Educational and Cultural Policy in Catalunya (1980-2010)

Abstract

Significant international political speech on the field of education and culture claim for an advance in more coordinated and complementary polices. Local innovative projects, point at some guidelines and stress the potential of a more cooperative approach between the cultural sector and the educational sector. Unfortunately, they have not succeeded to go beyond the threshold of good practices and become a generalized standard. Our hypothesis is that the juridical frame established between 1980 and 2010 does not satisfy the current social demands on education and culture.
The aim of our investigation is to identify the diverging factors and indicate the difficulties of such an interrelation on the basis of studying the law in both the educational and the cultural field, and an analysis of qualified opinions of experts, technicians and politicians. The main conclusion of our investigation is the confirmation of a lack of fluidity and articulation of the dialog between the world of education and the world of culture in Catalonia. The reasons are mainly of a political and sociological kind.
Difficulties notwithstanding, research has provided evidence of the possibility of systematizing and proposing guidelines for a cultural education. The strategic axis that should articulate future cultural and educational policies is a reinforcement of locality and the challenge of a cultural citizenship. A second parameter is coordinated action for the development of cultural and communicative abilities of citizens providing proper educational opportunities for everybody taking into consideration the appreciation of diversity, effective communication and intercultural dialog. The analysis of the results suggest a third way of political action which should strengthen the cultural and educational programs that encourage creativity and that investigate in fields such as drama pedagogy, body and movement awareness, and a training in the expressive potential of all kinds of languages.