Turning pedagogy into a science: teachers and psychologists in late imperial Russia (1897-1917).

The article explores the Russian teachers' tortuous campaign at the beginning of the twentieth century to rise above the status of "semiprofessionals" by rooting the legitimacy of their professional expertise, training institutions, and working practices in the authority of "science." This involved a radical reshaping of traditional pedagogy and its fusion with new, controversial approaches to child psychology. It also led to a proliferation of teacher-training courses and conferences devoted to "pedagogical psychology," "experimental pedagogy," and "pedology." The article analyzes how the teachers' professional aspirations interacted with the conflicting agendas of rival groups of psychologists, who were themselves engaged in bitter squabbles over the legitimate identity of psychology as a scientific discipline.