Comprehensive Educational Reforms in Spain: Past and Present

Science at risk? Considering the importance of academic freedom for STEM research production across 17 OECD countries

“…In 1981 (the beginning of our panel), Spain was emerging from Franco-era autocracy and undergoing a “democratic transition” [ 64 ]. Although the country’s 1978 Constitution formally granted universities autonomy, more meaningful reform did not come until 1983 when legislation entrusted university rectors with autonomy and decentralized authority over teaching and research to academic departments [ 65 ]. V-Dem’s academic freedom data reflect these unfolding events and show an increase in academic freedom in Spain in the early 1980s.…”

A cross-cultural comparison of music education experiences and ambitions in two Spanish and English primary schools

“…Cox, 2002; Pitts, 2000) than in Spain (Rusinek & Sarfson, 2010), but the available evidence shows some similarities in the foundations of a universal music education. Both countries focused initially on collective singing in the secondary school classroom, with Spanish schools in the 1950s drawing on patriotic songs for explicitly nationalistic reasons (Carabaña, 1988, p. 213), while English schools from the start of the 20th century had followed the work of folk song collectors in promoting choral singing in schools (Rainbow, 2006, p. 257). In England, the range of musical provision in schools widened over the following decades to include music appreciation, the proliferation of extra-curricular ensembles including school choirs and orchestras, and the creative, child-centred musical learning promoted by John Paynter and other composer-educators (Paynter & Aston, 1970), which would become arguably the UK’s most distinctive contribution to worldwide music education (Finney, 2011).…”

The comprehensive school in Spain: A review of its development cycle and crises

“…The new Socialist Party government makes education one of the pillars of its programme of change for greater social equality (Maravall, 1984). In contrast to the top-down reforms, a period of ‘reform experiences’ was initiated, influenced by the Plowden Report (1967), which tried to promote educational change from the schools themselves, as bottom-up innovations (Carabaña, 1988). In 1987, Minister Maravall presented an initial proposal, which would be reformulated with the publication of the White Book for the Reform of the Educational System (1989), seeking an ‘equal schooling, with a common curriculum, recognizing the subjects’ differences’.…”