Transformative Sustainability Education: Spanish Policy Openings

Spain's LOMLOE creates discursive openings for transformative sustainability education while implementation faces resource, training, and accountability constraints, according to the PLOS Sustainability and Transformation article by Ó Riada et al. (published August 18, 2026).

• Ó Riada et al. conducted seven in-depth interviews between February and September 2025 and analysed national education laws from 1975 to the present to identify three discursive periods (1975–1990, 1990–2018, 2019–present).
• The PLOS article reports that LOMLOE was introduced in 2020 and rolled out progressively from 2021 to 2024, and that sustainability becomes a central signifier in the law (PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, published August 18, 2026).
• The PLOS authors found that while LOMLOE legitimises transdisciplinary, experiential and embodied pedagogies, by August 2026 teacher training targets (training on SDGs by 2025) had not been fully met and bureaucratic burdens limited classroom uptake.
• Ó Riada et al. warn that sustainability risks becoming a 'floating signifier' co-opted by market-oriented actors unless governance and resources change at system level.

The PLOS Sustainability and Transformation article by Ó Riada et al. maps how education discourse in Spain shifted across three periods and where transformative sustainability education (TSE) can enter policy.

The PLOS article explains that the authors analysed national education laws from 1975 onward and coded preambles and parliamentary debates, a method described in the paper's Methods section.

The PLOS article states that the authors conducted seven in-depth interviews between February and September 2025 with policymakers, educators and activists, and that sampling ended when thematic saturation was reached.

The PLOS article identifies three historical periods: emancipatory aspirations during Spain’s democratic transition (1975–1990), OECD-shaped neoliberal consolidation (1990–2018), and the emergence of discursive openings for TSE from 2019 to present.

Researchers and educators should treat LOMLOE as a policy opening that requires targeted qualitative evaluation and capacity building, according to Ó Riada et al. in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation (published August 18, 2026).

Ó Riada et al. report that the law legitimises transdisciplinary 'situaciones de aprendizaje' but that classroom uptake is limited because only a minority of teachers had prior training in degrowth or transdisciplinary methods, and training targets set for 2025 were unmet according to interview data.

Ó Riada et al. caution that bureaucratic evaluation systems have shifted competitive pressure onto teachers and administrators, which implies researchers should measure both discourse change and implementation conditions such as workload, training hours, and class size.

The PLOS Sustainability and Transformation article by Ó Riada et al. (published August 18, 2026) shows that Spain's LOMLOE creates discursive openings for transformative sustainability education but that entrenched neoliberal structures and unmet training targets limit classroom uptake.

Researchers and educators should prioritise systematic qualitative and mixed-method monitoring that connects policy text to teacher practice, as recommended by Ó Riada et al.

Evidano speeds that work by automating transcription ingestion, thematic synthesis, and quotable exports so teams can produce policy-ready evidence quickly; to evaluate LOMLOE implementation at scale, combine interview transcripts, regional curricula, and teacher surveys inside Evidano.

To try these workflows yourself, Try Evidano for free.