This article analyses the concept of the state as represented in
primary school social science textbooks in Spain during the transition to
democracy. The analysis of textbooks during this period has tended to focus
on the importance of National Catholicism (Nacionalcatolicismo) or the
technocratic vision in the framing of their representations. This article
points to how such representations should be viewed from a more complex
perspective that lays the emphasis on how the dictatorship understood
education within the context of the Cold War. The first part of the article
analyses the explanations given by textbooks during the transition.
The second part dissects the subsequent evolution of the representations.
Lastly, we attempt to explain why these representations and changes came
about
