The construction of a New Science by means of an institute and its communication media: the institute of educational sciences in Geneva (1912–1948)1

Abstract

This article is aimed at understanding some mechanisms implied in the construction of educational sciences as a disciplinary field in interaction with other social fields. Its object is the Genevan “Institut des sciences de l'éducation” from 1912 to 1948. This institution is analyzed from two main points of view: the foundation and development of the Institute; the publication activity of its members. In order to understand the reasons that led to the foundation of the Institute, the programmatic text of Claparède (1912) is submitted to a thorough analysis that allows also an understanding of the choices made concerning institutional forms. The history of the Institute is then briefly presented showing that one can distinguish two phases with a transition period from 1929 to 1932. At this moment an important shift takes place from an institution heavily engaged in promoting New Education towards a university institute in which, through specialization and differentiation, one discipline – psychology – progressively emerges. The publication activity of the Institute members is first analyzed through the communication media they create or they are responsible for. The media create a local – and internationally linked – communication space. This space exhibits as much continuity with regard to certain media as an important change: the bulletin designed for linking disciplinary and social fields disappears in favor of media publishing research contributions for researchers. In what concerns the domains and themes treated in the publications one observes an important continuity of the proportion in the different fields, but a certain shift in the themes: New Education is much less prominent in the second phase in which at the same time one finds more strictly scientific and more practical contributions. The intermediate field weakens. The construction of educational sciences appears as a complex, not linear process whereby even a discipline emerges, psychology, in which education seems to be more and more excluded. The analyses show that the Institute of educational sciences in Geneva, like many others, is an essential institution in the construction process of a disciplinary field in the domain of education.