Handbook for the design of intercultural policies: summary of the original Spanish version

Local governments need minimum common criteria to manage the social dynamics of diversity. This Handbook defends the strategy of interculturality as a public political approach, based on a way to interpret interculturality as a positive resource, as a public cultural and a collective good. It is an approach that promotes the equitative interaction as a way to generate a cohesive common public space. This Handbook provides the reader with the conceptual and practical instruments to help (and inspire) those territories which would like to integrate interculturality as an urban project.It aims to serve as a ground for discussion to jointly work in local administrations and other government levels, fororganizations and institutions, as well as for cultural, political and citizens collectives. Results are presented asan action by the Red de Ciudades Interculturales (RECI), within the Intercultural Cities framework by the Councilof Europe, with the collaboration of Obra Social "La Caixa".

The effects of regional educational policies on school failure in Spain

This paper presents a regional analysis of the effects of educational policies implemented in Spain between 1992 and 2003, focusing specifically on school failure rates. We consider the impact of expenditure per pupil, class size, and pupil-teacher ratio on dropout rates at the end of compulsory education and on the proportion of early school-leavers in the 18-24 year age group. Our results indicate that higher levels of educational expenditure per pupil and lower class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios reduce rates of dropout and early school-leaving (although class-size is not always significant). However, the magnitude of the effects of these variables is small at the average level.

Ranking RegionalInnovation Policies: DEA-based Benchmarking in an European Setting

Seudullinen innovaatio on monimutkainen ilmiö, joka usein sijaitsee paikallisten toimijoiden keskinäisen vuorovaikutuksen kentässä. Täten sitä on perinteisesti pidetty vaikeasti mitattavana ilmiönä. Työssä sovellettiin Data Envelopment Analysis menetelmää, joka on osoittautunut aiemmin menestyksekkääksi tapauksissa, joissa mitattavien syötteiden ja tuotteiden väliset suhteet eivät ole olleet ilmeisiä. Työssä luotiin konseptuaalinen malli seudullisen innovaation syötteistä ja tuotteista, jonka perusteella valittiin 12 tilastollisen muuttujan mittaristo. Käyttäen Eurostat:ia datalähteenä, lähdedata kahdeksaan muuttujsta saatiin seudullisella tasolla, sekä mittaristoa täydennettiin yhdellä kansallisella muuttujalla. Arviointi suoritettiin lopulta 45 eurooppalaiselle seudulle. Tutkimuksen painopiste oli arvioida DEA-menetelmän soveltuvuutta innovaatio-järjestelmän mittaamiseen, sillä menetelmää ei ole aiemmin sovellettu vastaavassa tapauksessa. Ensimmäiset tulokset osoittivat ylipäätään liiallisen korkeita tehok-kuuslukuja. Korjaustoimenpiteitä erottelutarkkuuden parantamiseksi esiteltiin ja sovellettiin, jonka jälkeen saatiin realistisempia tuloksia ja ranking-lista arvioitavista seuduista. DEA-menetelmän todettiin olevan tehokas ja kiinnostava työkalu arviointikäytäntöjen ja innovaatiopolitiikan kehittämiseen, sikäli kun datan saatavuusongelmat saadaan ratkaistua sekä itse mallia tarkennettua.

Why do we ignore risk in schooling decisions?

While uncertainty abounds in almost any decision on investment in schooling, it is mostly ignored in research and virtually absent in labour economics tekst books. This paper documents the scope for risk, discusses the tough disentanglement of heterogeneity and risk, surveys the analytical models, laments the absence of a good workhorse model and points out the challenges worth tackling: document ex ante risk that investors face, develop a tractable and malleable analytical model and integrate the option of consumption smoothing in analytical and empirical work. Hedging labour market risk in the stock market can be safely ignored.

Intervention de la pensée représentative de futurs enseignant-e-s dans leurs prises de position envers l'intégration scolaire

In the past two decades, international recommendations have made inclusive education a priority issue. Many countries have adopted school policies inciting players to question their representations about the duties and purposes of schooling and their role therein. In Switzerland, a new national and cantonal framework defines the integration of students with disabilities or special educational needs in the regular classroom as a priority. However, progress in this area is modest and many researchers are left wondering how teachers could be better prepared to meet the special needs of some students. Initial training is thus seen as essential in bringing pre-service teachers to develop open attitudes toward students with disabilities or special educational needs. While many studies have examined the role of training in building professional attitudes, very few deal with teacher representations of inclusive education, let alone those of future teachers. Our research focuses on two samples of pre-service teachers in the beginning, middle or end of their initial training. 261 pre-service teachers for primary education and 212 pre-service teachers for secondaiy education are involved in the study. The research aims to highlight the role of their representative thinking in building their attitudes towards inclusive education. Our results show that objectification remains essentialist and focuses on the prototypes of the most publicized disabilities. They also showed the weakness of the training system as perceived by future teachers. Even though they have maintained or strengthened positive attitudes towards integration, most leave their training with a reinforced sense of apprehension when faced with the disabilities or special educational needs that they expect to encounter in their future work. Although pre-service teachers consider their training insufficient, it nevertheless positively influences their attitudes toward integration. In particular, greater internship practice, however modest it may be, has a significant effect on attitudes of future teachers by increasing their perception of competence and confidence. -- Ces deux dernières décennies, les recommandations internationales ont fait de l'inclusion scolaire une thématique prioritaire. De nombreux pays ont adopté des politiques scolaires obligeant les acteurs scolaires à interroger leurs représentations des missions de l'école et leur rôle au sein de celle-ci. En Suisse, un nouveau cadre national et cantonal a défini comme prioritaire l'intégration dans l'école ordinaire des élèves en situation de handicap ou ayant des besoins éducatifs particuliers. Or, les avancées en la matière restent modestes et de nombreux chercheurs se questionnent sur la manière dont les enseignant-e-s pourraient être mieux préparés à répondre aux besoins éducatifs particuliers de certains élèves. La formation initiale est ainsi perçue comme essentielle pour amener les futurs enseignant-e-s pour développer des attitudes ouvertes envers les élèves en situation de handicap ou ayant des besoins éducatifs particuliers. Si beaucoup d'études portent sur le rôle de la formation dans la construction d'attitudes professionnelles, très peu traitent des représentations des enseignant-e-s à l'égard de l'intégration scolaire et encore moins de celles des futurs enseignant-e-s. Notre recherche porte sur deux populations de futurs enseignant-e-s en début, au milieu ou en fin de formation. Elles sont composées respectivement de 261 étudiant-e-s se destinant à l'enseignement primaire et de 212 étudiant-e-s se destinant à l'enseignement secondaire. La recherche vise à mettre en évidence l'intervention de leur pensée représentative dans leurs prises de position envers l'intégration scolaire. Nos résultats montrent que l'objectivation reste essentialiste et se focalise sur les prototypes de situations de handicap les plus médiatisés. Nos résultats font également fait apparaître la faiblesse du dispositif de formation tel que perçu les futurs enseignant-e-s. Quand bien même ont-ils conservé ou renforcé des attitudes favorables à l'intégration, ils quittent pour la plupart leur formation avec une appréhension renforcée à l'égard des situations de handicap ou de besoins éducatifs particuliers qu'ils s'attendent à rencontrer dans leur future pratique. Bien que la formation soit jugée insuffisante par les étudiant-e-s, elle oriente néanmoins favorablement leurs prises de position envers l'intégration des élèves concernés. En particulier, une plus grande pratique de stage, si modeste soit-elle, a un effet important sur ces prises de position par l'augmentation du sentiment de compétence et la perception d'assurance des futurs enseignant-e-s.

La atención a la diversidad cultural en Cataluña: exclusión, segregación e interculturalidad

La diversidad cultural se ha incrementado notablemente en los centros escolares españoles por la llegada de alumnado de origen inmigrado y esto, más los discursos de toma en consideración de las diferencias culturales que han realizado la Unión Europea y las administraciones autonómicas, ha contribuido a la aparición del discurso intercultural. Este artículo presenta la evolución realizada hasta llegar al discurso dominante actual basándose en un trabajo empírico de análisis de documentación editada por la Generalitat de Cataluña sobre política de integración y de escolarización de los inmigrados y entrevistas en profundidad a políticos y técnicos de los diferentes niveles de la administración catalana. De ello se concluye la existencia de tres etapas en la política de integración de los inmigrados en Cataluña: un primer momento de mera observación del fenómeno; una segunda etapa en la que sin abandonar la observación se insiste en la organización vertical y horizontal de la administración para trabajar de forma coordinada un fenómeno que empieza a despertar preocupación; y, una tercera, en la que sin abandonar la necesaria observación y organización, el énfasis se sitúa en la intervención. Estas fases son el marco de lo realizado a nivel educativo donde observamos la dificultad de traducción del discurso intercultural a la práctica cotidiana de los centros escolares, de los noventa, es necesario incrementar los esfuerzos para incorporar al alumnado de origen inmigrado en el dominio de la creencia de que la educación intercultural (en contra de lo que esta implica) es cuestión que deben trabajar los centros con inmigrantes y, ante la presión existente en las aulas (por el incremento del alumnado, la matrícula viva, etc.), el retorno a prácticas potencialmente segregacionistas que nos recuerdan actuaciones implementadas para escolarizar a los gitanos años atrás. Sin negar los avances realizados desde mediados aulas y centros de Cataluña.

Ranking Regional Innovation Policies: DEA-based Benchmarking in an European Setting

Seudullinen innovaatio on monimutkainen ilmiö, joka usein sijaitsee paikallisten toimijoiden keskinäisen vuorovaikutuksen kentässä. Täten sitä on perinteisesti pidetty vaikeasti mitattavana ilmiönä. Työssä sovellettiin Data Envelopment Analysis menetelmää, joka on osoittautunut aiemmin menestyksekkääksi tapauksissa, joissa mitattavien syötteiden ja tuotteiden väliset suhteet eivät ole olleet ilmeisiä. Työssä luotiin konseptuaalinen malli seudullisen innovaation syötteistä ja tuotteista, jonka perusteella valittiin 12 tilastollisen muuttujan mittaristo. Käyttäen Eurostat:ia datalähteenä, lähdedata kahdeksaan muuttujsta saatiin seudullisella tasolla, sekä mittaristoa täydennettiin yhdellä kansallisella muuttujalla. Arviointi suoritettiin lopulta 45 eurooppalaiselle seudulle. Tutkimuksen painopiste oli arvioida DEA-menetelmän soveltuvuutta innovaatiojärjestelmän mittaamiseen, sillä menetelmää ei ole aiemmin sovellettu vastaavassa tapauksessa. Ensimmäiset tulokset osoittivat ylipäätään liiallisen korkeita tehokkuuslukuja. Korjaustoimenpiteitä erottelutarkkuuden parantamiseksi esiteltiin ja sovellettiin, jonka jälkeen saatiin realistisempia tuloksia ja ranking-lista arvioitavista seuduista. DEA-menetelmän todettiin olevan tehokas ja kiinnostava työkalu arviointikäytäntöjen ja innovaatiopolitiikan kehittämiseen, sikäli kun datan saatavuusongelmat saadaan ratkaistua sekä itse mallia tarkennettua.

European employment strategy and spanish labour market policies

The paper aim is to analyse the influence of the European Employment Strategy (EES)in the implementation of the Spanish labour market policies. The first part of the paper describes the evolution and content of the EES. In the second one, the definition of activation is also explained. In addition to that, the ways how the EES develops and promotes active labour market policies are examined. The evolution of labour market policies in Spain and the current configuration of both active and passive policies are studied in the next three chapters. In these parts, the paper investigates to which extent the provisions of the EES have been implemented in Spain. The paper shows that: i) activation has been rising in the European countries since the implementation of the EES; ii) this fact has also happened in relative terms (comparing the evolution of active to passive policies); iii) Spain has been one of the countries which has led these processes; iv) the EES seems to have been influencing

A proposal to establish indicators for the evaluation of municipal councils' socio-cultural policies

How can municipal sociocultural policies stimulate and promote community empowerment, civic creativity or social cohesion? What objectives should be proposed at the municipal level to promote processes of sociocultural community development? How can we identify local needs in order to stimulate community development processes? In response to these questions, our paper proposes a creative solution: indicators to evaluate sociocultural policies. The proposal will enable us to obtain information about our own reality and, at the same time, contribute to producing changes and to outlining possible de intervention strategies for local administrations. The proposal describes a system of creative, flexible and rigourous indicators intended for municipal technicians and politicians interested in evaluating their sociocultural actions and strategies. We present the result of a research process whose methods included validation of the indicators by experts and technicians in or related to sociocultural community development, and the application of this system based on a case study of a Spanish municipality. Among the proposed indicators specific consideration is given to the support of local creators and the promotion of civic creativity, as well as the use, the creation and the articulation of sociocultural activities as strategies to contribute to cultural and civic diversity