Some questions arising from a century of history of the Spanish Pedagogical Society (Sociedad Española de Pedagogía (SEP), Spain)

• In Event: Worldwide Education Research Priorities and Collaborative Opportunities from the Vantage of Education Research Associations

Abstract

Associations in the field of educational research have a long history from which questions can be drawn for the present. In Spain, the origins of the oldest association, the Spanish Pedagogical Society (SEP) date back to 1906, when an organization with this name was created with the aim of promoting the study of educational issues. In those early times, scientific objectives were mixed with the defense of teachers' interests. The initiative was part of the objective of establishing education on solid foundations. Two years earlier, this objective had led to the creation of the Chair of Higher Pedagogy in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Madrid. The Chair was held by Professor Manuel Bartolome Cossio. Already from these first moments, doubts have arisen as to the extent to which these initiatives could lead to the separation of "high knowledge" from educational practice. Cossio himself expressed this doubt when, shortly after taking up the Chair, he said:
There is a fetishism regarding teachers that we have to overcome. It consists of believing, as the general public does, that there are categories in the education function; that there is a teaching hierarchy that goes along with the position; that, in short, there are different pedagogies, one higher and one lower, and who’s to say, perhaps even one in between.

In 1949, the Society was re-founded with a more clearly scientific orientation and in support of the university's consolidation of pedagogical studies. The history of the following decades confirmed Cossío's fear, especially from the 1970s onwards. In those years, teacher training was incorporated into the university. But it was a sui generis integration, which was carried out with the creation of special institutions, the University Teacher Training Schools. These training centers were staffed by mostly non-doctorate staff with little projection towards research. Educational research was left in charge of other institutions, the University Institutes of Education Sciences. In several universities, classical pedagogy studies were also created, thus adding more institutional ambiguity.

In addition, there was a change in focus. The old normative and general pedagogy was replaced by the educational sciences. This change of name was an attempt to modernize studies, along the lines of what was being done in French universities. One of the promoters of this change in France justified the change, indicating that, in contrast to the prescriptive character of pedagogy,
in the educational sciences, we consider educational fact as a social fact, and we examine it independently of pedagogical conditions... We separate ourselves from the action, we take a distance to examine its reasons, not in terms of pedagogical or philosophical ideas, but in terms of a scientific, objective view (G. Mialaret: interview, August 2008).

A separation was consummated, the effects of which are still felt today.

During the period of the Dictatorship (1939-1975), the Spanish Pedagogical Society was the only official educational research association in existence, with a position very close to power. Beginning in the 1980s, new associations emerged, organized around specific fields of knowledge: the Spanish Society of Comparative Pedagogy (1978), the Inter-university Seminar on Educational Theory (1982), the Interuniversity Association for Research in Pedagogy, with a focus on experimental research (1987), and the Spanish Society for the History of Education (1989), among others.

On the positive side, this proliferation of research environments has added plurality and depth to the study of education. However, it also had the effect of losing the consideration of education as a unitary phenomenon and, in the long run, the lack of communication between specialists in the various fields. For this reason, several of these associations, together with the Spanish Pedagogical Society, initiated in 2009 the project of creating a network that promotes the exchange between the various research environments, the result of which was the Trans-disciplinary Network of Educational Research (RETINDE).

Based on this brief historical overview, three issues are proposed for discussion:
a) The relationship of educational research with educational practice. No one doubts that the ultimate purpose of research is practice, but is it justifiable to think also in the opposite way, the one that goes from practice to research? Should every education professional be a researcher? In what sense? What role can educational research associations play in this regard?
b) Overcoming super-specialization. Another shared idea is the need to promote interdisciplinary research spaces. How can these spaces be promoted without the existing specialized research structures feeling their identity damaged? Which way could these interdisciplinary environments be promoted by international organizations such as WERA?
c) The relationship with politics. Research must be kept free from political interference, but to what extent and in what way can it itself be alien to political engagement?

Author

• Gonzalo Jover, Universidad Complutense de Madrid