La Bressola celebrates 50 years and brings its Catalan immersion model to the UIB
The Faculty of Education hosts from September 10 to 17 an exhibition that reviews the history of the network of schools, their pedagogy and the situation of Catalan in Northern Catalonia.
PalmaStarting this Wednesday, the UIB will host the exhibition '50 years of La Bressola. 50 years sowing the future', an exhibition that reviews the trajectory of this network of schools in Northern Catalonia and its pedagogical project based on linguistic immersion in Catalan, verticality, and cooperative work. The exhibition, organized by the Faculty of Education, can be visited from September 10th to 17th on the ground floor of Block A of the Guillem Cifre de Colonya building.
The exhibition arrives coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of La Bressola, which was born in 1976. The exhibition project offers a journey through the history of the association and explains its evolution up to the present day, when, according to the exhibition dossier, it has consolidated itself as a network of schools with linguistic immersion rooted in Northern Catalonia and committed to the Catalan language and culture.
The exhibition consists of 15 panels and three cubes designed to reinforce the visual part. The contents are organized into three distinct thematic blocks: the first, blue, is dedicated to general information; the second, yellow, to the history of La Bressola; and the third, orange, to pedagogy. Within each block, the panels follow a chronological order.
The route begins with a panel dedicated to the 50 years of La Bressola and continues with an approach to the context of Northern Catalonia, especially the relationship between education and language. The historical part reviews different stages of the project: its origins and the birth of La Bressola between 1975 and 1977; the period between 1978 and 1995, marked by growth, crises, and the first state recognition; the expansion of the network between 1996 and 2016, with the creation of the first middle school and institutional recognition; and finally, the period from 2017 to the present, defined in the dossier by pedagogical excellence and new challenges.
The current situation of Catalan in Northern Catalonia also occupies a specific space within the exhibition. The tour raises the question of the linguistic framework in which La Bressola works and allows for an understanding of the educational project in relation to the current reality of the language in the territory. One of the objectives of the exhibition is precisely to inform about this situation. The third part of the exhibition focuses on the pedagogy of La Bressola. One of the axes is immersion in Catalan and the way in which the reception of children into a new language and the early acquisition of Catalan takes place. It also addresses the actual time of immersion and the importance of the use of the language among peers, as well as the school's relationship with the territory and the world.
Cooperativism
Another of the elements that the exhibition presents is verticality, defined through the idea of learning together, young and old. The model is completed with cooperative learning and project-based work, and with a reflection on the role of the adult and the educational community. In this way, the exhibition is not limited to explaining the history of La Bressola, but also presents the main elements that shape its pedagogical proposal.
The exhibition is aimed at both the general public and teaching professionals, students from schools and institutes, and people linked to the university field. Among its objectives are to disseminate the pedagogy of La Bressola and to highlight its educational model, to show its history and evolution, and to make known the current situation of Catalan in Northern Catalonia.
The exhibition has been curated by Aleix Andreu and David Altimir and the texts and editing are by Eric Forcada, Francesc Franquesa, Marta Ibáñez, and Adrià Morte. The production corresponds to Dos de nou and the images come from the La Bressola Archive. The project has been edited by the Department of Linguistic Policy of the Government of Catalonia. With this exhibition, the Faculty of Education of the UIB brings to Mallorca the trajectory of an educational project that has been linking the school, linguistic immersion, and the transmission of Catalan in Northern Catalonia for five decades.