Abstract

Significant international political discourse in the field of education and culture (UNESCO, EU, IFACCA) calls for advances to be made towards more coordinated and complementary public policies. Innovative international projects have pointed the way forward. (Creative Partnership: <http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/creative-partnerships>) Unfortunately, while they may have succeeded in producing examples of good practice, they have not gone on to become standard practice in Catalonia. The aim of our investigation is to identify the factors responsible for divergence – and the difficulties involved in promoting convergence – between education and culture by studying the preambles of laws between 1980 and 2010 and the opinions of qualified professionals and experts. Our investigation confirms that there is a lack of fluidity in the dialog between cultural and educational policies in Catalonia. However, our research has provided evidence that cultural education can be systematized in order to improve synergy in future policies. The principle strategies involve (i) the reinforcement of educational local issues and the challenge of cultural citizenship; (ii) coordinated action aimed at developing cultural competencies while taking into consideration the appreciation of diversity, media education and intercultural dialog and, (iii) the promotion of creativity and the exploration of training in expressive potential in all kinds of artistic languages.