With regard to the reception of foreign students. Paradoxes of inclusive education in Catalonia (Spain)

Abstract

In the last years there has been a growing interest in international comparative assessment about the capacity of different immigrant-receiving countries and their education systems with to better respond to the challenges created by a certainly more complex composition of the student-body. The existing evaluation reports have confirmed that immigrant students tend to perform less well in every country but have paid less attention to the conditions offered by schools to access learning, participation and social relations, especially in the processes of initial incorporation to new social contexts. This chapter focuses on the processes of initial incorporation of immigrant students in Catalonia (Spain) by presenting part of the findings of an evaluative research carried out between 2008 and 2010 about a special provision that was created and implemented experimentally in two middle towns as a unit of support and advice, where newly arrived students and their families were sent, and which raised important opposition among researchers and certain political sectors: the so-called Spaces of Educational Welcoming (Espais de Benvinguda Educativa, or EBE).