Spanish Practices
When I was a lad, during the 1970s, the term Spanish Practices was used pejoratively in a union-bashing sense to describe restrictive practices in the workplace. Until recently I thought it was a modern invention that relied on a stereotypical view of Spanish people as being lazy. In fact it seems the term dates back to Tudor times and is religious in origin, referring to Roman Catholic rites, in contrast to the simpler Protestant forms of worship. Anyway, none of that is what this post is about. I just used the title as clickbait.
I’ve been here in Barcelona, and working in the University of Barcelona, for four weeks now and I thought I’d share a few observations about differences in practice here and in the Ireland (and the UK).
The other night I went out for dinner with colleagues from the Department. The restaurant was much closer to the University than to my flat so instead of going home first I stayed in my office and walked straight there. My route out of the building takes me past a number of teaching rooms. During this warm weather, most of the rooms have the doors open so it’s easy to have a quick look at what’s going on inside. On my way out at about 7.30pm I was surprised to see a number of classes still going on, and they weren’t sparsely attended either.
In Maynooth the latest regular lectures finish at 6pm. Even during the 5pm to 6pm lectures, many students have to leave before the end to catch the one and only bus back to their place of residence. Here the public transport system is so good that isn’t really an issue even for those who don’t live near the campus. As far as I know lectures start at 9am, so students potentially have a very long day. They work hard.
I have to say that I wouldn’t like to have teach late in the evening. I used to do that on Fridays at Queen Mary for the MSc course and didn’t enjoy it. I don’t mind doing 9am lectures, though, but I don’t think students agree – partly because of the difficulty of getting to campus at that time.
In the Faculty of Physics, all the lecture halls, classrooms and laboratories are in one building rather than spread around the campus like they are in Maynooth (and many places in the UK). Fortunately, the building has been designed with students in mind and there is plenty of space for students to use socially or for private study between teaching sessions.
In this picture you can see the inner courtyard of the building occupied by the Faculties of Chemistry and Physics. It’s a big open space, with teaching rooms, etc, on either side. In the far right-hand corner there is a café/bar where one can buy lunch, a coffee, or even a beer, to be consumed either inside or in the seating area in the courtyard. Many students seem to prefer bring their own lunch and eat it in this space., although the food available is pretty good and cheap compared to back home.
As well as being able to eat and drink here, there is plenty of room for students simply to hang out or to study, either alone or in groups. If they don’t feel like that they can use the tram, bus or Metro to go home, and come back later if they have a long gap between classes. None of this is possible at Maynooth.
This particular kind of open space would not work so well in Ireland or the UK because of the weather, though you can probably see in the picture that there had been a bit of rain before I took the photograph, but I hope I’ve made the point that having social spaces makes a huge amount of difference to the student experience, not least because it feels that the University has thought about them. In the neoliberal system that dominates in the UK and Ireland, students are simply a commodity, a source of revenue, to be crammed into every available space and processed as cheaply as possible. In Maynooth students have been, and are being, forced to pay an extra levy for a notional student centre that will probably never be built.
The contrast is very disheartening.
Getting back to educational matters, another thing I’ve noticed walking past classrooms is that it’s not unusual to see a student standing at the blackboard in front of the class going through a problem. I’ve seen that a number of times with quite large classes. Sometimes we ask students to do that sort of thing in tutorials, but I’ve never done so in a full lecture. I think our students would be shocked if we asked, but it’s clearly not unexpected here. That’s a Spanish Practice I’d be quite happy to try.
In the Dark 
October 21, 2023 at 10:48 am
The other night I went out for dinner with colleagues from the Department… My route out of the building takes me past a number of teaching rooms. During this warm weather, most of the rooms have the doors open so it’s easy to have a quick look at what’s going on inside. On my way out at about 7.30pm I was surprised to see a number of classes still going on
Conversely, I’d bet that there are no – or very few – 2pm and 3pm lectures. This is the siesta system which Spain undoubtedly adopted because of the afternoon heat, during which you don’t want to add extra heat through muscle usage. Now that air conditioning is normal, students could do course work in those hours – although the 2-hour midday nap also facilitates a bright night life.
Are you learning Spanish or Catalan? I’m sure your colleagues are happy to speak to you in English, but one misses a lot at a dinner party if one doesn’t have the main language.
the term Spanish Practices… dates back to Tudor times and was originally religious in origin, referring to Roman Catholic rites, in contrast to the simpler Protestant forms of worship.
If it is Tudor in origin then I suspect the main charge in the origin of the term was as much secular as religious. Spain was an acknowledged enemy of England in the Eizabethan era; witness the Armada. Here is an interesting Wikipedia page about what one might call late-mediaeval Iberiophobia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend_(Spain)
October 21, 2023 at 11:13 am
There isn’t an official siesta period here, though lunch breaks are rather leisurely and start a bit later. I’ve noticed that seminars and colloquia are often at 2 or 3 which may indicate that there are fewer teaching sessions then, so that staff can attend.
October 21, 2023 at 11:27 am
I’m trying to improve my Spanish – it’s more widely spoken than Catalan among people I’ve met – but it’s difficult. Whenever I try to say anything in Spanish people always reply in English! They seem to appreciate the effort though.
Catalan and Spanish are similar, but the former has fewer nouns that end in vowels than the latter so to me it sounds a bit like a mixture of French and Spanish.
October 21, 2023 at 6:03 pm
Peter you make a very good point about the importance of a physical Agora I wrote about this in the past https://agendapublica.elpais.com/noticia/17351/where-is-agora-virtualized-society?prm=ep-app in an article I actually like a lot.
As one of your host here I appreciate your views during your sabbatical. I hope you will collate them at the end of your stay.
My father used to have a siesta routine built into his working day, which was very long, 9-13 and then 17-20, but I enjoyed enormously having him back for lunch every weekday at high school we will do only morning sessions 9-13:30 and them go back home for lunch and study rest of day. This was intended this way, either at home or local public library. But now the siesta routine is totally gone, very few people of my generation or younger follow it.
As a thoughrobreab true Madrileño I think there was some truth to the black legend in post imperial Spain until circa 1982. It is only 40 years that Spain became a modern and vibrant western country.
No sabía que querías que te hablase siempre en español a partir de ahora me referiré a la “función de onda” y el cartografiado de Euclid 😉
October 21, 2023 at 5:10 pm
I’d very much like to sit in on an undergraduate lecture or to, just to see how teaching styles differ.
October 21, 2023 at 5:12 pm
You can do this trivially bit a significant number of classes are in Catalan. Just watch out for the lisp to find the ones in Spanish;-)
October 21, 2023 at 5:14 pm
I wouldn’t want to go in without asking the lecturer first! I’m particularly interested in seeing the level of the first year material.
October 21, 2023 at 10:49 am
Following our major refurbishment a few years ago, we have a number of social interaction spaces for students – a big issue we had with our previous infrastructure. It also means we can now run a lot of student social events. Social space is vital to have and should be at the core of any building plans in academia.
October 22, 2023 at 1:09 pm
Maybe the picture doesn’t do it justice but I don’t find the concrete open space were the students are sitting on the floor all that appealing. When I was a physics undergraduate at Queen Mary College the main social point between lessons was a small chapel building to the side of the Physics building. They were very light on religion, and it was mostly a place to chat and have a coffee. Otherwise the main social centre was the student union particularly the bar. There was also a quite nice park near the Mile End tube station. Placed football there with the mathematics/astronomy postgraduate students. There was also one of the more significant social events of Ph.D time there. A large American, Viking looking lol, visiting Postdoc suggested a softball game there. Just about every postgraduate and postdoc from maths building took part, and even some from physics. The american guy could hit the ball a distance, but in my rosy memory remember being particularly athletic that day, and catching him out a few times. Once way out on the boundary, and another a diving catch to save a physics postgraduate woman being hit by the ball. Peter was doing most of the pitching for my team. It was different times 30 years ago, were students still had full grants. Surprised Maynooth wouldn’t have a Student Union building though. When visited the Astronomy unit pages recently, it did feel more corporate than the time I was there. For example the main lecture was at 2pm now, whilst before was later and people went to the bar/ local restaurants afterwards. Maybe I would be shocked what the student experience would be like in the UK now.
October 22, 2023 at 1:14 pm
The American guy was Joe Giacalone.
October 22, 2023 at 3:50 pm
Hi thanks! I remember people’s faces but haven’t forgotten most names. He became a Professor too, great.