Social integration and cultural diversity in school

Abstract

Cultural diversity is not a new phenomenon in our society. Taking this into account, the author analyses some data about the increasing of immigrant population in Spain and points out that this fact creates conflictive situations. This is particularly true within the schools community, due to its difficulty of integrating ethnic minorities. As the author remarks, this situation comes from the inexistence of neither a strong theoretical frame nor validated models of intervention, which would promote intercultural coexistence within society. Finally, some concepts related to the social integration of minorities such as margination, assimilation and aculturalisation are defined and developed.