On 5th October 1867, the Normal School of Female Teachers of València was inaugurated with the support of the Universitat de València, the City Council and the Provincial Council, three public and secular institutions. ‘The School was much more than a school of female teachers, because until 1910 women could not enrol in an institution of secondary education nor in the university without the consent of the competent authority, unlike men. So the School was the first public and non-religious project in which women, just after finishing basic education, could enrol freely to study Teaching Training and also to have studies parallel to secondary schools because they did not all ended up being teachers’, explains professor Agulló.

Throughout 150 years this public, secular and (originally) specifically for women institution, has trained the teachers that have educated women in the Valencian schools. Nowadays it has become the current Faculty of Teacher Training and it is necessary to remember their professors, appreciate their pedagogical contributions and analyse their impact in the society as the educating institution of every Valencian woman.

Carmen Agulló graduated in Psychology and Philosophy and Education Sciences, and she is doctor in Pedagogy. She is full university professor of the Department of Comparative Education and Education History of the Universitat de València and teaches in the Faculty of Philosophy and Education Sciences and in the Faculty of Teacher Training in València and Ontinyent.

Her research work focuses on recovering the history of women education, the history of the education at the Valencian Country (Second Republic and Francoism) and its historic-cultural heritage. ‘Mestres valencianes republicanes’, ‘La depuración del magisterio valenciano’, ‘Una escuela rural republicana’ with the professor Juan Manuel Fernández Soria, ‘La renovació pedagògica al País Valencià’, with the professor Alejandro Mayordomo, and ‘Antonia Maymon. Anarquista, maestra, naturista’, with Pilar Molina are some of her publications. She has also collaborated with Pilar Pérez Solano in her documentary ‘Las maestras de la República’. She is vice-president of the society Societat d’Història de l’Educació dels Països de Llengua Catalana (an affiliated organisation of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans) and she has been awarded with the award to individual career of the Escola Valenciana 2016. 

The event is framed within the activities of the school Escola Europea de Pensament Lluís Vives (http://www.escoladepensamentlluisvives.com), a cultural project fostered from the Office of the Vice-Principal for Culture and Equality and managed by the General Foundation of the Universitat de València. It counts on the participation of the President of the Valencian Government, the City Hall of Valencia, the Valencian Department of Transparency and Education, Research, Culture and Sports, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, the Alfons el Magnànim Institute, the Escola Europea d’Humanitats and Caixa Popular.