Educational Policy in Spain: Between Political Bias and International Evidence

Abstract

In Spain since the Constitution was ratified in 1978, eight laws have been passed regulating the education system in non-university stages, thereby subjecting education to continual upheaval. In the first laws, from the 1980s and early 1990s, the debate was primarily political, but by the year 2000, coinciding with Spain’s taking part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), legislation had apparently become more technical in nature. The objective of this paper is to analyse the type of political reading made from the results of these international assessments. It focuses on the three general laws on education that have been passed in Spain in the last 15 years. The sources for the study are the debates that took place while the laws were being drafted, especially during the parliamentary proceedings. The analysis shows the submission of the political debate under the pressure to achieve a more internationally competitive system. In the realm of the political right this step gave victory to neo-liberalism over neo-conservativism. In the realm of the political left, it represents the rise of neoliberal socialism and the surrender to the forces of the economy. Both tendencies dramatically affect the notion of the common good, a notion that does not fit comfortably in either one.