‘Social and conceptual spaces – Froebelian geographies’

The project 'Social and conceptual spaces—Froebelian geographies' was initiated by Professor Maurice Craft, Chair of the Frederich Froebel Trust Education Committee. It produced a number of bibliographic lists detailing the resources of the Froebel Archive Collection located in the University of Roehampton. The chapter illustrates key findings from the project's investigations into the archival materials on block play and demonstrates the demise over time of this important Froebelian tradition. The Froebel movement in England gained public and private attention steadily from 1851 until the late 1850s in both the middle-class and working-class sector. Supporters in the middle-class sectors saw an alternative to the small private schools with the advantage of a systematic way of training and a different understanding of the approach to each individual child. Wooden block play was the first aspect of Froebel's principled practice chosen by the Froebel Trust's Archive Advisory Group.