This article, delivered as one of two keynote lectures at the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) in Milan in September 2022, offers an example of an autosociobiographical approach to the history of education, in which the life story of the author is entangled with the collective movement of a generation of…

This paper introduces the life and work of art educator and designer Kurt Rowland (1920-1980) who authored the first set of textbooks on visual education and played a role in the shifting world of art and design education in post-war Britian. We detail the foundational experiences of his extraordinary life in the first half of the 20th century…

This article deals with the study of natural sciences in non-compulsory secondary education from the end of the nineteenth century until the educational reform in 1970. We begin with a critical review of the ways in which the secondary education curriculum and textbooks of this period conveyed established knowledge about natural sciences. We then…

In this article, we examine the relationship established between what the history of education in Spain has identified as "pedagogical renewal" and the proposals, experiences, reflections, meetings and training spaces framed in what at the time was identified as "intercultural education". This analysis stems from the apparent…

This paper analyses the origin, development and fall of the 'school voucher' system in Spain. It was called the Ley de Financiación de la Enseñanza Obligatoria (Compulsory Education Financing Law) (LFEO), and this reform represented the first attempt at an international level to establish a school voucher model for a whole country. This article…

This article aims to portray industrial workers' vocational training during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain (1923-1930), based on the Industrial Training Act of 1924 and the Vocational Training Act of 1928. The programme was devised to meet the modernising expectations of a conventional society. The grounds for government interventionism…

In this article we attempt to explain how Spanish schoolteachers built their knowledge around Progressive Education and just how they assimilated these new teaching practices, a process we conceptualise as "appropriating the New". Our source consists of the 287 files presented by state schoolteachers from all of Spain as part of their…

The aim of this paper is to analyse the social and economic implementation of the reform of industrial vocational training during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain (1923-1930), based on the Industrial Education Statute of 1924 and the Vocational Training Statute of 1928. Framed within an international context affected by the consequences of…

Purpose: After World War II, an educational modernization process gained ground worldwide. International organizations such as UNESCO began to play a key role in the creation, development and dissemination of a new educational vision in different countries. This article examines the origin and development of this modernization process under the…

This article analyses the case of Rosa Sensat teachers' movement in Catalonia during the final years of Francoism and the transition to democracy in Spain (1965-1990). This movement was a key actor in education reform debates in that period. Based on the perspective of political process theory, the article focuses on the contextual, organisational…

Purpose: This paper analyses the strategies designed by Franco's dictatorship to address the "problem" of children with physical disabilities, focusing on the relevance given to vocational training. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws mainly on official documents, reports from international organisations, and Spanish experts'…

Promoted by some of the most critical sectors of the education community, the history of the Spanish pedagogical renewal (19th and 20th centuries) shows all kinds of experiences representing an innovative, committed and transformative way to understand both pedagogical processes and the school. This article shows the final results of the…

The concepts, premises, and promises of inclusive schooling as a global movement crystallized at UNESCO's 1994 World Conference on Special Needs Education in Salamanca. Despite their marked influence over the past 25 years, the Salamanca documents also ushered in a set of continuing challenges. Using the documents as a departure point, this paper…

The purpose of the paper is to develop the theory that structural or procedural changes in institutions precede changes in education in a society. It examines the development of pre-modern institutions in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries and the influences this had on growth in literacy rates within these states. Literacy rates in…

This article analyses the different guidelines that have allowed a school to transform its educational project and pedagogical organization in order to adapt to the needs and requirements of a society in constant evolution. To this end, document analysis, participant observation and four focus groups have been carried out with various social…