A «Typical American Philosopher» in the Spanish Academic Pedagogy of the Franco Dictatorship (1939–1976). Dewey and Active Schooling Methods: Rejection, Pragmatic uses and «Orthodoxification»

Abstract

The article analyses the evolution of the uses of Dewey’s name and ideas by the educational establishment of the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975). Although classics, during that period Dewey’s works no longer fashionable. Indeed, there were radical differences between Dewey’s pedagogical ideas and the Spanish school of educational theory, which was based upon ideas derived from natural law. This prevented the real understanding and acceptance of his way of thinking, and he was even used to bolster arguments contrary to his own. This process was reinforced by the academic practices adopted for reading and reproducing knowledge, in which his words were de-contextualized, simplified and adapted from one manual to the next, until Dewey’s message had been entirely overturned. Although his thought was attacked for his impiety, and considered foreign to the Spanish reality, the Catholic «revolution» and the need for new educational practices designed to indoctrinate pupils into the principles of the regime promoted the rehabilitation of activism for the social sciences and school catechesis. Dewey was also used to further functional differentiation within academia, authorizing the creation of Social Pedagogy as a research field. Nevertheless, the essentialist anthropology and teleological conception of education in Spanish schooling led it to reject Dewey’s ideas of experience and democracy.