Tribute to Antonia Aelterman

Antonia Aelterman was born in 1951 in Ghent and spent her whole life in Destelbergen (Belgium), where she still lives today. After her secondary education, she studied Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium), with the intention of becoming a psychologist. However, the very enthusiastic Professor De Block (1920–1999) changed this ambition. He awakened her interest in education. She completed her master's thesis focusing on the importance and didactic value of history textbooks. Therefore, she spent a lot of time in the Laboratory for Historical Pedagogy. When she graduated in 1973, Professor De Clerck, who was head of the Laboratory, offered her a job as a junior researcher. Her assignment was to make a chronicle of the history of Belgian education since 1830. This resulted in a two-volume book, Moments of the Belgian History of Education, which was later used in the teacher education program at the university.