Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

7-18-1978

Abstract

The study is an historical interpretation of the major determinants of educational reform in Spain's primary schools between 1898 and 1936. Interest in improving public primary education arose after discovery that the lower classes needed citizenship training to effect the regeneration called for in 1898. Attempts to introduce such programs, though, encountered economic, political, and socio-cultural obstacles, but because of the urgency of finding an instrument of social control some of the reforms were adopted. The educational proposals of 1898, originally opposed by the church and conservatives, were modified when embraced by the Right during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and used to reinforce traditional society. The coming of the Second Republic marked a return to reforms consistent with those advanced in 1898 but this time infused with socialist thought; however, economic and administrative difficulties, coupled with Catholic resistance, foiled the attempted changes.

The process of educational change in Spain illustrates that reform is not a unitary, linear movement, rather it is convoluted and capable of being coopted. Attempts to reform primary schools, as part of the struggle for social and political power between opposing societal forces, involved conflicts over the nature and direction of Spanish society. School reform is placed in the context of socially conservative uses of education in a strife-ridden country, attempting to preserve institutions in the face of growing demands for fundamental social and economic changes.

Two conflicts became continual themes in debates over public schooling. One was between Krausism and Catholicism over whether a secular or religious based morality would serve as the organizing principle of Spanish society in the twentieth century; the other centered on teacher demands for higher pay, better conditions, and administrative changes. In exploring those disputes, the main subjects of the study are the socio-economic origins of reform proposals, the politics of educational policy, the evolution of pedagogic ideas, and the activities of teacher associations.

The research bases of the investigation were Spanish archival materials from the Ministry of Public Instruction and printed primary sources, particularly teachers' journals.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Albert William Vogel

Second Committee Member

Robert William Kern

Third Committee Member

Charles McClelland

Fourth Committee Member

David Lawrence Bachelor

Fifth Committee Member

John Thomas Zepper

Comments

Graduate School Fellowship

Fullbright-Hays Fellowship

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