The involvement of families in Spanish schools is a legally recognised right, a social demand, an educational need and a permanent challenge. However, there are limited opportunities for families to become engaged with schools in Spain. Their primary avenues for involvement are Parents’ Associations (Asociaciones de Madres y Padres de Alumnos, known as AMPAs), but there has been little research on them to date. This article describes a qualitative study carried out in collaboration with 36 AMPAs from Spanish state schools, aimed at understanding how their members describe, interpret and assess their current situation. The findings showed that AMPAs foster activities to galvanise schools, but that they demanded increased decision-making powers, additional training and support in managing the association. It can be concluded that AMPAs are a means of promoting significant parental involvement, which merits further study and a wider social dissemination.

中文翻译：

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家长参与西班牙学校：家长协会 (AMPA) 的作用

家庭参与西班牙学校是一项法律认可的权利、社会需求、教育需求和永久挑战。然而，家庭与西班牙学校接触的机会有限。他们参与的主要途径是家长协会（Asociaciones de Madres y Padres de Alumnos，称为 AMPA），但迄今为止对它们的研究很少。本文描述了一项与来自西班牙公立学校的 36 个 AMPA 合作进行的定性研究，旨在了解他们的成员如何描述、解释和评估他们的当前状况。调查结果表明，AMPA 促进了激励学校的活动，但他们要求增加决策权、额外培训和支持管理协会。