Spanish Education Reform 1874-1898: Bourbon Restoration & Educational System

Spanish Education: 1874-1898

Bourbon Restoration and Civil Society

During the Bourbon Restoration (1874-1898), Alfonso XII returned to the throne, thanks to Cánovas del Castillo. Cánovas established turnismo, a political system of rigged elections alternating between Liberals and Conservatives. The constitution was Catholic, giving the Church control over education, with education laws changing depending on the ruling party.

Influence of Catholicism and the Bourbons

Catholicism and the Bourbons influenced the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE), a free teaching institution. Proponents of public and free education, who believed in education's role in creating good citizens, were expelled for opposing these ideas. Values and sciences became important in Spanish education, with an emphasis on co-education and equal opportunities for men and women.

The ILE supported the idea of experiential learning, emphasizing learning through excursions and experiences, rather than solely from books, echoing Rousseau's philosophy.

Mesocracy and the Pidal Plan

Mesocracy

Mesocracy, the concept of rule by the intelligent, was considered elitist. Education's purpose was to prepare those who would govern.

Pidal Plan (1845)

With the Moderates' triumph, the Pidal Plan (by Pedro José Pidal, Minister of the Interior) emphasized state-controlled education. It regulated primary, secondary, and higher education, promoting freedom in primary education, state control in secondary, and prohibiting it in higher education, reserving it for the liberal state.

The Pidal Plan ensured secularization, freedom of teaching, and free primary education. It also established a centralized administrative system, improved teacher conditions and pay, and required state exams for teachers.

While allowing private secondary education, the Pidal Plan prohibited private universities and established requirements for school operation and title validation.

Concordat with the Holy See (1851)

After a brief period of secularization, the Concordat with the Holy See in 1851 returned education to ecclesiastical control. The Church became the guardian of orthodoxy at all education levels, as stated in Article 31 of the Concordat.

The 46 articles of the Concordat outlined state support for the Church, recognizing Catholicism as Spain's sole religion and mandating that school instruction conform to it.