Educació i Història. Revista d'Història de l'Educació

9-20

Authors: Jordi Feu i Gelis, Núria Simó i Gil

Introduction: Democracy and education in the 20th century

43-67

Authors: Bruno Garnier

The democratic school can hardly be defined without the help of history, but without forgetting that the political philosophy of the Enlightenment never got involved in the mentioned task. In France, the 19th century until the 1880s is marked by the construction of a school socially segregated, with two types of education separated into different institutions for children of the working classes and the middle classes. Therefore, it is appropriate to initiate the historical perspective in the late 19th century. The political work of Jules Ferry prompted a strong criticism of the injustice of the school of the Republic, in the early 20th century, and especially between the two world wars, which affected the determination to build a democratic school. Slowly, equality in educational provision for children from all backgrounds supports the idea of equality of individual opportunities in order to thrive in society thanks to the talent and personal skills. This idea gets partial achievements, under the ministry of Jean Zay between 1936 and 1939, and develops with the Langevin-Wallon plan, after the end of the Second World War, with the development a meticulous planning of a great programmatic coherence. However, structural reforms between 1959 and 1985, which unified the French educational system as we know it today, did not get impregnated of the democratic schools imagined in the previous period. Instead of a progressive and individualised orientation, the unique school of René Haby is a common undifferentiated core where children from all backgrounds are subject to teachings oriented only to the admission to compulsory education. The latest international evaluations show that France is a country where social determinism plays an important role in the education and professional training of young people. Nonetheless, although the equalisation of opportunities turned out to be a lie defeated by the meritocratic selection, it is noteworthy that the social bond is threatened since the democratic school should not only compare the performance of students between them but also create the feeling of belonging to an inclusive society for all.

95-115

Authors: Maria João de Carvalho

From the political, economic and cultural context of the First Republic in Portugal, this article analyses the impact that the media, including the magazine Seara Nova, had in the change of educational and pedagogical thinking of the period. This influence was felt in several dimensions of the Portuguese society. The constant call for change, characteristic of the reform, the creation of an enlightened public opinion and the creation of a true elite found in the democratic and decentralised school the best tool to achieve this purpose. Therefore, according to the editors of the magazine, the modernisation of the country depended on an education founded on the principles of emancipation and autonomy of the citizens.

145-179

Authors: Antoni Tort i Bardolet, Maite Pujol i Mongay

The transition from Francoism towards a democratic regime involved the mobilisation of broad educational sectors in search of references for a school that would leave behind the impositions and miseries of a mediocre and authoritarian education. In addition to the recovery of the active pedagogy of the time of the Spanish Republic and the experiences of resistance that occurred in public and private schools during the dictatorship, groups of teachers and civic entities paid attention and incorporated educational proposals from other contexts which seemed suitable for the construction of a new public education. This article analyses the existing connections during the period of political transition (the 1970s and 1980s) of the renewal movements of education in Spain and, in particular, in Catalonia, with the pedagogical experiences, especially in the field of early childhood education (scuole dell’infanzia) of municipalities and Italian cities.

211-237

Authors: Pere Soler Masó, Anna Maria Novella Cámara, Anna Planas Lladó

Youth participation is and has been a concept with many considerations, meanings and forms of application, both nationally and internationally. In order to know the evolution of the main structures of youth participation, this article starts with the frames that have motivated this participation in Europe, to analyse then the evolution of some of the youth participatory structures in Catalonia in the recent decades: the local and municipal youth councils. The article also covers some of the old challenges of youth participation, which are characterised by the overcoming the structuring of traditional channels participation and the generation other forms of taking part in everyday community life.