Discourses and Practices around the Competencies in Education

Abstract

In this paper, based on the knowledge elaborated through different research projects carried out in recent years, I first argue the difficulty of creating discourses and proposals from the field of education due, among other factors, to the scarcity of means and resources for educational research. Second, I refer to the social, political, economic, cultural and technological changes that have led to the emergence and expansion, especially from the business field, of the discourses on the importance and convenience of implementing competency-based teaching and learning processes. I also discuss the strengths, difficulties and dangers that this entails. Thirdly, I consider the proposals made by different international organizations and their application in the Spanish education system. Next, I explore the difficulty of generating substantive changes in teaching and learning, from the enactment of the real decrees that stipulate the obligation to introduce the considered basic competences in the school curricula. The article ends with some conclusions and proposals for thinking.

Keywords

• Cambio educativo
• competencia digital
• competencias sociales y cívicas
• condiciones de enseñanza
• política educativa
• práctica educativa.