Teaching the deaf-mute in Spain: an analysis of the educational policy from 1923-1931

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The objective of this study is to make a general analysis of the educational policies used to teach the Deaf-mute people during the the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) and during the government of General Berenguer (1930-31) in Spain. METHOD. The methodology used consists on the historical search, the analysis of less-known sources and even unpublished and reviewed of bibliography of the period under study. RESULTS. The central hypothesis is formulated considering the incidence and degree of development that the educational policies of the period of Primo de Rivera and General Berenguer had on the teachings for the deaf that had been reformed by liberal governments; mostly, also for conservatives and for the professional sector in the early twentieth century and more specifically: a) to consider educating the deaf within a full education framework, departing from the charitable care approach, b) to incorporate deaf education in a new stage of special education which was created during those years, c) the use of scientific means to classify and educate the deaf student in special graded educational institutions and d) the establishment of specialized administrative bodies within the organisation, management and implementation of the educational policies of the Ministry of Public Education, national boards for the deaf, blind and abnormal people. DISCUSSION. The results of this paper consider two important ideas, the first is that the policies of the period under study maintained the principles and basic ideas of deaf education found at the beginning of the century. The second is that the development of these policies presented unequal results, positive in the areas of teacher training and the oral development of the deaf student and a continuity in the creation and construction of the school network, ordination and regulation academic of this type of education.