FAQS: 9 frequently asked questions about the Bofill Foundation

At the Bofill Foundation we work for social change and to combat social and educational inequalities. We publish reports and research, make constructive proposals and launch projects to demonstrate that creating more and better educational opportunities for everyone is possible. We do this with alliances and with the expertise of teachers, academics, social entities, heads of educational administrations… to develop proposals that respond to current social and educational needs.

But how do we do it? Where do the resources come from to carry out research and proposals independently of economic or political interests? How are the topics we address decided, among all the social and educational challenges we have? Who collaborates in the projects?

Rigor is fundamental in all the research and proposals we promote, but also economic and political independence and transparency. Therefore, below we briefly answer these and other questions that you have been sending us via networks, messages or emails:

We are a social entity that promotes research and proposals for change to generate more and better educational opportunities against social inequalities. We do this by promoting research, debates and initiatives that increase society’s commitment to education and generate better public policies.

With the expertise and experience of hundreds of researchers, teachers and other actors in the educational community, we promote rigorous research and disseminate it to make recommendations and proposals grounded in educational reality.

The Foundation was created in 1969 with a donation from the couple Teresa Roca i Formosa and Josep Maria Vilaseca i Marcet. They did not create it as a family foundation but as a citizen foundation, and with their heritage they guaranteed the economic and political independence of the entity.

With this heritage we have promoted more than 2,800 research and theses, seminars, projects and working groups on topics as diverse as the electoral system, political participation, universal basic income or urban regeneration, and we also launched the first Social Inequality Panel of Catalonia.

Since 2009 we have focused on education, with projects such as the Yearbook of Education in Catalonia, Lecxit, DeSegregACCIÓ or Zero Abandonament, among many others.

 

The Bofill team is made up of professionals in pedagogy, sociology and teachers who identify areas of research and collaborate with actors in the educational community through seminars or conferences to define proposals, compare conclusions and design projects.

The Foundation also has a board of trustees, which ensures our independence and social contribution. It is made up of people with very diverse backgrounds, who guarantee a broad vision of the social challenges to which the Foundation must contribute.

The Foundation was born to promote social transformation. There are many outstanding challenges to improve society, but since 2009 we have been committed to improving education as a lever to improve society. Because if we build a truly inclusive, equitable education system that generates valuable and meaningful learning, and that leaves no one behind, we will contribute to making a better society.

Therefore, since then our mission has been to promote more and better public policies that allow progress towards quality education and combat inequalities. We make a great effort to develop proposals and make them available to all educational actors, and we work especially so that public administrations put educational equity at the center of the political agenda.

For example, in recent times we have made proposals on:

These are proposals that we work on together with experts from universities, administrations and teachers, and that draw on experiences that are already taking place in other countries around us.

In all these areas, the Foundation advocates for an increase in educational investment in our country, prioritizing the reduction of inequalities. We believe that this is a condition (necessary, but not sufficient) for teachers to be able to carry out their educational work in good conditions. The work of teachers is very demanding, and that is why we defend that there must be educational policies that support them.

From the donation and legacy of Teresa Roca i Formosa and Josep Maria Vilaseca i Marcet. The Foundation is a non-profit social entity created thanks to their heritage, which is dedicated entirely and exclusively to financing the Foundation’s activity. These own resources, which are published and the accounts and audits of each year can be consulted in the accounts section, allow the sustainability and financing of the Foundation’s activity not to depend on any external body, neither public nor private, and guarantee the independence and rigor of the research and programs.

At the Bofill Foundation we have a clear mission: to improve society by promoting equal educational opportunities in Catalonia, always in a critical and proactive manner. And some of the projects we have promoted recently are:

At the same time, to make specific programs possible and extend their scope and impact, the Foundation presents itself (like most social entities) to public and private calls. Competitive subsidies that always require justification. In the case of public ones, with municipal and Catalan, state and European administrations, governed by all political parties (with the exception of VOX). You can consult the details of all of them, here.

The Foundation guarantees the economic and political independence of all reports, proposals, research and projects due to foundational, missional and strategic principles, and also because the basis for financing the research and projects we promote are the founders’ own resources.

In addition to the own resources that guarantee its operation, the Foundation periodically submits calls for proposals for specific programs, to extend its scope and impact and go further in generating educational opportunities for all children and young people. You can consult the details of all of them here.

This combination of own and external resources guarantees the Foundation’s independence and its capacity to have the maximum impact in the fight against inequalities.

The Foundation’s relationship with the administrations is based on sending them the reports and research that we promote, and making proposals for educational policies aimed at those who decide: the Generalitat, the municipalities, whatever the government, and all political parties (with the exception of VOX), so that they increase investment in policies that reduce educational inequalities. For this reason, we publish an Education Yearbook that analyzes the main challenges, reports with proposals, and we also denounce inaction and non-compliance with social and educational challenges such as school segregation or early school leaving.

We also promoted a manifesto signed by more than 800 people and entities to demand that educational policy must be informed by evidence. You can see, for example, a summary of the challenges and policies that we proposed to the parties for the 2020 elections to the Parliament of Catalonia or the set of areas and proposals for the 2023 municipal elections to build more resilient municipalities with opportunities for everyone.

All the proposals for improving the educational system that we make from the Foundation are worked on and tested with hundreds of teachers, because educational change cannot be made without those who are in the classrooms every day. Teachers, together with academic experts, educational technicians and administration, are active participants in seminars, events and working groups that we continuously organize. In addition to the hundreds of volunteers, organizations, entities and individuals who are involved in the projects that we promote.

Over the years, more than 3,700 people from very different fields, contexts and expertise have participated in events, conferences, research and projects of the Foundation. And we believe that this collaborative work between teachers, school directors, sociologists, pedagogues… is a valuable contribution to generating consensus and shared solutions to educational inequalities.

Privatization is one of the great risks of the Catalan education system that must be combated. This is precisely why we advocate better public policies that expand the opportunities of all children regardless of family resources and that combat growing social inequalities.

Along these lines, we have recently presented several proposals to strengthen the public educational offer and guarantee its quality and equity: The equity formula, The concerted debate and Beca + Secundària against school dropout. These are researches that indicate that:

  • Improving the financing of the education system must prioritize the expansion of the educational action of centers that educate vulnerable students to make free education effective and an education at the service of the fight against educational inequality.
  • Models of mixed provision (public and subsidized private) such as the Catalan one tend to increase school segregation and educational inequalities.
  • Catalonia is the seventh education system in the OECD with the highest proportion of charter schools, which do not share responsibility for the education of vulnerable students.

In order to promote transformation and social change, the Bofill Foundation also aims to promote educational debate and place key issues for educational equity in the public sphere, such as school segregation, school dropout, the need for fairer funding for educational centers, or the lack of scholarships for vulnerable students.

For this reason, it disseminates research and action through its own channels, but project leaders also collaborate with the media to disseminate and raise awareness about educational equity challenges:

Are you also concerned about inequalities? The challenges we face are too important for us to face alone, which is why we need more people who want to roll up their sleeves.

At the Foundation, we promote projects on various social and educational challenges, many of them in alliances with other entities, organizations or administrations. There are many ways to get involved in the fight against educational inequalities, we encourage you to stay up to date with the initiatives and to be part of them in various ways:

  1. We want to send you directly to your email, without intermediaries, those issues that concern us and new research, calls, projects… Join us and don’t miss anything!
  2. We also encourage you to invite friends and colleagues committed to social change to join us. Together we have more strength to achieve more changes.
  3. Write to us with any proposals and contributions you may have. Do you think there is a relevant topic that we have not addressed, that we should address more or do you want to send us a question or doubt about the Foundation, any of the projects we promote, current educational challenges…? Do not hesitate to send us ideas and comments.
  4. Help us bring the challenges of equity to more people and demand decisive policies to end educational inequalities! Stay up to date on Twitter or Instagram with the latest news on projects, volunteer calls and research, and share them.
  5. Do you know the Lecxit reading program for educational success? If you have an hour a week and want to transmit the passion for reading, become a volunteer! And if you are a school, library or social entity, be an Espai Lecxit!
  6. Do you want to be part of an exciting project to contribute to improving the educational trajectories of the students of your high school, neighborhood or municipality? Are you a city council, a high school, or a social entity? Promote Mentora! And, if you would like to be a mentor, stay tuned and don’t miss the next call for volunteers!
  7. At Code Club, we want every child, regardless of where they come from or their social or economic situation, to have the opportunity to learn to program in a creative and critical way. Discover it and join us!

A constant and collective effort is needed, bringing together committed organizations and people like you, willing to work together to make possible the social change that can no longer wait. Thank you for being part of it!

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