La renovación de la enseñanza de la geografía en el Instituto del Cardenal Cisneros de Madrid hacia 1912

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide new elements of knowledge about the teaching of geography in Spanish institutes in the early twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1910, approximately, there was an interesting methodological movement to renew that teaching school discipline, little known yet. A group of high school teachers designed new educational tools to improve the teaching of geography, among which there were new manuals, and especially school atlas. In this text is presented one of them. It is the Special Geography Atlas of Spain published in 1910 by Jose Esteban y Gomez, Professor of Geography and History of the Cardenal Cisneros Institute in Madrid. That Atlas had a wide circulation. In two subsequent editions of 1912 and 1917, the author introduced changes in its contents. It was used by many students, like Juan Manuel de Villodas y Revilla, when he did second high school at the Cardenal Cisneros Institute in 1912. Its practical workbook of geography of Spain, based on the aforementioned atlas, is available on the website www.ceimes.es. This paper argues that the atlas of Jose Esteban y Gomez shows the deep relationship between geography and statistics in 1910. It also presents a detailed analysis of this teaching tool that will allow further study of the role played by the teaching of geography in shaping national identity in sectors of Spanish society during the early twentieth century