Public image and projection of the education of a prince during Franco’s regime (1948-1954)

Abstract

The study of the educational training received by the élite is part of a thematic line that arouses researchers’ interest. The school and educational formation of future country’s leaders, with their own distinctive signs, is an attractive topic which is still needed of in-depth analysis. In this article we intend to approach and analyze a specific stage of the formation of Prince Juan Carlos during Franco’s regime, which corresponds to his first years of secondary and high school education in the Spanish State when returning from exile, that is from 1948 to 1954. Specifically, we will focus on the image and public projection that was transmitted iconographically from Franco’s dictatorship of this formative period of the prince, through the analysis of the photographic collection which is preserved in the EFE Agency. Methodologically, we try to perform an analysis of the sources through an image analysis, references to the historical context and interpretation of the data. The reader will find two sections: the first one is devoted to the review, succinctly, of the general panorama of secondary education in Spain and its legislation during the period when Prince Juan Carlos studied; the second focuses on the study of the iconography of secondary education by the prince, through the analysis of a sample of photographs belonging to the photographic library of the EFE Agency.

Keywords: Secondary education, élite, photography, Francoism.