 6 (1971): 472.

⁶⁷ Ibid. On Washburne’s trip to Italy and the role he played in Italian education reform; see also Roberta Piazza, Soldati, non filosofi: Carleton Washburne e la riconstruzione scolastica in Italia (Italy: Pensa Multimedia, 2013).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [Grant numbers 16/07024-0 and 18/26699-4].

Notes on contributors

Rafaela Silva Rabelo

Rafaela Silva Rabelo has earned a PhD in Education at the School of Education, University of São Paulo (2016) and a Master’s degree in Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Goiás (2010). Her research interests include international circulation of ideas, subjects, and artefacts; Historical network analysis; the New Education Fellowship; Progressive Education; exchanges between Brazil and the USA; teacher education; and mathematics teaching.