Linguistic and cultural rights of immigrant students in Catalonia: perspectives and practices of educators in four elementary schools

ABSTRACT

A growing and increasingly diverse immigrant population in Spain, and in particular in the region of Catalonia, places new and challenging demands on the educational system. In this study, we use a minority language rights framework to examine how Catalan educators conceptualize the linguistic and cultural rights of immigrant students, and the instructional and organizational practices they use to respond to the needs of these students within Catalan immersion programs. Interviews with teachers and principals and observations in classrooms and schoolyards were carried out in four elementary schools in two urban areas in Catalonia. Findings indicated that educators were adhering to a policy focus on the goal of social cohesion through Catalan language use and instruction; however, neither instructional strategies for non-native speakers of Catalan, nor use of their home languages for instructional support, were much in evidence. Although occasional efforts were reported to recognize students’ home cultures in celebrations and activities at school, educators tended to view the home cultures in largely deficit terms. De facto segregation in schools serving almost exclusively immigrant students was identified by educators as a challenge both for elementary school instruction and for subsequent social integration of immigrant youth into Catalan society.

KEYWORDS:

• Language rights
• minority education
• language policy
• cultural pluralism
• immersion education

Acknowledgements

We express our deep appreciation to the educators in the participating schools without whose generosity and support this project would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Leslie Reese, PhD is a professor in the Department of Teacher Education at California State University Long Beach. She is a former bilingual teacher (Spanish/English) and teacher of English-as-a-second-language at the elementary school level and currently teaches in the doctoral program in educational leadership at CSULB. Her research interests include the education of Latino immigrant students in the US, literacy development in L1 and L2 among Spanish-speaking children, culturally responsive pedagogy, and linguistic rights of heritage language speakers.

Patricia Silva, PhD is Lecturer professor at the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology at the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work of the University of Lleida. She is a member of the consolidated research group EDO-UdL and an author of scientific papers related to school organization and management and online teaching. She is an instructor in subjects related to management and teacher training. She was honored with the Jaume Vicens Vives 2012 award in recognition of Improvement in University Teacher Quality. She was the coordinator of the Master in Management of Educational Centers at University of Barcelona from 2008 to 2014.

Serafín Antúnez PhD is a professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona (UB). He is director of the Master in Management and Management of Educational Centers of this university. He has worked as a teacher, school director, professor and director of the University School of Teachers and has served as Deputy Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences of the UB. He has written several books and articles on organization and management of educational institutions, management training and teaching staff. He participates in national and international research and training projects for teachers, school administrators, supervisors and people responsible for initial and ongoing teacher training in Europe and Latin America.

Isabel del Arco, PhD is a professor of Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of the Faculty of Lleida. She has served as Director of the Institute of Education Sciences of the UdL until 2005, when she became the Vice Minister of Teaching of the UdL promoting the transformation of the EEES. She is currently the coordinator of a an SGR research group (2014SGR-176) on Organizational Development of the University of Lleida (EDO-UdL). She was honored twice with the Jaume Vicens Vives award in recognition of Improvement in University Teacher Quality for the model of competency training for university students. She participates in national and international research and training projects for teachers, school administrators, and people responsible for initial and ongoing teacher training in Europe and Latin America.

Notes

1 Public schools are the property of the state; they are free and financed with public funds. Private schools are the property of foundations, societies, religious orders, companies, or individuals and are not free. Private schools that are ‘concertadas’ (i.e. concerted or joint) are partially paid for with public funds. Private schools that are ‘no concertadas’ are financed with payment that they receive from the students.