This article aims to point out how school autonomy helps principals reach higher quality by increasing flexibility in three areas: pedagogy, organisation and management. Autonomy leads to an improvement in student performance and, consequently, in educational quality. A theoretical framework based on literature review and PISA results is followed by a qualitative field study with school management teams in Spain. The study questions how far goes real autonomy in pedagogical, organizational and management issues of the schools. Data from 12 Spanish schools are collected by using a questionnaire made ad hoc to assess the three mentioned areas of flexibility. Results show that flexibility for pedagogy, organisation and management is very limited in the Spanish schools consulted, coinciding with minimal autonomy granted to these areas by current Spanish legislation on education. The main conclusion reached is that management teams have a key role in promoting autonomy when governments confer it to schools. In accordance with this aim, teacher and management team training is crucial. Broadening the study by data triangulation with other members of the school community (teachers, students and families) is proposed.

Entering the world of work is costly and one of the first obstacles is the competence deficit that university students sometimes present. To remedy the excess of a decontextualised theory, the EHEA (European Higher Education Area Education ) has sponsored a methodological change that promotes a teaching more internship, since the most effective learning is active and connected to experience. Thus, the university teaching focuses, among other aspects, on the achievement of learning outcomes in the form of competences associated with the labour market. In this context, more practical and applied methodologies are being tested in [Spanish] universities, including Service-Learning. The goal of this work is to find out whether, for the employers participating in our study, university students who take part in Service-Learning activities develop the profile competences they are looking for, making them more attractive candidates in selection processes, thus improving their employability. To this end, a generic qualitative research was developed. Three focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of thirteen employers of graduates from different Schools of the university, belonging to different sectors. The thematic guide included questions on the competences most in demand by employers, Service-Learning and its influence on the professional profile .

The study we present focuses on the social and civic dimension of Education higher education; it aims to measure the civic engagement index of students. We present a quasi-experimental field study on a sample of 1,250 students from different Schools of a university in the north of Spain, in the context of the training in competences. Thus, the main variable to be analysed was civic skill . For its assessment an instrument created for this purpose was applied, consisting of: a test of knowledge about Education civic, a scale of civic engagement attitudes and a questionnaire of social participation skills. The reliability of the 39-item attitude scale was .78. Among other hypotheses tested, we assumed that attitudes were the central element of the civic engagement index and found that its mean values were indeed the highest. However, we found that knowledge (r=.76, p=.000), followed by participation skills (r=.66) and thirdly by attitudes (r=.54) correlated most strongly with the civic engagement index. Among other conclusions, we suggest that it would be advisable for the university Education to focus transversally on students' civic training .

Nowadays, important changes are taking place in the way of life of families that affect the formal learning context and demand an adequate response. Professionals need to be aware of what these family changes entail in order to be able to respond with appropriate strategies that make the family-school relationship viable at any status. The solution lies in the initial joint work and partnership between teachers and school management educational, in order to favour the framework of work conducive to a fluid partnership between family and school. The need for training of academic staff to favour the participation of the diversity of families in the school and the importance of the existence of a participatory school climate are the two aspects that will be dealt with in these pages.

A topic core topic in a democracy is the level of civic engagement of citizens, especially young people. One indicator of civic engagement is participation in the election of political representatives. In recent years, there has been growing concern about the decline of civic engagement. Disenchantment with politics is a problem of social origin and educational. Service-learning, as an embodiment of volunteer activities at school, is presented as a suitable means of learning to act in society. In this sense, this article, after an initial theoretical framework , will present the content of two service-learning programmes that have a direct impact on students' political training . The selected programmes come from the United States and the European Union.

In this text, university teachers from Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America report on their efforts to prepare students for engaged democratic citizenship. Their case studies illustrate methods employed to prepare citizens for meaningful participation in democracies, whether long-standing, young or emerging. The contributors describe their approaches in detail, reflecting on the philosophical and pedagogical considerations being employed, as well as exploring models of experiential service-learning, action research, and other curricular innovations. Stakeholders are encouraged to replicate, modify or entirely recast the ideas presented, in the interest of building capacity within their institutions, peers and partners to realise and maintain the promise of democracy.