The definition of school guidance has changed over the last century and its organization varies greatly between countries. Mostly accepted, school guidance emerged in the twentieth century in response to students at risk due to increasing social challenges (industrialisation, immigration, illiteracy, etc.). School guidance was described as a process of assisting the pupil mainly in three aspects (vocational, educational, and personal-social) that was delivered by a school counsellor by means of a service model detached from the curriculum (Gysbers, 202, p.145). Ideally, this concept has moved towards a model where school guidance is understood as a comprehensive developmental program where not only the school counsellor but also teachers, parents, school leaders and the rest of the school community are involved (Álvarez & Bisquerra, 2005; ASCA, 2017; Carey & Dimmitt, 2012; Chen-Hayes, Ockerman & Mason, 2014; Lapan, 2012; Martínez, 2002). In this case, the school becomes an organization where diversity and inclusion should be addressed within the structures that comprise school guidance.
In the Spanish educational system, there have been enormous changes both in the concept of attention to diversity and in the organisation of school guidance:
Firstly, concerning the concept of attention to diversity, Spanish educational system has moved from segregation to total inclusion (Aguaded, 2010; Grañeras & Parras, 2009; Mariño, 2012; Ramos, Cuadrado & Fernández, 2007): from the General Act on Education in 1970, which established that disabled children should be enrolled in special institutions outside the general system, to the most important change that occurred 20 years later, with the Act on the General Organisation of the Education System in 1990, that established the integration of special education pupils in mainstream schools. Nowadays, under the Act on Education (enacted in 2006 and modified in 2013) the concept of attention to diversity based on disabilities has moved towards the concept of total inclusion and the principle of equality in the exercise of the right to education prevails. In this context, compensatory education policies have emerged in order to avoid inequalities resulting from social, economic, cultural, geographic, ethnic or other factors.
Secondly, concerning the organization of school guidance in public schools, it should be considered that, from the 80’s, Spain has moved towards a decentralized model where the Autonomous Communities (n=17) have powers in the area of education. In this sense, although a common structure for the organisation of school guidance was initially stablished by the State Administration, Autonomous Communities can introduce changes. In general, it can be said that the structure settled by the State Administration was organised in three levels for Primary Education: the classroom, the school and the sector (Eurydice, 2010; Grau & Fernández, 2008; Luque et al., 2014; Ramos et al., 2007). Regarding the first level, in the classroom, pupils’ guidance as a group is the direct responsibility of the class teacher (named as the tutor). In the second level, the school, there is a school counsellor that supports teachers and deals with personalised attention to pupils and families. The problem in this structure is that the school counsellor is not a full-time professional but it belongs to an External Educational Guidance Service (EOEP) and can be the counsellor of up to three or more schools. Finally, in the sector (province/local level) there are Specialised Guidance Services that take care of specific disabled pupils.
Within this context, in this paper the situation of school guidance in the Spanish educational system is addressed in order to determine whether there still prevails a service guidance model or if it has moved towards a comprehensive developmental program model where diversity is considered as inherent to schools as organizations.
