A Critical Review of the Competency-Based Curriculum in Spain

Abstract

[Abstract] The discourse of competency-based education first appeared in Spain as part of the process of university reform, before being extended to all levels of education under the 2006 Education Act (LOE). In the collective imagination, education reform is usually associated with ideas of improvement and progress. However, as history and experience have shown, this is not always the case. The discourse around competencies is essentially a way of rebranding the existing policy trend towards functional, useful, efficiency-based learning that is more concerned with economic development than social and human progress. The official discourse of competency-based learning must be decoded in terms of the type of education offered to students: one based on participation in and reflection on the principles of critical, democratic, common-good citizenship; or one more focused on measurable, rankable indicators and outcomes. Compounding this tension, the attempt to curricularise competences such as citizenship has seen a resurgence of the tug of war between church and state in Spain, where the role of religion in schools is always the biggest stumbling block to agreement.