El museo: un espacio educativo para la igualdad social. El caso pionero del Museo Pedagógico Nacional en España (1882-1941)

Abstract

This research analyses the National Pedagogic Museum’s role in the redefinition of both the museum model and the Spanish education model. The importance of this institution resides in the conviction held by museum employees, members of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, regarding the significance of education in the transition to a more equitable social system. Building upon this hypothesis, the objectives of this research are, firstly, to define the conceptual basis that gave life to this museum and its operation; secondly, to describe the transformation of the museum model that these postulates implied; and lastly, to study some of the Museum’s museographic proposals intended to promote equality through education. The research methodology consists in an ordered deductive process. From the starting point of a theoretical framework analysing the role of education in achieving equality and the state of Spanish education in the context of that moment, institutional members’ postulates are related to the museum’s overall design, producing an analysis of their impact through a study of two specific cases: those of the embroidery works exhibitions celebrated in 1913 and in 1915. Source materials include some writings of museum director Manuel Bartolomé Cossío, as well as numerous references from the field of museology. The current importance of education as proper to the museum’s role is evidence of the historical pertinence of the aspects discussed herein, becoming the principal conclusion hereof.