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This chapter is based on the analysis of international studies published by the Bureau International d’Éducation (BIE) (1938 and 1939) and the League of Nations (LoN) (1931 and 1938), both organisations based in Geneva, Switzerland. As intergovernmental organisations with similar objectives in international peacebuilding, BIE and the LoN have consistently advocated for a technical and neutral approach to the issue of school textbooks in their publications. This attitude becomes more pronounced in studies focusing on History and Geography textbooks, especially as the tempus belli of the late 1930s approaches. The educational “era of reforms” of the 1930s, as announced by Pedro Rosselló, secretary of the BIE in 1935, was a period of significant change in several sectors of national educational systems, including curriculum, pedagogical models and practices, and the design, selection, and use of school textbooks. The results provided by the BIE survey defined two entry categories, one in which the choice is not centralised and the other in which central authorities make the selection. Within the centralist perspective, the BIE study verifies the existence of two trends: teachers can choose between several textbooks proposed for the same grade or subject, or another where only a single textbook is adopted centrally per class or grade, without the possibility of choice. Portugal falls into this last subcategory, but with some specificities compared to other countries. The measure of adopting a single reading book for each of the four grades of primary education and for the subjects of Philosophy and History in secondary education (7 grades) is part of the affirmation of a broader reactionary political programme imposed by the nationalist authorities in 1936, namely: the remodelling of the Ministry of Public Instruction and the change of its name into Ministry of National Education; the creation of “a national and pre-military organisation” addressed to children and youngsters (the Mocidade Portuguesa [Portuguese Youth Organization]); the obligation to place, in every primary state school, “behind and above the teacher’s chair, a crucifix, as a symbol of Christian education determined by the Constitution” of 1933; the closure, until 1942, of regular primary schools. This chapter demonstrates how textbooks serve as educational media that overlap and reinforce the new political messages of nationalist authorities in education.

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International Perspectives on School Textbook Policies in the 1930s and the Portuguese Case

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Luís Grosso Correia

摘要

This chapter is based on the analysis of international studies published by the Bureau International d’Éducation (BIE) (1938 and 1939) and the League of Nations (LoN) (1931 and 1938), both organisations based in Geneva, Switzerland. As intergovernmental organisations with similar objectives in international peacebuilding, BIE and the LoN have consistently advocated for a technical and neutral approach to the issue of school textbooks in their publications. This attitude becomes more pronounced in studies focusing on History and Geography textbooks, especially as the tempus belli of the late 1930s approaches. The educational “era of reforms” of the 1930s, as announced by Pedro Rosselló, secretary of the BIE in 1935, was a period of significant change in several sectors of national educational systems, including curriculum, pedagogical models and practices, and the design, selection, and use of school textbooks. The results provided by the BIE survey defined two entry categories, one in which the choice is not centralised and the other in which central authorities make the selection. Within the centralist perspective, the BIE study verifies the existence of two trends: teachers can choose between several textbooks proposed for the same grade or subject, or another where only a single textbook is adopted centrally per class or grade, without the possibility of choice. Portugal falls into this last subcategory, but with some specificities compared to other countries. The measure of adopting a single reading book for each of the four grades of primary education and for the subjects of Philosophy and History in secondary education (7 grades) is part of the affirmation of a broader reactionary political programme imposed by the nationalist authorities in 1936, namely: the remodelling of the Ministry of Public Instruction and the change of its name into Ministry of National Education; the creation of “a national and pre-military organisation” addressed to children and youngsters (the Mocidade Portuguesa [Portuguese Youth Organization]); the obligation to place, in every primary state school, “behind and above the teacher’s chair, a crucifix, as a symbol of Christian education determined by the Constitution” of 1933; the closure, until 1942, of regular primary schools. This chapter demonstrates how textbooks serve as educational media that overlap and reinforce the new political messages of nationalist authorities in education.