Francesc Xavier Hernández Cardona (Barcelona, 1954) is a Catalan historian, Professor of Didactics of Social Sciences of the University of Barcelona.
In 1979 he got a degree in Philosophy and Literature, Section of Modern and Contemporary History, at the University of Barcelona, with the thesis entitled "The MLE (Spanish Libertarian Movement) and its development in Catalonia (1939-1945)", directed by Josep Termes.
In 1993 he earned a doctorate at the same university with the thesis (in Catalan) titled "The History of Catalonia in the Primary and Secondary School (1975-1990)", directed by Pelai Pagès.
He has developed his research and teaching career in specialties like didactics of history and social sciences, didactics of heritage, historical iconography, didactic museography and the military history of Catalonia.
Academic and management career Since 1979 he worked as a lecturer in the University School of Teacher Education for Educación General Básica (EGB) of the University of Barcelona. In 1984 he became a tenured lecturer of the University School, and in 1995 a tenured lecturer at the University of Barcelona, where in 2003 he obtained the Chair as professor of didactics of the social sciences.
From 1999 to 2002 he served as President of the Division of Education Sciences of the University of Barcelona and since 2008 to 2015 was Director of the Department of Didactics of Social Sciences at the same institution. On behalf of the party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya ("Republican Left of Catalonia"), he was the General Director of Research of the Generalitat de Catalunya ("Government of Catalonia") in the tripartite government of Pasqual Maragall from 2003 to 2006, while Carles Solà was Counselor of the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society. He renewed his charge as General Director of Research during the first months of the second tripartite government, while Josep Huguet was Counselor of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise. In March 2007 he resigned because in his opinion the government did not give strategic priority to research.
As General Director General of Research strengthened the system of research in Catalonia and promoted the creation of numerous recognized centers. During this time several institutions were launched to form the backbone of the Catalan research system: The Superocomputador Mare Nostrum (Centre de Supercomputació de Barcelona, "Supercomputing Center of Barcelona") The Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB, "Biomedical Research Park of Barcelona") The Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (IRBB, "Biomedical Research Institute of Barcelona") The Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC, "Bioengineering Institute of Catalonia") The Institut Català de Nanotecnologia (ICN, "Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology") The Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont ("Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology") The Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua (ICRA, "Catalan Institute of Water Research") The Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya (IREC, "Energy Research Institute of Catalonia") The Institut Català de Ciències del Clima (IC3, "Catalan Institute of Climate Sciences") The Centre de Recerca en Epidemiologia Ambiental (CREAL, "Center for Environmental Epidemiology Research") The Centre de Medecina Regenerativa de Barcelona (CMRB, "Center for Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona") The Centre de Recerca en Salut Internacional de Barcelona (CRESIB, "Center for International Health Research of Barcelona") The Institut de Medecina Predictiva i Personalitzada del Càncer (IMPPC, "Predictive and Personalized Cancer Medicine Institute") The Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica (CRA, "Center for Agrigenomics Research") The Institut Català de Recerca en Patrimoni Cultural (ICRPC, "Catalan Institute for Cultural Heritage Research") The Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (ICPHES, "Catalan Institute for Human Paleocology and Social Evolutionary) The Centre Esther Koplowitz (CEK, "Esther Koplowitz Center")
He also collaborated in strengthening and creating new headquarters of research centres such as:
The Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO, "Institute for Photonics Sciences") The Institut Català d'Investigació Química (ICIQ, "Catalan Institute of Chemical Investigation") The Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS, "August Pi i Sunyar Biomedical Research Institute") The Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC, "Telecommunications Technology Center of Catalonia") The Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC, "Spacial Studies Institute of Catalonia") The Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC, "Catalan Classical Archeology Institute")
The ALBA Synchrotron works were undertaken during his tenure. In order to generate a powerful research network, he promoted the creation of a Catalan Agency for Research, inspired by the German model of the Max Planck Society and the Fraunhofer Society, an attempt which did not succeed because the seventh legislature came to a sudden end. For the same reason it was not possible to enact a Law of Science giving coverage to research strategies. He tried to link organically the Catalan research system with the French one, and important advances were aborted by the political situation.
Among the measures that he drove: the transformation of FI scholarship programme into contracts of employment of 3 years (plus 1 of previous grant); the creation of post-doctoral programme Beatriu de Pinós, oriented to the employment insertion of research personnel in companies; the creation of the Junior ICREA programme and the stabilization of the researchers belonging to the programme Ramon y Cajal. These initiatives were meant to lay the foundations of a research career in Catalonia. He also systematized and prompted calls and various research structures like the SGR (Support Grups de Recerca; a Support for research groups), ARIE (Ajunts per a la Recerca, Innovació i Educació); XIRE (Xarxes d'Innovació i Recerca Educativa); or Excava, to promote Catalan archaeological missions abroad (Althiburos, Oxirrinc, Bactriana, Syria, among others).
Aside from these initiatives he also made possible the work of prominent researchers in Catalonia, such as Joan Massagué, Manuel Perucho or Juan Carlos Izpisúa.
History and Didactics of History He worked as a teacher in primary and secondary education. His career as university-tenured lecturer and Professor of university has been linked to the teaching of the social sciences, didactics of history and didactics of Catalonian heritage.
He took part in the most diverse initiatives of educational research and innovation. He was the editor of the experimental curricula projects of social and cultural environment (primary education) and social sciences (12-16) for the educational reform promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya at the end of the 20th century.
He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Guix and was founder and co-director of the journal Iber: Didactics of Social Sciences, Geography and History. He did research on textbooks and has also generated models for Primary and Secondary School based on the interaction between image and text, which have been widely replicated since the end of the 20th century to the present day. Major collections include Barcanova and Teide.
Hernández has also collaborated in the development of new types of educational materials based on the design of books of activities which integrate documentation and learning resources. He advocates for the application of the scientific method in the classroom, has developed various proposals to promote, using the discovery strategy, the work with different types of historical sources. In this sense, he conducted his doctoral thesis on the image of Catalonia in textbooks during post-Franco age: "La Història de Catalunya a l'ensenyament primari i secundari (1975-1990)".
He is author of numerous articles and books of theoretical reflection on the teaching of history and Social Sciences: Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales; Ensenyar Història de Catalunya; 12 ideas clave: Enseñar y aprender historia. He has also written several books to disseminate history, as well as monographs on unique topics. He has published many papers and books of history including several synthesis of the history of Catalonia.
He has been main investigator of many competitive projects, among other four R&D of the Spanish "National Plan for Research". The bodies of the State (CNEAI) have recognized his work as researcher by granting him with four periods of six years ("Sexenios de investigación" in Spanish).
Historical iconography He has developed several works of innovation and research focused on the importance of didactic iconography in history, and has applied the results in the preparation of social dissemination and textbooks. He has also developed models of virtual reconstruction of archaeological sites that help formulate hypotheses about parts and uses of buildings and urban ensembles.
He has tackled the challenge of recreating the evolution of a city in a limited space. The work carried out on the Iberian Citadel of Calafell (Tarragona); the Iberian settlement of Puig Castellar (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona); the site of Empúries (Girona) and the recreation of the Roman city of Althiburos (Tunisia) and the city of Barcelona in the 18th century, among others, are the most outstanding experiences.
On the basis of the contributions of the British illustrator David Macaulay, he has created generic models of city and has recreated the evolution of its iconography over time. This work was developed in collaboration with the extraordinary illustrator Jordi Ballonga. The results were published by the Milanese publishing Jaca Book between 1990 and 1993, translated into different languages, and published in different countries (Italy, France, United Kingdom, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Tunisia, Spain -Catalan and Spanish editions-, United States, Japan and Germany). Three city models were designed: BARMI, a Mediterranean city in southern Europe; LEBEK, a city in Northern Europe; and SAN RAFAEL, a city in Central America.
In the context of the tricentennial commemorations in Barcelona of the end of the Siege of Barcelona (1713-1714), and in collaboration with Guillem Hernández Pongiluppi, he presented an ambitious iconographic proposal around the siege of Barcelona in 1713-1714 and the battle of 11 September. He has also collaborated with various artists (John Chien, Francesc Riart, Guillem Hernández, Mar Hernández) on issues related to the military defense and fortification, military technology and weaponry. Noteworthy is the impulse of new iconographic, digital strategies and matte painting, with illustrators such as Guillem Hernández Pongiluppi and Mar Hernández Pongiluppi.
Didactic museology He started his activities in museography in 1992, working on the project of partial restoration of the Iberian Citadel of Calafell (Tarragona), inspired by the educational experience of Lejre (Denmark). The relationship with Calafell finished with the musealisation of 1996. Almost in parallel, he coordinated the historical and museological executive project of the History Museum of Catalonia, which is implemented in a record time of 18 months and that was one of the first models in Europe in the field of didactic and interactive museology on history. The relationship of consultancy with the Museum ended in 1997 because of the regressive policy, in terms of interactive museography, imposed by the direction of the Museum. In the following years he criticized the policies driven by the direction teams of the Museum, the falsification and degradation of the original project and the lack of goals of the institution.