I have had a look at the materials written in English between 1965 and 1972, after which the term started to become widely used in English articles, dissertations and reports. It is not clear, however, from these exactly when and why the system became known as 'Conductive Education'.
Several reports of visits to the Institute made in 1966 give no name to the system, (Bobath, K.; Bobath, B.) but do mention 'conductors', (Parnwell; Seglow), 'the Budapest method' and 'Pető's training method' (Parnwell). Seglow did report that 'Pető regards his education as a conditioning process'. In 1967, Ester Cotton published an article in Nursery World which used the term 'Conductive Education' and another article with Margaret Parnwell in Special Education which mentioned the 'State Institute for Conductive Education of the Motor Disabled'. These were both published after the death of Pető in the September of that year. In 1968 James House, an American professor who visited the Institute, talked only of 'conductors' and 'the Budapest method' in an interview, not 'Conductive Education' (Maas, 1968). In 1971, James Loring, head of the Spastics Society (UK) reported on a visit with no mention of 'Conductive Education'.
James House went on to initiate a research project at Wisconsin University reported by Laird Heal in 1972 also referred to 'Conductive Education'. From this time 'Conductive Education' seems to have become the term of choice in material held in this library and not other phrases, until the 1980s onwards, when 'conductive therapy' and 'Pető therapy' started appearing.
This is the result of a very limited and fairly quick search of the items in English held in the library. Searching in other languages may produce different results and further investigation would make an interesting research project for someone.
Other reports, articles, papers etc not held here may shed further light on the subject, so if you know of, or have any information please let me know!
References
3 comments:
Hi Gill,
I am thinking of a seminal publication which were translated from Hungarian to English and referred to by many authors wrote about CE from the late 80s:
Hari, M and Akos, K (1971) Konductive pedagogia. Budapest: Tankonyvkiado.
Hari, M and Akos K (1988) Conductive Education. Translated from Hungarian by N. Horton Smith and J. Stevens. London: Routledge.
We must remembe that 'pedagogy' is a reasonably contemporary concept in the discourse of education in the UK, still often interpreted and used incorrectly, often interchanged with 'instruction' or 'teaching' method.
Considering the lack of common understanding surround the term by academics and educators it is not difficult to see why in English publications they had to choose the term 'education' to 'sell' konduktiv pedagogia.
Perhaps time came to re-visit terminology (this and some other ones used in the jargon relevant to CE) and freshen up publications, make them in line with contemporary issues and agendas.
Best wishes,
Tunde
A couple of points in response to Tünde’s Comment…
1 . Hári, M and Ákos, K. (1971/1988). Despite its Hungarian and English titles this book was primarily medical in content (as I recall came up in critical review of the English edition when it was published). This is understandable when one remembers that the original Hungarian edition was intended as only Volume 1 in a projected series (in other words it was only and introduction to a wider account), the subsequent volumes of which were never published. Further volumes did, however appear, as internal documents at the then State Institute, the ‘grey books’. The content and style of these seemed to take a sudden shift half-way through Volume 2. I do not know what this change betokens (though I’ll bet that there is yet another untold story there!), nor whether the later volumes wholly followed the series’ original intention. I guess that you used the grey books during your own training and that they came with you to England so you are probably be in a good position to tell how pedagógiai they are, and whether there English-speaking peoples are the poorer for not being able to read them.
2. ‘We must remember that 'pedagogy' is a reasonably contemporary concept in the discourse of education in the UK, still often interpreted and used incorrectly, often interchanged with 'instruction' or 'teaching' method.’ Yoiks, ‘…a reasonably contemporary concept in the discourse of education…’ I remember you when you spoke wonderful English! Your facts are wrong and the way in which you express them betrays why you have been misled. The concept of pedagogy has a venerable tradition in English (and Scottish) education and in the educations of the rest of the English-speaking peoples. It is also a very long-standing entry in the English dictionaries, which persist in giving a succinct and helpful definition for the literate. The problem is that you refer to a somewhat different reference group: ‘the academics and educators’ who, for a variety of reasons, often seems pathetically lacking in comparative and historical awareness. Empirically of course though, you are quite right in reporting that many (most, nearly all?) of them are pitiably ignorant of what this word represents. Their predecessors were already so back in the late nineteen sixties when the term conductive pedagogy was quietly dropped in favour of Conductive Education. I have always suspected that at the time Ester Cotton and co. might have thought that the former term sounded a little old fashioned.
Gill,
Thanks for the opportunity for discussing this topic, I hope you do not mind replying here to Andrew.
First of all about the book of Hari and Akos (1971 and 1988). The reason I mentioned this publication because I thought that this was the very first translated book on CE from Hungarian to English and someone who looks into terminology of CE may ask the question why it was not translated to Conductive Pedagogy? In comparison of the Hungarian and the English version one can also see that the word ‘pedagogy’ which is frequently used by Hari and Akos is translated to ‘education’. My question is: was it because at that time CE was known in English as Conductive Education? Have they used the word because it was easier to explain what it is about? Ok, I appreciate what you say about being a publication with a medical flavour but whatever we read from Hari it is always a mixture of different disciplines… by the way the little grey books give a conductor student some kind of explanation of the strategies and techniques used by conductors and some insight into pedagogical issues, the series is rather lacking of editing and a clear structure. Perhaps conductors will prove me wrong but I had some struggle of following Hari’s thinking by reading those books when I was a student and when I reviewed them recently I feel that Hari could have benefited from a mentor (here you are the word again!!!) to support her with academic writing. In comparision of the Hari and Akos book and the grey booklets the first has the benefit of structure, clear chapters while the others really lacking of these. Seem to remember that in the early 90s when the British conductors were still trainees there was an attempt to translate these booklets; I assume the interpreter who at that time worked for the Foundation simply could not make sense of them…
My second point is referring to my rather brief and perhaps overstated comment on the term ‘pedagogy’. You are right Andrew my English expression perhaps did not help to clarify my thoughts. I appreciate that there were great pedagogues and pedagogical thoughts in UK and beyond in the English speaking field, some great pioneers who put their mark for example to early years education and sorry I have no knowledge of how and how frequently pedagogy itself was used to describe the art of teaching in the past. You may well be right to say that the term became somewhat ‘old fashioned’ and gradually faded away from publications in the middle of the 20th century. What I really meant is that in the last decade the term ‘pedagogy’ became a buzz-word in academia by some and legislation while at the time when I arrived in the UK (nearly twenty years ago!) I have never heard the term. I did not want to offend anyone but when I hear and read ideas such as ‘pedagogical approaches’, ‘pedagogical methods’ and such as, I know the people really mean teaching methods and I am afraid for me the two is not interchangeable. When I studied we had psychology, history of pedagogy as well as teaching methods for young children, maths, science and so on. Even there is not a common pronunciation for the word pedagogy, I have heard two different versions of it it.
I hope Andrew you do not categorise me of being ‘pathetically unaware of historical facts’, it is very useful to consult you with such issues expand my own understanding.
Anyway, perhaps a nice study for someone to look into how konduktiv pedagogia is used around the world.
Tunde
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