Educational Reform and the psicologizing of the social problems

Abstract

Some of features of the recent reform of the system of education of Spain are here analyzed. The analysis calls attention to the reform's technocratic tendencies, with the attendant deskilling of the teachers' work. The reformers' option for a psychologizing approach is also emphasized, an approach which implies a disregard for questions such as multiculturalism, sexism, popular culture and the like, which, by contrast, have been considered as important by studies in the area of Sociology of the Currículum. The text which introduces the reform is seen as a predominantly psychological discourse, centered in an "universal" individual, a discourse voied of its more historical and social dimensions, and seriously limited in its possibilities of connections with the educational reality.