National identity, civic values and school textbooks in Spain: La Enciclopedia cíclico-pedagógica and El libro de España (1931-1957)

Abstract

There has recently been bitter controversy in Spain over the school subject of «Education for Citizenship». However, there is nothing new in the opposition of moral or civic models that sought to forge a national identity in schools. Because of the proximity in time and the coexistence in the same state and the same historical period of the Second Republic (1931-1939) and the early years of the Francoist regime (1939-1957) it is interesting to compare the textbooks of this period. Both regimes coexisted during the three years of civil war (1936-1939) in the clash on the battlefield and in the classroom. They preached «citizens’ values» drawing from different sources; textbooks aimed at children of the same age who shared citizenship but lived in different states, one liberal and democratic and the other authoritarian and nationalistic. Our proposal with our article is to review, analyse and compare two of the textbooks used for this purpose: La Enciclopedia cíclicopedagógica and El libro de España.