From Reform to Revolution: the Transformation of Cuba’s Education System, 1959–62
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Date
September 21, 2016
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Citation
Schultz, Rainer Gerold. 2016. From Reform to Revolution: the Transformation of Cuba’s Education System, 1959–62. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Abstract
This thesis examines the transformation of Cuba’s educational system from 1959 to 1962 as a case study for the limits of liberal reforms during the Cold War. It explores the birth of the revolutionary state and society, demonstrating that the early revolutionary reforms were inspired by republican traditions and demands of Cuba’s 1940 Constitution, including education for all. Enthusiasm and cooperation among Cuba’s citizens, civil society, and the government were harnessed by the revolutionary government to build a mobilizing state. The context of Cold War dynamics in 1960–61, not a blueprint for communism, spurred the shift from reform to revolution, from cooperation to expropriation, and to socialism.
Chapter 1 describes the development of a political agenda and the undoing of the old order by purging and decentralizing the state apparatus. Chapter 2 follows the revolutionary dynamics of building a new state and foreshadows emerging conflicts with the Catholic Church and the private sector. Chapter 3 illustrates the liberal moment of 1959 by detailing the wide range of open debates on educational reform. Chapter 4 examines textbooks as examples for continuity and change in the transformation of Cuba’s educational sector, illustrating the interaction of political change and education. Chapter 5 traces the history of state intervention and regulation of Cuba’s private schools up to their expropriation in 1961.
An analysis of the political dynamics in Cuba prior to its socialist era in isolation from the United States (1961–2014) is essential for the understanding of the redefinition of Cuba’s socialism today. This study excavates a political culture preceding Cold War polarization. The study is informed by yearlong archival research in Cuba and the United States, as well as by oral histories. It contributes to the history of education and the social history of Latin America’s twentieth century by discussing Cuba’s answers to universal challenges such as illiteracy, social inequality, rural development, and pedagogical reform. The thesis engages with themes of decolonization, U.S.–Cuban relations, and nationalism through the analysis of foreign influence in Cuba’s educational system.
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