The mediator’s intercultural figure in the Catalan school institutions: real profile and ideal according to the own actors

Abstract

In recent years in Catalonia, there has been a proliferation of a series of «professionals» who carry out, more or less in accordance with the theoretical definition, the function of intercultural mediators. At first, they were gypsies, however, recently, as a result of the increase in the presence of immigrant origin children in Catalan schools, the number and the role of foreigners has increased as a result of the recognition they have received from the administration and the institutions. The intercultural mediators have tried to intervene in questions such as the participation of parents of immigrant or minority origins in the schools, the adaptation of the curriculum to the cultural diversity, negotiation in cultural conflicts, enrolment in schools, absenteeism and abandoning of pupils during the compulsory schooling period, linguistic translation and socio-cultural interpretation, etc. This latter consisted of in-depth interviews with mediators, a total 27, the empirical research work covered all Catalonia.