Disruptive Dynamics: The Spatial Dimensions of the Spanish Networks in the Spread of Monitorial Schooling (1815–1825)1

Abstract

The monitorial system of education was the most promising device in the field of primary education at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its astonishing spread across the five continents represents one of the earliest processes of internationalization in the field of elementary schooling, which has rarely been analysed from the point of view of the network of its supporters. This article reconstructs the transfer of knowledge and experiences related to the monitorial system of education from England and France to Spain in the first decades of the nineteenth century, its dynamics within the country and its overlooked intermediary role in the further diffusion of this system of teaching in its former colonies. Of the many possible aspects of networking, it focuses mainly on the spatial dynamics of the dissemination of the method in Spain in order to discuss traditional interpretations of its spread in Spain and its supporters. 1 Research for this article has been carried out under the project ‘National Education and Universal Method: Dynamics of Global Diffusion and Culture‐Specific Forms of Adoption of the Bell‐Lancaster Method in the 19th Century’ directed by Prof. Dr Jürgen Schriewer and Dr Marcelo Caruso at the Humboldt University (Berlin) with the financial support of the German Agency for Research (DFG). I would like to thank Eugenia Roldán, Jana Tschurenev, Patrick Ressler and Thomas Schupp for their support and discussion, as well as Oliver Grübner for his help with the cartographical presentation of data.