Resumen: During the 19th century the liberal countries took the development of education to be one of the basic forms of progress. Through the modern systems of education they attempted to respond to the needs of the industrial revolution, lower the levels of illiteracy and create a strong national feeling. Thus obligatory schooling became one of the basic tools to achieve this objective. The education of the citizens that the new state required, who would be capable of participating in political life, was one of the main aims of modern education systems (Puelles, 2004).
But it was after the Second World War that the systems of education all over the world grew dramatically. In Spain the system of education has undergone multiple historical changes in the recent past, due to intense ideological debate. The citizenship education which is proposed and is being debated currently has its roots in the Spanish Constitution (1978) and, the way it is carried out has been explained in detail, successively, in the laws which govern the Spanish system of education, in accordance with the different political changes. This chapter will analyze how the political evolution and the social changes that affect issues related with social justice have offered various explanations which help to understand the different educational proposals on the subject of citizenship education. It will also sheds light on future developments in both the area of educational practice and that of research.
