El pensamiento pedagógico de D. José María Lacortuna propuesta para mejorar la formación inicial de los maestros de enseñanza primaria (1858-1868)

Abstract

Some of the questions which most concerned many of the teachers at the Escuelas Normales (teacher training Colleges) in our country in the mid nineteenth century were no doubt following: � The very slight acceptance of teacher training as a career amongst the youth of the time. � The lack of preparation for taking up this course of study � The large gaps generated by the academic curriculum itself in the initial preparation of the students. The curriculum gave priority, somewhat disproportionately, to the culturalist content rather than to the pedagogic content. � And the abandonment, both social and political, of which they asidually felt themselves victims, once they had started teaching in primary schools. D. José María Lacort, head of the Escuela Normal de Maestros (teacher training College) in Valladolid (1855-1891), was especially sensitive towards these issues as well as being firmly convinced of the power of education as an agent for social and cultural change. He presented a proposal to improve the preparation of this group of students and thus, to curtail the conditioning factors which restricted or limited access to this course of studies to a very reduced, specific sector of youth. In the present article, without intending to make an exhaustive study of this, we shall concentrate on the points which, in our estimation, are the most relevant.