Imagining a Democratic Future, Forgetting a Worrisome Past: Educational Policy, School Textbooks, and Teachers under the Franco Regime

Abstract

In 1970 the Franco regime enacted the General Law of Education. The law was one of the dictatorship’s attempts to cultivate a liberal image that would lend legitimacy to its authoritarian political project. The declared main aspiration of the reform was to democratize education. However, at the time when this liberal text was published, the dictatorship was struggling for survival and its liberal gestures were accompanied, side-by-side, by the old mechanisms of political oppression. Opposition groups of teachers criticized the inherent shortcomings of the law as well as its application, and offered their own projects for the democratization of Spanish society. In this article we analyze these two educational projects, highlighting how both used the term “democracy” to express distinct, contradictory, and sometimes overlapping meanings. This range of meanings serves to illustrate the complexity of the concept of democratic education in the earliest stages of Spain’s transition to democracy.

Keywords:

• Spain
• civil war
• democratic education
• textbooks
• Franco regime

Notes

1 Amy Gutmann, Democratic Education (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1999).

2 Paloma Aguilar Fernández, Memoria y olvido de la Guerra Civil española (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1996), p. 68.

3 On the relationship between the regime’s sources of legitimization and its educational policies, see Juan Manuel Fernández Soria, Educación, socialización y legitimación política (España 1931–1970) (Valencia: Editorial Tirant lo Blanch, 1998).

4 On this topic, see, for example, Francisco Morente Valero, La escuela y el estado nuevo. La depuración del Magisterio nacional 1936–1943 (Valladolid: Ámbito Ediciones, 1997).

5 Ley de 20 de septiembre de 1938 de Reforma de la Segunda Enseñanza; Ley de Universidades de 1943; Ley de 17 de julio de 1945 de Educación Primaria. They are included in Puelles Benítez’ analysis of the period, Manuel de Puelles Benítez, Educación e Ideología en la España Contemporánea, (Madrid: Editorial Tecnos, 2010), pp. 294–305.

6 ‘Ley de 17 de JULIO de 1945 sobre Educación Primaria’, in Legislación de Aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida en España, p. 386, <http://legislacion.educa-alv.es/archivos/b2/b2.358.pdf> [accessed 11 November 2012].

7 On the Catholic Church in Spain, see Stanley Payne, Spanish Catholicism, An Historical Overview (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984).

8 Agustín Escolano Benito, ‘Los comienzos de la modernización pedagógica en el franquismo (1951–1964)’, Revista Española de Pedagogía, 192 (1992), 289–310.

9 Gregorio Cámara Villar, Nacional-Catolicismo y Escuela. La Socialización Política del Franquismo (1936–1951) (Madrid: Hesperia, 1984).

10 Agustín Serrano de Haro, Yo soy español: el libro del primer grado de historia, 17th edn (Madrid: Escuela Española, Hijos de Ezequiel Solana, 1957), pp. 83–84.

11 Edelvives, Cartilla moderna de historia de España, (Zaragoza: Luis Vives, 1954), p. 28. The italics appear in the textbook.

12 Enciclopedia Grado Medio. Para los cursos tercero y cuarto del período elemental, 1st edn (Madrid: Escuela Española, 1962), p. 483.

13 Aguilar Fernández, pp. 63–64.

14 A. Álvarez et al., Geografía de España e Historia Universal. Octavo Curso (Valladolid: Miñón, 1968), p. 181. The bold appears in the textbook.

15 This sentence does not clarify that the Frente Popular ‘gained power’ in legitimate democratic elections. A. Álvarez et al., Nuestro mundo. Tratamiento globalizado de los tópicos del Área de Experiencia. Libro de consulta: quinto nivel. (Valladolid: Miñón, 1972), p. 251. The bold appears in the textbook.

16 Aguilar Fernández, p. 71.

17 Luis Palacios Bañuelos, España, del liberalismo a la democracia (1808–2004) (Madrid: Diles, 2004), p. 413.

18 Ibid.

19 Antonio Fernández García et al., Área social. Historia Contemporánea. Orbe. 8°. Curso de E.G.B., 2nd re-edition (Barcelona: Vicens Vives, 1975), pp. 252–53.

20 ‘Ley 14/1966, de 18 de marzo, de Prensa e Imprenta’, in Noticias Jurídicas <http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/l14-1966.html> [accessed 23 November 2012].

21 One of the reports was the result of a collaboration between the Spanish Ministry of Education and UNESCO: La educación y el desarrollo económico. Planteamiento integral de la educación. Objetivos para 1970, (Madrid, 1962). The other report was drafted by the OCDE and the World Bank: Las necesidades de educación y el desarrollo económico-social de España, (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación Nacional/OCDE, 1963).

22 For example, Díez Hochleitner, Tena Artigas, Blat Gimeno. Gabriela Ossenbach, and Alberto Martínez Boom, ‘Itineraries of the Discourses on Development and Education in Spain and Latin America (circa 1950–1970)’, Paedagogica Historica, 47 (5) (2011), 679–700 (p. 682).

23 Ibid.

24 Ley 14/1970, de 4 de agosto, General de Educación y Financiación de la Reforma Educativa. <http://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1970-852> [accessed 20 November 2012].

25 Ibid. The italics were introduced by the authors.

26 Ibid. The italics were introduced by the authors.

27 Félix Ortega, ‘Las ideologías de la reforma educativa de 1970’, Revista de Educación, número extraordinario (1992), pp. 31–46.

28 Ley 14/1970, de 4 de agosto, General de Educación y Financiación de la Reforma Educativa. <http://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1970-852> [accessed 20 November 2012].

29 Fernández García et al., p. 264.

30 M. Gutiérrez, España para ti [sic], 1st edn (Madrid: Doncel, 1965), p. 64.

31 Ibid., p. 91.

32 Enciclopedia cíclico-pedagógica. Grado preparatorio de los cursos graduados de primera enseñanza (Gerona and Madrid: Dalmáu Carles, 1964), pp. 218–19.

33 Emérita Ramos; Fernando Manero, Sociedad 5 E.G.B. (Valladolid: Miñon, 1977), pp. 156–57.

34 Ley 14/1970, de 4 de agosto, General de Educación y Financiación de la Reforma Educativa. <http://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1970-852> [accessed 20 November 2012].

35 Ibid.

36 ‘Una Alternativa Para la Enseñanza. Bases de discusión’, in Valeriano Bozal, Una alternativa para la enseñanza (Madrid: Entropress, 1977).

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., p. 112.

39 Ibid., p. 113.

40 Ibid., p. 126.

41 For a more detailed discussion on the emergence and activities of the movements for pedagogical renovation, see Tamar Groves, ‘Everyday Struggles against Franco’s Authoritarian Legacy: Pedagogical Social Movements and Democracy in Spain’, Journal of Social History, 46.2 (2012).

42 The document was called: Por una nueva escuela pública. It can also be found in Valeriano Bozal, Una alternativa para la enseñanza (Madrid: Entropress, 1977).

43 Ibid., p. 193.

44 Bozal, p. 40.

45 Juan Rastrilla Pérez, Historia Universal y de España. El mundo contemporáneo. 8° E.G.B. (Madrid: Ediciones SM, 1978), p. 207 (approved by the M. of E. and C. dated 25-XI-1975). Italics and bold appear in the textbook.

46 The underlined words appear in the textbook.

47 Carme Molinero and Pere Ysàs, La Anatomía Del Franquismo: De la Supervivencia a la Agonía, 1945–1977 (Barcelona: Crítica, 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamar Groves

Tamar Groves obtained her PhD degree from Tel Aviv University and the UNED. She is currently a researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Studies in Salamanca University. She is the author of Teachers and the Struggle for Democracy in Spain (Palgrave Macmillan, in press). She has also published in Paedagogica Historica, International Journal of the History of Education, and the Journal of Social History.

Correspondence to Tamar Groves. Email: [email protected]

Cecilia Milito Barone

Cecilia Cristina Milito Barone is a PhD student in the Department of History of Education and Comparative Education, UNED, Madrid. She is currently a researcher at the Research Center MANES, UNED. Her main research interests are History of Education during the Spanish Transition to Democracy, School textbooks, School culture, Citizenship and Discourse analysis.

Correspondence to: Cecilia Cristina Milito Barone. Email: [email protected]