A second Franco regime, less bad, almost tolerable and thanks to which development eventually reached Spain. A repression against red enemy minimized, in which the concentration camps or the role that the Church played appear nowhere. A “peaceful” transition motivated solely by the impulse of political elites. This is the vision conveyed, in general, by the textbooks followed in classrooms on the dictatorship and its consequences, according to a new investigation into the place occupied by this historical period in education.
After analyzing the textbooks of the main publishers of the 4th year of the ESO and the 2nd year of the baccalaureate, the conclusions of the University of Valencia researchers Carlos Fuertes and Néstor Banderas point towards a “reductionist” and “superficial” approach to Francoism . This is how they detail it in Francoism and transition in the classroom: democratic teaching and memorypublished this month in the magazine Yesterdayin which they identify the shortcomings which still persist despite the advances of recent decades and which they summarize in three: the “minimization” of repression, the reproduction of a “watered down” image of the 60s and 70s and the “idealization » of repression. Transition.
“School textbooks continue to contribute to the perpetuation of certain uncritical narratives which, constructed during the dictatorship and the Transition, legitimize and normalize Francoism and simplify” this last stage which began after the death of Franco, affirms the study. Taking as a reference conclusions similar to those reached by other researchers before, the authors confirm that this vision is “traceable” also in the textbooks published after the entry into force of the current LOMLOE and that it is promoted “ through silences or ambiguities.” , the lack of depth and the “short extension” of content related to the subject.
A sentence about violence
Although the books have left behind the reproduction of the “grosser aspects” of Francoist propaganda, as happened a few decades ago, among the gaps identified, the “minimization” of Francoist repression stands out. It is not that they do not talk about shootings, prisoners or the ban on fundamental rights, but that their approach “is very quantitative” and leaves aside other dimensions such as the existence of concentration camps or forced labor, economic and linguistic repression, specific punishments for women or the collaboration of institutions such as the Church.
There is further a priority given to the “military history” of the Civil War rather than rearguard violence against civilians. “The opportunity to critically understand that there was premeditated, systematic and centralized rebel violence on the part of the Franco authorities is wasted,” say the researchers, who observed this in several books from the 4th year of the ESO: that of Akal, dedicated to violence. a single sentence compared to the two pages which occupy the military content. In those of Edelvives or Vicens Vives, the proportion is a quarter of a page compared to the entire page.
In this sense, the authors also identified that the books tend to give “little importance” to the continuity of repression “as a structural element of the dictatorship”, so that students “can perceive” that This is a limited circumstantial question. the first years after the Civil War. “The repression against anti-Franco organizations or the labor or student movement, political prisoners, extrajudicial assassinations or exiles in the following years are addressed in a more superficial manner and with practically no sources, statistics or testimony,” they summarize.
Progress versus poverty
In this regard, another observed gap appears: “A vision of a second Franco regime less bad, tolerable and bringing progress, making a clear difference between the first years associated with misery and repression and a later stage associated with modernity and reforms,” explains Carlos Fuertes, doctor in contemporary history.
This is something that they observed even in the images used in the books: “photographs of the 600 headquarters, televisions and beaches of Benidorm are omnipresent and even in some textbooks, the inaugurations of marshes, details the study which, after analyzing seven 4th year classes. ESO manuals, estimates that 76% of photos refer to this dimension. On the contrary, there are few images (24%) that “testify to the social costs” of the moment such as “consumption inequalities, depopulation, emigration, slums or the lack of services in the urban peripheries”.
It is not that things did not change in the late 1950s, when the regime left autarky and its serious consequences behind. The situation of the Spanish people improved from that point on, but at the same time the reality is that the country’s economic growth was limited throughout the duration of the dictatorship.
Furthermore, the 1959 stabilization plan, which inaugurated this second stage, was accepted by Franco “reluctantly”, according to professor of history and economic institutions Carlos Barciela, who has studied in depth the economic system of the Franco regime.
In this sense, the study underlines that the textbooks “clearly ignore that the end of the autarkic policy was a decision forced by its obvious economic failure” and “underestimate” the collective mobilizations and individual sacrifices which contributed “to the gradual realization of improvements. “.
On the other hand, the research highlights an “idealized representation” of the Transition, which is described as a process “driven by political elites” in which anti-Francoism or social movements hardly seem to matter. Furthermore, “in many textbooks” there is talk of a “peaceful” transition and the violence, if addressed, focuses only on ETA and GRAPO, leaving aside the terrorism of other groups. far right or police abuses which are precisely being studied by a commission created by the government within the framework of the law on democratic memory.
Lots of history, little Francoism
But beyond the stories reflected in the books, the obstacles are also linked to the specific weight that content on the Franco regime has in the programs and their organization. An in-depth treatment is not favored by the fact that, following a chronological order, this program is generally left until the end of the course, but the enormous extension of the program that “traditionally” includes courses like the 4th year is also not favored. faced by the ESO, which simultaneously addresses in the same subject “the contents of universal, European and Spanish history, as well as the history of art, from the end of the Ancien Régime to the current world”.
However, the situation “has not been corrected” by LOMLOE, the authors regret. The law left it to the communities to distribute the content between the 3rd and 4th year of ESO, but only three (Madrid, Murcia and Extremadura) decided to move the 19th century and Geography to the first, so that in 4th year there is more time to study the most recent history. Seven self-governances continued to accumulate everything over the past year and seven others maintained “the flexibility” of the state standard and left it up to teachers and editors to decide.
In the 2nd year of the Baccalaureate, however, the new educational law meant a change and reintroduced the return of Contemporary History with which the LOMCE of José Ignacio Wert (PP) ended, which in the same subject concentrated a program very broad which began in prehistory. This has only been corrected by Catalonia, the Basque Country and the Valencian Community, but in the other communities the situation has meant that from 2017 to 2023 “unfathomable” EBAU tests have been offered in which “it has been more It is common to have to answer a question. on romanization or reconquest than on the last dictatorship or the transition”, illustrates the study.
