There has been little study of political exile as a means for transferring pedagogic ideas and models, which has been important in Latin America, especially in the case of the Spaniards exiled in Mexico after the defeat of the Second Republic at the end of the 1930s. The Mexican government's sympathy with the Second Republic allowed many teachers to come to Mexico, but this assistance was politically and professionally selective. Most teachers worked in private schools founded by the Republican Government with the support of liberal politicians and intellectuals. The institutions established in Mexico City were based on the Free Teaching Institution (Institución Libre de Enseñanza, or ILE) principles but formed a school culture around the Spanish exile and were forced to reduce their co-educational intentions; those established outside the capital taught Mexican children and the children of earlier Spanish immigrants. The Freinet projects survived through individual effort. The three private schools that were founded represented the entrance of active or progressive schools into Mexico and became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s. The public education system tended towards the unification of school content and work, and was not very open to incorporating educational initiatives - even less so if these questioned the curricular structure, as was the case with Freinet. However, a group of very experienced Spanish inspectors and professional teachers managed to have a significant influence on the transition from teacher training college pedagogy to university pedagogy through their teaching and above all their pedagogic textbooks, which filled a void left by the eclectic pedagogy that prevailed in Mexico until the beginning of the 1940s. © 2011 Stichting Paedagogica Historica.

Pedagogic transferences Spanish exiled teachers Apropriation

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