The volume "Provvedere buoni maestri e maestre". Per una storia della formazione magistrale tra Otto e Novecento collects the papers presented at the conference “La storia della formazione docenti”, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of teacher training in Canton Ticino and held in Locarno, at the Department of Education and Learning / University of Teacher Education (DFA/ASP), on 24 November 2023. 

Reconstructing the history of magisterial education means focusing on the dense network of interweavings between the various dimensions that constitute its historical context and that are a reflection of its own history. The theoretical references, scholastic institutions, laws, programmes, teaching staff, pupils and students all contribute to the evolution of magisterial education, which is investigated from different points of view in the contributions in this volume with the aim of reconstructing a history that has come down to us.

The essays are heterogeneous both in style, reflecting disciplinary affiliations, and in the sensitivities, approaches and diversity of the authors' profiles. The proceedings re-propose the structure adopted during the conference with a first, more general part that relates experiences inherent to different contexts, and a second part that focuses more on the histories of disciplinary didactics.