Abstract:

With this proposal we want to present a research project which is being carried out with the support of the Spanish ministry of education.
The project Professional courses of female teachers, headmasters and inspectors within the educative system in Spain: democratic participation and educative innovation, 1970-2001, tries to study the participation and contribution of these women within the Spanish educative system to the social and educative changes at the beginning of the democracy in Spain (in the latest third of the twentieth century).
We are studying different stages of the educative system, its curriculum, culture and changes in the professional profile of these female educators.
The main figures in the research are women from different parts of Spain who have been selected because of their relevant contribution in professional, pedagogical and innovative actions.

Framework of the research
-Women have been an essential part in the Spanish educative system after the installing of the democracy. They are necessary to understand the social and educative changes which happened at that time.
-The incorporation of women to the teaching happened within the ideological framework of the dictatorship, in accordance with the idea of women who could be teacher because of their biological qualities. The female teacher identity has been turned from nanny-teachers into professional-teachers.
-The female educators and manageress have introduced feminist proposals with the intention of transforming sexist structures in education and introducing coeducational models.

General objectives
a.To construct the life histories of female teachers, headmasters and inspectors through a biographical perspective, with the intention of knowing and interpreting the mechanisms of change and innovation which women developed from different fields of professional activity.
b.To know, understand and explain the professional development of these women, as well as the configuration of a professional and educative own space.
c.To analyse the female contribution to the social equality, democratic participation and different ways of educative transformation.
d.To use the female educators experiences to explain the development of the Spanish educative system from the democratic transition to its consolidation in the nineties, as well as its consequences for the society.
e.To go through notions as democratic transition, modernity, change, democratic participation, educative innovation, power, authority and professionalism from the female experiences.

Methodology
In order to address these questions, teachers, headmasters and inspectors from different origin and age have been selected.
Opting for a naturalistic view of reality, this research project does not aim to generalise the results obtained, but rather to offer an in-depth account of the cases that are being studied.
We have adopted a qualitative methodological approach based on interviews and document analysis.

Keywords:

gender, education, research project.