Social capital in action for strengthening rural schools

This article reflects on the connection between education, development, and social capital through the example of a specific type of rural school called Family Education Alternating Cycle Centers (CEFFA, the acronym for Centros Educativos Familiares de Formación en Alternancia). CEFFA schools are based on the concept of a cycle that alternates between learning periods spent in the socio-professional environment of the students and periods spent in school. Driven by family-run associations and other local actors, these schools pursue personal and local development, with a bottom-up approach based on the protagonism of the beneficiaries, especially in rural areas. To achieve this development through education, the schools provide young people with a comprehensive education associated with vocational training and introduce the needs of the territorial context into the curriculum. In this way, they ensure the relevance of learning. This article examines how these schools maintain a strong associative life that is strengthened by the social capital created around them. After defining the school associations, we describe their specific characteristics and some requirements for their adequate functioning. The CEFFA results suggest that we can reimagine a more people-centered education in which families and other community actors are committed to sustainable local development and transformative learning through the use of the power of social capital.