Building Knowledge from the heart: The love for science in Teachers of High School San Isidro. History of Feelings contributes for History of Education (1836-1936)

Abstract

This research analyses the importance of feelings for the teacher’s profession during the process of configuration of Liberalism (1835-1880) when the political system faced the primacy of universal public education. It addresses the subject’s responsibility for the creation and transformation of the Secondary educational system in the XIXth Century in Spain. Focusing on Cultural History, it reveals the importance of emotions to structure the public trajectory of a job, opening a new field of analysis usually forgotten. The approach to teacher´s attitudes of San Isidro High School (Madrid) gives a clue to the educational system: the documents they wrote, and especially the administrative dispute between professors Pereda and Santisteban, become expressive of an arena where feelings took the preeminence on teaching. It concludes that during the implementation of Liberalism, emotions were essential to boost science and build a new model of education, on behalf of public cause and Scientific Knowledge.