The Cultural and Nationalising Mission of Kindergarten Teachers in Southern Dobruja, 1914-1940

Abstract

Public Education was an essential feature of nation-building throughout Europe during the 19th century. Nationalising states designed school policies to transform peasants into nationals and citizens. However, kindergartens were primarily urban institutions. One of their goals was to teach young children modern languages. At the beginning of the 20th century, Romanian elites started to create and adjust them to nationalise Dobruja and Cadrilater, the two provinces integrated into the Old Kingdom. Both regions were ethnically diverse. In localities primarily inhabited by a minority population, the purpose of kindergartens was to spread the Romanian language and national culture. This article focuses on the national integration of South Dobruja through public kindergartens. It also examines the professional path of teachers serving in these regions until the end of the 1940s. Finally, the paper follows teachers’ interaction with the locals and their efforts to mediate between the pedagogical and national aims of Greater Romania and the local interests that sometimes collided with the state school policies.