Reception and schooling of children in schools in Catalonia: Beyond Educational Welcome Facilities

The ways of incorporating newcoming students into schools and colleges have been at the center of debate in most OECD countries in recent years. In Spain, the set of measures developed for the reception of immigrant pupils in different Autonomous Communities has also been the subject of specific research, pointing out the similarities and contradictions between pedagogic discourses and school practices. This article takes into account these considerations and presents the reflections from the results of research on the Educational Welcome Facilities (and specifically the EBE) conducted during the school years 2008-2010. This device was created in Catalonia to attend newcomers before enrolling them in the school. It was a pilot project which took place in Vic and Reus for two consecutive years. The research of the EBE has enabled us to explain the relationship between educational assessment that schools made about this facility and reception processes that schools were implementing. The conclusions that emerge from this analysis allowed us to establish relationships between educational host practices of the seven centers analyzed with three different conceptual and educational frameworks of reception.

The European Union Foreign Policy in the Caucasus and Central Asia: The Limitations of the Opening towards the East

This article intends to study the evolution of the European Union foreign policy in the Southern Caucasus and Central Area throughout the Post-Cold War era. The aim is to analyze Brussels’ fundamental interests and limitations in the area, the strategies it has implemented in the last few years, and the extent to which the EU has been able to undermine the regional hegemons’ traditional supremacy. As will be highlighted, the Community’s chronic weaknesses, the local determination to preserve sovereignty and an increasing international geopolitical competition undermine any European aspiration to become a pre-eminent actor at the heart of the Eurasian continent in the near future.

¡Abre los ojos! Un proyecto de mejora educativa para la prevención de drogas en adolescentes

La Educación para la Salud (EpS) es un tema transversal del currículo que adolece de propuestas didácticas novedosas para la intervención pedagógica. El objetivo del trabajo que se presenta es poner en marcha un plan de mejora para la prevención de drogadicciones en adolescentes. Para ello, se ha trabajado con un total de 142 estudiantes de 3º de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) con edades comprendidas entre los 14 y los 16 años que cursan estudios en el Instituto “Francisco Salzillo” de la localidad de Alcantarilla (Murcia). Concretamente, este artículo da luz al Proyecto ¡Abre los ojos!, que forma parte del Plan de Acción Tutorial (PAT) y del Plan de Mejora para la Prevención de Drogas (PMPD) propuesto desde el Departamento de Orientación. Se exponen ad hoc las actividades implementadas durante las 3 sesiones trabajadas con cada uno de los 6 grupos-clase escolarizados en este nivel. Haciendo uso de la reflexión-acción, el alumnado ha desarrollado una conciencia crítica acerca de los riesgos que entraña para la salud el consumo de drogas. Asimismo, mediante la técnica de grupos de discusión los discentes han realizado un interesante debate cuyas ideas han sido organizadas en torno a tres aspectos clave: causas por las que se empieza a consumir, cómo evitar caer en las drogas, y alternativas de ocio y tiempo libre para una vida saludable. Finalmente, se especifica la necesidad de abordar tareas de prevención en los centros educativos así como de facilitar información y de resolver las inquietudes de los jóvenes acerca de esta temática.