NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SECOND SPANISH REPUBLIC TEXTBOOKS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The present article wishes to analyse the various national identities which were developed in Spain at the same period of the rebirth of own different regional identities in Primary Education within Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936). METHOD. In this research, historic-educational and hermeneutics methodology have been used for bibliographycal task and content analysis in order to explore school textbooks in Primary Education, according to a category system with five sections, including national identity and conception of Spanish citizenship, peripheral nationalisms, maps, printings and drawings, relevant figures and historical periods, and presence of women in texbooks. The school textbooks have been consulted from different sources: from Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) Bartolomé Cossío Museum to Spanish National Library, as well as National University of Distance Education (UNED) MANES Project and UCM´s Education Faculty historical archive. RESULTS. According to the five fixed categories listed above, you can clearly identify two school textbook models living together within this period which show a dual national identity conception along the Second Spanish Republic in Primary Education: the conservative and the progressive. Nevertheless, regarding women presence in school textbooks, differences between conservative and progressive models are not so evident. DISCUSSION. The main point is the ideology variety arises behind the different school textbooks and their respective authors, which points out teachers freedom for school textbook choosing. Besides, new investigation ways in education history are opened from this research, regarding censorship and purge in school textbooks in any educational stage, mainly in Primary Education, during Second Spanish Republic.