Cómo habitan democráticamente los actores las instituciones educativas? Esta es la pregunta que articula las respuestas que estudiantes universitarios, directivos y estudiantes de escuela media construyen a la hora de posicionarse en la tan compleja vinculación entre lo pedagógico y lo político. Distintos actores –distintas posiciones– nos introducen en la problemática de la democracia escolar y en las formas reales en que los actores se apropian críticamente de los espacios y tiempos institucionales, dejando siempre inaugurado el interrogante acerca de si nuestras instituciones educativas son más democráticas.Este texto ofrece preguntas y claves para transitar hacia la construcción de instituciones educativas más democráticas, desafío en el que las Universidades Públicas ocupamos un lugar central.

In the 1920s, Mexico established rural normales—boarding schools that trained teachers in a new nation-building project. Drawn from campesino ranks and meant to cultivate state allegiance, their graduates would facilitate land distribution, organize civic festivals, and promote hygiene campaigns. In Unintended Lessons of Revolution, Tanalís Padilla traces the history of the rural normales, showing how they became sites of radical politics. As Padilla demonstrates, the popular longings that drove the Mexican Revolution permeated these schools. By the 1930s, ideas about land reform, education for the poor, community leadership, and socialism shaped their institutional logic. Over the coming decades, the tensions between state consolidation and revolutionary justice produced a telling contradiction: the very schools meant to constitute a loyal citizenry became hubs of radicalization against a government that increasingly abandoned its commitment to social justice. Crafting a story of struggle and state repression, Padilla illuminates education's radical possibilities and the nature of political consciousness for youths whose changing identity—from campesinos, to students, to teachers—speaks to Mexico’s twentieth-century transformations.

The book describes the experience of Rafael Calderón-Almendros (the first person with Down syndrome to obtain a professional music degree in Spain) and his family. A confrontation arose with his school at the end of his compulsory secondary education stage. After Rafael had been a student in the centre from the start of his education, the institution lost its vision and denied the student his rights. The school used concealed segregation strategies, legitimized by the institution and its professionals, which were almost insurmountable. However, Rafael’s family embarked on a process of Action Research, began to fight for the recognition of the right for all students to obtain a formal education. This research shows how critical analyses were born from the experiences of a representative of one of the most disadvantaged groups (disabled people), which have been rigorously recorded and evidenced. From an inclusive, engaged and radical perspective, the text presents a solid case of someone outside the able-dominated average completing his education to a high professional standard. His success is endorsed by subsequent events: Rafael passed his compulsory secondary education, the equivalent of the English Baccalaureate and his Elementary and Professional Grades of Music (ten years). He obtained the Gold Medal of Merit in Education of Andalusia and the World Down Syndrome Day Award. He was admitted to the prestigious Academy of Orchestral Studies Barenboim-Said. Rafael has nothing else to prove. Today, his example challenges many of the usual school practices and urges us to rethink the commitment of educators in stimulating the participation of the entire school community, in promoting student autonomy and the recognition of others in their human and social rights. English translation provided by Baker & McKenzie Barcelona, S.L.P. (http://www.bakermckenzie.com/Spain/Barcelona/) and Julian Thomas (www.textos-academicos.com).