Abstract

JIMENEZ-RODRIGO, María Luisa  and  GUZMAN-ORDAZ, Raquel. Defining the others: academic narratives about diversity at School. Convergencia [online]. 2016, vol.23, n.71, pp.13-39. ISSN 2448-5799.

The present paper reviews Spanish social scientific literature analyzing the employment of the "diversity" concept applied to the school field. The research methodology started with detailed scrutiny and examination of the Social Sciences journals indexed in CSIC-ISOC and DIALNET databases, published between 2006 and 2012, followed by the documentary analysis of 218 articles extracted from those sources. Discourse analysis enables us to single out distinct narrative configurations about how "the other" is defined at school grounds. Results show two hegemonic narrative patterns: an institutional narrative based upon the legal sorting of students classified by scholar results and abilities, and an intercultural narrative constructed around cultural categories that would differentiate nationals from foreigners. We conclude that both accounts unveil predominantly essentialized views of the "diversity" idea and its conceptualization, failing to ponder over other social and economic categories when addressing school related inequalities and differences.

Keywords : cultural diversity; literature analysis; social construction of reality; interculturality.

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