La participación en educación. Los Consejos Escolares, una Vía de Participación

Education has been part of society for ages, and social phenomena influence the direction of education, but it is also education that influences the development and progress of society. In fact, we can affirm, with the authors, that education and school are the backbone of a democratic society, since they are indispensable for the formation of responsible, sociable, critical and participative citizenship. We can therefore affirm that society and education are an inseparable whole in any civilization. However, it is not until the appearance of democratic society that social participation is made possible inside and outside educational centers. This participation, we continue with what the authors tell us, “is not only a means to achieve things, but a way of contributing to a basic objective of compulsory schooling: the acquisition of democratic behavior habits.” This participation can be articulated in different ways, among which school councils stand out as a tool to allow the participation of people who are committed to a common theme: education. To do this, it is important to have the necessary elements that allow the modification of conceptions and attitudes of the participants to achieve common agreements on the guidelines that must be followed to reach the objectives that everyone agrees to achieve. This is a collective book that presents the situation of school councils at the Chilean and Spanish level. To do so, it starts with an introduction that places us in the conception of social participation in education, which is complemented by the epilogue, in which we find the conclusions obtained in a study carried out to find out the real participation of parents of students at the municipal level and in schools. The development of the content of the book begins with an approach to what school councils are, and the vision that is held of them from the educational institutions. To do this, the bases on which participation in education is based through school councils are analyzed and described, and it continues with a description of the role assumed by the different educational agents based on the different conceptions that are held of the management of the educational center. The following chapter completes the above by presenting different participation experiences developed in the Chilean context. Chapter III deals with institutional educational participation at the Spanish level, based on a detailed examination of the State School Council. The chapter is divided into three clearly differentiated parts: the first presents an approach to the relationship between the current regulation of participation and the influential historical antecedents; the second part shows a detailed analysis of the functioning of the Council and its legal powers; the third and final part of this chapter presents the future lines of action of the Council, taking into account the territorial reorganization that has been developed in recent months. The following chapter goes into more detail on the territorial school councils, and their importance as privileged observatories of educational reality and as a tool to formally channel the participation of the educational community. Furthermore, the last section of the chapter calls for those lines in which school councils could work, and which have not yet been developed. Finally, the last chapter presents the experience of municipal school councils, describing their regulatory bases, their forms of organisation and analysing their operation based on a specific case. The book is not intended to be a reference work, but rather a means of reflection on one’s own practice for those who are in charge of management within schools or in educational administration. Its presentation also makes it suitable for people who, despite not being formally involved in the field of education, wish to know through which bodies they can make their opinions known in relation to education. It is especially suitable for managers from those countries that have less experience in educational participation, due to the didactic nature of their contributions through experiences and specific cases.