Una maestra per contadini ed emigrati. L’esperienza di Cleo fe Forti in un recente volume di Anna Pia Bidolli

Abstract

The focus of this contribution is a historiographical and historical-educational reflection on Anna Pia Bidolli’s volume Cleofe Forti. Una maestra per contadini ed emigrati. Dall’Agro romano alle Americhe [Cleofe Forti. A Teacher for Peasants and Emigrants. From the Agro Romano to the Americas] (Città di Castello, LuoghInteriori, 2024). The aim is to highlight the story – reconstructed in the book with wide-ranging documentary evidence – of the extraordinary figure of Cleofe Forti (1888-1972). Starting from her pioneering teaching in Calabria and the Agro Romano, she subsequently crossed national borders to undertake, as a teacher in Italian schools abroad, a truly exceptional pedagogical experience – particularly remarkable for a woman of her time – carried out in Constantinople, Alexandria of Egypt, North America, Canada, and Argentina. The subject is situated within the broader historical and political debate on the role of Italian schools abroad.