The diversity of students in Argentina

A study with special emphasis on the Argentine Educational System in general and that of Mendoza in particular.

Introduction

Paraphrasing Blejmar (fatality management and resistance management) we can speak of fatality teaching and resistance teaching. Teachers who practice the first type to abstain, teaching is not for them. Those who exercise resistance training are those who can help the dispossessed, the marginalized, the forgotten and the "different" to get out of the well into which much of society wants to plunge them, in short, resistance against discrimination of the other. Another who is not different, is simply different from me, we are all different.

We are diverse in many aspects, it is an indisputable reality, but we are not different as human beings with the same dignity and deserving of the same respect as anyone. Much is said in the discourses of equality, integration, native peoples, etc., but little is done in practice. And in this we consider it necessary to banish the word tolerance, very fashionable nowadays and which is given a positive meaning that it does not have. Whoever says to tolerate is in fact implicitly marking the other's annoying presence. It is essential to create a sense of humanity, not to speak of tolerance but of the deep and intimate acceptance of the other.

As we will analyze throughout this study, it is clear that the Argentine Government in general and the Mendoza Government in particular execute, without evaluating its efficiency, a significant number of policies aimed at recognizing the cultural diversity of our students, maintaining it, protecting it and integrate it with the rest of society, for example through rescue and strengthening programs of indigenous languages and cultures -ethnic diversity-, of artistic education -diversity of intelligence-, of special education -different capacities-, adult education -associated generally with socioeconomic diversity-, etc. But there is something that is also clear in our country, if educational policy is not accompanied by others, such as economic policy, the task of respecting diversity remains incomplete.

A. Some contributions from the theory

Today, in the culture of postmodernism, we see how the social subject, contrary to what happened in modernity, has overwhelmed the pedagogical one. The vertiginous nature of the changes limit knowledge to momentary and not permanent potentialities. The idea of education needs to be understood for learning in competencies and not only in professional qualification, in order to adapt to new and permanent changes. The great universal and absolute truths, given by tradition, religion and reason, have been dissolved. According to Jayme Barylko "there are no longer universal truths, they all propose theirs and justify them or not."

In our experience we see that the problem arises in school when we have students in classrooms who belong to foreign communities such as Bolivians or Chileans, or when they belong to different social strata.

Knowledge and reflections that help us in understanding diversity.

Know the social values, forms and customs of postmodernism.

Conceive man in all its dimensions, in its individual evolutionary dynamics and in its interaction with its social and historical-cultural environment, considering it as a unique being and with characteristics characteristic of the species and influenced by its sociocultural context, which particularly affects each individual.

Consider the premise that not all individuals learn the same way.

Understand the fulfillment of the homogenizing objective of education that requires promoting heterogeneous educational processes, that is, accepting diversity. "Ensuring integration and equity implies eliminating inequality but not diversity." (Tedesco, 1993).

Understand how the system tends to reproduce the social roles that each individual must fulfill according to their social stratum, introducing the dominant ideology without respecting individual characteristics, nor cultural ideologies and their consequence: the perpetuation or correspondence between the relations of the educational system and those in the workplace.

Understand the role of the curriculum in the creation and maintenance of ideological monopoly and patterns of discrimination in textbooks, propagating ideal stereotypes and the roles that different individuals in society must fulfill.

Theories to tackle the problem

From the 4 pillars proposed by UNESCO's international commission on education, we highlight the third “learning to live together”.

It implies that the relationship between members of different groups is established in a context of equality. It proposes to formulate common objectives and projects avoiding competition.

From the cultural capital of young people. Roxana Morduchowics proposal.

The current social subject has overwhelmed the pedagogical one. The proposal to rescue the social culture of individuals is interesting and useful, as it is not only a bridge of high significance for them in terms of learning, but basically respects and claims their culture, a necessary condition to accept diversity..

The school needs to get closer to the consumption made by young people, to understand youth culture. It's about learning to listen to teens to find out what they're trying to say. Starting from where young people are and not from where the school believes they are or wants them to be.

From Humanism: Non-directive Pedagogy.- Carl Rogers. (In the conception of the subject and the teacher's attitude).

It is student-centered teaching. It implies an appreciation, acceptance and trust in the student and an empathetic understanding of the teacher, understanding that the person is free to choose his own course of action. The teacher's humanistic position renders any arbitrary prejudice and assessment meaningless.

From Symbolic Interactionism that considers the interaction between the ideas and beliefs of individuals as a basic phenomenon of social life. Active interaction between students, teachers and the school itself matters. This must be done with conviction and respect for cultural and social individuals. The institution and its members must propose and sustain this idea as an axiom for these relationships.

From Juan Carlos Tedesco, in the conception that the fulfillment of the homogenizing objective of education requires promoting heterogeneous educational processes, also adding "that guaranteeing integration and equity implies eliminating inequality, but not diversity". This means: take into account the differences of origin, to improve learning conditions for those who come from worse starting points. It implies the valuation of cultural diversity and the articulation of these differences as central elements of the school institution.

Since Howard Gardner, when he talks about intelligences through the development of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, where he accounts for the existence of different types of intelligences, which allows people to relate to knowledge through different channels. Each of the intelligences enunciated by Gardner represents a specific ability, an ability to solve problems. This involves generating various teaching proposals that contain various sources of access to knowledge.

Our Postulate: "Diversity as normal"

B. The treatment of diversity from the Argentine educational system

Both the Federal Education Law and the Provincial Law contemplate the so-called «Special Regimes», where basically a large part of the educational offer is concentrated to attend to the different minorities that do not fit completely into the traditional educational format.

• Federal Education Law

Thus, within the «Special Regimes», Special Education is first treated, that is, that of individuals with different teaching / learning needs than the majority of the students. In art. 28 its objectives are stated:

guarantee the care of people with these educational needs from the moment they are detected in special education centers or schools. provide individualized, standardizing and integrative training, aimed at the integral development of the person and job training that allows them to join the world of work and production

In the case of the second objective, perhaps reality is a little behind with respect to the law, particularly with regard to the adequate incorporation of people with different abilities into the world of work and production.

Through art. 29 the state objective of integrating these minorities into the bulk of society continues to be revealed, particularly when it is said that “the situation of students attended in special centers and schools will be reviewed periodically by teams of professionals, in order to facilitate, whenever possible and in accordance with both parents, integration into common school units ».

Article 30 deals with the situation of another important minority with special educational needs, adults with incomplete studies. The objectives of Adult Education are:

the integral development and labor qualification of those persons who did not comply with the regularity of basic and compulsory general education, or having complied with it, wish to acquire or improve their preparation for the purpose of continuing studies at other levels of the system, within or outside this special regime. promoting the organization of systems and programs for training and retraining, which will be alternative or complementary to those of formal education. provide people with the possibility of accessing educational services at different levels of the system who are deprived of liberty in prison establishments.

All these objectives, stated in the law and also carried out in practice, continue to show the aforementioned determined state will to serve minorities with special educational needs - different abilities, adults, convicts - and in turn try to integrate them to the bulk of society, although for example in the prison case, we know that it is not easy for ex-convicts to find jobs that make them abandon the idea of recidivism in crime.

Also in its articles 31 and 32 the Federal Law contemplates Artistic Education, respecting the growing tendency to consider "multiple intelligences", that is to say, to accommodate all those who have marked inclinations towards some branch of art, students who would not be well channeled via schools with traditional modalities.

Finally in his art. 33 The law deals with Other Special Regimes, where it is established that the official educational authorities:

They will fight for the development of common establishments for the early detection, expansion of training and monitoring of students with special abilities. They will promote open and distance education systems and other alternatives aimed at sectors of the population that do not attend face-to-face establishments or require educational services. Complementary. They will supervise the educational actions given to children / adolescents who are temporarily hospitalized due to objective circumstances of a different nature.

In other words, we again find postulates of the Federal Law that aim to integrate minorities that for different reasons are far from the traditional / general education system.

In art. 34 it is established that the National State, together with the provinces, will promote rescue and strengthening programs of indigenous languages and cultures, for integrationist purposes. Needless to say, the enormous value of this policy for the maintenance of cultural diversity in our country. Of course, this initiative contradicts other state and / or private actions that aim to eradicate indigenous communities from their lands for reasons of alternative land uses. What is the use of integrating and recognizing them from the educational point of view if we expel them from their land for economic reasons?

Already outside the "Special Regimes" section, the law deals with Non-Formal Education, where through a single article, 35, a whole series of postulates are listed aimed at promoting said educational instance as a valid instance to channel training needs for minority groups of our population, which cannot be satisfied through Formal Education.

• Provincial Education Law

This law, which as it could not be otherwise, shares the general guidelines of the Federal Law, also deepens certain aspects not detailed by it. In this way, like that one, it offers a whole section for the so-called «Special Regimes», whose main purpose is to attend to diversity in education. And again, as in the case of the Federal Law, we will end by concluding about the very high coverage by the State of said diversity, although without going too far to evaluate the efficiency of said policy, due to lack of pertinent information.

Thus, in its Section 1, Law 6970 legislates on Special Education, where in its art. 47 specifies the degree of attention to diversity that this regime has in our province.

Says art. 47 that «Special Education must be compulsory and include all students with special educational needs: sensory, cognitive and socio-emotional, from mild to severe, permanent or transitory. It is framed in the conception of an integrating school, understanding as such the insertion of students with special educational needs in the school, social and work environment. It develops a pedagogy focused on the needs of the learners, which respects individual differences and rejects all kinds of discrimination ».

The General Directorate of Schools -DGE- offers these educational services in special schools and in an integrated manner in ordinary schools, with specialized personnel, in order to effectuate in each person with special educational needs the maximum development of their abilities.

In art. 49 the objectives pursued by the DGE through this regime are established:

attend to students with special educational needs, from detection to adulthood, helping them achieve maximum personal and social development, implement strategies in conjunction with the socio-health system to carry out prevention, early detection and early care actions. a specific regulatory framework that enables the integration of students with special educational needs into the common system and job training schools at all levels and modalities, according to their abilities and providing the necessary material and human resources. encourage the active participation of parents in the educational project of their children. ensure therapeutic assistance to students through direct provision or agreements with governmental and non-governmental institutions.extend workshops for job training throughout the province. carry out information campaigns in different media to promote inclusive principles and encourage compliance with current legislation.

In summary, all the objectives of art. 49 demonstrate the high importance that the educational government attaches to meeting the educational need of this minority -people with different abilities-, trying to ensure that said diversity is integrated into the system in the most favorable way possible. But again, as we said when analyzing the Federal Law, in terms of job placement, the achievements may not be entirely satisfactory.

To further illustrate the degree of attention that the State provides to special education in Mendoza, we quote art. 50, which shows its structure:

compulsory initial education: kindergarten for early detection and stimulation, kindergarten for the attention of different capacities and curricular paths for the development of personal and social autonomy. basic general education with manual and technological orientation workshops. subsequent job training to basic general education.

From art. 63 and even art. 69 the law deals with Education for Young People and Adults, where the entire structure that the DGE maintains is analyzed to encourage young people and adults, who discontinued their compulsory or polymodal training, to complete it and thus have greater possibilities of personal development and work in the future.

In his art. 65 the objectives in terms of competences that are expected to be developed in said students are determined:

mastery of basic social codes (literacy and mathematics). acquisition of relevant content from science, technology and culture. general training to solve problematic situations in everyday life. training for work required by the working world. management of new languages including artistic and corporal expression, computing and foreign languages. learning for personal autonomy in the management of learning trajectories that allows them to organize their accumulated experiences. domain of instrumental knowledge to interpret and enrich their own cultural reality, recognizing the values and meanings that support the ways of thinking, feeling and acting of the community in which they are inserted and the openness towards change. exercise of their rights and duties as citizens,participating democratically and making a responsible use of freedom, both individually and socially.

In art. 67 it is established that, to ensure maximum educational opportunities, the DGE will guarantee the provision of the following services:

complete basic general education, in educational centers destined for this purpose and third cycle of basic general education in Work Training Centers and polymodal education, as it is more convenient to achieve the obligatory nature of this level. continuity of those who have completed basic general education, finished the 7th grade of the previous primary level and to resume the studies of those who have completed the third cycle of basic general education or previous secondary studies, with a maximum duration of three (3) years and a flexible curricular offer, organized by progressive sections, creditable by the student regardless of their previous school trips, which includes up to accelerated approval in short times.training for the job with curricular offers of specialization in a professional field, formal and non-formal, modular and creditable, that integrate a training continuum, possible to be articulated with the pre-professional training of the third cycle of basic general education and the guidance of polymodal education. For formal offers, those who have completed basic general education or who prove that they are in the third cycle can access with an offer integrated in the same job training center or in another educational center.possible to be articulated with the pre-professional training of the third cycle of basic general education and the guidelines of polymodal education. For formal offers, those who have completed basic general education or who prove that they are in the third cycle can access with an offer integrated in the same job training center or in another educational center.possible to be articulated with the pre-professional training of the third cycle of basic general education and the guidelines of polymodal education. For formal offers, those who have completed basic general education or who prove that they are in the third cycle can access with an offer integrated in the same job training center or in another educational center.

This law also contemplates Artistic Education, where in art. 70 it is made clear that it is intended to contribute to comprehensive training through the learning of expressive languages such as music, dance, theater, literature, crafts, visual arts, audiovisual arts, and multimedia arts.

In art. 71 the objectives of Art Education are named:

promote the development of expressive and communicative potentialities that encourage artistic production and the appreciation of the cultural environment, favor the promotion, conservation and protection of cultural heritage, the formation of values and the strengthening of national identity, attending to local and regional idiosyncrasies.stimulate artistic vocations and talents.

In other words, a way of recognizing the immense value that the arts and people with intelligences channeled towards these activities - multiple intelligences - contribute to society.

From art. 73 Penitentiary Education is considered, an instance of crucial importance in the task of recovering these minorities, in order for them to productively rejoin society once their sentence has been served.

Thus, the same art. 73 says that “prison education will promote educational actions given to young people and adults who are deprived of their transitory or permanent freedom to guarantee them new opportunities that increase their possibilities of self-learning and personal development and of future insertion in society and in the world. from work".

It should be clarified that the school government attends to the provision of these services, respecting the structure of the educational system and making the necessary adaptations, both in the curricular designs and in the organizational aspects, to adapt the provision of the service to the particular characteristics and needs. of the students and providing the necessary resources for its operation.

From art. 76 legislation on Home and Hospital Education, which promotes equal opportunities for the exercise of the right to learn of those children and adolescents who suffer from a disease, so that they can access, stay and graduate from all cycles and levels of the provincial educational system.

Says art. 77 that this educational service is offered in the home of the sick patient hospitalized, with temporary or permanent hospitalization. The teachers in charge must adapt the teaching and learning processes to the particular situation of each student, who will enjoy the same benefits as ordinary school students.

Finally, from art. 79, Other Special Regimes are contemplated, where other educational services are recognized, organized to serve students located in rural, desert, border, dispersed population or marginal urban areas that require special adaptations, reinforcements or educational and social compensations to guarantee the equity and equal opportunities. These regimes include shelter schools, home schools and full-time schools.

Shelter schools offer an educational service adapted to the needs of children and adolescents who live in remote areas, in isolated communities, with a very dispersed population and who do not have the means of transportation to attend classes regularly. The students remain 24 hours. of the day at school for several weeks, alternating with periods of rest in the family.

It is interesting to cite art. 82, especially for the express recognition that it makes of the particular needs of the aborigines -ethnic diversity-, it says “the curriculum project of the shelter schools will respond to the general guidelines that are designed at the provincial level. The DGE will propose, in agreement with the management and teaching teams, flexible models of organization of content and methodologies, of institutional times and physical spaces that respect the cultural identity and lifestyles of the community in which they are inserted, especially when it comes to aboriginal populations. "

Home schools offer an educational service adapted to the needs of children and adolescents from different departments of the province, who due to problematic family, economic and social situations cannot be at home during the week. They are characterized by the permanence of the students in the school during the working days of the week, returning on non-working days with their family. In other words, they basically serve socioeconomic diversity.

While full-time schools offer an educational service for students from rural and urban-marginal areas, disadvantaged from a cultural, social and economic point of view. They are characterized by developing an enriching and compensatory educational proposal in the pedagogical, organizational and social aspects and by the extension of the school day by guaranteeing double schooling for children and adolescents who attend school. Again we see a case of attention to socioeconomic diversity.

Already in a section outside the Special Regimes, as in the Federal Law, Law 6970 deals with Non-Formal Education, which encompasses the educational processes carried out by conventional and unconventional means in alternative and / or complementary regimes of formal education, so that different sectors of the population contribute to its creative integration into the social environment, to its permanent updating in different areas of culture, knowledge and job training.

For example, in art. 87, subsection a, it is maintained that the educational government may "promote and stimulate the offer of non-formal, open and distance educational services, aimed primarily at less-favored communities living in marginal rural and urban areas, to improve their living conditions and that they include actions of sociocultural animation and job retraining », which goes in a clear direction to attend to socioeconomic diversity; while in subsection g he talks about the educational government being able "to promote the creation of popular libraries and cultural centers, preferably in disadvantaged and isolated areas, with the participation of the municipalities and community organizations", again serving mainly socioeconomic diversity.

conclusion

It is a fact that, at least from an educational point of view, the National Government in general and that of Mendoza in particular execute, without evaluating its efficiency, a significant number of policies aimed at recognizing cultural diversity, maintaining it, protecting it and integrate it with the rest of society, for example through rescue and strengthening programs of indigenous languages and cultures -ethnic diversity-, of artistic education -diversity of intelligence-, of special education -different capacities-, adult education - generally associated with socio-economic diversity, etc.

C. More contributions from the theory

a) From the theory of Educational Systems

From the perception of the Educational System space, it seems appropriate to quote the concepts of Prof. Francisco Muscará. In his opinion, shared by this working group, all men should have the same possibilities for the free development of their personality through training. If this happens, the position finally achieved will depend - at least theoretically - on your own efforts. It is assumed that through the educational system, the natural, economic, social or cultural disadvantages of its actors could be compensated.

Some propose that equal opportunities should transcend equal treatment and privilege, among others, the right to different treatment and according to personal abilities and interests.

With the years in democracy and the money invested in education, it is impossible to verify that the school was the determining factor to suppress socio-economic inequalities. This is how equality of access to the system is understood as a problem but taking into account its capacity for reception and development, compensatory education and the implementation of remedial resources in order not to marginalize anyone from the educational systems.

However, a change in social structures and in economic systems is necessary, to accompany any educational policy decision aimed at achieving equal opportunities.

It is appropriate to quote Martínez Paz when he maintains that “… it is not necessary to impose a rigid and absolute egalitarianism, nor to preach the advisability of a complete leveling, alien to the pluralism of democratic societies. So that equality of opportunities is presented as an unsolved problem whose answer could be found by making effective a justice of opportunities ”

In our premise of attending to diversity, we notice difficulties such as the will, the student's interest in learning, their aptitudes and capacities, health and temperament, which could be referred to as subjective in nature. In an objective order, attention should be paid to: a) geographic inequalities; b) inequalities of social order, and c) inequalities of economic order.

There is different legislation in this regard. We will quote the main ones:

World Conference on Education for All (Thailand, 1990):… - universalize access to education and promote equity; … Argentine Constitution: “…, the promotion of democratic values and equality of opportunities and possibilities without any discrimination,… and equity of education…” (Art. 75, 19) Federal Law of Education Law of Higher Education Universal Declaration of Human Rights Covenant International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights American Convention on Human Rights Pact of San José, Costa Rica Convention on the Rights of the Child

Obviously, there is a rich regulatory framework and full of possibilities for human fulfillment and promotion. They should become cultural production in our country to inspire actions and goals and the purposes of those who play the different roles in our society.

b) Contributions from the didactic theory and curriculum

From the Didactics and the Curriculum: Designing the Curriculum is to reflect, value and decide what we are going to teach and how we are going to teach it, taking into account the diversity of the subjects and the contexts, not ignoring the technical aspects that can facilitate the task, but knowing how to use them, overcoming the vertical technical-bureaucratic idea of organizing knowledge according to what is officially determined, which ignores the different educational realities. In this way, design is the decision-making process for preparing the curriculum in anticipation of its implementation.

From the Curricular design, the cultural diversity can be taken into account, according to the theoretical approach with which it is approached. From the Practical and Social-Critical approach, design is characterized by its procedural condition (design is built during the teaching and learning process). It is defined, then, as "project" or "singular tentative proposal for a context, for some students, supported by open, interpretable principles.

From this approach, an understanding perspective is promoted. The interest is centered in the singular, in the particular, in the study of cases. They are interested in the meanings that students give to their learning processes, their motivations and attitudes, the particular ways of appropriating knowledge and interacting in class. From this point of view, qualitative evaluation is privileged. The socio-anthropological view and the ethnographic approach constitute valuable contributions for evaluation and self-evaluation. It is about understanding processes rather than quantifying results (measuring vs. understanding).

Faced with the alleged “objectivity” of the technical approach, from an understanding perspective, the evaluator's subjectivity is recognized; For this, the teacher agrees and makes evaluation criteria explicit. Perhaps one of the most important characteristics is its deliberative nature. The evaluation is discussed and agreed with the students through the negotiation of the evaluation criteria.

From educational research - Ethnographic Approach. Through school ethnography, an attempt is made to interpret the say and do of school actors, carefully recording all the events in the classroom, such as the space and context, where it takes place. It is not simply about describing, but about inscribing and interpreting school culture.

Ethnography seeks to know and make other social worlds known through its understanding. Far from evaluative judgment, the peoples, the others, deserve the genuine understanding that eliminates disqualification and discrimination (Eduardo Remedi, 2002).

Of the Paradigms in educational research, we lean towards the Interpretive and the Social-Critical. Considering as the purpose of the research, to recover the perspective of the actors and understand the meaning of thought and action in a framework of intersubjective relationships (interpretive paradigm) and the criticism and transformation of educational practices, analyzing the daily existence of the school as accumulated history; looking for in the present the state and civil elements with which the school has been constituted (critical-social paradigm). And regarding the research context, we consider the ecological and social environment where the phenomena that we want to understand (interpretive paradigm) and daily life at school (critical-social paradigm) occur.

Through ethnographic studies we can clearly observe the cultural diversity of the actors who participate in the school environment, and especially in the classroom.

c) From the theory of educational institutions

Diversity is present in all instances of the development of an educational institution and crosses its four dimensions. We find diversity and difference between institutions, between the communities in which they are located, between teachers and managers, and among students.

Today we are witnessing the phenomenon of global globalization that tends to standardize different cultures, but paradoxically, local differences are accentuated. Now that the confrontation between the two great world blocks has ended, the main sources of conflict will be the failures that separate men due to their different concepts on important issues (the relationship between God and man, the individual and the group, the citizen and the State, freedom and authority, equality and hierarchy, etc.). Some argue that globalization, by forcing countries to improve their human capital, causes greater differences by privileging efficiency policies to the detriment of equity and social cohesion objectives, and that greater average and higher schooling would cause greater inequality.But other scholars think the opposite, and that in Latin America the delay in the universalization of teaching is what causes inequity. (Brunner)

The same author points out that education, in the future, or current? Society, of knowledge, information and the mass media, will leave the exclusive sphere of the nation state to also enter the sphere of globalization. In this way the boundaries of the school and national borders will be crossed, interrupting the secular movement that led education to act as the main mechanism of social integration within national societies.

Juan Carlos Tedesco tells us that the great challenge of educational policies today is to guarantee everyone a very good quality education. Something fundamental for any strategy of social cohesion, political participation and entry into the labor market. For this, in the face of the ideological values that maintain that learning capacity is associated with genetic factors, it is necessary to develop more than ever confidence in the learning capacity of all people. For this we must take into account diversity, but trying to neutralize it, giving more and better education to those who need it most. This will be an essential requirement to avoid the breakdown of social cohesion and the horizontal exclusion that is taking place in today's society. That is why this author highlights that the most important pillar of education,of the four that UNESCO specifies, is learning to live together.

The same concern haunts Daniel Filmus: democratizing perspectives will prevail or current trends towards differentiation and marginalization will be accentuated. Studies predict that only 25% of the population will be fully integrated; 25% will be in the stable periphery as a reserve, entering and leaving the market; the remaining 50% will remain marginalized. Faced with this, the integrating and homogenizing function of the school is fundamental, decisive for social cohesion and coexistence. One of the roles that Filmus assigns to education is to teach democratic values and attitudes as the only possible way: acceptance and respect for the other. Among the trends for the education of the future, he points out the personalization of learning processes.This will be possible thanks to new technologies that will help to overcome the differences. Research on different types of intelligences also reinforces this tendency to personalize learning. A more personalized school can ensure that all children without exception learn from mainly exploiting their own profile.

Related to what we are dealing with is the work of Néstor López referring to education as a necessary condition for equity and at the same time a minimum of equity as a condition of possibility for education. The crisis of social cohesion and the increasing fragmentation of society are reflected in the proliferation of microcultures that reinforce isolation and individualism. Educational systems face multiple challenges and it is necessary to develop different strategies for the multiple scenarios that arise. It is asked how to teach children from impoverished families, or in contexts of extreme violence, or between refugees, or to the various urban tribes. The concept of educability, that is, the set of predispositions previously developed within the family, is fundamental for school success.This baggage of the child, fruit of the social, cultural and economic condition of the family, is what determines the differences and inequalities that the school must try to neutralize. This leads to the need for compensatory programs in education, oriented on principles of positive discrimination in favor of the poorest sectors. In other words, proposals more tailored to children and adolescents of increasingly diverse social and cultural origins, but being alert to the risk that this will generate more inequality, creating poor schools for the poor and rich schools for the rich.oriented on principles of positive discrimination in favor of the poorest sectors. In other words, proposals more tailored to children and adolescents of increasingly diverse social and cultural origins, but being alert to the risk that this will generate more inequality, creating poor schools for the poor and rich schools for the rich.oriented on principles of positive discrimination in favor of the poorest sectors. In other words, proposals more tailored to children and adolescents of increasingly diverse social and cultural origins, but being alert to the risk that this will generate more inequality, creating poor schools for the poor and rich schools for the rich.

What we have said so far refers to diversity among students, but we must also comment on the diversity between teachers and principals. Both are fundamental when it comes to constituting the culture of each school (Antúnez and Gairin), and the values they transmit, beyond the content taught, will be fundamental in the achievements that their students can achieve. One of the fundamental points that Namo de Mello points out as a characteristic of effective schools is the high expectation of teachers about the achievements that their students can achieve. Not only is the suitability and effort of the teacher required, it takes trust and belief in the abilities of all children to learn. A degree of utopia and decision is essential, the "yes you can",against the diversity that sometimes frightens. This we can relate to the transformational and educational leadership of the teacher with respect to the students (Díaz, Fernández and Toranzo) who consider it essential to avoid discrimination and achieve higher quality results.

The diversity that we find in schools is undoubtedly a source of conflict, therefore teacher training in this regard is essential. It is not only a matter of good predisposition, it is necessary to know the appropriate techniques to be able to carry out an effective mediation in the resolution of the various conflicts that arise in the institution (Casamayor et al. And Vaquer de Lúquez).

Although diversity crosses the school in all its dimensions, it is in the didactic and community pedagogics where it is most evident. Here there are two important elements for the fulfillment of the school function: the Institutional Educational Project (PEI) and the Institutional Curricular Project (PCI). These must be developed taking into account the context in which the school is located, the community from which its students come. This leads us to the initial concepts that we propose of a contextualized teaching and according to the needs and expectations of its school population. These documents are the ones that must reflect the objectives of the institution and the expectations of the teachers, to generate equal opportunities.

Final comments

We are diverse in many aspects, it is an indisputable reality, but we are not different as human beings with the same dignity and deserving of the same respect as anyone. Much is said in the discourses of equality, integration, native peoples, etc., but little is done in practice. And in this we consider it necessary to banish the word tolerance, very fashionable nowadays and which is given a positive meaning that we think does not have it. Whoever claims to tolerate is in fact implicitly marking the other's annoying presence. It is essential to create a sense of humanity, not to speak of tolerance but of the deep and intimate acceptance of the other.

“The total use of the word for everyone seems to me a good motto with a beautiful democratic sound. Not so that everyone is an artist, but so that no one is a slave. ”

Gianni Rodari: Grammar of Fantasy.