Desarrollo institucional y conflicto magisterial en México, 1939-1948. El caso del Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio y los maestros federales de San Luis Potosí

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the factors that took part in the creation of the Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio in order to demonstrate the influence of this in the teacher conflict led by federal teachers of San Luis Potosí in 1948. The methodology consisted of the review of official, testimonial and bibliographical documents about the federal teachers unionized in Section XXVI of the Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio in San Luis Potosí, as well as primary sources of the General Archive of the Nation, of the funds of the Ministry of Public Education and Presidents. What is relative to the educational reform and decrees was reviewed in the Official Gazette of the Federation. The information was systematized through the analysis of content in several stages. In the first stage, of thematic analysis, a pre-analysis was carried out to know the structure of the files related to the conflict. A first general review was made and, from this, the simple frequency distribution to organize the material was generated. In the second stage, of thorough exploration, the meaning of the initial groupings was found, based on very significant expressions and words. In the final stage, about the treatment given to results and interpretation, inferences of greater consistency were made, and a data crisscrossing was made with theoretical enunciations to integrate the written argument. Regarding the results of the research, it is established that institutional strengthening initiatives were created that, without enough bases, were far from guaranteeing an effective response to the training of teachers in service. Among the limitations of the study is the lack of information on the final solution of the conflicts addressed here and the way in which the operation of the Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio (in different stages) was adjusted in the face of the growth of the educational system and the diversification of teacher’s entry profiles. This work is meritorious because it proves the implications of political, economic and social factors and the role of the State in the formation of teachers in service; likewise, because it delves into a scarcely discussed topic: the Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio, the future of this, the conflicts that its operation generated for the federal education system and its teachers. It is concluded that the federal teachers grouped in the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación made of a juncture the occasion to express their dissatisfaction with long standing lags, so they used renewed pressure tactics to claim benefits that “by law” corresponded to them.