The first attempts toward scientifically and psychologically based education in Spain were carried out at the end of the 19th century. These efforst continued with renewed intensity during the first decades of this present century until the beginning of the Spanish civil war in 1936. According to Carpintero (1980), this course of action must be viewed within the framework of the social, political and cultural conflict occurring ever since the middle of the 19th century. Such conflict existed between liberal and progressive ideas and Catholic, orthodox and conservative ideas, stemming from neoscholastic philosophy.
In 1876, Giner de los Ríos founded the "Free Institute of Teaching" ("Instituto Libre de Enseñanza"), an organization whose priority was the social and political renewal of Spain by means of pedagogical innovations. They emphasized a scientifically sound syllabus and freedom in the school system. For the liberal and progressive thinking of the epoch, "freedom in the school system" meant the right to teach without the pressures of the Catholic orthodoxy or the Government. A scientifically sound syllabus content meant teaching based on positive science and particularly on scientific knowledge in psychology.
The Free Institute of Teaching interest in pedagogy and its psychological foundations is seen very clearly in the bulletin that the Institute published from 1887 to 1936. It was the Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza. Bibliometric analyses of this journal, carried out by Peiró and Carpintero (1981), emphasize several interesting facts. From 1887 to 1900, the Bulletin gave about one third of its space (32,70%) to pedagogical subjects and 6% to psychological subjects. During the period 1900 to 1936 period, the number of psychological studies increased, although pedagogical studies continued to outnumber them. Contributions from foreign authors included those of John Dewey, Edouard Claparède and G. Stanley Hall, all of whom were pioneer authors in the incipient field.
The influence of Child Psychology on the renewal of pedagogical thought is also seen in the Revista de Pedagogía, founded in 1922. The Editorial Board of this journal held two pioneers in the history of scientific psychology: Gonzalo Rodríguez Lafora and Emilio Mira i López. The journal proved a great instrument of pedagogical renewal prior to the Spanish civil war, with contributions from authors such as Claparède, Piaget and Montessori. This gives us an idea of the predominant influence of child psychology and developmental psychology in the pedagogical renovation at the beginning of this century. At the same time, it is a testimony of the prevalence of a French tradition.
Similar initiatives occurred with an attempt to start a psychological service applicable to education and to the workforce. The Professional Institute of Work Invalids was created in Madrid. Its members included Mercedes Rodrigo, Pedro Roselló and Jose Mallart, former students of Claparède (Germain, 1980).
In Barcelona, which was proving another great centre for the expansion of psychological ideas at this time, the Social Museum was created in 1908. It was an institution dedicated to "stimulate and promote all kind of initiatives favoring the working class and to provide to the workforce free access to documents, plans, statutes and other elements of scientific information of the institute whose goal is the moral and material improvement of popular classes" (Kirchner, 1974, p. 7). The volume of actitivies which the Social Museum carried out made its reorganization advisable and hence, in 1914, the Learning Secretariat was created. Its goal was to carry out vocational guidance tasks. In 1918, it became the Institute of Vocational Guidance. Lluis Trias de Bes and Emili Mira i López respectively were in charge of the medical-anthropometrical and psychometrical sections of the Institute. Evidence of the interest that it awakened among specialists stems from the fact that in 1921, the Second International Congress of Psychotechnics was held "in international recognition of the model functioning of the institute" (Siguán, 1981a, p. 187). This circumstance was repeated in 1930 when the Sixth International Congress of Psychotechnics was held again in Barcelona.
In 1993 the Institute of Vocational Guidance, became the Institute of Psychotechnics of Catalonia. This establishment, in addition to carrying on with the development of vocational guidance and personnel selection activities, started a section of Psychopedagogics. The purpose of this unit was to assist children with school difficulties and to collaborate with the movement of pedagogical renovation that was very strong in Catalonia at this time. At the same time, Joaquim Xirau, a professor at the University of Barcelona became a member of the Institute, establishing a link between applied psychology and the scholars milieu. This is an exception in the history of Spanish psychology until relatively recent times.
After the 1933 reorganization and the development of the department of Pedagogy and Psychology, the Institut of Psicotechnics began to publish a journal of Psychology and Pedagogy) in Catalan language. The founders were Emili Mira i López and Joaquim Xirau. In the first issue of this journal, exists an explicit declaration of intentions: "The Revista de Psicologia i Pedagogia" will try to gather whatever is produced in our country regarding psychology and education. For this purpose, it will enter in contact with Institutes as well as with national and foreign personalities who are devoted to this end. Besides which, it will try to become more and more a source of information and orientation" . For four years, from 1933 to 1937, the quarterly publication of this journal was a meeting place for exchange and a source of stimulus for the ideas of psychologists, pedagogues, university professors, teachers and researchers.
In Madrid and in Barcelona, education's scientific foundation is sought mainly in child psychology. References to experimental psychology and learning psychology are scarce, whereas there is a priviledged link between psychotechnics and the search for a scientific pedagogy. The ideological implications of these attempts to apply psychology to education were plentiful: in both cases, they identify themselves with a liberal, progressive and lay ideology, but in Barcelona their are also catalonists.
A retrospective assessment of the events of 1936, leaves the impression that Spanish psychology was about to make the qualitative leap forward however achievements and projects were brutally cut short by the civil war. The triumph of Catholic and fascist ideology led to the regression and stagnation of the application of psychology to education. After the civil war (1936-39), the new régime's control over psychology and education was total.
The resurgence of scientific and applied psychology was aided by the publication of a new journal Psicotechnics. In 1946 Germain and Mallart managed to start the Revista de Psicología General y Aplicada (Journal of General and Applied Psychology). Another immediate antecedent of the reappearance of educational psychology was the Unit of Experimental Psychology at the Luis Vives Institute, supported by the National Council of Scientific Research. Germain was the director of this Unit. According to Siguán (1981 b), this Unit became the germ of Scientific Psychology at the University in Spain.
From this nucleous was to emerge the Spanish Society of Psychology in 1952, followed by the creation of the Graduate School of Psychology at the Complutense's University of Madrid in 1953. This school, offered a training programme of two years of specialization in industrial psychology, clinical psychology and educational psychology (Siguán, 1978). In 1964, M. Siguán became professor of Psychology at the University of Barcelona where he created a similar school. Until 1968 both Schools were the main nuclei of psychological activity in Spain.
JOSÉ RAMÓN CORREAS GONZALEZ
Please sent comments and suggestions to:
psdife4@sis.ucm.es
LAST UPDATED Sunday 6 de August de 1995 - -