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Tradition and modernity of the De LaSalle Schools: the case of the BasqueCountry in Franco’s Spain (1937–1975)Paulí Dávila a , Luis M. Naya a & Hilario Murua aa Department of Theory and History of Education , University ofthe Basque Country, UPV/EHU , Donostia-San Sebastian , SpainPublished online: 24 Jun 2013.

To cite this article: Paulí Dávila , Luis M. Naya & Hilario Murua (2013) Tradition and modernityof the De La Salle Schools: the case of the Basque Country in Franco’s Spain (1937–1975),Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, 49:4, 562-576, DOI:10.1080/00309230.2013.799500

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Tradition and modernity of the De La Salle Schools: the case ofthe Basque Country in Franco’s Spain (1937–1975)

Paulí Dávila*, Luis M. Naya and Hilario Murua

Department of Theory and History of Education, University of the Basque Country,UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

(Received 9 April 2013; final version received 23 April 2013)

The Congregation of the Brothers of Christian Schools (the De La SalleBrothers) has grown since its arrival in Spain in 1878, and today it is the secondmost important Congregation – in terms of the number of students and schools– in the private school sector in Spain. This article aims to present, first, theeducational contributions of De La Salle, which are based upon discipline, Cath-olic schooling and popular education. This pedagogical approach became thefoundation of traditional education, and was a success in their schools and amodel for other institutions. Second, our study is focused on the situation of theDe La Salle schools in the Basque Country during the Franco regime. The caseof the Basque Country is very important, because it showed a significantincrease in centres for vocational training and secondary education. The paperconcludes that the De La Salle schools make up a Catholic school modeladapted to the educational and social reality of the Basque Country and that,during the Franco regime, the model went through a period which balancedtradition and modernity regarding educational provision.

Keywords: De La Salle Brothers; Francoism; Spain; Basque Country; Catholicschooling

The educational contributions of De La Salle: education for the poor and theimportance of order in the learning process

The pedagogical contributions of John Baptist de La Salle (1651–1719) areimportant in the history of education. Amongst them, we can highlight three:first, the popular Christian school; second, the figure of the new schoolmaster, amember of the Brothers of the Christian Schools;1 third, the creation of the Insti-tution of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.2 Besides these contributions, DeLa Salle also helped to determine an understanding of Catholic education –regarding questions such as the curriculum, discipline, or teaching methods – andit became a model for traditional pedagogy.3 Also, from the treatise The Conduct

*Corresponding author. Email: pauli.davila@ehu.es1Agathon, Les douze vertus d’un bon maître par Monsieur Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, Insti-tuteur des Frères des Écoles chrétiennes expliqués par le Frère Agathon, Supérieur Général(Melun, 1785).2Pedro Chico, Institutos y Fundadores de Educación Cristiana (Valladolid: CVS, 2000).3Edgar Hengemüle, La Salle: Lectura de unas lecturas (Bogotá: Región LatinoamericanaLasallista, 2003).

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of Christian Schools, it can be highlighted that the “De La Salle school” was aninstitution which was innovative, employing control of space and time, institutingorder, organising programming and unifying educational material. With all this,the goal of this type of school was to be a “nursery of true Christians”.4 The tar-gets were corporal training, preparation for a trade and the acquisition of urbannorms.5 García Ahumada has also pointed to Lassalian contributions in the train-ing of schoolmasters.6 This type of pedagogy, innovative for its time, was accom-panied by a fundamental principle – the dedication of the De La Salle Brothersto the education of the poor – which has been maintained as a hallmark of theiridentity.

The necessity of spreading education amongst the poor and the creation of apopular and Christian school were fundamental elements in Lassalian pedagogy.The same is true of teaching in the mother language, the creation of professionaltraining or “vocational” schools and teaching in areas such as drawing, book-keep-ing, agriculture and mechanics, thus establishing the first technical–professionalschools.7 The educational objective of the Christian schools was not just to transmitknowledge to children but, above all, to teach them to behave well, turning theminto true sons of God and of the Church.8

These principles were recurring and remain present in the schools run by theDe La Salle Brothers today, as is borne out by their statutes.9 The first articletherein recalls that “with the goal of always being ready to serve education, andespecially popular education, the Brothers renounce the priesthood”.10 The stat-utes also point to the preference for teaching moral and religious studies, for pri-mary education and schools for adults, asylums for orphans and schools fortechnical training or professional education. Other articles indicate that “theBrothers are to profess cordial affection for all pupils, principally the poorones”,11 and that

they will receive from the founders of the free Schools the monthly assignationdeemed appropriate… As these quotas will not be sufficient to satisfy such pressingand numerous needs, a number of fee-paying Colleges will be established with thecorresponding authorisations, so that the resulting income can cover the costs of theInstitution. In such colleges technical education is given.

4Léon Lauraire, “The Conduct of Schools: Pedagogical Approach,” Cahiers Lasaliens 62(2006), 136.5Dominique Julià, Preface to Lauraire, “The Conduct,” 5–13.6Enrique García Ahumada, “350 años del natalicio de San Juan Bautista de La Salle,”Anuario de Historia de la Iglesia 11 (2002), 375–381.7José Maria Valladolid and Pauli Dávila, Estudio crítico, notas y bibliografía a la edición enespañol de la Guía de las Escuelas (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva-Siglo XXI, 2012).8John Baptist de La Salle, Meditations for the Time of Retreat, Med. 193, 194, 195, http://www.lasallian.info/doc/Meditations-2007.pdf9Paulí Dávila, Luis Mª Naya, and Hilario Murua, Bajo el signo de la Educación: 100 añosde La Salle en Gipuzkoa, 2 volumes (San Sebastián: Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas.Distrito de Bilbao, 2009), 110, http://www.sc.ehu.es/sfwsedhe/LaSalle/TOMOI.pdf and http://www.sc.ehu.es/sfwsedhe/LaSalle/TOMOII.pdf.10Ibid.11Ibid.

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This framework establishes the work of the Brothers and in it we can observethe priority for popular education, the predominance of technical education and therole that fee-paying colleges have to play, which was none other than to finance thefree schools for the poor.

Apart from these principles, the De La Salle are evident to us nowadays, forexample, with regards to school organisation, the implementation of simultaneouseducation and the introduction of the system of grading by age in the classroom. Butat the time, these principles involved the implementation of order in the classroom,where respectful silence and the skill of paying attention were cultivated. Alsorequired was a correct corporal posture and appropriate body movements within theclassroom. All this was seen by Foucault as a school for producing “docile bodies”,within the remit of a series of social practices which were the hallmark of the newdisciplinary society that arose from the seventeenth century onward.12 The schoolthat we traditionally knew until the twentieth century received practical inspirationfrom this Lasallian pedagogy. All these contributions are clearly expounded in TheConduct of Schools.13

The underlying values of this pedagogy retained their validity for the Brothersof the Christian Schools throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whilethe immense majority of their schools operated in France and its colonies. With theexpansion of the Congregation, a serious problem arose: the adaptation of The Con-duct of Schools to the educational systems of each country – an arduous problem,due to the multiple differences in each place related to culture, customs, educationalneeds, legislation on education and state exigencies. The result was that it was verydifficult to adapt The Conduct of Schools to each concrete case. Nevertheless, thefundamental principles did not lose their validity; in each country a practical appli-cation of The Conduct of Schools was established which, despite the differences inidentity, had its own style of teaching. When, in Spain, the task of drawing up aversion of The Conduct of Schools suited to the current times and needs ofeducation was proposed, a document entitled The Christian Schools Own Style ofTeaching14 was written, expounding the foundations of education for all the institu-tions run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Nonetheless, these changes have to be seen in the context of the process openedup as a result of the Second Vatican Council, which behooved a re-encounter withthe apostolic mission and stressed the influence of the charisma of the various foun-ders of religious orders and congregations, as can still be observed from recentstudies about other religious congregations.15 From the 1970s onward, above all asa result of what was discussed and approved at the Second Vatican Council,religious institutions renewed their charisma and began to introduce into theirdiscourse two new concepts: the shared mission, open to all other secular believers,and the religious family, which would encompass charisma and the mission.16

12Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir: La naissance de la prison (Paris: Editions Gallimard,1975).13Lauraire, “The Conduct.”14Características de la Escuela Lasaliana hoy (Rome: Publicación de la Secretaría de Edu-cación, FSC, 1987).15Gerald Grace, Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality (London and New York:Routledge Falmer, 2002), 129–34.16The International Council for Lasallian Studies, “The Lasallian Charism,” Lasallian Studies13 (2006), 49–181.

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The definition that each religious institution gave to its specific goals would makeup its identity and its mission, there being a multitude of nuances amongst the dif-ferent religious orders and congregations.17 Thus, in the trends followed over thelast century, it can be seen that the Second Vatican Council meant a change withregard to identity. This change coincided with a crisis in vocations, a drop indemand for enrolment in the schools and a lack of religious teaching staff – and allthis quite apart from the different social contexts. The religious orders and congre-gations found a new discourse to confront the situation and occupy not only theschool space but also the discursive one, dominated by identity and charisma.

From the 1960s, this situation gave rise to tension between tradition and moder-nity. In practice, this was resolved in the schools with strategies which adapted theschools to their social reality. In the case of the Basque Country during the Francoregime, this tension manifested itself with the abandonment of traditional-style pri-mary schools and the consolidation of fee-paying professional and secondary ones.While the discourse underlying these practices was one of “returning” to the “cha-risma” of the founder and the “mission” focused on the education of the poor, thereality was that the social context was changing, religious teachers were disappear-ing from the classrooms due to a lack of religious vocations and the demand fromthe working class was aimed at professional training and Bachillerato18 for themasses.19

Trends in De La Salle in Spain

The establishment of De La Salle in Spain started in 1878 and increased after thefirst third of the twentieth century.20 Amongst other reasons, this was due to thereligious exile which started in 1904 as a result of lay policies and anti-congrega-tionist laws in France excluding religious orders and congregations from providingeducation.21 From that moment on, this religious institution began to create a net-work of primary, professional and secondary schools in Spain.22 The reception ofthe De La Salle Brothers in that country gave rise to an unexpected stage ofgrowth. The Brothers were distributed throughout the whole of Spain and important

17Paulí Dávila and Luis M. Naya, “La enseñanza privada religiosa en España: instituciones,políticas e identidades,” in Laicidade, religiões e educação na europa do sul no século XX,ed. Joaquim Pintassilgo (Lisboa, Instituto de Educaçao da Universidade de Lisboa, 2013),379–405.18Bachillerato refers to non-compulsory secondary education.19Antonio Viñao, Escuela para todos. Educación y modernidad en la España del Siglo XX(Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2004), 139–44.20Saturnino Gallego, Sembraron con amor. La Salle, Centenario en España (1878–1978)(San Sebastián: Conferencia de Visitadores FSC, 1978), 89.21Henri Bedel, FSC, “An Introduction to the History of the Institute of the Brothers of theChristian Schools: 19th and 20th Century (1875–1928),” Lasallian Studies 11 (2006):207–39.22Pedro Gil, “Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas, lasalianos,” in Historia de la accióneducadora de la Iglesia en España: Edad Contemporánea, ed. Bernabé Bartolomé (Madrid:Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1997), 437; Gallego, Sembraron.

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educational centres were created, especially in the provinces along the French bor-der – possibly with the idea of one day returning to France.23

In 1904, there were 47 communities of Brothers in Spain, made up of 381Brothers and attending to 12,763 pupils. In 1913, we can see that the situation hadchanged considerably, as there were 132 communities constituted, with 1245 Broth-ers attending to 26,026 pupils. Thus, in 10 years the number of students doubledand the number of communities almost tripled, despite the anti-clerical politicalsituation in Spain at the time.24 During this period, the composition of thesecommunities was mostly French Brothers. Little by little, the incorporation of Span-ish Brothers into the various created districts began to be observed, due to newvocations and the training of local Brothers at the various novitiates inaugurated tothat end. Thus there was a “Hispanicisation” of the communities, which would haveevident repercussions on the subsequent progress and consolidation of De La Sallein Spain.25 The return of the French Brothers to their country at the end of the FirstWorld War provided a certain stability between 1918 and 1938 – although duringthe years of the subsequent Spanish Civil War, the number of communities ofBrothers and pupils dropped substantially.

Francoism led to a period of stability, not only for the Congregation of the DeLa Salle Brothers but also for the majority of religious orders and congregations.26

De La Salle’s situation remained stable until 1947, when it experienced significantgrowth which lasted 20 years. Thus, while in 1947 there were 142 communities (10more than had existed in 1930) attending to 39,143 pupils, in 1967 this had risen to200 communities with 78,315 pupils. From this date on, the number of communi-ties began to drop, and in 1977 there were 181. The explanation for this decreaselies in phenomena coincidental in time: educational reform, with the General Lawon Education of 1970 and the consequential closure of non-consolidated smallerschools, and a decrease in religious vocations due to the impact of the SecondVatican Council.

This progress is explained, above all, by the De La Salle schools’ capacity foradaptation to the different social and educational contexts over these years. From1939, the changing circumstances both in Spain and in France were set to affect thesituation for religious orders and congregations devoted to teaching. The establish-ment of these institutions from that year was due to Francoism’s favourable policiestoward the Church and the tranquility provided it by the corresponding legislation.Thus, on 3 May 1938 the Francoist Government re-established the Company ofJesus, and on 2 February 1939 it abrogated the 1933 Law on Religious Confessions

23Jean Marc Delaunay, “Exilio o refugio en España (veinticinco años después),” Anuario deHistoria de la Iglesia XIV (2005); Paulí Dávila, “Las órdenes y congregaciones religiosasfrancesas y su impacto sobre la educación en España: Siglos XIX y XX,” in Francia en laeducación de la España contemporánea (1808-2008), ed. José Mª Hernández (Salamanca:Ediciones de la Universidad de Salamanca, 2011), 101–60.24Teódulo García Regidor, La polémica sobre la secularización de la enseñanza en España(1902-1914) (Madrid: Fundación Santa Maria, 1985); Yvonne Turin, La educación y laescuela en España de 1874 a 1902 (Madrid: Aguilar, 1967); Frances Lannon, Privilegio,persecución y profecía: La Iglesia Católica en España 1875–1975 (Madrid: Alianza Edito-rial, 1987); Ana Yetano, La enseñanza religiosa en la España de la Restauración(1900–1920) (Barcelona: Anthropos, 1988).25Dávila, “Las órdenes.”26Vicente Faubell, “Educación y órdenes y congregaciones religiosas en la España del sigloXX,” Revista de Educación, extra edition no. 1 (2000): 137–200.

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and Congregations. In France, the De La Salle Brothers became legal again in1940, and thus their situation was gradually re-established.

The victory of Francoism and this advantageous situation enabled them to estab-lish themselves definitively and enjoy stable development. The Church’s support forand collaboration with the Francoist regime and the application of educational legis-lation totally favourable to religious education had a beneficial effect on religiousinstitutions, initiating growth in the number of colleges and schools at all educa-tional levels.27 It is well known that in this period, consolidation of the process of“Hispanicisation” had already taken place in religious institutions. The De La SalleBrothers, as with other congregations, lived through a period of full identificationwith national Catholicism and saw their schools grow throughout Spain.28 More-over, due to the lack of definition of professional education in terms of legislation,until the 1950s they found in this area a source of development for creatingschools, together with primary education.

Primary education was then the preferred teaching level within their educa-tional vocation, although – while it was a hallmark of the Lassalian educationalmission – it did not impede school provision at other educational levels, such asBachillerato. In this context, the increase in the number of pupils at this level ofeducation can be understood. It has to be pointed out that many of these studentsbelonged to what was known as “elementary Bachillerato” in the period prior toreform, which came with the General Law on Education of 1970. In fact, in the1967–1968 school year there were 38,469 pupils enrolled in primary education,while 35,875 were studying at secondary level and another 2465 were in technicaltraining courses. Thus, while it is true that the De La Salle schools devoted them-selves to the education of working-class pupils through primary and professionaleducation,29 it was no less true that Bachillerato was a new preference, especiallyat a stage when this level of education was undergoing en masse enrolment. Withthis general trend in schools in Spain, a contradiction is seen between on onehand, the discourse in favour of education for the poor, and on the other, dis-course in favour of creating fee-paying colleges – with pupils from working-classfamilies having difficulty enrolling in the latter.

Tradition and modernity in the De La Salle schools in the Basque Country

Studying the trends in schools and colleges run by the De La Salle Brothers in theBasque Country during the Franco period, one can observe the continuity of theeducational practices and the pedagogical bases of De La Salle in the most tradi-tional sense, with regard to those promoting them, the type of teaching providedand the provision for teaching at different levels of education. But some modernitycan also be observed in secondary school provision, the curriculum, promoters andthe consolidation of professional training.30 The point at which this change can beobserved occurs in the 1970s. It was a phenomenon in which a number of external

27Faubell, Educación; Viñao, Escuela.28Dávila, Naya, and Murua, Bajo el signo.29To learn more about the popular education, see the special issue of Paedagogica Historica48, issues 1–2 (2011).30Paulí Davila, Luis M. Naya, and Hilario Murua, “The Educational Work of the De la SalleBrothers and Popular Education in Gipuzkoa in the Twentieth Century,” History of Educa-tion 41, no. 2 (2012), 213–33.

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and internal factors intervened. As for external factors, we should not forget theimpact of the Second Vatican Council, which proposed a return to the charisma ofthe founder, and thereby to the original roots in defence of an education for thepoor. In Spain, as in other countries, the message read into this by Catholic schoolswas that it was “An option for the Poor”.31 The legislative changes resulting in theGeneral Law on Education of 1970 also have to be taken into account, togetherwith the longer duration of pupils’ time in the education system. This phenomenondid not only affect De La Salle schools. Most of the religious orders and congrega-tions restructured, prioritizing some levels of education over others. For example,the Jesuits expanded to vocational training and multitudinary high school, while theSalesians strengthened in vocational training.32

With respect to internal factors, the following can be pointed to: (1) theunsuitability of the schools dispersed throughout the Basque geography that nolonger fulfilled their tasks, given the increase in the numbers of public sectorschools and ikastolas;33 (2) the increase in the number of years spent in schooling,reflected in greater access to secondary education (the educational level leastattended to by De La Salle due to its connotations for training the middle classes),with a Bachillerato for the masses which would provide access for working-classpupils at this educational level; (3) a loss of importance of religious rites; and (4) adrop in religious vocations and the concomitant gradual substitution of teachingBrothers by lay schoolteachers, both men and women.

Educational proposals in the Chapters of the Bilbao District

Before analysing this tension between tradition and modernity in the schools run bythe De La Salle Brothers, it is useful to keep in mind the discourse of the Churchfrom the time of the Second Vatican Council onward and the reading thereof by theCongregation through its representative bodies or Chapters, of which there werethree different levels: the General Chapter in Rome, the Regional one in Spain andthe District Chapter in Bilbao (to which the schools and colleges of the BasqueCountry belong).

The basic document of the Second Vatican Council is the Gravissimum educa-tionis,34 but the reforms and their “rules”, which the religious institutions had toimplement within the new situation, were also important. We should not forget that,as pointed out by Viñao, what was involved was an “educational subsystem of the

31Mª del Mar Griera, “The Education Battle: The Role of the Catholic Church in the SpanishEducation System,” in International Handbook of Catholic Education: Challenges forSchool Systems in the 21st Century, ed. Gerald Grace and Joseph O’Keefe (Dordrecht:Springer, 2007), 291–310.32Bernabé Bartolomé Martinez, Historia de la acción educadora de la Iglesia en España, IITomo. Edad Contemporánea (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1997).33Schools in the Basque Country in which all teaching is carried out through the Basquelanguage.34Pablo VI, “Gravissimum educationis,” in Concilio Vaticano II: 50 años (Buenos Aires:Agape Libros, 2012), 521–36.

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Catholic Church”,35 and both the project and the overall direction of the Churchfrom Rome were important.36

Thus we see that with the General Chapter of 1946 in Rome, free schoolingwas an important topic for debate, given that the school fees could be seen “from acommercial point of view”.37 This posture is clearer in the Chapter of 1956, whenit was stated that “the world of the poor is distant from us. Our training, the focusof our teaching, our style of life, our concerns, place us nearer the bourgeoisie andthose with good jobs, rather than the poor”.38 This about-turn in the discourse,which had been tolerant to fee-paying schools, came at the 39th General Chapter in1966–1967, which dealt with the topic of devotion to the poor – in accordance withthe same principles that moved the Second Vatican Council, highlighting educationof the poor as a priority.39 Henceforth, this was to be the dominant discourse, butchanges had already been taking place: in 1924, pupils attending free schools repre-sented 50.80% of the total; in 1968, this type of pupil only represented 30.75%.40

In Spain in 1966, the schools run by the De La Salle Brothers numbered 142, ofwhich 91 were “semi-free”, 15 were professional training schools and 36 were sec-ondary boarding schools.41 The situation was clear: “the poorest attended nationalschools or do not go to school at all; almost none of them attend De La Salleschools”.42 The next Chapter, held in Rome in 1976, continued to maintain this pri-ority, although linking it with funding from public sources.

This being the context of the Chapters General of the Lassalian Institution inRome, we also find a similar situation at the first Chapter General of Assistance inSpain, held in April 1968. The words of the (then) Superior General, CharlesHenry, testified to this:

They are the same ideals that Second Vatican Council gave to all religious Institutionsand which our Chapter General has transmitted to our Congregation in concrete,always attending to the twin norm recommended by the Council: the original inspira-tion and the charisma of the Founder, and the current needs of the world in which welive.43

Also stressed at this Chapter was a preference for professional training, with thededication to fee-paying (usually secondary) schools criticised:

35Viñao, Escuela, 201–10.36J. Michael Miller, “Challenges Facing Catholic Schools: A View from Rome,” in Interna-tional Handbook of Catholic Education: Challenges for School Systems in the 21st Century,ed. Gerald Grace and Joseph O’Keefe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2007), 449–80.37Henri Bedel, FSC, “An Introduction to the History of the Institute of the Brothers of theChristian Schools: 20th Century (1928–1946),” Lasallian Studies 12 (2007): 123.38Bruno Alpago, FSC, El Instituto al servicio educativo de los pobres (Roma: Hermanos delas Escuelas Cristianas, 2000), 366.39Alpago, El Instituto, 386. A deeper study can be found in Josean Villabeitia, “Un falsodilema ¿Religioso o maestro?,” Estudios lasalianos 15 (2008), 21–87.40Alpago, El Instituto, 368.41Gallego, Sembraron, 722.42Gallego, Sembraron, 724.43Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas, Primer Capítulo Regional de la Asistencia de Espa-ña (Zaragoza: Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas, 1968), 11.

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as a response to the calls by the Church in favour of the working classes, this Chapterbelieves it urgent to have a greater and preferential attention to professional education,to techniques of an industrial, agricultural, fishing, administrative nature… accordingto the needs of the district.44

As it could not be otherwise, following the hierarchical line of orders and dueobedience, the first Chapter of the Bilbao District – also held in 1968 – stressed“support for the popular classes, promoting the working class, and a return to thepoor”.45 The following year, the second Chapter took place, and the winds of mod-ernisation could be observed; these were consolidated in the 1970s, taking on boardthe tasks requiring urgent attention by the institution, such as a service for childpsychological guidance, preparation of staff in modern methods of teaching anddirection of activities, the creation of a pilot centre for basic education and anotherfor bilingual education and making schoolmasters aware of the value of leisure andhelping them to specialise in the corresponding techniques. At this Chapter, thepriorities or concerns of the District were focused on organisation and planningquestions. Finally, in the third Chapter, held between 1973 and 1974, concrete mea-sures to rekindle the apostolate were re-emphasised within the perspective of Faith,at the service of the poor.46 In this sense, they would have to “decide on measuresfor guiding well-off schools to take in pupils of lower economic means”47 – anevident contradiction between words and facts.

Creation and disappearance of schools: a tradition lost

Regarding the continuity of De La Salle’s educational traditions, the first symptomof change related to the creation and later disappearance of a number of schoolsduring the Francoist period. This was a unique phenomenon that occurred in thoseyears, the functionality of which can only be understood in the context of theschools that followed the Lassalian model prior to the Spanish Civil War. The Gen-eral Law on Education of 1970 meant the modernisation of the education system.From that point on, a compulsory education of eight years in duration was imposed(known as enseñanza general básica) and therefore the curriculum was rewritten,trying to emphasise the link between work and education. The Church and thereligious congregations dedicated to education would lose all the privileges theypreviously had, because the state assumed that education was one of its properfunctions. With respect to De La Salle, this process would suppose the disappear-ance of several centres (see Table 1).

These schools, most of them in Gipuzkoa (San Sebastián, Irun, Hondarribia,Ordizia, Usurbil and Zestoa), were devoted to primary education and initiation intoprofessional training. The numbers of pupils schooled therein were not significant,except in the cases of San Sebastian and Irun.48 The cases of Pamplona and

44Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas, Primer, 74.45Distrito de Bilbao, Conclusiones de los capítulos distritales (San Sebastian: Distrito de Bil-bao, 1991), 7.46Asistencia de España, Federación Lasaliana Española, Ideario de las asociaciones La Salle(Madrid: Federación lasaliana española, 1970).47Dávila, Naya, and Murua, Bajo el signo, 161.48Xabier Arzelus et al., Irungo La Salle San Martizial 100 urte geroa ereiten 1906–2006(Irun: La Salle San Martzial, 2007).

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Sestao are different – particularly the latter, as it arose from the old Altos Hornos(steelworks) school, becoming what was known as the Nuestra Señora de Begoñaschool which still operates today.

As can be seen, practically all these schools began operation at the beginning ofthe 1950s. The context of the time was especially favourable to producing thisboost in private religious education: privileges and official protection – with thissort of education favoured by the educational policies of Francoism and the closerelations between Church and the dictatorship – enabled unbridled growth to takeplace, to the detriment of public sector education.

With regard to those who promoted these schools, it can be seen that curates orparish priests played a secondary role, compared to the case of the schools createdbefore the Civil War. Thus, except in the case of Hondarribia, where the parish priestwas the legatee of a private donation, the rest of the schools had no parochial inter-vention. A different case is that of the school in Ordizia where, the Town Councilbeing the promoter, it was the bishop of the diocese of Vitoria who wished the Broth-ers to take charge of the school being proposed. In the other cases, the Town Councilpromoted the creation of the school, with some patronage. Given the conditionsimposed by the promoter or by the Brothers themselves, all the schools were freeschools, although in some cases the pupils paid some type of quota, such as in theschool at Zestoa or in Ordizia for pupils studying Bachillerato. At the end of the1960s, it appeared to be clear that the old formulae were at an end: “neither the char-ity of generous founders or industrial companies will sustain Christian schools in thefuture. Either the Church creates them… or the State maintains them, or a combina-tion of both formulae”.49 This was the perception regarding the trend being followed.

Table 1. Schools that opened and then closed during this period.

Location DateName ofcollege

Educational levels

Primary Secondary Professional

San Sebastián 1911–1977 Los Angeles 1911–1977 1959–1977 1953–1977Irun 1908–1947 Los Ángeles

Custodios1908–1947

1958–1972 Escuela delCincuentenario

1958–1972

Hondarribia 1951–1969 EscuelasNuestraSeñora deGuadalupe

1951–1969

Ordizia 1948–1970 Colegio deSanta Ana

1948–1970 1954–1970

Usurbil 1953–1971 Colegio LaSalle

1953–1971

Zestoa 1950–1967 Colegio SanJosé

1950–1967

Pamplona 1957–1976 Colegio LaSalle

1957–1976

Sestao 1952–Act. NuestraSeñora deBegoña

1952

49Gallego, Sembraron, 766.

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The inauguration of these schools has been recorded and this conjunction ofinterests and projects observed, but it is more difficult to explain the reasons thatinfluenced the closure of the schools in each case – they are more evident in somecases than in others. Thus, in the case of the school in Usurbil, the General Law onEducation of 1970 created a challenge that was impossible to overcome, and so clo-sure was opted for. A similar circumstance influenced the closure of the school inOrdizia, although it would appear that competition from two other schools also hada bearing. The same happened with the school in Hondarribia, although in this casewe would have to include the decreasing presence of Brothers teaching there. InZestoa, tensions between the parish priest and the Town Council took its toll andthe Brothers’ school closed, despite the townspeople publicly expressing views inits favour. The school in Legazpi, which lasted twice as long as the others, wouldhave to be analysed in terms of the complexity in which the school and the newsituation of educational provision were immersed.

The case of the Los Ángeles school in San Sebastián is different. During thisperiod, it enjoyed recognised prestige in the city due to its capacity to place its stu-dents in jobs in banks and businesses. From 1971 onward, the College began toforesee an uncertain future in terms of the decreased presence of Brothers teachingthere, and “a climate of uncertainty began as regards the future of the College andthe continuance of the Brothers there. The Plan of Education demanded a series ofconditions which they could not meet”.50 This is a clear reference to the educationalreforms introduced by the General Law on Education of 1970.51

Besides these general features, each of the schools had their own daily life, theirschool activities and their religious life. In many cases, certain festivals, ceremoniesand celebrations were respected, following the Lasallian tradition. They alsoenjoyed public recognition both from parents and from civil and ecclesiastic author-ities. Nevertheless, with the passing of the years, these schools, with their differentways of understanding the pedagogy and the function of the school within their tra-ditional order, began disappearing. They were residual centres that did not fit intothe new social structure and could not keep pace with the changes happening inschools, in the De La Salle Congregation, and with the new educational require-ments. What was involved here was a traditional model, the viability of which hadterminated with the new educational reform.

Symptoms of modernity: the creation of secondary schools and boostingprofessional training

During the years in which the mentioned schools were closing, one can observesymptoms of modernity in two fields clearly adapted to the new social and educa-tional needs. These were the emergence of fee-paying colleges at the secondarylevel and the strengthening of professional training schools, as can be seen inTable 2.

The option of consolidating professional education for the popular classes dur-ing the 1950s justified the Lasallian goal of education of the poor. Nonetheless,

50Archive of the District of Bilbao, Suplemento al Histórico para el año 1971 (Loyola-SanSebastián: De La Salle, 1971).51Luis Garitano, La Salle, una presencia: Medio siglo de servicio en San Sebastián (SanSebastián: La Salle Ikastetxea, 1997), 47.

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these schools would be larger, abandoning the concept of “professional initiation”.This new focus meant reaching greater levels of recognition and fame. Pupils optedfor this kind of study with the hope of finding a job on the labour market suited tothe training acquired at the school. Testimony to the schools’ success was the levelof demand for prospective employees that came directly from companies to theschools. These demands were in accordance with industrial and business needs, aswe could see in the Los Ángeles school in San Sebastián and the schools in Beas-ain, Zumarraga, Irún and Legazpia.52 In some cases, companies’ demand for quali-fied workers was so great that some pupils started at their jobs before finishingtheir studies, although they could conceivably continue these as adults.

In this context, many schools opted for the provision of a Bachillerato Laboral(Professional). Table 2 shows those schools which, at some time, offered this typeof Bachillerato, such as Legazpi in 1965 (although from 1952 it was taught atapprenticeship level), Eibar from 1964 and Zarautz from 1965. Moreover, otherschools provided “Commerce” courses, such as the Los Ángeles school from 1953and La Salle de San Sebastián from 1959. The same was happening in Beasain53

which, from 1954, had established an industrial section and course in free trade andprofessional initiation; in Zumarraga54 and its Professional Apprentices’ Schoolfrom 1953; and in Andoain55 and its Apprentices’ School from 1945 until 1973.56

Table 2. Second stage: De La Salle educational centres in the Basque Country andeducational levels (1937–1975).

Location Date Name of college

Educational levels

Primary Secondary Professional

Andoain 1933–1975 Colegio La Salle Berrozpe 1933– 1937– 1945–Beasain 1909–1975 Colegio San Martin de

Loinaz1909– 1964– 1951–

SanSebastián

1928–1975 San Luis 1928– 1958– –––1946–1975 La Salle 1946– 1949– 1959–

Eibar 1958–1975 Azitain 1958– 1958– 1964–1970–1975 Isasi 1970– ––– –––

Irun 1906–1975 Colegio La Salle SanMarcial

1906– 1947– 1948–

1957–1975 School Profesional La Salle 1954– –––– 1958–Legazpi 1942–1984 Colegio del Buen Pastor 1942– –––– 1952–Zarautz 1929–1975 Colegio La Salle San José 1929– ––––– 1965–Llodio 1949–1975 Escuelas de Lodio y Murga ––– ––––– 1949Bilbao 1893–1975 Colegio Santiago Apostol 1893 1893 –––

52Dávila, Naya, and Murua, Bajo el signo.53Joseba Imaz, Ehun urte, milaka bizi: Beasaingo La Salle San José Ikastetxea (1909–2009)(Beasain: Beasaingo La Salle San Jose Ikastetxea, 2009).54Antonio Prada, Historia de los centros escolares de los Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristi-anas en Zumarraga (Zumarraga-Urretxu: La Salle Legazpi Ikastetxea, 2005).55Xabier Lasa, La Salle-Berrozpe (1945–1995):50 años de vida al servicio del pueblo(Andoain: La Salle-Berrozpe, 1996).56Dávila, Naya, and Murua, Bajo el signo.

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In any case, the school that most clearly committed to being a professionaltraining centre from its beginning was the Irun Professional School, which encom-passed a wide range of training options at different levels.57 It is also significantthat at the San Marcial College in Irun, in the late 1960s, “Customs clearingagents” studies were established – clearly aimed at training future Customsemployees at the Franco–Spanish border. As can be observed, all this professionalor vocational provision occurred at the stage prior to the educational reform of1970; from this date onward, professional training was completely regulated. Allschools that remained open complied with this educational reform. The vocationaltraining in the official centres was not successful. A student body with scant expec-tation of academic success acceded to this type of formation; however, the samewas not the case in the centres governed by De La Salle and other religious congre-gations, since they were guaranteeing better entry to the labour world. It can alsobe observed that, either because of a decision by the school itself or by demandsmade of it, certain schools provided classes for adults, such as Legazpi and Zestoauntil 1963 or the Los Ángeles College in San Sebastián which, in 1966, providedan evening Bachillerato class for adults. In Zumarraga, for a number of years, acourse for workers from the Patricio Echeverria steelworks ran.

Regarding the other symptom of modernity, a change that clashed with theLassalian tradition can be observed: the maintenance of the secondary colleges. Thisoption was aimed at the emerging middle classes. The Bachillerato provisions weredesigned to suit new social needs. The most emblematic case is that of the De LaSalle College in San Sebastián (created in 1946), which presented itself as a board-ing school for the sons of “the best families from the towns of Guipúzcoa… com-ing from our schools in Zumarraga, Eibar, Beasain and Zarauz and from othertowns in the province”.58 This boarders’ college aimed to emulate the famous SanBernardo (1905–1928), which was established in a residential zone in SanSebastián59 and functioned as a boarding school for 30 years (from 1951 to 1981),eventually closing due to a conjunction of academic, social and organisationalreasons:

In the towns, Secondary Education Institutes were being established… During the lastacademic year the enrolment at the boarding school did not come to 40… the windsof freedom blowing in the mid-70s were not very compatible with the ambience ofausterity and discipline and work which were features of our boarding school and,until now, accepted as the most natural in the world.60

As for the curriculum this secondary education provided, a number of unwel-come changes took place, but one was noted in particular:

it was born, as it were, to relive and to continue the tradition of the old San BernardoCollege, which had prestige… and marked off from the rest for its special attention to

57Arzelus et al., Irungo La Salle.58Garitano, La Salle, 47.59André Lissarrague, D’une rive a l’autre de l’Adour: Itinéraire d’un collège bayonnaisSaint-Bernard (Biarritz: Infocompo, 1999); Paulí Dávila, Luis Mª Naya, and JoxeGarmendia, “La Enseñanza Comercial y los Hermanos de La Salle: El Colegio de San Ber-nardo,” in Influencias francesas en la Educación Española e Iberoamericana (1808–2008),ed. José Mª Hernández (Salamanca: Globalia Ediciones, 2008), 319–30.60Garitano, La Salle, 48.

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Business Studies, having started by developing Commercial Technical Training, untilit disappeared in 1959, becoming totally absorbed by the Bachillerato and by officialreforms.61

After an initial increase at all levels, pupils’ entolment stabilised, especially atsecondary level, enrolling more than 600 pupils per year until 1970. From 1959, itseemed clear that the Bachillerato was here to stay, causing any other school provi-sion, primary or professional, to disappear. 1958 was a school year marked by pros-perity, given that

De La Salle had popularised its name, this spreading throughout the whole provinceof Guipúzcoa; to the point where no town of any importance existed that did not sendtheir pupils to the capital in order to enjoy the advantages of both the countryside andthe city: living in the incomparable and beautiful Easo and in the privileged Iguelteguiestate.62

In this way, social distinction was clear – far from the principle of education forthe poor.

But these symptoms of modernity in professional training and secondary educa-tion revealed a new way forward for the option of “educating the poor”. During thelast two decades of the Franco regime, a phenomenon that was to be a determinantfor the future became clear: the disappearance of vocations and, consequently, ofBrothers devoted to teaching, accompanied by the incorporation of men and womenlay staff.63 This was a new challenge to which the De La Salle Brothers wouldrespond gradually, incorporating this teaching staff into the shared mission and theLassalian family.

Conclusions

During Francoism, up to the 1970s, religious orders and congregations experienceda golden age. From then on, a kind of tension between tradition and modernity canbe appreciated as a consequence of the Second Vatican Council and the educationalreforms carried out in the Spanish educational system in the 1970s. During thoseyears, there were plenty of contradictions within the majority of the religious con-gregations. The Congregation of the De La Salle Brothers experienced this tensionboth in the discursive field and in the reality of their schools. The educationalprinciples of this Congregation – highlighted amongst which was devotion to theeducation of the poor, reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council and by the Chap-ters of the Institution itself – came into conflict with this reality. While the Churchrequired attendance to the social needs of the poor, the De La Salle Brothersinvolved in the project saw their vocations falling away and their schools expandingto other educational levels.

The case of the Basque Country, due to the great number of existing centres,is a model for understanding this conflict between tradition and modernity – the

61Garitano, La Salle, 30.62Archive of the District of Bilbao, Supplément à l’Historique pour l’année 1958 (Loyola-San Sebastián: De La Salle, 1958).63Martín Lasa et al., Distrito de Bilbao: 50 años en camino (Bilbao: Hermanos de lasEscuelas Cristianas, 1989).

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latter being the victorious option, the one that adapted better to social needs andto the reforming winds of change in the Church and the educational policies ofFrancoism. The disappearance of a series of traditional schools was compensatedfor by the De La Salle Brothers’ devotion to secondary education and professionaltraining, from schools with great prestige and social acceptance, above all inGipuzkoa (including San Sebastián, Irún and Eibar) and Bizkaia (the SantiagoApóstol school). With all this, the discourse on devotion to the poor – the found-ing principle of the Lassalian identity – was finally destined to be negated by thereality of the classrooms, attended more and more by children from urban middle-class families.

AcknowledgementsThis article is the result of a research project financed by the Spanish Ministry for Scienceand Education, project number EDU-2010-15218. The authors are members of the Groupfor Historical and Comparative Studies in Education – Garaian, recognised by the BasqueGovernment, registry number IT 603/13, and of the Unity of Education and Research“Education, Culture and Society (UFI 11/54)” of the University of the Basque CountryUPV/EHU.

Notes on contributorsPaulí Dávila is a professor of History of Education at the Universidad del País Vasco/EuskalHerriko Unibertsitatea. His research work has centered on the History of Education in theBasque Country, with special emphasis on topics such as educational policy, literacy, teachertraining, national curriculum, textbooks, vocational training, school attendance, abandonedchildren and religious orders. He has also focused his attention on the study, developmentand application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international organisations.He is the main researcher of the Group for Historical and Comparative Studies in Education,recognised by the Basque Government (IT 603–13), as well as a member of the Unity ofEducation and Research, “Education, Culture and Society (UFI 11/54).”

Luis M. Naya is a professor of Comparative Education at the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. He has produced many publications, coordinating books as Elderecho a la educación en un mundo globalizado [The right to education in a globalizedworld] (2006), La Educación y los Derechos Humanos [Education and Human Rights](2005), and La infancia en la historia: Espacios y representaciones [Childhood in history:Spaces and representations] (2005). His main lines of research have revolved around the useof Information and Communication Technologies, minority languages in education systems,religious orders and education and children’s rights. He is a member of the Group forHistorical and Comparative Studies in Education (IT 603–13), as, as well as main researcherof the Unity of Education and Research, “Education, Culture and Society (UFI 11/54).”

Hilario Murua is a teacher in the Department of Theory and History of Education at theUniversidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. His doctoral thesis researchedprimary education and teacher training in Gipuzkoa during the Franco dictatorship. Hepublished several works on this theme and about primary education. He currently is acollaborator in a study on private education in the Basque Country. He is a member of theGroup for Historical and Comparative Studies in Education (IT 603–13), and of the Unity ofEducation and Research, “Education, Culture and Society (UFI 11/54).”

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