AI Qualitative Analysis: Education Policy in Spain

According to PLOS Sustainability and Transformation (Ó Riada et al., published August 18, 2026), discourse analysis of Spanish education law and seven interviews (February–September 2025) identifies three periods and a constrained opening for transformative sustainability education under LOMLOE (2020).

• Ó Riada et al. identify three periods: democratic transition with emancipatory aims (1975–1990), OECD-shaped neoliberal consolidation (1990–2018), and a partial discursive opening for TSE (2019–present).
• The paper reports seven in-depth interviews conducted between February and September 2025, each lasting about 60 minutes, and the article was published on August 18, 2026.
• LOMLOE (introduced in 2020, rolled out 2021–2024) explicitly states that “schools must become a place of stewardship and care for our environment, ” while implementation gaps (teacher training and bureaucratic burdens) remain according to Ó Riada et al.
• PISA benchmarking since 2000 and OECD influence are cited repeatedly as causal drivers of a human-capital framing in Spain’s laws, creating a risk of co-optation of sustainability language into market logics.

What happened: PLOS Sustainability and Transformation (Ó Riada et al., published August 18, 2026) shows that Spanish education policy shifted discursively from human-capital framing toward partial openings for Transformative Sustainability Education, but with persistent neoliberal structures.

According to Ó Riada et al., the authors analysed national education laws from 1975 onward, coded preambles and parliamentary minutes, and triangulated the documentary analysis with seven purposive interviews conducted between February and September 2025.

According to Ó Riada et al., the study dates include Received October 15, 2025, Accepted July 20, 2026, and Published August 18, 2026, which frames the paper’s evidence timeline.

According to Ó Riada et al., the authors used iterative NVivo coding starting with heuristic categories (hegemonic modernist vs transformative paradigms) and then applied inductive coding to capture hybridity and contestation.

Implication: Researchers should treat 'sustainability' as a contested, floating signifier that requires close reading across documents, interviews, and timelines, according to Ó Riada et al.

According to Ó Riada et al., tracing discursive shifts requires combining document-level coding (laws, preambles, curricula) with interview data to identify when signifiers like "quality" or "sustainability" change meaning over time.

According to Ó Riada et al., practical implications for researchers include: prioritizing preambles and framing language, coding for actors (OECD, ministries, movements), and documenting implementation dates (for example LOMLOE 2020 and roll-out 2021–2024) to connect discourse to practice.

Conclusion: According to PLOS Sustainability and Transformation (Ó Riada et al., published August 18, 2026), Spain shows a meaningful discursive opening toward Transformative Sustainability Education, but implementation is limited by entrenched neoliberal governance and resource gaps.

Next steps for research teams include combining document genealogy with interview triangulation and measuring implementation dates such as LOMLOE roll-out (2021–2024) to tie discourse to practice.

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