Whereas universal public access to early childhood education and care has long occupied a prominent place in feminist demands to end patriarchy, not only has such access gone largely unmet in most countries, save some noteworthy exceptions, but privatized childcare and early education has only gained momentum through neoliberalism, a process that…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

The process of teaching and learning is not merely a question of transmitting a received cultural legacy but also of its transformation. Education is inseparable from life and from any socio-political model we wish to build and defend. This implies the impossibility of separating education from politics. Hence we must attempt to provide future…

The article proposes and illustrates a methodological framework that aligns with the action-research models and utopian methodology in particular, although it represents a more substantial leap forward, especially regarding the distributed nature of decision making in the different processes of research/intervention, and its multiple and…

This chapter is based on a workshop at IVEC 2020 which presented a model of Virtual Exchange (VE) facilitated by interactive, digital, and cultural artefacts created using a progressive web app developed by the EU-funded ENACT project team. The model offers an innovative approach to online intercultural exchange through the opportunity to create,…

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the frequent closure of school buildings in most countries in the world and has interrupted the school attendance of at least 1.2 billion students in 2020 and 2021. Although many education systems are adapting to varying degrees, the pandemic is showing that countries' current learning infrastructures…

The Open University of Catalonia (UOC) is a pioneer university in the use of technology for online learning. The virtual teaching system enables to acquire professionalizing competences and facilitates the practitioners the update of knowledge in an optimum way. That is possible, on one hand, thanks to the resources for theoretical and practical…

The COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted education around the world. As the first shock passes, planning is taking place on two timescales: the short-term challenges in the return to school, and the challenges over the next 18-24 months as systems work to build resilience and adaptability for the future. This "Trends Shaping Education…

In 2012 Spain inaugurated a reform of its higher education financial aid system inspired by three principles: cost-sharing, increasing academic performance and school efficiency. This reform has shifted the aim of the system from equality of access to a type of meritocracy that can be defined as class-biased, as it is only applied to low-income…

This policy profile on education in Spain is part of the "Education Policy Outlook" series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Building on the OECD's substantial comparative and sectoral knowledge base, the series offers…

The paper presents a successful educational practice that, inspired by the "dialogic learning" methodological principles, is implemented through a "learning community." Theoretical bases are introduced, along with some defining traits of didactic practice. The focus is on the 'La Paz' "learning community" case, as a…

This article aims to interpret how different policies of priority education deal with the notions of "educational needs" and "educational inequalities." Indeed, it is the processes and mechanisms embedded in the deployment of such policies that ultimately model a category of educational need that goes beyond the…

This paper explores the differential influence of government ideology and education governance on the gender policies of socialist and conservative administrations in Spain from 1983 onwards.The first national policies which favoured equal rights for men and women in education, employment, and social and political life were developed under a…

Education is one of the pillars in which a Welfare State is effectively based on in order to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth. In contemporary society, knowledge and education are among the most appreciated goods, and everyone should have the right to acquire them, without distinction of gender, race, age, health or religion. From our…

Education is considered to be a crucial element of social development, but, in the global society, the legitimising principle of educational equality is altered by the neoliberal view that competition will improve the quality of any service made available in a society, which in turn will have a positive effect on the general welfare. The…