The rural-urban paradox in primary schools: 140 years of progressive education in Spain

Abstract

This chapter elaborates on the roots and evolution of progressive education in Spain since the advent of the Escuela Nueva movement (the Spanish name given to progressive education) in 1876. One hundred and forty years after its creation, many of its seminal ideas still remain active. In this work, we illustrate its current effects by means of two case studies on the integration of information and communication technologies in rural schools. The whole text is driven by a paradox underscoring that we urban education professionals are going back to rural schools with the aim of finding out the keys for teachers’ professional development in the 21st century.