Inside School Lives: Historiographical Perspectives and Case Studies. Teachers’ Memories Preserved at the Centre for Documentation and Research on the History of Schoolbooks and Children’s Literature

This work focuses on teachers’ memories and intend to dwell on the heuristic potential of this source category, comparing it with the traditional sources of theoretical-regulatory and educational type. After a presentation on the state of art of historical and historical-educational studies on teachers’ memories, it will offer an overview of the different kinds of memories preserved in the centres of documentation and research of historical and educational interest, examining the books and documentary heritage of the Centre for documentation and research on the history of schoolbooks and children’s literature of Macerata University. Finally, through the analysis of a case study, the Memorie (Memoirs) of the teacher and pedagogist Lorenzo Bettini (1855-1917), we will offer an exemplification of a possible integrated use of sources, for a plural reconstruction of teachers’ history.