Research skills in Social Education in Spain: Update the Training or Stay Out of Professional Practice

Social Education promotes a critical and democratic citizenry, grounded in human rights and social, economic, and cultural development. The initial training of social educators incorporates research skills as a key element for generating knowledge that enhances professional practice. The European framework ResearchComp (2024) establishes standards that shape this competence. In Spain, academic curricula include it as a soft skill. This study examines 39 Social Education programs at Spanish universities through a qualitative content analysis across three levels: curriculum plans and syllabi, learning outcomes and content, and codifiable elements. Data were gathered from the University Registry and institutional websites. The results reveal that while all programs include research skill, its development is uneven. It is more prevalent in research-specific courses but remains limited in others, underscoring the need to improve curricular coherence within study programs. Additionally, these findings are compared against the current European framework, showing that although some aspects of ResearchComp are reflected in program syllabi, many others are not. This discrepancy presents new challenges for ongoing processes to reform and update Social Education curricula in Spain.