The UNESCO and National Education Reforms: The Spanish Case

Author(s):

Tamar Groves(presenting / submitting)Mariano González-Delgado(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 01,

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-22

13:15-14:45

Room:

K3.12

Chair:

Geert Thyssen

Contribution

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.

Method

To carry out this research we combined visits to archives with an exhaustive review of education journals. We consulted materials regarding the activities of the UNESCO in the General Archive of the Spanish Administration (Archivo General de la Administración AGA), the Ministry of Education Archive ( Ministerio de Educación MEC) and archive of the Spanish National Commission for Collaboration with the UNESCO (Comisión Nacional Española de Cooperación con la UNESCO). The most important publications in the field of education that were reviewed includ the Revista de Educación, Revista Española de Pedagogía y Bordón. In addition, we looked at the most important publications of a series of educational institutions that were created during the Franco period in order to foment educational change such as the Centro de Orientación y Documentación Didáctica de Enseñanza Primaria (CEDODEP), the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo de la Educación (CENIDE) and the Sociedad Española de Pedagogía (SEP). This revision permits evaluating the augmenting involvement of the UNESCO in Spanish education policy and the extension of its initiatives. We can find its projects in a gran variety of projects and programs related to Health Education, Adult literacy, Programmed instruction and Teaching machines or the improvement of teachers initial and continues training (Ossenbach y Martínez Boom, 2011; Terrón, 2015; Hidalgo, 2015; Delgado Gómez, 2015). These initiatives were gaining momentum until they reached their pick with the structural reform of 1970.

Expected Outcomes

The UNESCO played an important role in the development and modernization of the Spanish Education system during the late Franco period. Some publications have already pointed out in this direction, but in this paper we show the paths of influences and their impact in different educational areas. The UNESCO started by developing a series of projects with aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Spanish education system. It was involved in the design and execution of programs as well as in the establishment and support of education research institutions. In addition, although the UNESCO has no political authority in national contexts, its international experts, ended up working in Spanish institutions bringing with them the methods and agendas of the organization. As can be seen the UNESCO functioned as one of the first transnational organizations that intervened in educational systems across national borders. It aspired to foment the transformation of the Spanish education system through top-down projects. Studying its activities in Spain shows the impact the organization had on the configuration of educational debates during the late Franco regime. Nevertheless, the complex way in which the UNESCO led projects were implemented did not always reflect the original agenda behind them. Thus their study also illustrates how local actors foment or limit specific dimensions of imported educational projects.

References

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.

Author Information

Tamar Groves (presenting / submitting)

Extremadura University

Department of Education Sciences

Cáceres

Mariano González-Delgado (presenting)

Universidad de La Laguna

History and Philosophy of Science, Education and Language

La Laguna

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