Javier Rodrigo, Aída Sáchez de Serdio y Judit Vidiella
General introduction
1- In the Spanish context, the term popular education relates both to European movements from the 19th century onwards (ateneos populares, university extension, Krausism), and to Latin American movements from the 1950ies on (Paulo Freire).
2) “Educación pupular” is used for a wide range of approaches: Educación for workers and communities at risk by organisations of the church, education organized by regionalist movements, self-organized workers education, or a more emancipatory understanding of non-formal adult education
3) The character of popular education varies according to the following approaches:
From religious organizations attempting to dignify the workers’ life, to educational activities promoted by workers’ organizations, aimed at collective emancipation and the questioning of knowledge as such. Institutionalized popular education can also vary in its emancipatory aims: from approaches that focus on inclusion into dominant models of socialization, to processes of conciousness-raising and transformative action. As Oscar Jara said: “Popular education is the educational dimension of political action”.
This proposal for a glossary of popular education, rather than attempting to define the term, will try to explore three contexts of concrete practices that emerged at three different moments in the history of the Spanish state. We see them as precursors, that at the same time ow a lot to the traditions of popular education, understood as a complex entanglement of practices, discourses and histories. We have chosen three moments of political-pedagogical practices: the pedagogical missions of the Second Republic (1934- 36), the ateneos populares as key elements of workers’ self-education in the Republic and today; and finally, the field of socio-cultural animation, emerging in the 1970s and 80s.
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The pedagogical missions of the Second Republic
The pedagogical missions were created through the Service of Public Culture by the Ministry of Education and Arts of the Republic in 1931. They surged from the National Pedagogical Museum in Madrid (Museo Pedagógico Nacional de Madrid), founded in 1882 by the Krausists (Gimeno 2011: 165). It the MPs, renowned intellectuals, poets, artists and pedagogues like María Moliner or the philosopher María Zambrano collaborated honorarily, in addition to students, teachers, librarians, education inspectors, doctors and other professionals, summing up to an involvement of almost 600 people. They organized exhibitions, poetry readings, theathre plays and recreational activities, that at the same time attempted to alphabetize and educate the rural communities. In the first years, 70 MPs were carried out, visiting 300 villages in 27 provinces, with the registers counting half a million of readers and two million registrations
The MP activity covered three aspects:
1.- Supporting culture in general through the creation of libraries (5000 in 1935, with more than 500.000 books) and film screenings ( 174 documentary movies). Also, an imporant contribution was made through the collection of images documenting rural traditions and environsments, Choirs and Public Theatre plays, concerts and grammophone-sessions with classical and popular music,or the travelling People’s Museum (with photographic reproductions, projections of paintings, full size copies of paintings from the 15th to the 19th century, engravings...all accompanied by music).
2.- Pedagogical support for teachers in rural schools, including visits to rural schools to get to know the necessities and give practical advice, professional development courses and organize trips to provide the teachers with better theoretical and methodological ressources.
3.- Citizenship education, to foster understanding of the democratic principles of the Republic through meetings, debates and public lectures.
In each locality a specific programme was realized. The material was organized through a series of commissions by the Patronato (library, film projector, popular music and theatre, travelling museums). Usually, the procedure was to approach a person from each locality (the teacher or someone in the town council) who would be interested in taking charge of the library and the materials.
The MPs developed on the go, from an initial model focused on educational and civil society purposes, to another more recreational approach, focussing on public entertainment with a view to amend rural life in its social, sanitary and economical aspects (Viñao, 2010: 3). They emerged as a project of bringing the “refined” and urban culture to the rural areas of Spain, but developed to something broader and more complex, integrating popular elements to recognize peasent culture and foster the rural population’s self-esteem and values. All this work came to an end with the beginning of Franco’s regime, with schools, museums, libraries, social centers and public houses being destroyed. It is necessary to mention that also from the progressive positions there were adversaries, arguing that before an effort can be made in the terrain of culture, the most “elementary” needs have to be covered.
The MP model had a certain continuation in Latin America (Columbia; Cuba; Uruguay, where students ogranized the first MP in Caraguatá). According to Lorenzo (1993: 102) the MPs can be considered the first spanish precursor of sociocultural animation, although with a different emphasis.
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Workers’ self-education
For this discussion we will focus on the educational acitivities done by workers’ organizations themselves in Spain, that mainly cristallized in the so-called libertarian, workers’ or popular “Ateneos”. Key points:
2.1) Workers’ Ateneos in the Second Republic
The first ones were founded in the 1880s, but we will focus on the 1930s as a peak of these organizations. They emerged out of the lack of infrastructures for workers’ education, and the need to adapt the contents of education to the workers’ emancipatory programme. They were connected primarily to Anarcosyndicalism, but also to socialism, libertarian tendencies or to the Krausists. Some Ateneos also included secular and progressive schools for working class children. Generally, activities were financed through the contributions of the users. The discourses were of the radical left and similar tendencies: anarchism, rationalism, naturism, esperantism...The type of activities included the publication of information leaflets, books and pamphlets, field trips, conferences and debates, theatre, poetry readings, esperanto classes, and libraries with free access. It is important to underline the presence of women’s groups for self-education (“Mujeres libres”, with 20.000 members in 170 local groups).
Concerning the concepts of teaching-learning, the Ateneos pusued a cuestioning ot the separation between experts and non.experts, the idea was to learn through asking questions and adapting the knowledge to one’s own neccecities. Their aim was the construction of the knowledge necessary for the workkers’ emancipatio (access to the knowledge of the dominant classes to make it useful for own purposes, to tecnical and practical skills, but also to a huimanisk kind of reflection; and most of all, a useful knowledge for the working and rural classes). The dignity of manual labor was to be complemented by cultural dignity. Some facts: The Ateneos at the end of the Republic in numbers: Valencia city (15 Ateneos), Madrid Ciudad (30), Cataluña (30). The Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular in Barcelona had up to 26.000 members.
2.2) The historical development after the Civil War
The later history of the Ateneos is very unstable and invisible, with the Ateneos reappearing after Franco’s death. Their function now is no longer alphabetization, but providing spaces of encounter, culture and social struggle emerging from problems of the neighborhoods, related to community organizations, unions, etc. From 1979 to 1982 the cooptation of the neighborhood organizations by the left parties occurs, the “disenchantment”. The Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris dates from this period, resulting from a squat organized by the vecinity. Fortunately, there is a new rise of the Ateneos in the late 1980s, related to youth movements (punk, squats), e.g.: Ateneus Llibertaris de Sants, Gràcia, Poble Sec y Cornellà, los Gaztetxe and in País Vasco. In the 90s a phenomenon occurs of Ateneos being turned into social centers (some squats, others not) and getting related to antiglobalization movements (Seattle,Chiapas). It is important to underline the role the concept of the Ateneo plays in independence movements in Catalunya or Galicia, in relation to questionsa of identity and the emergence of community self-management advocating for principles of radical democracy and direct participation.
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Sociocultural Animation
Some texts describe an uncertain origin for sociiocultural animation (ASC), more related to the activities of adult education in the 1950s, and as a heir to the approaches of the Institución Libre de enseñanza and other phenomena of education of the workers movements in the 1920s and 30s in Spain. In the Spanish Transition, between 1976 and 1978, Sociocultural Animation gains importance with the foundation of the Subdirección General de Animación Cultural and, in 1978 the Dirección General de Desarrollo Comunitario. The creation of these institutions results from the establishment of frameworks for non-formal education and lifelong learning, and of the social services in the municipalities.
In the 1960s and 70s, ASC was connected, althouigh invisibly, to two resistance narratives: The reconstruction of communal life in neigborhoods and places of extreme poverty, and the demands and struggles against the dictatorship (Úcar Martínez, 2012). The frameworks of ASC in the 1980s are deeply embedded in the priciple of cultural democracy, focussing on the right to access to culture and the work on lifelong learning. These public policies are the founding principles of the new Popular Universities (Universidades Populares), Courses for the Elderly, Culture Houses (Casas de la Cultura) or more recently Youth Centers (Casas de la Juventud). This decade is the key one in the formation and consolidation of discourses. The case of Cataluña needs to be considered especially, because ASC here connects to a genealogy of free time activities of children and young people in the 60s and 70s (Muñoz Corvalán, 2012).
In the 90ies, the professional approach and the one connected to alternative spaces closer to grassroots work became consolidated ( in Cataluña for example the whole field of Casales de jóvenes, of leftist youth movements and self-organization). The loss of strenth of the 80s, confronted with professionalization, the emergence of social educators and the discoursive framework of public administration, becomes more visible in the 90s, while the origin of social transformation, long term work and critical praxis seem to get lost. In the 90ies the figure of the Social Educators appears, the degree as a tecnician of ASC is established, and the dichotomy is set in place between a model of critical praxis, and a more tecnical and integral model of community development. Currently, the term ASC is practically not used anymore, it has been replaced by anglosaxon terms (community development).
Several conflicts and tensions cut through ACS. We name some of them:
- Firstly, there are two string traditions. The french approach, more culturalist and connected to the education sector, that comes up with ASC, and the english approach, more strongly connected to the communities and their capacity for management and governance. It is connected to the framework of community development, and closer to sociology and the academia.
- The notion of popular education is often mentioned as a tradition that informs the field of ASC, while some authors even mention popular education as a latin american translation of ASC with a political or liberating character (Chacón, 2009).
- From the mid-nineties on, and in the 2000s, the origin of ASC in social transformation, long.term work and transformative or even revolutionary work seems to get lost. The paradigms of professionals have passed from social change to celebratory and consensual practices.
- Finally, there is a distinction between the promotors of Sociocultural Animation, as a space of learning in the sociocultural realm, and “cultural animation”, which translates as cultural management and cultural promotion. These two poles create a clear dichotomy between: 1) social policies with the sociocultural animator or the social educator (ASC), referring to movements of popular culture, leisure time activities and pedagogical renovation; and 2) cultural policies with the emergence of the cultural manager, the paradigm of culture and communication (Delgado, 1988, Úcar martínez, 2012).
Bibliography and references (in spanish)
Bibliografía Misiones pedagógicas
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-Cosme Alber (2013) “Las misiones pedagógicas durante la II República: la transmisión de los legados culturales en los territorios fronterizos de la Pedagogía Social”, en RES Revista de Educación Social, nº 17, Julio, pp. 1-7.
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-Gimeno Javier (2011) “Esbozo de una utopía: las misiones pedagógicas de la II república española (1931-1939)”, en Revista Faro, nº 13, 1r Semestre, pp. 160-177. Chile: Valparaíso.
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-López Azucena (2007) “Por caminos de piedras, charcos y olvido. Repertorios de la cultura universal: las misiones pedagógicas de la II República española”, en Université París VIII. Pp. 83-97. Vincennes-Saint Denis: Département d’Études Hispaniques et Hispano-Américaines.
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Webgrafia
-Exposición Las Misiones Pedagógicas en España 1931-1936 en la Universidad de Múrcia, del 12 de Enero al 13 de febrero http://www.um.es/web/ceme/-/-la-exposicion-las-misiones-pedagogicas-en-espana-1931-1936-en-la-universidad-de-murcia- (24-2-2015).
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYmfcvXqUBM (24-2-2015).
Bibliografía Autoformación obrera
ATENEOS OBREROS / POPULARES / LIBERTARIOS http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateneo_popular
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http://www.uhu.es/publicaciones/ojs/index.php/xxi/article/viewFile/674/1058
Patricia Delgado Granados (2007) Una mirada histórica a la educación popular en España: educación y prevención. Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 18 (197-205)
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Charla de Manel Aisa (2013 (archivo de audio)
https://archive.org/details/LDD08AteneismoYFormacionObrera_201312
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Bibliografía Animación Sociocultural
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