After the Civil War, Spain went through a fragile transition period which forced the society to divorce from the past and to create a new political and social memory. The rupture with that turbulent past helped the country’s democratization, but left a gap in the collective memory along with several unanswered questions. An active debate is currently in place concerning the possibility and convenience of confronting the past and recovering the country’s historical memory. As a graduate student, as well as an educator, I decided to investigate further about Historical Memory and design a creative course to teach the issues involved in the case of Spain’s collective and historical memory of the Civil War.
Memoria e Historia de la Guerra Civil Española is an innovative, web-based college course that will benefit students from multi-disciplinary fields, especially those interested in the Historical Memory of Spain. The course provides students the opportunity to learn about the subject by participating in a variety of activities and assessments that will prompt them to use 21st century competencies, such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, as well as creativity.
The website is also a useful tool for educators, since it offers a collection of resources about the topic, such as articles, dynamic learning platforms, interactive collaboration tools, videos, interviews, among others. It also supplies planning tools, such as lesson plans, books and other materials used to develop the course. The course has been designed to be taught in one academic semester. Alternatively, this website can be implemented as a full online course.