María del Mar del Pozo Andrés

The Rebirth of the ‘Spanish Race’:The State, Nationalism, and Education in Spain, 1875–1931

In 1898, the loss of the last Spanish colonies of Cuba and the Philippines after the war with the United States aroused a strong national consciousness in which pessimism and hope were mixed. At that moment, many Spanish intellectuals were united not only by the idea that Spain had become a decadent country, but also by the notion that there could be a genuine renaissance if only it was based on the creation of a new Spanish ‘race’. In his famous book Los males de la Patria, Lucas Mallada describes the perceived inferior position of Spain in relation to other European countries on the basis of five indicators: (1) a feeling that the Spanish people were physically inferior because of their Semitic background; (2) their general belief in miracles and superstition; (3) the idea that Spaniards are capable of starting all kinds of projects, but can never complete them; (4) the supposed laziness and apathy of the Spanish people, which coincided with a low esteem for the Spanish labour force; (5) a so-called ‘false’ patriotism, taking pride in the usually barbarian stereotypes that were traditionally related with the image of Spain throughout the world. An example of such a stereotype was the bull, which was proudly presented as a symbol of Spain at all the international exhibitions of the nineteenth century, along with the complete set of instruments required for killing it. The efforts of nearly all Spanish intellectuals to correct this negative image consisted of putting forward the concept of a ‘new’ Spain that would rise after a ‘regeneration’ or a rebirth of the Spanish ‘race’. They wanted to substitute the old and false Maria del Mar del Pozo Andres and Jacques F.A. Braster

The Reinvention of the New Education Movement in the Franco Dictatorship (Spain, 1936–1976)

During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939) the Government identified many of its educational goals with those of the international movement of the New School. While not subscribing to any particular trends, the legal documents are filled with appeals to activism, vitality, work school and collaboration. Many teachers identified with and enthusiastically supported these ideas. However, other educators, those generally belonging to Catholic Associations, saw the New School as a movement that served as an international referendum for such ideas as religious neutrality or coeducation, introduced by the Republican government in primary schools and that was perceived by these groups as an important step in the ‘de‐Christianization’ of Catholic Spain. Once the Civil War (1936–1939) was over, these same educators were commissioned to create a pedagogic body for the new Francoist legislation. In this article the different phases of the relationship of the New School movement with the so called ‘new Spanish pedagogy’ are analysed. In the first phase (1936–1949) the dominating characteristics were silence and rejection. Not only was the New School criticized but it was silenced and made invisible. It was even denied the name by which it was known worldwide. Concepts defended by New School such as interest, joy and activity were compared with the concepts of effort, pain and discipline, as the truly Spanish pedagogic alternative. The explicit condemnation that the Francoist pedagogues made of Rousseauan naturalism, the latest inspiration of the New School, was hidden behind this ‘war of terminologies’. This condemnation was in line with the ideas of the Papal Encyclical Divini Illius Magistri (1929). Another factor of rejection could be the twisted connections made between some of the socializing characteristics of the methodologies and Soviet communism. In the second phase (1950–1962) the younger generation of Spanish pedagogues, those trained at the end of the 1940s and from whom publications on this trend had been withheld, initiated the reconstruction of the movement of New School. Having rediscovered it, they gave it an appreciation normally reserved for personal discoveries. However, not all its representatives were equally well known, nor were their educational theories accepted unconditionally. The pedagogues of the regime invented new interpretations of classic terms such as ‘activity’, which were forerunners of new pedagogic tendencies. In the third phase (1963–1976) there was an attempt to appropriate some of the prevailing elements of the pedagogic culture of the early decades of the twentieth century. Legal reforms and publications on education as well were impregnated with terms that were reminiscent of the New School. The great educational reform would culminate with the General Law of Education of 1970 which, although there are several ideas reminiscent of New School, we cannot claim to be even remotely inspired by this movement. The influence came through intermediaries. Personalized education, which provided the pedagogic‐ideological foundation for this law, identified some of the tendencies of the New School as precedents, while others were completely silenced. 1 This article has been elaborated thanks to financing obtained for the research project “Catholicism versus Secularization in XX Century Spain: Pastoral of Reconquest and the Catholic Movement. 1900–1960”, approved by DGCICYT (Plan Nacional de I+D ‐ BHA2002–03534) and directed by Professor of Contemporary History, Dr Feliciano Montero García.

The transnational and national dimensions of pedagogical ideas: the case of the project method, 1918–1939

Dieser Artikel versucht, die verschiedenen und manchmal sogar widersprüchlichen Interpretationen zu analysieren, die den Ideen und Methoden der Reformpädagogik in verschiedenen sozialen und räumlichen Kontexten zugeschrieben wurden. Die Studie konzentriert sich speziell auf die Projektmethode, ein pädagogisches Konstrukt, das anscheinend gut definiert und allgemein bekannt war, und das ein bestimmtes Ausmaß an Einfluss in der Schulpraxis des 20. Jahrhunderts genoss. Zuerst werde ich eine Analyse des Ursprungs des Konzepts in den Vereinigten Staaten vornehmen, sowie seiner Aneignung von Pädagogen der University of Columbia und der darauffolgenden Debatte, die von dem undifferenzierten und missbräuchlichen Gebrauch des Begriffs ausgelöst wurde. Der zweite Teil der Studie untersucht die transnationale Präsenz dieser Methode und ihren Platz in der weltweiten Reformpädagogikbewegung. Dabei wird deutlich werden, wie die verschiedenen Interpretationen der Projektmethode klarer im Licht des weitergehenden Konflikts zwischen den paidozentrischen und den sozialisierenden Ansätzen innerhalb der pädagogischen Bewegung verstanden werden können. Zuletzt wird der Fall Spanien untersucht, wo die Methode in den 1930er Jahren sehr populär war, und das nicht nur aus pädagogischen Gründen; auf eine mehr oder weniger okkulte Art und Weise wurde sie mit einer demokratischen Schulform und der Sehnsucht nach einem Leben in einer Demokratie identifiziert.Dieser Artikel versucht, die verschiedenen und manchmal sogar widerspruchlichen Interpretationen zu analysieren, die den Ideen und Methoden der Reformpadagogik in verschiedenen sozialen und raumlichen Kontexten zugeschrieben wurden. Die Studie konzentriert sich speziell auf die Projektmethode, ein padagogisches Konstrukt, das anscheinend gut definiert und allgemein bekannt war, und das ein bestimmtes Ausmas an Einfluss in der Schulpraxis des 20. Jahrhunderts genoss. Zuerst werde ich eine Analyse des Ursprungs des Konzepts in den Vereinigten Staaten vornehmen, sowie seiner Aneignung von Padagogen der University of Columbia und der darauffolgenden Debatte, die von dem undifferenzierten und missbrauchlichen Gebrauch des Begriffs ausgelost wurde. Der zweite Teil der Studie untersucht die transnationale Prasenz dieser Methode und ihren Platz in der weltweiten Reformpadagogikbewegung. Dabei wird deutlich werden, wie die verschiedenen Interpretationen der Projektmethode klarer im Licht des weitergehenden Konflik...

La Escuela Graduada Madrileña en el primer tercio del siglo xx: ¿ Un modelo pedagógico para el resto del Estado Español ?.

En este articulo se aborda el estudio de los planteamientos organizativos de las escuelas graduadas madrilenas en el primer tercio del siglo XX. Se analizan aspectos como la distribucion del tiempo y el trabajo, la organizacion de contenidos y programas, el empleo de libros de texto o materiales escritos, y la aplicacion de metodologias innovadoras caracteristicas del movimiento internacional de la Nueva Educacion. A traves de este recorrido por la intrahistoria escolar de las graduadas mas importantes de la capital, se intenta determinar las caracteristicas del modelo de nueva escuela publica gestado en Espana en estos anos y del que Madrid ofrece ejemplos muy paradigmaticos y representativos

Community and the Myth of the Ideal School: Circulation and Appropriation of the Hamburg Gemeinschaftsschulen in Spain (1922-1933).

The progressive education movement was known in Spain from its very inception, and in fact many of its pedagogical theories and practices reached Spain before reaching other European countries. Yet traditional historiography has always maintained that Spain was never integrated in the progressive education movement, a misconception that helps explain the lack of research in the field. Recent historiographical research, however, has shown that numerous Spanish schools served as laboratories for the implementation of progressive education methods in the 1920s and 1930s. The Spanish educational system proved itself to be especially open to international innovation in general and Spain actually enjoyed a privileged position for the study of how innovative pedagogical ideas could be incorporated and appropriated. Proof of this affirmation can be found in the introduction and dissemination throughout Spain of the experimental public school movement of Hamburg known as Gemeinschaftsschulen.This article will focu...The progressive education movement was known in Spain from its very inception, and in fact many of its pedagogical theories and practices reached Spain before reaching other European countries. Yet traditional historiography has always maintained that Spain was never integrated in the progressive education movement, a misconception that helps explain the lack of research in the field. Recent historiographical research, however, has shown that numerous Spanish schools served as laboratories for the implementation of progressive education methods in the 1920s and 1930s. The Spanish educational system proved itself to be especially open to international innovation in general and Spain actually enjoyed a privileged position for the study of how innovative pedagogical ideas could be incorporated and appropriated. Proof of this affirmation can be found in the introduction and dissemination throughout Spain of the experimental public school movement of Hamburg known as Gemeinschaftsschulen. This article will focus on the way this movement was received in Spain. We will examine the phenomenon from a double perspective, corresponding to the different positions that scholars found themselves in within the educational panorama of the time. On the one hand we will examine the role of the “grass-roots” educators who wished to change schools “from below”, starting with classroom practices. On the other hand we will take a look at the representatives of “high pedagogy”, who were intent on formulating a pedagogical theory on which to base a political–ideological model that would serve to change the school “from above”. Tensions arising among the different pedagogical groups, along with the ambiguity of the translation into Spanish of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, led to the different groups appropriating the concept in different ways. The evolution of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, from its original identification with a localised school experiment in Hamburg to its becoming a symbol for virtually all European school vanguards, will be addressed at the conclusion of the article.

La práctica escolar durante los primeros años del franquismo

El objetivo de este articulo es contribuir a un mejor conocimiento de la practica escolar en los anos inmediatamente posteriores a la Guerra Civil espanola. Estudiar esta practica desde una perspectiva historica requiere explorar nuevas fuentes mas alla de las tradicionales, por lo que en este articulo nos basamos en una de estas posibles fuentes: las memorias pedagogicas halladas en los expedientes de oposiciones para la provision de vacantes en ensenanza primaria del periodo franquista. Fruto de este analisis en este articulo se ofrece informacion sobre los contenidos, la metodologia y los materiales utilizados en las escuelas de Baleares durante la postguerra, lo que nos permite un conocimiento mas matizado de su practica escolar.

Exploring New Ways of Studying School Memories: The Engraving as a Blind Spot of the History of Education

This article intends to track down the representation of school through the multiple versions that were derived from a single educational image. Starting with the water colour entitled “The Picture of Youth”, painted by Henry James Richter in 1809, a later portfolio of engravings done by the same author in 1822, and many other versions of this subject made by other painters and engravers, the work became a popular image for representing a school during an important part of the XIXth century. Our paper has three aims. First, we reconstruct the historical context in which the several versions of the painting and the engravings that were based on them, were made, trying to elaborate several hypothesis about the circulation of this particular image throughout Europe and United States, and the subtle modifications of its meaning that were made by rewriting the captions. Second, we analyze the four engravings published in the 1822 portfolio for exploring more in deep the main scenes and the iconographical elements of the image as a whole. Third, we give some interpretations for explaining why we have considered this particular image the iconic image of the school in the XIXth century.

Education and the children’s colonies in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939): the images of the community ideal

At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War the republican authorities started organising what came to be known as “children’s colonies”. These children’s colonies became both home and school for all the children who were evacuated from Madrid. The purpose of this article is to study in depth the transformation of many of these children’s colonies into educational communities. The teachers accompanying the children often shared the republican ideals of active citizenship and strove to make conscious citizens out of these children. The educational model chosen for achieving this aim was the community model, based on the transformation of every children’s colony into a self-sufficient community of teachers and students, along the lines of similar experiences organised by the international New Education movement in the 1920s and ’30s. The article discusses the iconic experiences of children’s colonies during the Spanish Civil War and the ways in which their different concepts of “community” were represented. By studying the photographic collection put together from different public and private archives alongside the written information preserved in unpublished diaries we are able to develop a methodological model for analysing the construction and/or destruction of the community ideal in these educational experiences.

Exploring new concepts of popular education: politics, religion and citizenship in the suburban schools of Madrid, 1940–1975

During the Franco period, one of the objectives of the government was the so‐called “regeneration of the suburbs”. Education was, among the solutions proposed, the one discussed most frequently. This article hopes to show that, during these years, a multifaceted model of popular education arose which could be called “suburban education”, because it acquired some peculiar characteristics for adaptation to this specific spatial and social context. The agencies of education in the Franquista era clearly acted in a different and sometimes contradictory way in the suburbs as compared with what they said and did in other contexts of Madrid. Starting from this initial premise, the article will focus on three topics. First, it will determine the way in which the spatial growth of the suburbs interrelated with the expansion of schools. Second, it will identify the models of “popular suburban education” tried out by the three great powers of the Franco regime, the State, the Church and the Falange, in the different suburban spaces. Finally it will look profoundly at the role that these agencies of education played in what some town planners call “the urbanisation of the suburbs”. By this term is meant the achievement of economic, cultural and political independence, which began to take place at the end of the 1960s.

Nuevos horizontes del pasado: culturas políticas, identidades y formas de representación

Los materiales que se recogen en esta edicion impresa, y los mas de 250 textos aportados en el CD adjunto, testimonian la evolucion del trabajo de los historiadores contemporaneistas, la situacion de su profesion, los cambios experimentados en la historiografia, en la investigacion y en el relato de nuestro pasado a la vez que ponen de manifiesto que la investigacion que se esta llevando a efecto es solvente y que su capacidad para integrarse en los mercados historiograficos internacionales es, cada vez, mayor.