The Training of School Support Agents: A Case Study from Spain

This article deals with issues involved in the training of school support agents for school improvement tasks and purposes. We describe and analyze a specific training programme that was carried out in Madrid, Spain, from 1990 till 1992. Apart from dealing with its initial objectives and assumptions, the article explores the institutional, cultural and personal factors that played a major role throughout the implementation of the programme; finally, it attempts to give an account of the problems involved in the reconstruction of the theory and practice of external support through the in‐service training of school support agents.