The Spanish Civil War as seen through children’s drawings of the time

Abstract

This article presents the most significant results to have emerged from the research process “Documentation, interpretation and digital diffusion of the educational patrimony produced in the period 1936–1939 in the schools of Barcelona: children’s drawings”. This research set out to analyse the drawings produced by the children of the Grup Escolar Lluís Vives that reflect their everyday lives both inside and outside school during the period of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The article begins by describing the methodology employed in our multidisciplinary study and follows by presenting the various dimensions of the lived experiences of children in wartime, understanding that these dimensions both reflect and draw on the political, educational and social context of that time. Taken together, the multiple voices of the children allow us to develop an interdisciplinary vision of the everyday life and school experiences of the children of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.