The evolution of the concept of libertarian pedagogy: practical applications in Catalonia at the beginning of the 20th century | Secció Història Contemporànea Món actual

Imatge de la publicaciÃ³

The subject of this work is born from personal interest in the history of the anarchist movement in Spain, in particular because of its plasticity and ability to reconcile theory and practice. The creation of a new world is the highest objective in all the evolution of the movement and the means to achieve this are different in each situation. The libertarian pedagogy is developed around the premise that not only is it necessary to build a new society, but especially people who know how to live within it. To demonstrate this consistent relationship, the work consists of two parts: the first is a theoretical approach to the argument and the second analyzes the practical applications of these postulates.

Far from wanting to present a chronological history of anarchist educationalism, I have proposed to first analyze the very concept of education; The definition of education in the Anarchist Encyclopédie (1926-1934), a work that was proposed to synthesize all the tendencies of international anarchism, constitutes the starting point for a journey through the thoughts of several representative figures of anarchism . My goal is to point out the centrality of the topic: there are not many authors who write specific works on education, but all, one way or another, face the question in the development of one’s own thoughts.

Only in a second moment, knowing the key points of the various theories and the different contributions, I put the focus on the concrete experiences. I carried out in Catalonia in the first third of the twentieth century. Having outlined the general concept of libertarian education, I found it very interesting to study where the Catalan experience was derived from its ideological bases, and how it influenced a favorable context. I have analyzed the more or less consistent relation of the development of libertarian pedagogy in Catalonia with the Modern School of Ferrer i Guàrdia, and the study of the methodology and materials used. Without being able to define anarchist, the promoter or the work itself, we have seen how the Ferrer i Guàrdia project offered a model that fitted perfectly with the anarchist ideology: a militantly rationalist pedagogy based on integral education and coeducation of sexes and of social classes; The Modern School had a brief life, but nevertheless it left an important legacy as a precursor experience and also for the creation of its own editorial for textbooks.

My intention to start this work was to analyze new material, I was hoping to find more documentation related to rationalist schools. Instead the few original documents found in the files I have visited do not greatly enrich the information that I have been able to draw from some fundamental works on this subject. I consider the autobiographical works of people who have lived in the first person this experience and research carried out at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties, with the restoration of democracy. These include those of Pere Solà, which may be the basis of any study on the argument. In fact, this is a rather descriptive rather than a valuative approach, as the same author indicates, which offers us many points of reflection and much documentation but not a complete analysis of it. The work of the Cardona brothers, as well as those of Tiana Ferrer, help us outline a more complete picture with their interesting contributions. However, we do not find in any of these works a comparative analysis of some specific schools that demonstrate or form the basis of the rationalist school model we know. I find it very interesting to get into the details and understand the daily functioning of these educational centers to take the step of the theory, which is usually studied, in practice every day, to the concrete impost for an education alternative We have lists of many schools, but we limit our analysis to those who are best documented.

Our choice falls on two of the schools that had the longest life, and that many helped to mark the guidelines of rationalist education: the School Light (1917-1923) of the Rationalist Athenian of Saints guided by Joan Roigé and Escola Natura (1918-1939) of the Textile and Factory Syndicate located in the Clot headed by Joan Puig Elías. The third center we analyze on the other hand was short lived and is not considered among the most representative: the Eliseo Reclús School (1935-1936) located in Vallespir street, Sants, of which Félix Carrasquer was responsible. The testimony of Carrasquer himself, who tells the whole experience with richness of details, from the foundation to his achievements, makes him fundamental to our analysis.