Ethnic minorities and the Spanish and Catalan educational systems: From exclusion to intercultural education

Since the 1990s, cultural diversity in Spanish classrooms has increased notably with the arrival of immigrant origin students. This fact, together with the European Union discourses about consideration for cultural differences, have contributed to the appearance in Spain, and particularly in Catalonia, of an intercultural discourse. This article analyses the evolution of educational policies up to the current dominant discourse (from exclusion to incorporation in the school and the classroom, passing through segregationist actions) emphasising the difficulty nowadays of putting this into everyday practice, among other things for the lack of references and the absence of resources. This is done through the analysis of different official documents, as well as recouping different pieces of research on this question by both the author and others. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.