VASPITANJE I OBRAZOVANJE U SLUŽBI IDEOLOGIJE – FAŠISTIČKA PEDAGOGIJA
SCHOOLING AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN THE SERVICE OF IDEOLOGY – FASCIST PEDAGOGY

Summary/Abstract: Education and ideology have always existed in a tense, and often perilous, embrace. The totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century did not loosen this embrace but instead transformed it into a systematic project of reshaping the human personality in accordance with the aims of the state. This review paper analyzes fascist pedagogy as a coherent, philosophically grounded system of indoctrination, focusing on Italian fascism during the period from 1922 to 1943. The theoretical framework draws on the actualist philosophy of Giovanni Gentile and his concept of the "pedagogical state", while also engaging with contemporary pedagogical, political science, and historical literature. A particular contribution of the paper lies in its comparative analysis of fascist and Nazi pedagogy, through which it exposes the methodological fallacy of treating these two systems as mere variations of a single totalitarian model. The paper argues that these were pedagogical systems with qualitatively distinct ontological foundations, and that any indiscriminate equation of the two is not only historically inaccurate but also epistemologically problematic. Through a historical analysis of one of the darkest periods in the history of pedagogy, the paper offers lessons relevant to the contemporary context, warning against the dangers of instrumentalizing education amid the resurgence of authoritarian tendencies worldwide.

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