The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Instruction

The files documenting kindergarten teachers’ migration for educational and linguistic purposes are integrated in the Elementary Instruction Section of the archive that was left from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Instruction during the interwar decades. The collection consists of correspondence between the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Instruction and the principals of pedagogical schools in the country, exam situations of the students, general correspondence between the ministry and kindergarten teachers, inspection reports on their pedagogical activities and enquiries on the evolution of elementary schools and kindergartens all over the country. The purpose of exploring this sources is to extract essential information on women students who were preparing to become kindergarten teachers, trained in pedagogical schools created in the most important cities of Greater Romania. After graduation they were sent to peripheral regions for at least 3 years, before getting tenure, to teach minority children the Romanian language and contribute to the diffusion of the national culture among these communities. This type of internal migration was directed by the state as part of the national propaganda process aiming to unite the new provinces culturally to the Kingdom of Romania. Although this is not the topic of this fonds, many of these teachers later left Romania to be hired as governesses and teachers in European countries, so this collection informs us on the training and education of teachers as well as the circulation of educational practices in Europe.