During the institutionalization of mass schooling in the 19th century, teaching large groups of children became both a necessity and a matter of regulation. For officials and inspectors the systematization of classroom interactions was important for effective results. However, while systematization could bring about the constant attention of children and their uninterrupted work, interactions themselves were difficult to control. Rationalized models of classroom organization provided alternatives for managing large groups before age grading became the dominant pattern of organizing interactions. The contributions in this volume explore diverse paths of transition towards modern classroom organization in different countries, allowing transnational perspectives and comparisons.

Im 19. Jahrhundert ereigneten sich in Spanien die Errichtung eines liberalen Systems sowie die Institutionalisierung des staatlichen Massenschulwesens. Der Autor untersucht diese parallelen Systembildungsprozesse unter dem Brennglas der Unterrichtsorganisation von Primarschulen. Insbesondere anhand von Berichten der Schulinspektion der kastilischen Provinzen Cuenca und Ciudad Real analysiert Eble sowohl die padagogischen als auch ideologischen Normen, die der Schulpolitik vorgelagert waren, und deren Durchdringungskraft in den Provinzschulen der zweiten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Damit leistet der Autor zudem einen Beitrag zur Erforschung des konservativen Liberalismus Spaniens und setzt dem gangigen Bild von dessen Scheitern eine differenzierte Einordnung entgegen.

New polities emerged during the processes of decolonization. The break with the colonial past was not only political, but also more general. While conventional wisdom defines education as a field of action reproducing society in time, decolo-nization placed broader and more radical demands on the field: to produce a new society. For this purpose, new forms of education and schooling were required, although the importance of inherited institutions and practices in education were still significant. This collection of chapters offers scholarly insights into this problem by covering different processes of decolonization and the challenges of education in the last two hundred years.

La ensenanza moderna de masas se consolido definitivamente en el siglo XIX. Los viejos sistemas de instruccion estaban desprestigiados. En este contexto, el sistema de ensenanza mutua, sistematizando la idea de que unos ninos instruyeran a otros, emergio en Inglaterra hacia el 1800. La promesa de una ensenanza racional, barata y eficaz motivo a grupos influyentes en los cinco continentes a adoptar esta forma de organizacion escolar. Enfrentados al desafio comun de escolarizar a un gran numero de ninos, educadores alemanes y espanoles adoptaron la ensenanza mutua con diversa suerte. La historia comparada de la importacion y transformacion de este sistema muestra la existencia y efectividad de culturas diferenciadas de la ensenanza en la epoca de institucionalizacion de la escuela-mundo.