The “Seminario de Estudos Galegos”: The Laboratory for an educational platform in Galicia

Abstract

The “Seminario de Estudos Galegos”, established in 1923, became an important cultural Galician nationalist platform, between 1928 and 1936, at which time it was closed down by the new Francoist authorities. With more than 170 active members, the SEG opened several fields of study related to the social, historical, economic and cultural reality in Galicia. These were brought to light in the wide variety of outstanding works of investigation, in areas of cultural diffusion, in the exchange of scientific knowledge and data with other national and international academic organizations and in the publication of books. Also participating in SEG were teachers interested in the educational problems in Galicia, and through the “Sección pedagógica” (Pedagogical department), began to develop a number of different initiatives as of 1933. This article presents an analysis of these facts, placing emphasis on contributions from the demands of educational reform in Spain and on the context of educational orientations laid down by Galician nationalist ideology. The “Sección” could have been a “Laboratorio de pensamento educativo” (laboratory of educational thinking) but this in fact did not occur. This article explores the pertinent explanations.