La diversidad cultural como problema: representaciones y prácticas escolares con adolescentes de origen latinoamericano (Madrid)

Abstract

Cultural Diversity as a problem: representations and school practices with adolescent Latin American origin immigrant students (Madrid). This article focuses on Latin American immigrant students in a public secondary school in Madrid where school attendance is compulsory. Many of these students are assigned to programs for students with especial needs and in their final secondary year they are recommended to continue with alternative training programs. Both processes involve a progressive distancing from a conventional academic trajectory. Based on ethnographic research carried out from 2007 to 2009, we analyzed practices and representations of teachers and other educational professionals in the institution concerning immigrant students. These are the issues that sustain the framework in which these students experience education and set them to construct their academic trajectories