Community and the myth of the ideal school Circulation and appropriation of the Hamburg 'Gemeinschaftsschulen' in Spain (1922 - 1933)

• Published in: Paedagogica historica Vol. 50; no. 5; pp. 599 - 614
• Main Author: Pozo Andrés, María del Mar del
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.01.2014; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 20. Jahrhundert; Ambiguity (Semantics); Austausch; Bildungsgeschichte; circulation and appropriation of pedagogical ideas; cultural transfer; Education policy; Educational Attitudes; Educational Change; Educational History; Educational Innovation; Educational Philosophy; Educational Theories; Erziehungsphilosophie; Foreign Countries; Gemeinschaftsschule; German; Germany; Geschichte (Histor); Hamburg experimental schools; Historiography; Identification; Internationalisierung; Kultur; Misconceptions; Progressive Education; Progressive education in Spain; Progressive Erziehung; Public Schools; Reformpädagogik; School systems; Schulversuch; Spain; Spanien; Spanish; Teacher Role; Teaching Methods; Translation; transnational history; Übertragung; Germany; Spain
• ISSN: 1477-674X; 0030-9230; 1477-674X
• DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2014.927510

The progressive education movement was known in Spain from its very inception, and in fact many of its pedagogical theories and practices reached Spain before reaching other European countries. Yet traditional historiography has always maintained that Spain was never integrated in the progressive education movement, a misconception that helps explain the lack of research in the field. Recent historiographical research, however, has shown that numerous Spanish schools served as laboratories for the implementation of progressive education methods in the 1920s and 1930s. The Spanish educational system proved itself to be especially open to international innovation in general and Spain actually enjoyed a privileged position for the study of how innovative pedagogical ideas could be incorporated and appropriated. Proof of this affirmation can be found in the introduction and dissemination throughout Spain of the experimental public school movement of Hamburg known as Gemeinschaftsschulen. This article will focus on the way this movement was received in Spain. We will examine the phenomenon from a double perspective, corresponding to the different positions that scholars found themselves in within the educational panorama of the time. On the one hand we will examine the role of the "grass-roots" educators who wished to change schools "from below", starting with classroom practices. On the other hand we will take a look at the representatives of "high pedagogy", who were intent on formulating a pedagogical theory on which to base a political-ideological model that would serve to change the school "from above". Tensions arising among the different pedagogical groups, along with the ambiguity of the translation into Spanish of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, led to the different groups appropriating the concept in different ways. The evolution of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, from its original identification with a localised school experiment in Hamburg to its becoming a symbol for virtually all European school vanguards, will be addressed at the conclusion of the article.