Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The EU is, in formal terms, a union of states founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights and values. The value of the cultural diversity of European societies is thus questioned by radical voices that endeavour to disseminate discord and fragmentation between and within MS. Both policy makers and practitioners argue for a need to develop Intercultural and Democratically competent teachers who are capable of bridging the gap between the politics of belonging and the individual´s expression of belonging. The following paper analyses three international flagship competence frameworks for the development of Intercultural competence. It argues for a need in shifting the ppaproahc in teachers educationtion for addressing Cultural Diversity choosing the Council of Europe RFCDC framework as the optimal choice for teacher education towards a new paradigm of intercultural and democratic competence     

Hospital Pedagogy, its classrooms, and the volunteer staff that carry out their actions in Spanish hospitals are advancing progressively, but not as fast as it should. The objective of this article has been to present, in a very synthetic way, the discipline that surrounds the educational-health environment where the sick student lives; hospital classrooms. The methodology that has been used has been based on a qualitative study of the five Foundations under study. With this, it has been possible to carry out a comparative analysis between them, thus obtaining a series of convergences and divergences that have led us to draw comparative conclusions with conclusive arguments and proposals for improvement.

The remarkable expansion of private funding university centers in Spain during the last decades has raised multiple comparisons with public funding university centers. However, from an educational psychology perspective, students’ perceptions and beliefs -realistic or not- have been less explored. As a result, a screening study is proposed with the main aim of inquiring about current public university students and recent (last five years) graduates’ perceptions on these two different models of funding. There were 102 participants (25.5 % men and 74.5% women) who were currently enrolled in university (55.9%) or who had finished their studies within the last 5 years (44.1%). An ad hoc assessment tool was developed to evaluate the participants’ perceptions. For the analysis, descriptive statistics, correlations and mean differences between both groups were used. The most remarkable results show that even though participants find some quality indicators (such as materials, practical lessons, close treatment…) to be more present in private university centers, public universities are thought to excel in teaching and research quality. On the other hand, even though private universities are thought to be more likely to correctly adapt to the pandemic, especially regarding online teaching methods, participants also point out public universities could find this as an opportunity for improvement. These findings may point the way regarding future university orientation, teaching or scholarships.

This draft focuses on the analysis of current Chilean government policies and their executive application in educational establishments regarding educational inclusion. Specifically, the Chilean National School Integration Policy aims to include all children with some Special Educational Needs in the Regular School System. The objective is to analyze, from the perspective of equity, the main characteristics of integration policy, identify who are the main beneficiaries and what are the threats and opportunities for the development of equity in schools, to conclude with some recommendations based on the perspective of equity (Ainscow et al., 2012) identifying appropriate strategies to respond to diversity according to the context in which families and the educational community are immersed. The research method is conceived under a qualitative, descriptive approach, using the analysis of written discourse as the main tool. The main findings are related to the poor promotion of equity and inclusion, due to the commodification of education and the promotion of competition over cooperation, it is reflected in obtaining optimal results in standardized tests and with it the segregation of less favored segments; despite the fact that international and national efforts are oriented in the direction of inclusion and justice there are structural problems of society as a whole which deepen and perpetuate the inequities that already exist in the Chilean educational system.

The COVID-19 crisis caused an unheard scholar closure that required a historic resource mobilization in order to ensure the right of education worldwide. All of that in a context in which the role and future of face-to-face teaching was being called into question from different spheres.  This book encompasses early studies analysing the pandemic impact on educational systems around the world in key aspects such as governance, immediate reactions, available resources, as well as its effect on issues such as learning, inequity and adaptability in each one of them. Also, this work anticipates many subjects in a new wave of research in which scholar closure is stated as a source of relevant information on the educational processes.  What were the starting conditions on different educational systems from a worldwide perspective? What answers have been appropriate in each context? What sort of conclusions on governance and educational systems organization can we jump into? Will we be able to cope with a future situation ensuring that it doesn’t affect the right of education? These are the main questions that are part of a reflection on the past, present, and future of Primary and Secondary Education that we should answer to interpret again, without fantasies or daydreams, the role of school in our society.   

REVIEW OF: Larrosa, Jorge (2020). El profesor artesano. Materiales para conversar sobre el oficio. (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Noveduc) 342 pp. ISBN: 978-987-538-684-6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

School autonomy is a key factor in promoting innovation processes in schools. Its development in European countries has changed according to the educational policy, which requires a specific study on the contributions to the field of educational theory and practice. The objective of this study is to know the effect of school autonomy on educational innovation based on an argumentative critique of the progress in European countries with different innovation experience: Spain, France, United Kingdom. Belgium, Germany and Finland. School autonomy plays a vital role in the educational scene to promote the development ability of schools to meet the needs of students. The meaning of school autonomy and its implementation in teaching practice are defined. In Spain, major advances has been made in teaching methods. In France, curriculum decision-making is the responsibility of the government and school leaders. In United Kingdom, school autonomy is aimed at achieving good results. Belgium teachers have experience making decisions in the field of curriculum. In Finland and Germany, the municipal bodies are responsible in the innovation management in schools. The results of the analysis of school autonomy in these European countries suggest that there is still a gap between the theoretical basis of autonomy and its implementation in the teaching practice and manage school autonomy to promote innovation processes.

The global context of uncertainty in which we live, personally and professionally, favors the emergence and promotion of processes of participatory, horizontal reflection, at all levels of life. This also applies to education, including higher education. It is hoped that we will be able to see how we could improve what we do, how we do it, where we do it and why we do it at universities, understood in its broadest sense of higher, post-secondary or tertiary education. This year the European Commission has done so by proposing its European Strategy for Universities. Likewise, it was suggested and developed in 2021 by the UNESCO Institute of Higher Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (IIHELAC), with its Regional Consultation project on the futures of learning from the perspective of the higher education sector. The IIHELAC Report accounted for here now is the result of several consultations with 25 world experts in the field of higher education and, as we are warned, it is not intended, in any way, to be a higher education project for 2050. It is the first of seven scheduled phases for the Futures of Higher Education project within the framework of UNESCO's flagship initiative Futures of Education. Reimagine our futures together.  In the Report there is a clear demand for a comprehensive and quality higher education for all, adapting the structures of higher education institutions to the needs and characteristics of the students and not the other way around, responding to the diversity of the student body while aiming at institutional diversification. Throughout all the sections of the Report, considerations and themes emerge that provoke reflection, debate and questioning of apparent truths that condition the inclusive and sustainable development of higher education as a public good in the perspective of lifelong learning. Two of them seem to us to merit further reflection here. On the one hand, the need to continue advancing to secure the idea of extending the human right to education to higher education, making it truly inclusive; and, on the other hand, the clear defense that higher education institutions should indeed be centers for the creation, debate and dissemination of critical knowledge and critical thinking.

The Spanish educational system has traditionally been characterized by the presence of public-private partnerships in the education provision. However, in the expansive context of the Global Education Industry (GEI), emerging actors are now developing new influence strategies. This paper analyses the free educational programs offered through the foundations of four enterprises characterized by being located in Spain and having a business sector different from education. The selection of the programs seeks to identify in the context of the Spanish school system the presence and the influence actions of businesses actors which don’t have an educational profile but that target their products to that sector, mainly teachers. The analysis of the educational products has been carried out through the three moments identified by Jessop within the Cultural Political Economy approach: variation, selection and retention. Results show the legitimation of the participation of private actors into the educational systems as the basis on which the programs operate, reflected on the absence of justificatory discourses; the focus of the educational products on school practices, specifically on curriculum elements (competencies, contents, teaching methodologies) and teachers training; and the use of economic rewards and technological compensations, courses and standardized teaching materials as main influence actions. As a whole, these actions seek to impact the educational system by placing teachers as recipients of their interventions, but at the same time they develop hybridization strategies through collaboration with public institutions. With their speeches and actions, companies build a system of market educational knowledge that emphasizes the utilitarian value of the education system and that has public institutions as collaborators.

The study seeks to understand how similar policies have disseminated to different parts of the world during the pandemic, following the logic of the Global Movement for Educational Reform (GERM), a process that expands in Brazil with strong neoliberal and business accents, articulated with neoconservative interests. To do so, we comparatively analyzed the educational policies adopted in the nine states of the Northeast region of Brazil in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, seeking to understand the processes of mobility/policy transfer, as well as the influence of the private sector on the educational and political decisions of public education system. Using some elements of network ethnography, the actions of the Northeast State Departments of Education and their main “partners” were mapped. The role of the private sector in conducting the policies adopted by the states was analysed, offering training actions for managers and teachers, the intensification of control and monitoring of teaching work, as well as the concern with curricular reorganization through the alignment of contents to assessments and the National Learning Standards. Edu-business has seen the pandemic as an opportunity to expand its influence on public education, so that the “new normal” tends to reaffirm the old parameters of the market, at the same time that there is an accelerated growth of inequalities.