Nuorese Cultural DistrictElisa Nivola (b. Orani, 1926–d. Orani, 2008) was Sardinia’s most important educator in the second half of the twentieth century.
Elisa Nivola
Description
She devoted her entire life to teaching, starting her career as a primary school teacher in Sassari and Cagliari, where she began to put her passion for education into practice.
In the 1950s, she attended a training course on education and assistance at the Bureau de l'Éducation Nationale in Geneva, engaging with theorists and scholars from all over the world.
After she returned to Sardinia, she enrolled in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cagliari.
In 1958, she met Aldo Capitini, with whom she worked on her degree thesis on the Gentile Reform and later became his assistant as well as disciple and cultural heir.
From 1958 to 2001, she taught History of Pedagogy at Cagliari in the Faculty of Education, where she initiated a continuing education workshop that was open to all students from every faculty and trained a large number of young people.
She also developed educational projects with local schools, fighting early school leaving, promoting libraries, spreading bilingualism and valorising the Sardinian language and identity.
She advanced the idea of inclusive, participatory education, involving her students in creative activities and supporting their interests and aspirations.
She took on themes like political ecology, antimilitarism, education in non-violence and the importance of direct democracy.
She stood as a Sardinian Proletarian Democracy candidate in the district elections and participated actively in meetings and initiatives when she was elected.
She always believed that ‘the local’ was of tremendous value not only politically but also for the overall success of the individual.
Elisa Nivola died in 2008.