Fighting school segregation for inclusive education in Catalonia: The role of local governments

Abstract

In recent years, school segregation of migrant students in Catalonia has remained at high levels. Education policy has responded to this enormous challenge in different and not always coherent ways. Successive Catalan governments implemented strategies to facilitate the integration of migrant students in the education system. While the most salient programmes focused on linguistic integration and support devices intended to compensate for the learning needs of disadvantaged students of migrant origin, policies to tackle school segregation at the national level were timorous at most. The best educational reforms and best practices to reduce school segregation have been found in some local governments. In this presentation we will explore which are the main conditions that have facilitated the development of successful local education policies to tackle school segregation. By exploring some examples, the paper will reflect on the structural conditions that have favoured best practices as well as on the strategic role of agents who have facilitated significant reforms in this area.