STRIKES AND ARMS IN CROSS: THE SCHOOL PUNISHMENT IN FRANCOIST PUBLIC SCHOOL (1938-1951)

Abstract School discipline is one of the most present phenomena in the history of education. The investigation that we present tries to know how this discipline was lived in the public Francoist schools. For this, we use the biographical-narrative method, based on four life stories of two men and two women, who lived their schooling in Spain between 1938 and 1951. Their testimonies reveal how the teacher was presented as the key figure for the indoctrination of minors and their actions were supported by families, the Church and the State. The physical and psychological punishments suffered by schoolchildren conditioned their adult life and remain intact in their memory, showing how authoritarian education negatively influences the biographies of all those who suffered in the childhood.