He completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, culminating in the Extraordinary Prize End of Career. He also performed at the university his doctoral thesis, with which he won the Extraordinary Doctoral Award and an Honorable Mention in the form of PhD theses at the National Awards for Educational Research 1996.
He is Professor of History of Education at the University of Alcalá. He has been visiting professor at the Universities of Rotterdam, Utrecht, Hamburg and Lisbon. He has been a member of the Executive Committees of several scientific societies, including the Spanish Society of Pedagogy (2000-2006), the Spanish Society of History of Education (2006-2013) and the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (2006 -2012).
He has directed several research projects and is the author or co-author of fifteen books and about one hundred and fifty chapters or journal articles, published in Spain and in several European and Latin American countries. He specializes in the study of Spanish education in the first third of the twentieth century, having published several works on the "Cervantes" Madrid School Group and its director, Angel Llorca.