| Summary: | This article analyses regulations regarding the language in which courses are taught in compulsory, non-university education in those regions of Spain that have their own language, other than Spanish, and which therefore have broad legal authority over the use of the region’s co-official languages. Beginning with an examination of the constitutional and international framework, this study analyses the educational language models used in Spain primarily as they apply to the language of instruction, which is the issue that has generated the most debate on both constitutional and social grounds.The criterion adopted allows an initial classification into two broad language systems adopted by schools: a system of linguistic coexistence and one of linguistic separation, depending on the type of relationship established between the regional language and Spanish, further complicated by the recent introduction of foreign languages into school curricula. The regions examined are Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Navarre, and Galicia. An analysis of regional regulations reveals the wide range of linguistic models, even within a single educational system, and the ongoing developments in different parts of Spain, which make it difficult to talk of permanently fixed systems. The main objective of this article is to offer a general overview of this field of study, which must be descriptive given its complexity and breadth, while also assessing the various models’ compliance with the objectives set out in the Spanish constitution and in the regions’charters of autonomy.
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