L'enseignement mutuel á Genève ou l'histoire de l''échec' d'une innovation pédagogique en contexte: L'école de Saint-Gervais, 1815 - 1850

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the monitorial system was for some elites the pedagogical invention that could realize the project to provide education for all children of the popular classes. Despite this not being the main pedagogical method, its diffusion was large at first but after a few years it was gradually abandoned. To understand this pendulum movement, this paper tries to show the political, ideological, social and pedagogical involvements of the method. What was its role in providing education for popular classes? Which social and political projects sustained it? Which actors and factors supported it and then gave it up? What were its practices? What was the evolution of the method? From the viewpoint of social and cultural history, this paper aims to analyse and explain the process of this pedagogic innovation through the case of the monitorial system in Geneva from 1815 to 1850.