The Ministry of Education has redesigned the subject of History of Spain, compulsory in the second year of Baccalaureate, giving a twist to the contents elaborated at the time of the former minister of the PP José Ignacio Wert, which are still in force. The draft of the new subject, to which EL PAÍS has had access, has as its main axis the “complex path” traveled by the country towards democracy. It addresses the “identity diversity” in terms of “national sentiment” and, in addition, analyzes the influence of ideologies and religious beliefs on the political evolution of the State, focusing on the “great structural reforms” undertaken by the Second Republic and the “reactions antidemocratic ”that they generated, the coup, the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The draft also examines Spanish economic progress and its chiaroscuro, living and working conditions, the role of women, traditionally overshadowed, and the weight of geography in the country’s historical evolution over the centuries, among others. issues.
The draft of the Spanish History curriculum (that is, what students should learn and how to evaluate it) will now be analyzed by the communities, so that they can express their opinion, before being published as a royal decree in the coming weeks with the rest of Baccalaureate subjects. It is planned to be implemented in the 2023-2024 academic year and will be taught at least two hours a week, a schedule that the autonomies can extend.
Its structure is double, chronological and thematic, and ranges from ancient times to almost nowadays, concentrating especially on the last two centuries. Classes must contextualize the history of Spain with what was happening in the rest of the world, the curriculum indicates, to avoid “falling into a singular image of its historical evolution, based on myths and stereotypes such as the black legend.” Among its objectives is that students be able to form “their own judgments argued in reliable sources and in contrasted historical works, which avoid misinformation and promote dialogue.” And that they learn to “assess the successes, achievements and progress” achieved by the country “until reaching the current state of society and law on which our democratic coexistence is based, but also the difficulties, behaviors, actions and setbacks that have marked in time is traumatic and painful situations, which society as a whole must know in order to overcome them ”. Throughout the course, the kids will carry out their own research project, connected as much as possible with their environment.
These are the main blocks in which the subject is organized, which, as is now the case with the PP regulations, is the only one focused exclusively on the History of Spain during secondary education.
The advancement of freedoms
The educational reform in Spain is going in the same direction as those underway in other developed countries, following the path indicated by the OECD. They try to change the traditional model, usually described as encyclopedic, for another called competence. Its objective is not so much that students can repeat content in an exam (for example, to cite one of those that appear in the current Spanish History curriculum, “the main reform projects of the Count-Duke of Olivares”), as that they are able to apply the knowledge learned, relating them to each other and to the real world. The end, sums up Cosme Gómez, professor of Didactics at the University of Murcia and one of the experts who has reviewed the new Spanish History curriculum, is for students to learn in a more “meaningful and profound” way. An aspiration that, however, the teacher warns, will come to nothing if, in addition to renewing the curriculum, there is no significant change in the type of training that teachers receive.
For the moment, the new Spanish History curriculum is organized around what its authors consider to be the major questions “of interest in the present, which define the strategies for learning from the past and which are relevant to guide our future.”
“Freedom”, continues the document, “constitutes the first of those backbones”, offering “a non-linear perspective that runs through the entire contemporary era to the present day.” The block starts with the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, progresses by comparing the regimes that followed “from the end of absolutism and the reign of Isabel II to the Restoration and the Constitution of 1931”, and reaches the Constitution of 1978, “beginning of the longest and longest period of peaceful and democratic coexistence in the history of Spain ”. The curriculum appeals to encourage dialogue in students and respect for “ideas different from their own”.
Diversity of identities
“The coexistence of identities, especially those that have to do with national sentiment, is one of those that arouses the most interest today and that has caused the most tension in Spanish society in recent decades,” says the document. Students will learn “the origin and evolution of Spanish nationalism in the 19th century”, linked to the “construction of the national state”, as well as those of “sub-state nationalisms and regionalisms”. The curriculum aims to make students “aware of the role they play today, to respect the feelings of belonging, the existence of multiple identities and the norms and symbols that our common framework of coexistence establishes.”
Progress and gaps
The study of the modernization of the country will incorporate “a critical look at the idea of progress”, since, he points out, economic growth has not had “among its priorities the distribution of wealth and its environmental effects.” Contents include the structure of land ownership, colonial trade and industrialization in Spain.
Life conditions
Students will study demographic evolution, changes in “levels and ways of life”, working conditions, territorial imbalances and “unequal access to resources, rights and power”. It is recommended to use literature and cinema, especially in this block, to bring it closer to the students.
Ideology, republic and Francoism
Students will analyze “the role of beliefs and ideologies in social articulation” and the configuration of “political projects”. “It is of particular interest due to its historical significance and the intense social debate that it provokes,” the text points out, “the reformist and democratizing process that the Second Republic undertook, as well as the anti-democratic reactions that were generated before its advance and the coup d’état that it was the end ”. The Civil War and the Franco regime, he continues, “show the degree of violence that conflicts and the consequences of the dictatorial use of power can acquire. Traumatic and painful experiences that must be rigorously known so that they never happen again ”.
Geostrategy
The subject’s goal is to provide students with a “spatial and cartographic” vision that allows them to understand the importance of geography in the history of the country since the arrival of the first Mediterranean civilizations to the peninsular coasts. The section includes an analysis of the current role of Spain in the world.
Gender inequality
To understand the current situation regarding gender equality and the “challenges of the future”, students will analyze “the mechanisms of domination, control, subordination and submission” maintained over women throughout history. They will study the leading role that, despite the barriers, some of them had, the role of feminist movements in the modernization of the country and its “antagonists”, to promote “informed attitudes towards the secular situation of inequality between men and women.”
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