Manuel de Puelles Benítez

Literacy in Spain: research approaches and recent publications

The 1980s saw a revival of studies on literacy in Spain, thanks partly to the convergence of economic history and the history of education but above all to the emergence of young historians in conjunction with prestigious specialists in the history of education. This article analyses the latest research to be published in Spain and the part that it has played in the shift from traditional approaches to new methodologies. Against the background of the history of education in Spain, the article assesses such key aspects as the controversial relationship between human capital and literacy, the importance of long-standing cultural factors in literacy and its geographical distribution, the need for a qualitative history of literacy within the more general framework of the written culture, and the relationships between literacy and modernisation.

THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL FACTORS ON THE FORMATION OF THE SPANISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 1809–1814

A comprehensive account of education loses a great deal of its value if, apart from the correlative pedagogical angle, the public aspects connected to its institutional nature are not examined as well. However, while the economic and social aspects of education have gained relevance over the past few years, little attention has been paid to the political factors which affect education so far. Manuel de Puelles emphasizes the importance of political factors in the birth of national education systems and their influence on the formation of a liberal State. This hypothesis is applied to Spain, both to the Josephine and liberal model of relationship between the State and education. Moreover, the author points out the unique and somewhat ambiguous character of the Spanish liberal project as regards the relationship between the State and education.