Rafaela García López

Teachers’ initial training in cultural diversity in Spain: attitudes and pedagogical strategies

This paper examines a number of issues relating to educational responsibility for increasing social cohesion and preventing the segregation of people from different cultures who have to pass through the Spanish educational system. Using a descriptive analysis, we review the present situation. Our review shows that the treatment of cultural diversity by Spanish universities is, in general, insufficient with respect to the training needs that students will demand from the educational system both now and in the future. Simply taking a single course on intercultural issues is not enough to prepare teachers to cope with cultural diversity in the school and classroom. Therefore, educational approaches, curriculum planning, teacher organization and teaching methodology all need to change in the earliest stages of teacher training. A important first step would be to develop positive attitudes toward diversity and inclusion, which can then guide new educational approaches. In turn, these can focus on innovation within an intercultural framework in order to allow the implementation of increasingly committed and complex projects and educational experiences (investigation‐action, social action projects, etc.). Such developments are intended to provide teachers with teaching‐learning strategies in five fundamental core areas. These represent the minimum content of any intercultural education program: friendship with people from other cultures, multicultural coexistence, coexistence and learning about other cultures at school, intercultural cooperation and respect for cultural diversity.

Restructuring university degree programmes: a new opportunity for ethics education?

This article explores the possibilities of reinforcing ethics education at the university level within the context of new internationalisation processes. The situation in Spain is used as a case study. The article begins with a review of the rationale behind this issue and goes on to analyse the place of the ethical dimension in education in the proposals for adapting Spanish university degree programmes to the European Higher Education Area. Fieldwork carried out at three higher education institutions reveals that, while professors accept the institutional function of the university in ethics education, their hazy conception of the matter weakens the likelihood of a pedagogical approach in‐keeping with the level of importance given to such a function.

The Improvement of Moral Development Through an Increase in Reflection. A Training Programme

Abstract In this study a training programme was implemented to increase reflectivity in 13‐and 14‐year‐old children in the 8th grade of a primary school in Spain. We hoped to confirm that an increase in reflectivity would promote moral development in these children. We did not use classical techniques for improving moral development (values clarification, moral dilemmas, etc.) but, rather, cognitive techniques to increase reflectivity‐‐ problem‐solving, self‐instruction, scanning strategies, and so on. We used Cairns and Cammocks Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF20) (1978) and Rests Defining Issues Test (DIT) (1986) as measuring instruments. As we had supposed prior to the intention, we succeeded in increasing reflectivity in the children in the experimental group in comparison with those in the control group and, as a result, in significantly improving their moral development in scores of post‐conventional levels and in the P index. We think that this investigation opens new ways for interventions in...

Teacher Training with a View Towards Developing Favourable Attitudes Regarding Intercultural Education and Cultural Diversity

Abstract An analysis of Spanish multiculturalism, together with the lack of systematic teacher training in the area of intercultural education, a fact which was revealed by a review of the educational programmes and strategies developed in our country, has led us to propose a training course which improves the attitudes of teachers and educators towards intercultural education and the ever‐growing cultural diversity in our country. The study, carried out using a quasi‐experimental methodology and based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, revealed that this type of training programme favours a positive predisposition in teachers towards the development of intercultural programmes in schools, a fundamental element in promoting a further dissemination of this particular focus throughout the whole of the educational system.

Gypsy Children's Schooling and Intercultural Attitudes in Spain

Abstract In this article we start by briefly describing the educational situation of Gypsies in Spain. Centuries of marginalisation has left deep scars, and despite various educational compensatory programmes the vast majority of Gypsy children still fail in school. We argue that any viable solution to the problem will require a greater flexibility of the educational system and a democratisation of the school structure and organisation, in order to better reflect the diversity of the school population. We end the article by discussing the importance of teaching intercultural attitudes, and we place this discussion within a theoretical framework provided by Fishbein and Ajzens Reasoned Action Model.

Transformación de una escuela en escuela cooperativa: historia de un proyecto intercultural

This article revises the creation process and main elements that are set in order to transform a particular educational center into an educative centre with a cooperative project. This center belongs to the city of Valencia (Spain), with a significant high index of immigrant students. Presenting the main virtues and obstacles founded in its process, at the same time that helps to reflex and to conclude with future proposals in order to improve the initial project.