Educación diferenciada vs. coeducación en España. ¿Una opción legislativa?
| Autor | Almudena Rodríguez Moya |
| Cargo | Profesora Titular de Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado. UNED. Facultad de Derecho |
| Páginas | 15-42 |
15
© UNED. Revista de Derecho Político
N.º 115, septiembre-diciembre, 2022, págs. 13-42
Fecha recepción: 16/03/2022
Fecha aceptación: 06/09/2022
SINGLE -SEX EDUCATION Vs
COEDUCATION IN SPAIN. A MATTER
OF LEGISLATION?
ALMUDENA RODRIGUEZ MOYA1
Titular de Derecho eclesiástico del Estado, UNED
I hope, gentlemen, that you will recognize that women have their own destiny; that their
rst natural duties are to themselves […] that their happiness and personal dignity must be
the essential objetive of their education, and that as a consequence of this way of being they
possesses the same right to education as men, understanding the word education in the broadest
sense of all that can be attributed to it. (Emilia Pardo Bazán, 1892).
1. INTRODUCTION
The controversy surrounding single-sex education is a relatively recent issue.
Little more than a century ago, in Spain, education was taught separately by sex.
Not only did boys and girls receive different training, but they also acquired it
in different places. This wasn’t a result of having to choose a pedagogical option.
Boys and girls had different educations because they were preparing for a different
future. In this learning environment, a woman’s education was determined by her
role as a wife and a mother2. Gradually, this changed. Towards the end of the 19th
century, the rst movements in favor of coeducation began to surface, though the
1 Titular de Derecho eclesiástico del Estado. UNED. Facultad de Derecho. C/del Obispo Trejo,
2, (28040 Madrid). Email: arodriz@der.uned.es. Código Orcid: 0000-0003-3241-8076
2 «The basic education that women should have, was reduced to submitting to the fulllment
of the qualities that were considered to adorn them. Education had to ensure that women were passive
beings who did not question what was established for them», Segura Graiño, C. (2007), «La educación
de las mujeres en el tránsito de la edad media a la modernidad», en Historia de la educación: Revista
interuniversitaria, N. º 26, p. 80. En el mismo sentido, Elizabeth S. et al. (1980), «The Education of
Feminists: The Case for Single-Sex Schools», en Dale Spender & Elizabeth Sarah eds., Learning to lose:
sexism and education, pp. 55-66.
ALMUDENA RODRIGUEZ MOYA
16 © UNED. Revista de Derecho Político
N.º 115, septiembre-diciembre, 2022, págs. 13-42
social roles that justied single-sex education were not brought into question, not
even by the defenders of these movements. So much so that, even when coeducation
was implemented, specic subjects were still reserved for girls3. It is widely accepted
that with the Second Republic a boost was given to mixed education4 which, in
1936, accounted for approximately 30% of all public schools in the country5. The
introduction of a mixed system is parallel to the progress of women’s rights6 and
toward the end of the 20th century teaching in mixed schools became the norm in
countries like ours.
The approval of the Ley General de Educación (LGE) in the 1970s paved the
way for mixed education. And, as in other parts of the world, single-sex education
was seen as something obsolete that was gradually disappearing7. The resurgence of
single-sex education in the U.S. had a correlative success in the countries under its
inuence8. But this time separate educations were not about adapting the teachings
to the student’s futures. The reasons for separate educations were different. Defenders
of single-sex education claimed that a student’s learning abilities vary depending on
their sex, that students learn differently depending on their gender. They argued
that by separating them by sex, students’ results would improve. Those who argue in
favor of coeducation consider it essential to educate by example, that education goes
beyond mere instruction, students should grow academically but also personally.
This style of education is compatible with any educational stage and doesn’t make
a distinction, classrooms should be occupied by students of both sexes, from early
childhood to university level.
In Spain, for the rst time, in 2006, with the approval of the «Ley Orgánica
2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación» (LOE), single-sex education was placed at
the center of debate: the LOE would make it a factor to be considered in order to
determine nancial aid given to private schools that receive nancial aid from the
state.
3 As Ballarín points out, Francisco Giner, architect of la Institución Libre de Enseñanza, who
defended the principle of coeducation. However, he stated in 1889: «It is essential... to develop with
special care all that particular sphere of education that has to prepare women to fulll their mission in
the family and in society as a wife, as a mother and as a initiator of all those works of charity, love and
enchantment that assign her a place entirely her own and irreplaceable in external life itself». Ballarín
Domingo, P. (2004). «Género y políticas educativas», en XXI. Revista de Educación, Nº6 (2004), p.36.
4 For all, Op. cit. ut. supr. , p.36.
5 Subirats, M. (2010), «¿Coeducación o escuela segregada? Un viejo y persistente debate», en
Revista de la Asociación de Sociología de la Educación (www.ase.es/rase), vol. 3, Nº 1, enero, p.144.
6 Subirats develops this idea in op. cit. ut. supr. pp. 143-158.
7 Salomone R. (2013), «Education rights and wrongs in the debate over single-sex schooling»,
at Boston University Law Review, Vol. 93, p.974.
8 Calvo Charro, M. (2013), «Los colegios diferenciados por sexo en Estados Unidos: constitu-
cionalidad y actualidad de una tendencia imparable», en Revista de Derecho Político, Nº86, enero-abril
2013, pp.161-162.
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu prueba