Abstract
The essay presents a study on the implementation and the educational biographical impact of the reform in the predominantly German-speaking province of South Tyrol, annexed to Italy in 1918. Adhering to the theoretical frame referring to school as an “institutional actor” (Fend, 2006), the research analyzes the implementation of the Gentile Reform as a recontextualization process from the macro level of legislation to the meso level of provincial politics and school boards to the micro level of the individual schools themselves, which ultimately became relevant for the school children’s educational biographies. In particular, the study focuses on the teachers as actors and their recontextualization achievements. Their interpretations of the order defined on the macro and meso level and their final implementation are therefore of great interest. On the other hand, the study sheds light on the reception of education – organized according to the law – by the school children themselves and the effects of their school experience of the reform on their educational biographies. The empirical basis is formed by source-critical surveys and analyzes of written sources as well as an oral history study on childhood and educational biographies.