Nationalisms and education in Spain

Abstract

The first part of the article briefly examines the structure of the Spanish education system and the quantitative evolution of primary schools in contemporary times. It goes on to review some of the measures adopted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to highlight the nationalist orientation of the schools and their teachers and the intensification of the role they played in nationalisation. Lastly, the core of the article analyses the linguistic policy adopted by the Spanish government to be applied to schools. This analysis focusses on three of the most important moments in history: The Report of the Board created by the Regency to propose ways to implement the structure of the different branches of public instruction (1813); the proposals presented at the Pedagogical Conference of Barcelona (1888) to determine how the Spanish language should be taught in areas where it was not the native tongue; and the parliamentary debate on the language used in schools raised by the decree of the Count of Romanones (1902).

Keywords

• sistema educativo
• nacionalización
• lengua y escuela
• informe quintana (1813)
• congreso pedagógico de barcelona (1888)
• decreto del conde de romanones (1902)