The history of pedagogy for the professions of today. For an antidogmathic and dialogical use of the classics [La storia della pedagogia per le professioni di oggi. Per un uso antidogmatico e dialogico dei classici]

In recent decades, within the history of education there has been a crisis of historio-graphical method based on the linear reconstruction of theories of thinkers. This change has been fruitful, but can result in an abandonment of the history of ideas, and it is accompanied by a widespread perception that the study of the classics is an operation of useless erudition. Furthermore, in the training of teachers and educators there has been an imbalance towards practical knowledge and expertise, as a re-sponse to urgent questions (migration, violence, social and family transformations), and an abandonment of the proper study of theories and models that would offer the possibility of consciously designing educational interventions. The paper illustrates how the study of the classics can still constitute an indispensable training because it is not an operation of erudition; it is an opportunity to reflect on tradition, on how and why some texts and authors are foundational, on how they have been interpreted differently, on how they have been variously implemented and transferred.