Public sector wage gaps in Spanish regions.

This paper provides an approximation to the measurement of public sector wage gaps in Spanish regions. By using data from the European Community Household Panel, it is shown that the balance between what private firms pay in the local market and what the public sector pays, differs substantially in different areas of the country. Public sector wage differences among Spanish regions are mostly due to differences in returns, not to differences in characteristics or to selection effects, and are not constant across gender, educational levels, or occupations. Moreover, in those regions where Regional Governments have a higher weight in public employment, public wage gaps are higher and public employers pay higher returns. There also seems to be a cross-regional positive correlation between public wage gaps and unemployment, and a negative one between labour productivity and public wage gaps. Hence, a tentative conclusion is that the incentives to select into the public sector are higher in the low productivity regions, precisely those where scarcity of human capital in the private sector may be the most important factor for explaining economic backwardness.public sector, wage differentials, switching regressions, Spanish regions.

Geografía, Problemas Sociales y Conocimiento Escolar

La Geografía que se enseña habitualmente en la escuela no suele preparar a los alumnos para comprender y afrontar los graves problemas sociales y ambientales de nuestro mundo. Ello puede observarse, entre otros, en el tipo de conocimiento escolar presente en los libros de texto. Pero el mero cambio del conocimiento escolar de dichos libros no sería una solución suficiente; es necesario un verdadero cambio de la cultura escolar. En ese sentido, trabajar en torno a problemas sociales relevantes, con una perspectiva de investigación escolar, es una alternativa que puede contribuir a la transformación de la educación escolar y, al mismo tiempo, al desarrollo profesional de los profesores.Geography usually taught at school frequently does not prepare students to understand and confront the serious social and environmental problems of our world. It can be observed, among others, in the type of school knowledge in the text books. But the simple change of knowledge in these books would not be a sufficient solution; a real change of school culture is necessary. In this sense, to work on relevant problems, with a perspective of school research, is an alternative that can contribute to the transformation of school education and, at the same time, to the teachers’ professional development

Un Modelo Didáctico Alternativo para Transformar la Educación: el Modelo de Investigación en la Escuela

En el ámbito educativo se suele utilizar el concepto de modelo didáctico para el análisis y para la intervención en la realidad educativa. Este artículo presenta un modelo didáctico renovador, que pretende transformar la educación: el "Modelo de Investigación en la Escuela", asumido en el proyecto curricular "Investigación y Renovación Escolar". En primer lugar, se encuadra dicho modelo en una concepción integradora de la didáctica, para analizar, a continuación, los fundamentos del mismo, constituidos por una perspectiva constructivista y evolucionista del conocimiento, una perspectiva sistémica y compleja de la realidad escolar y una perspectiva crítica de la transformación de la escuela. Sobre esta base se apoyan las teorías didácticas del modelo: una concepción sistémica del aula (y de los contextos escolares) y una teoría de la elaboración y construcción del conocimiento escolar (y del conocimiento profesional). Como síntesis del modelo se destaca la importancia del "principio de investigación", que se aplica al aprendizaje de los alumnos, a la formación profesional de los profesores y a la construcción del conocimiento didáctico.The concept of didactic model for the analysis and intervention in the educational reality is often used in the field of education. This article offers an innovative didactic model that aims at transforming education: the "School Research Model", assumed by the so-called "Research and School Innovation" curricular project. First of all, this model is framed in an integrating conception of didactics, in order to analyse, next, its foundations, based on a constructivist and evolucionist perspective of knowledge, a systemic and complex perspective of school reality and a critical perspective of school transformation. On those bases rest the didactic theories of this model: a systemic conception of the classroom (and of the school contexts) and a theory of the making and construction of school knowledge (and professional knowledge). As a synthesis of the model stands out the importance of "research principle", which is applied to pupils' learning,teachers' professional training and the building of didactic knowledg