THE CONCEPT OF THE STATE IN TEXTBOOKS: ANALYSIS AND REINTERPRETATION DURING THE SPANISH TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY (1976-1986)

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the concept of the state as represented in primary school social science textbooks in Spain during the transition to democracy. The analysis of textbooks during this period has tended to focus on the importance of National Catholicism (Nacionalcatolicismo) or the technocratic vision in the framing of their representations. This article points to how such representations should be viewed from a more complex perspective that lays the emphasis on how the dictatorship understood education within the context of the Cold War. The first part of the article analyses the explanations given by textbooks during the transition. The second part dissects the subsequent evolution of the representations. Lastly, we attempt to explain why these representations and changes came about.

Keywords:

• textbook
• state
• the Spanish transition
• Franco regime
• curriculum

6. COI-statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 See, for example, the works of Bromley and Lerch (2018) and Roldán Vera and Fuchs (2018).

2 The literature on Franco era textbook analysis is very broad. We will only give a few examples of the most recent works, such as García Fernández (2017) or Mahamud Angulo (2016).

3 There are some publications that present exceptions. See Mahamud Angulo et al. (2016) or González-Delgado and Ferraz Lorenzo (2018).

4 This same process can be seen in other dictatorships in southern Europe, such as Portugal or Greece. See for example Foukas (2018), Estrela (2019) or Alves and Lima (2018).

5 Modernisation theory was a scientific and ideological tool used by the US to channel the processes of development and decolonisation that began to take place after the Second World War. This theory was based on a range of concepts that dominated much of American social sciences and impregnated its foreign policy. A broader development of this paradigm can be seen in Gilman (2007) and Martín García (2015).

6 In the General Education Act of 1970 primary education was called Basic General Education (EGB). This was organised in eight grades with three stages: first stage: 1st and 2nd grades; second stage: 3rd, 4th and 5th grades; third stage: 6th, 7th and 8th grades. The concept of state and its role in the economic context began to appear in the sixth grade, when the third stage began. For this reason, this research focuses on the 6th, 7th and 8th grades of EGB. This primary education structure would last in Spain until 1990, when a new educational law was introduced: The Organic Law on the General Organisation of the Education System (LOGSE). See Groves (2014, pp. 20–53).

7 See Valls (2007), Evans (2011) and Woyshner and Bohan (2012).

8 See Steedman (2001), and McCulloch (2004).

9 See González Clouté et al. (2016), Mahamud Angulo et al. (2016) and Badanelli (2012).

10 The concept of alienation is explored in Abad Caja et al. (1979b), Cases Méndez et al. (1978), Pavón Espiga et al. (1978) and Ramos et al. (1977b).

11 Similar arguments may also be seen in Colomer Viadel et al. (1979) and Pavón Espiga et al. (1978).

12 Other textbooks use similar arguments: Equipo Aula 3 (1983), Ramos et al. (1983) and Ramos et al. (1984b).

13 During the dictatorship and the transition in Spain, the educational system was centralised: the MEC made decisions regarding the syllabus. In 1981 a process of educational decentralisation began with the Programas Renovados de EGB (Renewed Programmes of EGB) (1981). The Comunidades Autónomas (Regions) could introduce local content to the curriculum. With the 1990 LOGSE Act, educational decentralisation expanded to its present extent, and a new governance began to develop. See Verger and Pagès (2018).

14 Ministerial Order extending the Ministerial Order of 29 November 1976, which established new contents in the teaching guidelines for the social sciences in the second stage of Basic General Education, BOE (Official State Gazette) of 3 December 1976, No. 290 and BOE of 29 July 1977, No.180 .

15 Law of 19 July 1944 (BOE 21/07/1944).

16 Ibid., p. 5555.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España [EDU 2016-78143].