Beyond ethnocentric perspectives in Spanish schools: Rethinking inclusion, the curriculum, and subjectivity

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, we examine how schools in Catalonia (Spain) are responding to the needs of migrant students by challenging the limitations of the curriculum. The paper presents some of the findings of an ongoing project titled Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe (MiCREATE). It is based on 31 semi‐structured interviews and 6 focus groups conducted with 78 participants (teachers, school representatives, and community members such as child psychologists, social workers, and other collaborators) from six state primary and secondary schools in Catalonia (Spain). Analysis of the interviews showed that Spain still has a monolithic conception of the curriculum, with Eurocentrism and ethnocentrism at its core. Nonetheless, school staff are producing pedagogical practices that challenge this position in order to respond to the needs of migrant students. We argue that it is necessary to consider other frames of reference such as critical interculturality, decolonial perspectives, and critical cosmopolitanisms in order to create collective and multiple experiences of belonging that go beyond the dominant cultural identity.