Call for Papers 2026 - Educating the People, Training Teachers: Giovanni Agostino De Cosmi, Three Hundred Years On

The year 2026 marks the tricentenary of the birth of Giovanni Agostino De Cosmi (1726–1810), one of the leading figures in the educational landscape of Sicily and Southern Italy between the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries. A distinguished intellectual, De Cosmi is closely associated with reflections on popular schooling, teacher education, the introduction of the Normal Method, and literacy initiatives in Sicily prior to the Restoration.

To commemorate this anniversary, "Gli Argonauti" will devote a special issue to De Cosmi and to the historical, cultural, and educational context in which his thought and work developed. Particular attention will be paid to the dissemination of the Normal Method in Sicily, Southern Italy, and the pre-unification Italian states, as well as to processes of schooling and the transformations affecting public education within the broader European context, considered in relation to the social, economic, and institutional changes that shaped territories and communities between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The special issue seeks to reassess, from a historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the figure of the canon of Casteltermini and his contribution to contemporary educational debate by situating his work within the circulation of school models, literacy practices, teacher professionalization, educational policies, and broader reflections on the relationship between education, civic progress, and economic development.

Alongside broader historical reconstructions, particular interest will be given to studies in microhistory and local history that investigate the everyday life of schools in specific territories and communities, as well as the concrete processes through which pedagogical models were received, adapted, and implemented. The editors also welcome editions and critical analyses of previously unpublished archival sources concerning De Cosmi, his activities and writings, as well as popular schools and the Normal Method.

Proposals addressing the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are invited on, but are not limited to, the following themes:

•⁠  ⁠Giovanni Agostino De Cosmi: educational thought and works;
•⁠  ⁠the dissemination of the Normal Method in Sicily, Southern Italy, and Italian and European contexts;
•⁠  ⁠literacy, popular schools, and public education;
•⁠  ⁠teacher education and the professionalization of teaching;
•⁠  ⁠school regulations, educational organization, classroom practices, and teaching methods;
•⁠  ⁠textbooks, primers, catechisms, and instructional materials;
•⁠  ⁠schooling, language, and dialects;
•⁠  ⁠children’s access to elementary education;
•⁠  ⁠Enlightenment reformism, civic education, and educational policy;
•⁠  ⁠schools, labour, productive activities, and social change;
•⁠  ⁠histories of schools, male and female teachers, in relation to the histories of local territories and urban and rural communities;
•⁠  ⁠archival sources and new historiographical perspectives on popular schooling.

Particular consideration will be given to contributions based on original research and previously unpublished archival documentation, as well as to comparative analyses and approaches capable of integrating different scales of observation, from the local and community level to broader processes of social, economic, and educational transformation in Italy and across Europe.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals should include:

•⁠  ⁠title of the article;
•⁠  ⁠an abstract of no more than 500 characters (including spaces);
•⁠  ⁠five keywords;
•⁠  ⁠a brief biographical note;
•⁠  ⁠institutional affiliation and e-mail address.

Proposals should be submitted to the editorial office of Gli Argonauti (argonauti@unime.it) and to the guest editors, Prof. Caterina Sindoni (csindoni@unime.it) and Prof. Maurizio Piseri (m.piseri@univda.it), no later than 30 July 2026.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by 5 August 2026.

Submission of Full Papers

Authors of accepted proposals are required to submit the final version of their manuscripts no later than 30 October 2026, in accordance with the journal’s editorial guidelines.

All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.

Maximum length: 25,000 characters.

Accepted Languages

Contributions may be submitted in Italian, English, French, or Spanish.

Publication

The special issue is scheduled for publication on 31 December 2026.