The Selection of Contents in School Projects in Spain

Abstract

Studies on curricular contents have predominantly been focused along lines that are sociopolitical (what type of culture is selected by general policies) and epistemological (history of disciplines and their role in the configuration of what school knowledge is). These studies have also moved within a sphere that is prior to the decisions taken in a school or classroom, even though they have served to sustain a large part of the actions that teachers have carried out in this respect. In the present article our aim was to learn how teachers decide on educational contents, since new Spanish educational policy demands that teachers participate in the selection of the contents to be taught at their schools. In order to learn how this is done, our research began with the definition of six criteria (epistemological, factual, pedagogical, pragmatic, psychological and socioideological) that teachers could employ in the selection of contents, in order to subsequently verify the importance of each by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was answered by approximately 900 teachers from Infant and Primary Compulsory Education. The results obtained have allowed us to include in our conclusion different ideas and initiatives that could be taken in relation to content selection. These have to do, above all, with the training of teachers in schools.