Education vulnerability

On 16th September Raul Bustos González defended, within the framework of the Education Doctorate of Education of the UAB, his doctoral thesis named “Academic Adaptation Strategies in Immigrant Students from Primary and Secondary Educational Institutions in the city of Arica”. The research general aim is to analyse the strategies used to promote the academic adaptation of the immigrant students joined to the primary and secondary education in the city of Arica, through using an ethnographic perspective that searches to understand the reality by the construction that the subjects create when they are building it.

The research results indicate that the Chilean cultural tradition shows that its predisposition to the intercultural aspects is limited. Schools believe in the premise that it is the student the one who has to adapt to the school system.  This “formal equity”, considered as a fundamental task in the educational institutions, is confirmed through normalizing procedures. Thus, the mechanisms designed to support the migrant student mainly refer to administrative support.

In addition, the unshakable belief that the situation will “normalize over time” is verified, which in practice turns into immobility.

This doctoral thesis has been directed by Dr. Joaquín Gairín, and professors Mario Martín Bris (UAH, as a President, Diego Castro Ceacero (UAB) as a Secretary, and professor Mercè Gisbert Cercera (URV) as a Vocal have participated in the Assessment Tribunal.