Freedom of teaching in public opinion during the transition to democracy in Spain

Abstract

The new political reality of Spain after the death of Francisco Franco forced to undertake changes that would affect the different social, cultural, economic and, of course, educational areas. After the first democratic elections were held in June 1977, work began on the drafting of the constitutional text. Within the field of education, one of the issues that would lead to greater parliamentary debate would be related to freedom of education. In this article, we intend to approach the broad concept of freedom of education from the perspective of public opinion, inserting it into the broader framework of the new political history and the history of ideas. One of the ways in which we can take the pulse to that debate around the freedom of teaching is consulting the daily press. This media will help us to trace the public debate generated, the positioning of different population groups, as well as the ideas propagated towards society on a particular issue that still today is subject to public debate. Specifically, this work takes as sources of research the newspapers El País and ABC and all those news, editorials, opinion articles, sections or fixed columns, interviews and reports whose main motive was freedom of education during the period of November 1977, date on which the first draft of the constitutional text is leaked in the journal Cuadernos para el diálogo, and on December 6, 1978, with the ratification in referendum of the Spanish Constitution.

Key words: education, teaching freedom, public opinion, transition to democracy, daily press.