A view of education in the mid 19th century

The “Dictionary of Education and Teaching Methods” by Mariano Carderera

Abstract

The Dictionary of Education and Teaching Methods by Mariano Carderera is a fundamental work on educational topics essential to the understanding of the situation of education in Spain as well as Europe in the 19th century. Thanks to the author’s broad personal and professional background and training –a man who was highly familiar with the pedagogical experiences of the time and an expert on the situation of the teaching sector– he developed a basic reference work to shed light on the situation of education in that time period. However, his work does include a many traditional suppositions, bordering on the reactionary in some cases, such as his considerations on the educational possibilities of women. This article reviews the most important contents of the four volumes comprising the work. There is no lack of references to a wide variety of subjects ranging from different aspects of the history of education, student discipline, the condition of teachers, the distribution of time and work in the school and the development of teaching strategies in the school environment.