Networks and collaboration in Spanish education policy

Background: Networks play an important role in today's societies. As aconsequence, changes are apparent in the political, economic, cultural,educational and social agendas. Purpose: The main goal of this article is to map the situation of schoolnetworks in Spain. The research questions are focused on what formscollaboration and networking take in the Spanish education system; howpolicy and practice are providing a framework for the development ofnetworks; and what the main barriers to fostering school-to-schoolcollaboration in this context are. Methods: A mix of case studies and documentary analysis was used. Tworegions located in the Southwest (Extremadura and the Canary Islands)were selected to examine their legislation about networks in education. Thefollowing aspects were considered: aims and aspirations, areas of interest,organizational structure, benefits and incentives, network project, andevaluation and improvement proposals. In this way, Spain is presented asan example of a country that is exploring the possibilities offered bynetworks. Findings and conclusions: There is no common state policy to supportnetworking between schools. Rather, every local educational authority actswith different purposes and a variable extent of development. Thisparticular situation offers a diverse map of education networks. The casestudies show that networks are being developed bottom-up, through topicsof interest, such as library, ecology, health-promotion, equality, emotionalintelligence, educational research, enterprise and physical education. Thepaper concludes by reflecting on and discussing the current landscape ofeducational networks. Some barriers identified are related to: thenetworks’ structures that could be more inclusive, the loose culture ofcollaboration, the weak mechanisms to link social and professional capitalprovided by policy makers, the importance of belief in the network societyand community power by stakeholders, and also to the necessity toincrease incentives for people involved, in terms of working-time conditionsand resources