UNESCO and educational modernization under Franco: Origin and institutional development of the Education for International Understanding Programme in Spain (1950-1975)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the origin and development of UNESCO's Education for International Understanding program during the Franco regime. The program began its journey during the forties through the publication of a series of articles in the main educational journals of the regime. Gradually, it materialized in a series of actions that ended up specifying the construction of bilateral work tables to review History and Geography textbooks. During the 1970s, the work related to the revision of textbooks was diluted and the program underwent a remarkable process of diversification. This work has a double objective. On the one hand, it tries to study the importance that International Organizations had in the process of educational modernization during the dictatorship. On the other hand, it is also intended to establish a dialogue and reflection of a theoretical and historiographical nature regarding the investigations that address the Francoism and education. It concludes by indicating the need to rethink the categories used so far to better understand the educational nature of the dictatorship.