Pioneering actions of the Porfirista teachers in Zacatecas and the establishment of Pedagogical Societies

Abstract

The present investigation has as a common thread the analysis of the labor conditions of the teaching staff of the XIX century, particularly those that had the last third of said century in Zacatecas as a chronological scenario. In this sense, the study starts from the importance of education in the aforementioned period, as one of the priorities of all the political groups of Independent Mexico, in terms of the high rate of illiteracy that defined the population and the conceptualization of how the country could move towards modernization and progress through educational training. Therefore, in this purpose, the action of the arms of an educational State, namely: the teaching staff, is considered fundamental. In this perspective, it acquires a woman’s face in the period in question, due to economic and gender issues. The work carried out by these “working people” in education is not linked to their working conditions and economic perceptions, so that, in the twilight of the Porfiriato, they began to organize to improve their teaching practice and, above all, their working and living conditions. The foregoing results in the establishment of four teaching associations at the beginning of the 20th century, both in the capital city and within the state. These associations denote an important awareness that laid the foundations for the organization of the teachers’ union, defending common interests in the face of the inability of a State apparatus that fails or is unable to support the work they do.