THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND PEDAGOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SCHOOL HOLIDAYS IN EUROPE – International Journal of Research in Education Humanities and Commerce

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND PEDAGOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SCHOOL HOLIDAYS IN EUROPE

Author: Apostolos Karaoulas

ABSTRACT

The institutionalization of school holidays in Europe is intertwined with profound shifts in perceptions of time, learning, and childhood. This is a historical process that does not follow a linear trajectory of progress but is embedded within broader social, cultural, and scientific developments. Holidays were not simply established as breaks from the school process; over time, they acquired a recognized educational function, becoming a site of negotiation between labor, religious tradition, political regulation, and pedagogical thinking.

The primary aim of this article is to invite reflection on the role and function of time in education. The alternation between school time and breaks is a product of historical formation rather than self-evident practice. From the medieval religious conception of time to the modern structuring of the school calendar, holidays reflect not only the need for rest or organizational flexibility in program planning, but also the importance of out-of-school periods for the development of students’ personalities and subjectivities.

The study examines how school holidays became an institutionalized practice, tracing the shift from religious observances to labor demands, and ultimately to their integration into European educational policy. The path toward the institutionalization of school holidays reveals how education systems have been shaped around the management of time, linking the significance of breaks with the processes of learning and the child’s experience. Pedagogical and sociological theories on time management, along with broader social developments, highlight the profound changes in the understanding of breaks as an educational tool and its relationship to contemporary educational frameworks. This historical trajectory illustrates the complex relationship between holidays, labor, and social development, and how this relationship has been incorporated into the social needs and organizational structure of education.

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