The Discourse of Freedom in the Austrian Pedagogical Press of 1867–1914 as a Tool of Protest against Public Control

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Ever since their emergence, state systems of secular schooling have been regularly influenced not only by pedagogical theories, but also by socio-political movements and official ideologies. After the dualist monarchy of Austria-Hungary was established, the school and its issues turned into an arena of nationalist and political struggle and it also became an object of increased state control. All stakeholders considered schools and teachers as an effective tool for enhancing their influence. As schools felt growing pressure from the state, political parties, and national organisations, the word “freedom” sounded increasingly loud in public speeches during meetings of teachers’ associations and appeared more frequently in the pedagogical periodicals. The article analyses teachers’ journals and newspapers, which were the press organs of teachers’ associations of different political background, where Austrian schoolteachers used the discourse of “freedom” to express their views on their profession, their identity, and their role in society. The author identifies the following main meanings of freedom in the Austrian teachers' polemic: personal freedom and civil liberties, professional freedom, freedom in fulfilling one's national mission, and freedom from political engagement. At the same time, special attention is paid to the policies of the Viennese Ministry of Culture and Education and the actions of the Habsburg bureaucracy, which triggered the teachers’ demand for freedom for schools. This allows for a correction of the findings in the historiography, which previously ignored the role of state officials in the development of Austrian schooling. The author questions the thesis about the passivity of Habsburg officials in the face of the nationalist onslaught and argues that teachers’ protests against the restriction of their freedom were caused by the bureaucracy’s desire to improve the quality of teaching in schools and to provide civic and patriotic education for pupils that was aimed at developing a sense of “Austrianness”, love for the “great Fatherland” and loyalty to the ruling dynasty.