Franquismo y memoria democrática: el continuo reto de la formación ciudadana en Secundaria

Abstract

Promoting political education in young people, along with instilling democratic values, is essential in our students' classroom training. However, fifteen years after the implementation of Spain's law of historical memory and amidst years of debate on the necessity of building a democratic memory around our recent history, teachers continue to face challenges when teaching recent Spanish history, encompassing the Civil War, Franco's dictatorship, and the Transition. How do students interpret present-day events in relation to the historical curricular contents they have studied during Secondary and Baccalaureate education? This paper presents an approach to understanding the perceptions of students in the 1st and 2nd years of the Baccalaureate regarding current issues related to Francoism and democratic memory. The students had been exposed to the conceptual contents of this historical period during their 4th year of ESO and 2nd year of the Baccalaureate when the study was conducted. Our research relies on the analysis of three specific questions in a questionnaire designed to elucidate their perception of a pressing social problem, exemplified by the exhumation of Franco from The Valley of the Fallen. This approach seeks to shed light on key aspects of the teaching and learning of history, particularly in the context of secondary education.