Social Education as a Mechanism of Social Consolidation in the Spanish Pedagogical Discourse of the Late 19th and the First Third of the 20th Century

Abstract

The subject of this study is the understanding and interpretation of the concept of “social education” in the Spanish pedagogical discourse of the late 19^th and the first third of the 20^th century. Based on the study of scientific and pedagogical works, texts of public speeches and speeches of prominent Spanish teachers, educators found out how they defined the concept of “social education”. In the process of studying a kind of historical and pedagogical source – the Spanish pedagogical discourse of the late 19^th and the first third of the 20^th century the specific scientific methods were used. Among them: pedagogical-retrospective, method of pedagogical reconstruction, method of hermeneutics. It is established that at the end of the 19^th century in the Spanish pedagogical discourse there is a departure from the simple opposition of individual and social education and the filling of the concept of “social education” with a completely new meaning. It is proved that as a result of a certain socio-pedagogical turn of the research search in Spanish pedagogy at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The concept of “social education” has acquired new values, in particular, it became understood as a democratic education, solidarity education, one that contributes to the consolidation of society. The provisions of the Spanish pedagogical discourse of the end of the 19^th and the first third of the 20^th century, in which social education was considered in correlation with the phenomenon of social consolidation, are characterized.  Subjective positions of Spanish educators (H. Ortega y Gasset, M. de Unamuno, R. Ruiz Amado, L. Parral Cristobal, A. Posada, L. Palacios Morini, A. Servera Royo, E. Luis Andre, R. Blanco Sanchez, etc.) are presented and explained on the interpretation of the concept of social education in its connection with the phenomenon of social consolidation.

Received: 31 October 2020 / Accepted: 3 December 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021