'The Contribution of the Second Spanish Republic Teachers to Educational Thought' is title of the next lecture in the Malta Review of Educational Research (MRER) Lecture Series. The lecture, which will be held on Thursday 30 June at Faculty of Education Boardroom (OH 326) at 16:00, is organised by the Editorial Board of the Malta Review of Educational Research.
Speaker: Prof. Eugenio-Enrique Cortés-Ramírez.
Chairperson: Prof. Carmel Borg, Editor, Malta Review of Educational Research (MRER)
Abstract
In the Spanish Renaissance education was still in the Roman Catholic Church's hands and was considered not as a people's right but as a luxury available to the highest and most powerful classes of society. In 1876, a group of intellectuals, led by Francisco Giner de los Ríos, advanced the idea that secular education was a true public good and, therefore, should serve the people. For this purpose, Giner de los Rios founded the so-called Institución Libre de Enseñanza. However, it was in 1931, with the advent of the Second Republic when, in fact, these ideas were put into practice. One of the primary objectives of this new regime was the reinvention of education as the main vehicle to creating a modern society composed of free individuals. Education and Teacher Education was perceived by the Republicans as a viable strategy to bringing Spain into Modernity.
Bio-note
Eugenio-Enrique Cortés-Ramírez is Professor of Comparative Cultural Studies in the Department of Modern Languages at the Cuenca School of Education, Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha in Spain. His main research areas are Comparative Cultural Studies, Critical Pedagogy, Postcolonial Literatures and English Philosophy. He has lectured in several British, American and European universities.