Promoting emotional, social and civic competencies: Educational policies in Spain

Abstract

This article analyzes Spain’s educational policies in terms of emotional, social, and civic competencies. The need to teach these competencies at school is justified socially and pedagogically, and the way in which these competencies are implemented in Spanish and European school curricula is described. Spain’s main political actions to promote social-emotional education are then described. The article concludes that for these programs to be effective, they must overcome a double challenge related to the practical implementation of competence-based curricula and transversal competencies assessment. Consequently, Europe as well as Spain must redouble their efforts (economic, instrumental, and in terms of assessment) to achieve their educational goals.