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This paper aims to highlight the prominence and relevance attached by the Franco dictatorial regime to emotions and sentiments in primary education textbooks. The authors of school textbooks employed a singular writing style, which enabled them to permeate the regime's ideology within the primary education community and classroom. Overcoming the censorship of their textbooks lent the authors a measure of authority derived from the government, increasing the schoolbook's relevance as the instructional resource par excellence. The sentimental narrative, reinforced by figurative, pseudo-poetic language and precise instructions on how and what to feel, represents prescriptive texts and reveals the objective of emotionally homogenising and indoctrinating the children in order to socialise them politically and religiously, moulding their socio-political self and identity within the pattern established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the process of production and regulation of school textbooks in Poland under communist rule. The stages of textbook approval were as follows: selection of authors; editorial work at the publishing house; discussions in the commissions of the Ministry of Education; decisions of the censorship office. It is argued that the Polish United Workers’ Party (i.e. the Polish communist party) played a dominant role at every step of this process. The question of possible influence of the Soviet communists is also addressed. Some changes in the textbook approval process are traced in time, with emphasis put on sustainability of the principle of dominant position of the party. The constraints of power of the communist regime in the field of education are briefly discussed, with the human factor given most serious consideration. There had always been a shortage of people, from the party’s point of view, ready to implement rules, and far too many of those who undermined them. This analysis is based on the archival holdings of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of Poland and of the censorship office. Teachers’ press and other publications dealing with school textbooks and history of education in the People’s Poland have also been used. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]