Espacio, Tiempo y Educación (Jul 2017)
The Groupe Français d´Éducation Nouvelle and the Spanish Civil War in the reviews Pour l´Ère Nouvelle and L’Éducateur Prolétarien
Abstract
The Groupe Français d’Éducation Nouvelle (G.F.E.N.) was a fundamental point of reference for the New Education movement in Europe, represented in the interwar period by the International League for New Education. It was a diverse group, both in its composition and its ideological and pedagogical guidance, especially from 1936 with the arrival of Celestin Freinet and his co-workers from the Coopérative d’Enseignement laic. Through its magazine, Pour l’Ère Nouvelle, which was founded by Adolphe Ferrière and published regularly between January 1922 and March 1940, this movement had a significant influence on educational reformers throughout those two decades. The same is true for the magazine directed by Freinet, L’Éducateur Prolétarien – published regularly from October 1932 to March 1940, which also had a decisive influence on the most dedicated reformers in the field of education who were engaged in the transformation of the school during the emergence of the new social and political order. From 1936 onwards, the drama of the Spanish Civil War prompted the mobilisation of important and influential sectors of intellectuals and French educators in a broad progressive movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic. This paper aims to analyse how this conflict, in particular its educational and humanitarian aspects, was represented editorially in the two most influential journals linked more or less directly to G.F.E.N.: Pour l’Ère Nouvelle and L’Éducateur Prolétarien. The plurality of the G.F.E.N. is reflected in how that conflict was dealt with in both journals.
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