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The article “Controversies are no excuse: Citizenship education in Spain”, written by Maria Rosa Buxarrais and Eric Ortega, has recently been published in the journal Citizenship Teaching & Learning<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\nAbstract<\/strong>
\nHere we discuss the current situation of citizenship education in Spain, briefly reviewing its legal and political context, and taking into account a questionnaire administered to an intentional sample of key informants. We argue that even though the compulsory subject \u2018education for citizenship and human rights\u2019 was ruled out from our classrooms, due to the numerous controversies that it raised, there still remain multiple individual and institutional initiatives that aim to form responsible, active and critical citizens. In general terms, however, it is clear there has been a backward step in this respect, especially because as an essential ingredient of democracy, controversial issues should be seen as opportunities or stimuli for learning, not as topics to be avoided or censored. Finally we recommend, among other things, to reinstate citizenship education as a compulsory subject (not as an alternative to religious education); to amend the current scientism, and other flaws, of our current legislation; to improve teachers\u2019 preparation for citizenship and values education, especially for a constructive handling of controversial issues (this requires clarification of the meaning of \u2018curricular free speech\u2019 among us); and to foster systematic research and dissemination efforts to optimize the civic qualities of our school cultures.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n