Challenges and opportunities of the educational system in the face of immigration and cultural diversity

Abstract

This article arises from the participation in the II International Colloquium Education and Interculturality, held in April 2019 at the Faculty of Education of the University of Salamanca. It studies three key issues in our current educational system. The first are the variables of the migration process with respect to the education of immigrant students. A process that depends on very diverse aspects that go beyond education, such as access to the fundamental services of the welfare state under equal conditions or the socioeconomic characteristics of the family. Second, the current situation of immigrant students, influenced by low school enrollment in the post-compulsory stages, a high school failure rate and low socioeconomic expectations. Something that our educational system must inexorably solve in compliance with its function of enabling integration, progress and social advancement. This brings us to the third question: the answer that educational systems should offer to immigrant students. This must always go through fostering an intercultural model at all times, in education and in society. In other words, a model that offers solutions to the specific needs of the students that comprise it, that enables equal opportunities and that guarantees a standardized, inclusive and quality education, generating interaction and mutual enrichment of its students through active methodologies and cooperative learning.