THE MODERNISATION OF THE SPANISH EDUCATION SYSTEM (1898-1936)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. This article aims to characterize the process of modernisation of the Spanish education system during the first third of the XXth century. METHOD. Available knowledge offered by Spanish educational historiography is reviewed in relation with international educational literature and general approaches to the period of Spanish contemporary historiography. RESULTS. The main lines of the project of modernisation of the Spanish education system were established by the governments at the turn of the century. However, the governments of the Restoration were unable to implement it. The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, first, and the Second Republic, later, tried to complete the process. Despite their opposing ideological frameworks, both regimes addressed the modernization of the educational system and paradoxically implemented very similar practical measures. DISCUSSION. The article highlights the consistency of the Spanish modernization process and its continuity over more than three decades and under three very different regimes. This approach suggests the need to pay greater attention to the education reforms of the beginning of the century and the educational policy of the Dictatorship to obtain a more balanced view of the process.