Introduction

Abstract

Conflict seethed in the Spain of the 1970s — a bitter battle over the future of the country. The confrontation to which I refer was happening not in the corridors of the political powerhouses, nor on the streets of cities and towns. It was contested in the workplace. Its protagonists were teachers who were involved in ambitious projects to democratise the education system. They aspired to change the social practices governing their working environment, to help free Spain of its authoritarian past. Teachers were not alone in this assault on the dictator’s legacy in their workplace. The protests led by the worker movement, which began in the late 1950s, gradually spread, and with time came to include professional sectors which traditionally did not oppose the Franco regime.