Educational transfer has become in the beginning of the 21st century an important issue in the field of educational research (Phillips & Ochs, 2004; Cowen, 2006). Historians of education have also manifested interest in different aspects of this phenomenon (Goodman, McCulloch & Richardson, 2009; Groves, 2015). The types of international influences, the character of actors and institutions involved in these kinds of processes and their interaction with local, regional and national contexts have been included in new historiographic explorations (McCulloch, 2011). We can thus find studies that examine the implications of internationalization for educational policies (Ball, 2012), the curriculum (Yates, 2016) or teacher education (González-Delgado & Groves, 2016). As the field has gained momentum we can also find theoretical innovations regarding the analysis of educational transfer (Phillips, 2004; Sivesind & Wahlström, 2016) and studies focusing on the importance of international organizations (Omolewa, 2007) in this processes of pedagogical export and import. The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of the UNESCO in the process of change and modernization of the Spanish education system during the last period of the Franco dictatorship.  The UNESCO started to develop its activities in Spain in 1953 and while in the first stage its initiatives were focused on programs aimed at the acquisition of textbooks and materials, as time passed it gradually assumed more ambitious goals. Its activities included visits of international experts (through a program of technical assistance- Programa Ampliado de Asistencia Técnica), who would eventually assume key roles in transforming education in Spain. Collaborating with the United Nations Development Programme, a whole infrastructure of educational research and teacher training was established (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo de la Educación; Institutos de Ciencias de la Educación) as part of the implementation of the General Education Law of 1970. While the fact the UNESCO has been involved in many ambitious educational programs around the world is well known, there is very little research on its impact on different countries in the second half of the 20 ^th  century (Jones & Coleman, 2005). Focusing on the Spanish case, this paper attempts to provide new insights on how transnational actors intervene in national processes of educational change. It also tries to look at the mechanisms of educational transfer both on the exporting side as well as on the importing side. As highlighted by historical research (Myers, Grosvenor & Watts, 2008), transnational education currents vary across local contexts in which different actors mediate the process of education transfer.

Phillips, David (2004). Toward a theory of policy attraction in education. In: Steiner-Khamsi, Gita & Popkewitz, Thomas, eds. Lessons from elsewhere: the politics of educational borrowing and lending. New York: Teachers College Press, pp. 54-67. Phillips, David & Ochs, Kimberly (2004). Researching policy borrowing: some methodological challenges in comparative education. British Educational Research Journal, 30(6), 773-784. Cowen, Robert (2006). Acting comparatively upon the educational world: puzzles and possibilities. Oxford Review of Education, 32(5), 561-573. Goodman, Joyce, McCulloch, Gary & Richadson, William (2009). ʿEmpires overseasʾ and ʿempires at homeʾ: postcolonial and transnational perspectives on social change in the history of education. Paedagogica Historica, 45(6), 595-706. Groves, Tamar (2015). A foreign model of teacher education and its local appropriation: the English teacher`s centres in Spain. History of Education, 44(3), 355-370. McCulloch, Gary (2011). The Struggle for the History of Education. London: Routledge. Ball, Stephen (2012). Global Education Inc. New policy network and the neo-liberal imaginary. London: Routledge. Yates, Lyn (2016). Europe, transnational curriculum movement and comparative curriculum theorizing. European Educational Research Journal, 15(3), 366-373. González-Delgado, Mariano & Groves, Tamar (2016). Influencias extranjeras en la formación continua del profesorado en el segundo franquismo. In: Martín-Sánchez, Manuel & Groves, Tamar, coord. La formación del profesorado. Nuevos enfoques desde la teoría y la historia de la educación. Salamanca: FarenHouse, pp. 27-39. Sivesind, Kirsten & Wahlström, Ninni (2016). Curriculum on the European policy agenda: Global transitions and learning outcomes from transnational and national point of view. European Educational Research Journal, 15(3), 271-278. Omolewa, Michael (2007). UNESCO as a Network. Paedagogica Historica, 43(2), 211-221. Jones, Phillip, W. & Coleman, David (2005). The United Nations and Education Multilateralism, development and globalisation. New York: Routledge-Falmer. Myers, Kevin, Grosvenor, Ian & Watts, Ruth, (2008). Education and Globalisation. History of Education, 37(6), 737-741. Ossenbach, Gabriela y Martínez Boom, Alberto (2011). Itineraries of the discourses on development and education in Spain and Latin America (circa 1950–1970). Paedagogica Historica, 47(5), 679-700. Terrón, Aida (2015). La educación sanitaria escolar: Una propuesta curricular importada para la escuela española del desarrollismo. Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas. 23(19), http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1702. Hidalgo, Ángela M. (2015). La educación rural en España en la década de 1950: la UNESCO y los principios educativos del régimen franquista. Educação em Revista, 31(3), 119-142. Delgado Gómez, Lorenzo (2015). Modernizadores y tecnócratas. Estados Unidos ante la política educativa y científica de la España del Desarrollo. Historia y Política, 34, 113-146.