La Educación Cívica En España. Cinco Últimas Décadas De Vicisitudes Legislativas.

It is obvious that schools can exert a great influence as appropriate areas to foster a fairer and more equitable society, with greater moral, civic and political commitment among citizens. Civic education contributes to this end and, therefore, it has been introduced -with different appellations- in the curriculums of most Western countries to facilitate citizens the assumption of their rights and responsibilities. This is considered as one way of transmitting the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes for young people to become active citizens with the capacity to build the future for our democratic societies. The education reforms performed in different countries highlight the need for citizenship education by advocating for their incorporation in the syllabus. The objective of this article is to point out the attention that civic education has received in Spain, specially from the implementation of the 1970 General Education Act. To do so, the successive reforms that have been introduced until today are analyzed. We ask ourselves whether these curricular reforms succeed in improving the civic competence of our students. As a main conclusion it has been established that a discourse supporting democracy, social responsibility, interculturalism and civic participation can only be effective with the commitment of the teaching staff, family and society as a whole.