BORGHI, LAMBERTO

BORGHI, LAMBERTO (1907–2000), Italian educator and author. Born in Leghorn, Borghi studied at the University of Pisa. He went to the U.S. as a refugee in 1938. In 1948 he returned to Italy to fill the chair of pedagogy at the Universities of Pisa, Palermo, and Turin. From 1954 until 1982 he was full professor at the University of Florence and directed its Institute of Pedagogy. Borghi showed a keen interest in comparative education and wrote extensively on Italian education. He was the most famous follower of John Dewey's methodology, focusing his attention on democratic and lay pedagogy. In two of his books, Educazione e autorità nell' Italia moderna (1951) and Educazione e scuola nell' Italia d'oggi (1958), he discussed the nature and problems of the Italian educational system, including education in the arts and sciences and the limitations imposed by inherited social and economic status on educational opportunities. His books include Umanismo e concezione religiosa in Erasmus di Rotterdam (1936); Education in the U.S.A. (1949); John Dewey e il pensiero pedagogico contemporaneo negli Stati Uniti (1951; Eng. tr., 1952); Saggi di psicologia dell'educazione (1951); Il fondamento dell' educazione attiva (1952); Il metodo dei progetti (1952); L'educazione e i suoi problemi (1953); L'ideale educative di John Dewey (1955); and Educazione e sviluppo sociale (1962). His last work, Educare alla libertà (1992), is a synthesis of his theories and an anthology of European and American essays on the topic of education. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G.Z.F. Bereday, Comparative Method in Education (1964), 210. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Fofi, La città e la scuola (2000). (Ernest Schwarcz / Federica Francesconi (2nd ed.)