Abstract
This paper is the product of research on the fundamentals of education; it presents the results of investigations on the contributions of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). This text follows on from other publications on specific aspects of the Italian author’s legacy, but here summarizing the formulations he produced, specifically on education and school, to ascertain his theoretical-methodological identity. In the first part of the text, there are biographical data and the specifics of Gramsci’s writings, which are followed by an explanation of his conception of human being, to better understand the main contribution he left on the basic level of education: the unitary school, presented in the final part of the textual structure. Bibliographic research was the utilized methodology, which was developed mainly by the analysis of Gramsci’s miscellaneous and special notebooks, particularly 1 and 4, and 12 and 22, because in these maturity writings the Italian communist most carefully dealt with education and school. In addition to the “prison notebooks” and letters by Gramsci, texts by prominent commentators were also investigated, to detect the author’s concept in question about the basic school. The conclusion is that the presented formulations on education and school are up-to-date expressions of the legacy of original Marxism and, therefore, cannot be confused with liberal conceptions, which implied educational proposals foreign to the unitary school.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937); Unitary school; Fundamentals of education; Original Marxism