The Female representations in the Spanish Civil War propaganda: didactic uses and possibilities for analysis in History education

Didactic Uses and Possibilities for Analysis in History Education

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4025/dialogos.v30i1.78152
Keywords: Spanish Civil War, Poster Art, Female Representations, History Teaching, Gender Perspective

Abstract

This article examines female representations in Spanish Civil War posters as historical sources and as didactic tools in teacher education. Based on the exhibition Posters That Tell: Women in the Spanish Civil War, the study explores diverse portrayals of women in both Republican and Nationalist propaganda. Using a qualitative approach, the research analyzes how secondary teacher training students interpreted the posters through critical, aesthetic, and pedagogical lenses. Results highlight the potential of these visual materials to promote historical thinking, visual literacy, and critical awareness among students, while also identifying persistent resistance and superficial understandings of gender issues in education.

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Author Biographies

Arasy González-Milea, University of Zaragoza

Assistant Professor Doctor at the University of Zaragoza (Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, Huesca Campus). Graduated in Early Childhood Education from the University of Málaga and Higher Technician in Early Childhood Education. I completed the Master’s in Policies and Practices of Educational Innovation, in which I received the Extraordinary Degree Award granted by the University of Málaga, and the Master’s in Education Research (MURE), specializing in Social Science Didactics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

I hold a PhD in Education and Social Communication from the University of Málaga, with a thesis titled “Teaching to Read Outside the Mold: Critical Literacy in Social Science Didactics for Early Childhood Education,” supervised by Dr. Carmen Rosa García Ruíz and Dr. Antoni Santisteban Fernández, evaluated with Highest Honors cum laude.

I completed predoctoral research stays at the University of British Columbia (Canada), the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo (Portugal), and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), as well as postdoctoral stays at the latter and at the University of Granada (Spain).

I am a member of the University Association of Social Science Didactics Professors (AUPDCS) and the Research Institute for the Training of Education Professionals at the University of Málaga (IFE).

Since 2018, I have been part of the Social and Civic Education Research Group (HUM 856), and from 2024, of the S50_23R: ARGOS Research Group, in Social Science Didactics.

I participated in the R&D project “Education for the Future and Hope in Democracy. Rethinking the Teaching of Social Sciences in Times of Change” (EpF+ED) with reference PID2019-107383RB-I00, as well as in the R&D+I project “Emergent Narratives on Inclusive Schools from the Social Model of Disability: Resistance, Resilience, and Social Change” (RTI2018-099218-A-I00), coordinated by Ignacio Calderón Almendros and María Teresa Rascón Gómez.

José Antonio Mérida-Donoso, University of Zaragoza

PhD in Hispanic Philology from the University of Zaragoza in the area of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Currently, I serve as an Assistant Professor with a doctorate at the Department of Specific Didactics at the Faculty of Education in Zaragoza, where I have been an Associate Professor since 2017, balancing this position with my role as a secondary school teacher in Aragón from 2009 to 2021. I am accredited for the PPL role.
I have been a member of various research groups funded by the Government of Aragón (Riff-Raff, Thought, Culture and Aesthetics, H45; GENUS 30 20D) led by Dr. Luis Beltrán Almería, and I have participated in several national projects (GENUS FFI2013-40833-P, GENUS NOVEL FFI2017-82662-P), also led by this Principal Investigator. In these projects, I developed my theoretical focus on the study of literary genres (novel, short story, poetry), as well as different aesthetic spheres (laughter, idyll, didacticism) and contemporary Spanish authors (Manuel Longares, Luis Landero, Juan Eduardo Zúñiga), demonstrated through conference presentations, journal articles (Ínsula, Revista de Libros, Didáctica Lengua y Literatura, Mundo Eslavo), and book chapters (ArcoLibros, L’Harmattan, Renacimiento, Visor, Peter Lang).
Currently, I am a member of the ECOLIJ group, led by Dr. Rosa Tabernero, and I collaborate as part of the research team for the LENFICEC PID2021-126392OB-I00 project, in which she is the Principal Investigator. My research focuses on the realm of children

IRENE ABAD BUIL, University of Zaragoza

Bachelor’s degree in Humanities and PhD in History (2007). Currently, Assistant Professor with Doctorate in the Department of Specific Didactics at the Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza, where she has been an Associate Professor since 2018, balancing this with secondary education teaching (2012-2025).

During her doctoral research, she authored several titles: The Storm That Passes and Recedes. The Maquis Years in the Aragonese Pyrenees – Sobrarbe (Prames, 2001); In Constant Struggle. The Political Biography of Ángeles Blanco (1917-2000) (IEA, 2003); Leandro Saún and Carmen Casas: Clandestine Political Organization in Zaragoza in the 1940s (Government of Aragón, 2008).

She completed a postdoctoral stay at the University of Utah (USA), focusing her research on the International Democratic Women’s Federation and the impact of gendered repression beyond Spanish borders. This work led to the article: “The Dimensions of Gendered Repression during the Francoist Dictatorship” (Jerónimo Zurita History Journal, No. 84, 2009).

She is the author of the documentary We Were Prisoners’ Women, along with director Eva Abad, and the author of the book At the Gates of Prison: Repression, Solidarity, and Mobilization Outside the Walls of Francoist Prisons (Icaria, 2012).

Coordinator of the special issue A Constructed Present. The History of Monzón in the 20th Century (IEA, 2008).

Author of numerous articles and book chapters on the categories “women of prisoners” and “gendered repression.” She is a member of the Argos research group (IUCA) and director of the History area at the Institute of High Aragonese Studies (IEA-Huesca).

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Published
2026-04-15
How to Cite
González-Milea, A., Mérida-Donoso, J. A., & ABAD BUIL, I. (2026). The Female representations in the Spanish Civil War propaganda: didactic uses and possibilities for analysis in History education. Dialogos, 30(1), 232-253. https://doi.org/10.4025/dialogos.v30i1.78152
Issue
Vol 30 No 1 (2026): Cultura histórica, usos do passado: desafios do ensino e da aprendizagem em contextos escolares e não escolares. (tomo II)
Section
Dossier

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