Anna Sandström
Anna Maria Carolina Sandström was a Swedish feminist, reform pedagogue and a pioneer within the educational system of her country. She is referred to as the leading reform pedagogue within female education in Sweden in the late 19th century.
Early life
Anna Sandström was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to administrator Carl Eric Sandström and Anna Erica Hallström. After her father's early death, she was brought up as a foster child of Colonel Hjalmar Hagberg. Because of her foster father's profession, she followed him around the country on his military posts and was therefore often forced to interrupt her education. She was educated at the Royal Normal School for Girls and the Royal Seminary in Stockholm, where she graduated as a teacher in 1874. By the time of her graduation, females had very recently been given the right to attend university in Sweden, but she was not given the opportunity to attend university herself.She was employed as a teacher at the Åhlinska skolan girls' schools from 1874 to 1882 and then at Södermalms högre läroanstalt för flickor in Stockholm from 1881 to 1883. She was not comfortable in the girls' school environment and she was critical of the education they normally provided their students. She continued to educate herself and studied history, French and Swedish literature and Latin as an autodidact. She also studied the publications of reforming pedagogues.
Educational reformer
In 1880, Sandström debuted in the public educational debate with her article Gifva våra flickskolor berättigade anledningar till missnöje? in the feminist publication Tidskrift för hemmet created by Sophie Adlersparre. Under the male pseudonym of Uffe, she criticized stiff and formalized education and its strict focus on languages. French was the traditional main distinction of an educated female academic while Latin had the same position for a male.In 1882, she published Realism i undervisning eller Språkkunskap och bildning under the same pseudonym, which aroused great attention. This is seen as the starting point which connected the various critical reform pedagogues of the late 19th century in Sweden and united them to an educational reform. The author was assumed to be a respected male academic, and by referring to "Uffe", Sandström founded the a literary discussion group named Uffe-kretsen of educational reformers, active in 1883–1892. Leading members were Fredrique Runquist, Fridtjuv Berg, Hjalmar Berg, Sigfrid Almquist, Sofi Almquist and Nils Lagerstedt. The group founded two co-education schools, published radical articles and teaching books, arranged international school meetings with similar groups in Denmark and Norway, founded the Pedagogiska biblioteket as well as the Pedagogiska sällskapet, which replaced Uffe-kretsen in 1892.
Sandström was a board member of the Pedagogiska sällskapet in 1892–1902. She was a frequent and leading participant in the national Flickskolemöten for teachers and reform pedagogues, which were held in Sweden in 1879-1901 to discuss issued regarding female education, which were managed by girl schools until the introduction of co-education.
Educational career
In 1883, Sandström co-founded the co-educational school Nya skolan in Stockholm with her colleague Fredrique Runquist: from 1886 named Anna Sandströms skola, and was its principal from 1883 to 1926. She founded this school with reference to her then unidentified male pseudonym Uffe, whose ideas had become very praised. It was her goal to realize the ideas she had presented in her publication of 1882 in this school, and she used it to experiment with her educational ideas through empirical experience.Sandström disliked girls' schools and was a strong promoter of co-education. She was a great believer in individual education; to find and develop every students personal talent and to do so by making each subject "alive" through literature. She believed that learning should be by experience rather than to memorize ideas from books.
In 1900, she founded the Anna Sandströms högre lärarinneseminarium for female teachers in Stockholm, which she managed in 1900–1926. This was meant as an alternative to the Royal Higher Teacher Seminary.
The ideas of Sandström which she tried out in her own schools, were to have a great impact upon the reform of the public colleges in 1905 and 1928 and the reformed educational plans of 1919. In 1904, she was given the Swedish royal medal Illis quorum meruere labores for her long, "successful work for the education of the female youth".