In the latter half of the 1970s, increasing economic development and, notably, political leaders who were determined to consolidate democratic structures, unleashed a worldwide trend of democratization, known as the “third wave”. By means of varied transition processes, the movement culminated in the establishment of democracy in over thirty countries in various corners of the globe. Spain was one of those countries, and these circumstances, combined with other local factors – such as the dictator’s death in 1975 – brought numerous popular, social and political forces out of the woodwork, and impelled a major process of opening up to the outside world. The Movimientos de Renovación Pedagógica (MRPs – Movements for Pedagogical Innovation) worked in parallel to this process.

During a historico-political period of great upheaval, the MRPs tried to find democratic alternatives for education and the schooling system. In a way, their initiatives served the urgent need for a public schooling system model: democratically run, free, secular, diverse, self-managing, scientific and investigative, critical, and related to the sociocultural peculiarities of its environment and the world of work. The self-training summer workshops for teachers (Escuelas de verano – summer schools) were probably one of their most genuine initiatives, but they conducted many others as well, on a more local scale, but no less important for it. Some of these MRPs reorganized earlier, during the 1960s. Such was the case with the Rosa Sensat pedagogical association, and with the Spanish branch of the Freinet movement.

The disciples of Freinet’s pedagogical techniques in Spain, in the Movimiento Cooperativo de Escuela Popular (MCEP) practised highly active methodology which was oriented toward the renewal and democratization of the schooling system, based on cooperation and exchange, ultimately aimed at bringing about a social transformation. Thus, little by little, they constructed an alternative path, from education to emancipation. This line of overhaul based on cooperation and exchange meant that the organization of various conferences, seminars, placements, meetings and assemblies was a commonplace activity for Freinetian teachers in Spain. All of these activities, to a large extent, helped pave the way to emancipative education.

This research goes some way toward the study and analysis of the MCEP’s intense activity, resulting, indeed, from all these encounters, which facilitated not only the continuation of the pedagogical experiments, but also a good arena for clarifying certain stances and objectives of the movement, pertaining to the development of a popular, liberating schooling system, socially responsible, governed by the values of solidarity, cooperation, respect and commitment, in the context of the recently created democracy. Thus, the aim here is to investigate which issues were debated in these fora, and by which measures or activities they managed (or did not manage) to achieve their aims. In other words, what was their modus operandi to move from education to emancipation?

The information compiled in the journal Colaboración, along with the various dossiers on the Escuela Moderna conferences published by the MCEP themselves, has been crucially important in these investigations; both pedagogical publications served as a fabulous tool, rich in content, not only on the history of the Freinet movement in Spain, but also for those studies which, like this one, aim to determine the degree to which its pedagogical agenda contributed to the realization of a globalized democratic framework.