Eve of the 1918 Universitary Reform: Germans and autonomy in the Secondary Teacher Training Institute

Abstract

This study analyzes the origins of the Instituto Nacional del Profesorado Secundario (1904- 1914) in relation to debates over its autonomy, the reception of new psychological currents, and their impact on the reorganization of pedagogical knowledge. The hypothesis proposed is that the Institute’s autonomy was not a foundational principle but rather the result of institutional tensions regarding secondary teacher training and its differentiation from the university model. Furthermore, it is argued that the introduction of experimental psychology and the redefinition of pedagogical knowledge, promoted within the Institute, contributed to reshaping discussions on higher education and its epistemological foundations, influencing the debates that culminated in the 1918 University Reform. The analysis is based on the works of Wilhelm Keiper (La cuestión del profesorado secundario, 1911; El Instituto Nacional del Profesorado Secundario en la primera década de su existencia, 1916), documents from the Asociación Nacional de Profesores (La formación del profesorado de enseñanza secundaria, 1915), and other archival materials.
The conflicts surrounding the Institute’s autonomy are reconstructed through ministerial regulations and administrative records, as well as debates on the introduction of experimental psychology, particularly the presence of Félix Krueger and the contrasts with the dominant university model. The study
concludes that the Institute established a unique training space in Argentina, distinct from both the normalista tradition and the university structure, where scientific methodologies and innovative pedagogical approaches were integrated. Its autonomy, reaffirmed in 1914, enabled the continuity of these developments and the consolidation of a teacher training program with its own foundational principles.