Exhibiting teachers' hands:Storytelling based on a private collection of engravings

The starting point of this chapter is the observation that certain hand gestures, such as the raised index finger, appear to be typical among teachers as a professional group. Using a private collection of 379 educational engravings, we1 have attempted to identify patterns in the gestures teachers make when interacting with students, using social science research methods and statistical techniques. In doing so, we ultimately tell a story about teachers whose image in the public sphere has changed from authoritarian to authoritative. We also pay special attention to the differences between male and female teachers, as well as the gender composition of classrooms. We do not find confirmation of the stereotypical image of dominant male and submissive female teachers.</p

La Escuela Nueva en Imágenes: Fotografía y Propaganda en The New Era (1920-1939)

 In this article we analyse the propaganda work done by the journal The New Era for divulgating and popularising the progressive education movement. The review started in 1920, so it was the first in transmitting the ideas of this movement, and also the first English language journal that became the channel of expression of the New Education Fellowship, for divulgating the innovative ideals in the Anglo-saxon countries.We have studied the propaganda work from the images that the journal has published between 1920 and 1939. As a research method we have chosen a combination of content analysis and a grounded theory approach. We have identified a list of categories that are connected with the characteristics of new or progressive education. We have considered as starting point that all the ideals and school practices made more visible by the journal, i.e., the ones that were shown in many images, were those used for building a public image of the New Education.We have organized the visual discourse built by The New Era around six ideas: coeducation, activity, freedom, nature, child-centered, and individualization versus socialization. We have quantified the number of images that were published in connexion with everyone of these ideas, making comparisons between spaces and times. The quantitative analysis has allowed us to explain general patterns and exceptional features. Finally, we present the most remarkable characteristics of the iconographical discourse about the New Education that was built and propagated by The New Era.En este artículo se aborda la labor de propaganda sobre el movimiento de la EscuelaNuevaque realizó The New Era, la revista en lengua inglesa que fue pionera, pues comenzó a publicarse en 1920, y también la primera que se erigió en órgano de expresión de la New Education Fellowship, la organización que aglutinó a los educadores de todo el mundo que compartían las ideas innovadoras del movimiento.Esta labor de propaganda se ha estudiado a partir de las imágenes que la revista publicó entre 1920 y 1939. Através de una metodología que combina el análisis de contenido y la grounded theory identificamos una serie de categorías que relacionamos con los grandes ideales dela Escuela Nueva. Consideramos, como punto de partida, que aquellas ideas y prácticas escolares que la revista visibilizó más —es decir, de las que publicó más imágenes— fueron aquellas con las que pretendía construir en la opinión pública un imaginario dela Escuela Nueva.Las seis ideas en torno a las que hemos organizado el discurso visual construido por esta revista son: coeducación, actividad, libertad, contacto con la naturaleza, paidocentrismo, e individualización vs socialización. De cada una de ellas hemos cuantificado el número de imágenes que se publicaron, diferenciadas por países y por períodos temporales. A partir del análisis cuantitativo, hemos tratado de explicar las pautas generales y los rasgos excepcionales, para concluir presentando las características más destacables del discurso iconográfico sobre la Nueva Educación que construyó y divulgó The New Era