»On the blue shores of Adria, in our Trieste…«

Three gatherings of Slovenian teachers from all Slovenian territories in Trieste before the First World War

Abstract

Drawing on newspaper and archival sources, the article presents three annual teachers’ gatherings in Trieste (III general assembly in May 1891, XIV in August 1902, and XXIII in June 1911). The events were organized by the Union of Slovenian Teachers’ Associations (Zaveza slovenskih učiteljskih društev) from Styria, Carniola, and the Littoral, which for a few years also brought together teachers’ associations in Istria, as reflected in its name, i.e. the Union of Slovenian Teachers’ Associations and from 1900 onwards the Union of Austrian Yugoslav Teachers’ Associations (Zaveza avstrijskih jugoslovanskih učiteljskih društev). The gatherings were professional rallies of Slovenian teachers aiming to address matters of the trade union and pedagogical themes related to the status of the teaching profession and Slovenian education. Attracting a mass attendance of two to three hundred participants, the gatherings in Trieste not only represented veritable Slovenian and Slavic national manifestations, but also manifested a gradual espousal of political liberalism among most Slovenian teachers and the Slovenian national and economic development in Trieste and its Slovenian-inhabited surroundings.