La represa de l'ensenyament del català durant el tardo-franquisme: els cursos i els exàmens de la Diputació de Barcelona (1967-75)

Abstract

Summary: This article intends to reconstruct and analyse the initiative undertaken by the Barcelona Provincial Council in the final years of the Franco dictatorship to reintroduce the teaching of Catalan language at the educational centres associated with it and at the public library network. Covering the period from the inception of this initiative in 1967 to the beginning of the transition to democratic government in Spain in 1975, this study examines the structure and content of these language course, their bibliographic sources, the testing and teaching methodologies applied and the teaching staff employed, as well as the public response to the initiative, the evolution of enrolment and the implementation of the program throughout the province. The results of this research show that, despite the persistence of a political regime that had stripped Catalan of its official status and banned its use, public institutions within Catalonia were in fact able to resume the teaching and testing of Catalan, albeit outside the official curricula. Indeed, the initiative was warmly welcomed, and its progressive implementation across the territory led to the creation of a body of skilled teachers of Catalan, a language that the population had not been able to learn at school since 1939. Keywords: Catalan, language teaching, Barcelona Provincial Council, Francoism, social spread, standardisation