The MANES Research Center organizes frequent thematic exhibits of school textbooks. These coincide with the Science Weeks of the Comunidad de Madrid; The Day of the Book; International Women’s Day; and other commemorative occasions.
Exhibition “Individual and Nature in Natural Science textbooks in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries”
Exhibition designed within the framework of the project “Individual, nature and society: study of their relationships and representations in school textbooks in Spain and Portugal in the last third of the 20th century” (Reference PID2020-115282GA-I00 Proyectos I+D 2020, of the Ministry of Science and Innovation).
The exhibition is a small illustrative sample of the Natural Sciences textbooks published in Spain for the transmission of natural-scientific knowledge. The aim of the exhibition is threefold: to show the evolution of the aesthetics and design of the textbooks over the centuries; to show how the names of the school discipline changed in the curricula and textbooks; and to demonstrate the transition from a scientific, descriptive teaching, disconnected from the human being, to a more ecological approach of connection and belonging of the individual to his or her natural environment.
The exhibition was presented for the first time at VENTUCIENCIA, the 1st Science Fair in Venturada (Madrid), which was held on 5, 6 and 7 May 2023.
Access to the Exhibition Panels
Ventuciencia Brochure
Ventuciencia
Exhibition at the Science and Innovation Week
On the occasion of the Science and Innovation Week of the Region of Madrid, held between 7 and 17 November 2023, the exhibition moved to the Faculty of Education of the UNED.
The exhibition, which has been curated by Kira Mahamud and Yovana Hernández-Laina, has been designed with manuals from the MANES collection of the UNED Central Library.
Science and Innovation Week
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Exhibition “FLORA, or the education of a girl in traditional society”
Central Library of UNED, from 28 September to 21 October 2022
Click to see the video
This exhibition was an initiative of the MANES Research Centre and the International Centre for School Culture (CEINCE) of Berlanga de Duero (Soria), to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of UNED and the 30th anniversary of the creation of the MANES Centre. The Cultural Activities Commission of the Library and the General Archive of the UNED, as well as the Faculty of Education, are collaborating in the organisation.
The exhibition explores and promotes a portrayal of the education of women in traditional society, an image based on differentiation and exclusion, categories and values that dominated the education of women in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Textbooks and school material in which the education of women in the past has been reflected were displayed, with the aim of contrasting the experiences of the past with the expectations of inclusion that the new gender relations postulate.
The material on display comes from the MANES Fund of UNED Library, the MANES Historical Fund kept in the General Archive of UNED, and the CEINCE.
The exhibition was inaugurated on 28 September 2022, at 11:00 a.m., in the UNED Library (Paseo Senda del Rey, 5), followed by a round table on the theme “School memory of women in Franco’s regime“. Four women took part in this round table, which was held at 12:00 p.m. in the Faculty of Law of UNED, sharing their experiences in their schools for girls in the 60s and 70s of the last century.
Download the invitation
Download the exhibition brochure
News: The Education of the past, through its manuals
FLORA
This exhibition was also adapted to the display space of the Public Library of Alcañiz (Teruel) , with materials from the collections of the Public Library and the Municipal Archive of Alcañiz, as well as from several private collections and schools in the Lower Aragon region.
To access the virtual exhibition click here.
FLORA Alcañiz
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Exhibit on the History of the School Center Giner de los Rios.
Second floor of the Education Faculty of the UNED. Exhibit about the history of the Giner de los Ríos School Center (later renamed Colegio Andrés Manjón). This exhibit was first inaugurated in November 2015 as part of a series of activities organized by the UNED Center for Studies on Migrations and Exile (CEME) and to commemorate the centenary of the death of the founder of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, Francisco Giner de los Ríos. With the closing of the Centro de Zona Giner de los Ríos, the exhibit was moved to the Education Faculty of the UNED. Part of the exhibition will remain on permanent display at the Education Faculty, while the other part was only exhibited during the month of October 2016.
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Exhibit: How we learned to read.
Casa del Lector / Germán Sánchez Ruipérez Foundation, Madrid. This exhibit brought together the history of the teaching of reading in the last 500 years, showing us how we have learned to read and how we have become reading subjects. The exhibit was designed with the collaboration of Agustín Escolano, from the Centro Internacional de la Cultura Escolar (CEINCE), Antonio Castillo Gómez and Verónica Sierra Blas, from the Research Group «Lectura, Escritura, Alfabetización» (“Reading, Writing, Literacy”) of the University of Alcalá, and with members of the MANES Research Center Miguel Somoza and Kira Mahamud. From October 2014 to January 2015.
Exhibition card More information
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Exhibit: #UNEDianas: Past and present of education in Spain
Central Library of the UNED. Exhibit organized on the occasion of International Women’s Day by the Central Library, the Office for Equality and the UNED Center for Gender Studies. Among the collaborators was Kira Mahamud, member of the MANES Research Center. A retrospective of Spanish education was shown along with an analysis of UNED students from the university’s founding in 1972. Raquel Osborne was the scientific curator of the exhibit while the technical curatorship was carried out by the Cultural Activities Commission of the UNED Library. From 7 March to 7 April 7 2014.
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Exhibit: School textbooks and notebooks from Francoism.
Activity carried out in the Joaquín Costa School of Madrid on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Joaquín Costa and as part of a program of encounters in the school between students from the post-war generation and today’s generation. This included a visit from former students from the 1940s and recollections of the post-war Francoist school. 23-27 May 2011.
“School memory and culture across generations”: Television Program, Channel UNED I+D. 17 June 2011 and 11 November 2011.
SERIES “School memory and the life stories of teachers under Franco”.
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Exhibit: Visions of nuclear energy in school textbooks. 100 years since the discovery of the atomic nucleus (1911-2011).
Central Library of the UNED. Exhibit organized by José María González Clouté. From 7 – 20 November 2011. The exhibit was subsequently relocated to the public secondary school Francisco Salinas, in Salamanca. 20 to 27 February 2012.
Display case 1 Display case 2 Display case 3
Poster from Francisco Salinas Secondary School
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Exhibit: Chemistry: Our life, our future.
Central Library of the UNED. Exhibit held on the occasion of the International Year of Chemistry, 2011, from 28 March to 15 April 2011. The exhibit included Chemistry books from the UNED Central Library’s textbook collection (Colección MANES) as well as scientific material from the Chemistry laboratories of the UNED Science Faculty.
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Exhibit: Infancy, Literature and the Exile of 39. Books from the collection of Ana Pelegrín.
Central Library of the UNED. Exhibit commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Republican exile, in collaboration with the UNED Center for the Study of Migrations and Exile. Organized by Alicia Alted, María García Alonso and Gabriela Ossenbach. From 28 April to 30 June 2009.
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Exhibit: Latin American School Textbooks in the MANES Collection.
VIII Science Week of the Madrid Region, Central Library of the UNED. From 10 to 23 November 2008. Exhibit organized by Gabriela Ossenbach and Cecilia Milito.
- This exhibit is complemented with the following related activity:
Audio link
Radio program on the participation of the MANES Research Center in Science Week and on the exhibit of Latin American textbooks.
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Exhibit: Learning to think in Spanish. Secondary school textbooks, 1845-1939.
IES (Public Secondary School) Federico García Bernalt, Salamanca. Organized by Gabriela Ossenbach Sauter, Miguel Somoza Rodríguez, José María González Clouté and Margarita Hernández Laille. With the collaboration of Cecilia Durán Camacho and Ana María Badanelli Rubio; CEINCE (Berlanga de Duero, Soria) and of the IES “Federico García Bernalt”. 15 February 2008.
- This exhibit is complemented with the following related activities:
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Exhibit: Learning to think in Spanish. Secondary school textbooks, 1845-1939.
Affiliated center of the UNED, Escuelas Pías, Madrid. Organized by Gabriela Ossenbach Sauter, Miguel Somoza Rodríguez, José María González Clouté and Margarita Hernández Laille. From 8 – 25 October 2007.
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Exhibit: School readings for girls.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day. Central Library of the UNED. Organized by Kira Mahamud Angulo. March-April 2007.
- This exhibit is complemented with the following related activities:
“A study of emotional indoctrination in school textbooks.”: Interview with Kira Mahamud about her work, awarded the Elisa Pérez Vera Prize. March 2007.
“IX Edición Premio Elisa Pérez Vera”: Presentation of the Elisa Pérez Vera Prize, 9th Edition, to the researcher Kira Mahamud for her work titled: “Madres para la patria por la gracia de Dios” (Mothers for the Homeland, by the Grace of God).
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Exhibit: Darwinism in Natural Science school textbooks in the last third of the 19th century in Spain.
VI Science Week of the Madrid Region. Central library of the UNED. Organized by Margarita Hernández Laille. From 6 to 19 November 2006.
- This exhibit is complemented by the following related activities:
“Presentation of the book Darwinism and textbooks in Spain and England in the 19th. Century“
“Darwinism in textbooks from the end of the 19th. Century”: program aired on Channel 2 of TVE, 9 February 2007.
“Darwin at the school desk”: Article in the newspaper El País, by Carmen Morán. 6 November 2006
“And Darwin… went to school”: Article in the newspaper El Mundo, by Alfredo Merino. 12 November 2006.
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Exhibit: El Quijote in the classroom.
Giner de los Ríos Foundation - Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Madrid). Exhibit organized on the occasion of the IV Centenary of the first edition of El Quijote, sponsored by the Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and the Fundación Francisco Giner de los Ríos. Curators of the exhibit: Gabriela Ossenbach Sauter and Carmen Rodríguez Guerrero. October-November 2005.
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Exhibit: El Quijote in the school
Central Library of the UNED. Exhibition organized on the occasion of the IV Centenary of the first edition of «El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha», by Miguel de Cervantes. Organized by Ana María Badanelli Rubio. From 1 to 30 June 2005.
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Exhibit: Our first letters: exhibit of school textbooks.
On the occasion of Book Day. Central Library of the UNED. April 2004.
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Exhibit: The teaching of Science in school textbooks.
II Science Week of the Madrid Region. Humanities Building, UNED. November 2002.
This exhibit is associated with the following radio program, broadcast on Radio 3 on 10 November 2002.
Listen audio
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