From generating human capital to transformative education: discursive struggles in Spanish education policy and openings for sustainability

Liam Ó Riada, Unai Pascual, Esther Turnhout and Julia Neidig

PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 2026, vol. 5, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Education is considered a key leverage point for sustainability transformation. Yet, dominant human-capital-based discourses, promoted by actors such as the OECD, have long framed education in an economistic way, marginalizing the creative, critical, and transdisciplinary pedagogies required for sustainability. Using the case of Spain, we apply discourse analysis to analyse historically (1975 to the present) how human-capital-based discourses have shaped education policy and where opportunities and constraints for transformative sustainability education (TSE) emerge. The findings reveal three major periods: (1) emancipatory aspirations during Spain’s democratic transition (1975–1990), (2) consolidation of a neoliberal consensus shaped by OECD discourse (1990–2018), and (3) the emergence of discursive openings for TSE (2019–present). While in the last period sustainability has become a central signifier with an education law that legitimises transdisciplinary, experiential and embodied pedagogies, its implementation remains partly constrained by entrenched neoliberal governance. The analysis of these discursive shifts reveals key opportunities and barriers for transformative shifts in education systems, showing that while dislocatory events and the linking of different struggles for educational reform can enable the introduction of elements of TSE into policy, the strong persistence of market-oriented logics risks leading to a co-optation of sustainability.Author summary: Education plays a crucial role in addressing the global environmental crisis. Yet, dominant international discourses have long framed it as mainly an economic investment, side-lining the creative, critical, and cross-disciplinary teaching approaches needed for sustainability. In this study, we analyse how such discourses have shaped Spain’s education policies from 1975 to the present and where opportunities for transformative sustainability education emerge. Based on the analysis of Spain’s education laws and interviews with policymakers, educators and activists, we identify three major periods: (1) emancipatory aspirations during Spain’s democratic transition (1975–1990), (2) dominance of market-orientation shaped by OECD discourse (3) a recent partial opening toward transformative sustainability education. The Spanish case highlights that while alliances between different movements and moments of change can open the door for more transformative education policies, persistent market-oriented logics constrain their implementation and risk reducing sustainability to an empty slogan.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pstr00:0000267

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000267

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