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The Estado Docente and its Expansion: Spanish American Elementary Education, 1900–1950*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Carlos Newland
Carlos Newland
Affiliation:
Carlos Newland is Visiting Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
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Extract

Among the most outstanding changes that occurred in Spanish America during the first half of the twentieth century is the transformation in the area of education. Two salient features deserve emphasis. First, this change was quantitative: many more children came to attend school, and a greater proportion of the inhabitants became literate. Second, this increase in schooling came about within a homogeneous institutional framework. It was the Estado Docente – personified in national and provincial governments – which was the principal vehicle for educational services and which determined the contents of the curricula. The purpose of this article is to present a brief sketch of the most significant characteristics of this transformation.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , May 1994 , pp. 449 - 467
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 On the general context see Benavot, A. and Riddle, Ph., ‘The expansion of primary education, 1870–1940: trends and issues’, Sociology of Education, vol. 61 (07 1988), pp. 191–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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7 Literacy in 1950 presents a positive relationship with income per capita and with the degree of urbanisation. The relationship is weaker when enrolment as a percentage of total population is taken as an explanatory variable, undoubtedly because of its defects as an indicator given different population pyramids, school drop-out, etc.

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22 This was the case with Argentina (the only country with a seven-year primary education), Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

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24 Vaughan, M. K., Estado, clases sotialesy education en México, 2 vols. (México, 1982), vol. 1, pp. 240–7Google Scholar. By 1941 the federation managed practically 60% of the primary schools.

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34 Godoy Urrutia, Analfabetismo en América, p. 143.

35 Unesco, Evolutión y situatión actual de la educatión en América Latina, p. 67. On the persistence of traditional methods in Colombia see Helg, A., Civiliser le peuple et former les élites. L'éducation en Colombie 1918–1957 (Paris, 1984), pp. 46–57Google Scholar.

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38 In Argentina there was a return to teaching religion in national schools from 1943 to 1955. The provinces had autonomy in the schools that they administered.

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42 Hanson, Educational Reform and Administrative Development, p. 31.

43 Régimen de la enseñanza primaria en Colombia 1903–1948 (Bogotá, 1950), pp. 371–4.

44 González Orellana, Historia de la educación en Guatemala, pp. 332–60.

45 Ibid., p. 317.

46 Quoted in Martínez, R. Bolaños, ‘Orígenes de la educación pública en México’, in Solana, F. et al. , Historia de la educación pública en México (México, 1982), p. 58Google Scholar.

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53 See figures in Unesco, L'éducation dans le Monde: I'enseignement du premier degré (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar.

54 Although this affirmation is based on evidence from more recent years, we believe that it can be applied to the period under consideration. See Izquierdo, C. Muñoz and Medina, A. Fernández, ‘Financiamiento de la educación privada en América latina’, in Brodersohn, M. and Sanjurjo, M. E. (eds.), Financiamiento de la educación en América latina (México, 1978), pp. 255–97Google Scholar; Izquierdo, C. Muñoz, ‘Socioeconomía de la educación privada y pública: El caso de México’, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos, vol. 11, no. 1 (1981), pp. 111–32Google Scholar.

55 On the private schools in Mexico see Torres Septien, ‘Algunos aspectos de las escuelas particulares’. On the schools of the Italian community in Argentina see Favero, L., ‘Las escuelas de las sociedades italianas en la Argentina (1866–1914)’, in Devoto, F. and Rosoli, G. (eds.), La inmigración italiana en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1985), pp. 165–207Google Scholar.

56 On the Argentine religious associations see Bruno, C., Historia de la lglesia en Argentina, 12 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1966–), especially vol. 12; on Colombia see Helg, Civiliser le peuple et former les élites, pp. 55–64Google Scholar.

57 At the beginning of the century, they represented about 20% of the Mexican private sector (before their prohibition). See Guerra, México: del Antiguo Régimen a la Revolutión, vol. 1, p. 411. In Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century, they comprised 25% of the institutions. See Tedesco, J. C., Educatión y sociedad en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1982), p. 109Google Scholar.