Measure

The SEN classes were the ones I found the most interesting and also the ones where I was able to observe the most interaction between students and teachers. The classes were small and mainly made up of Cape Verdean students. The SEN teacher in IES Margarita was Alberto. Alberto was in his fifties and had been teaching in As Rocas since he started his career almost thirty years previously. Alberto had a leg injury, meaning that he could not stand or move around during his classes. This impacted

greatly on the dynamic of the class. The students sat at tables, organised in a circle, and, in lieu of using a blackboard, Alberto explained things by writing them on a sheet of paper at the desk. Alberto, much like the majority of the staff in the school, was very welcoming and interested in talking to me about the work he did. He explained how the students in his group have an Adaptación Curricular Individualizada (individual curricular adaptation - ACI henceforth). This means that the student is taught at a level much lower than what would correspond to a child of their age. Alberto told me that most of the students in his group were working at basic primary school level, learning how to read, write and do basic mathematics. If a student is deemed to need ACI, they cannot progress to higher education after completing their studies. In order to be placed in a SEN class and put on the ACI program, a student must be deemed to be at least 2 years ‘behind’ the standard established by the Department of Education. However, the evaluation criteria used to determine if a student is ‘behind’ is wide ranging. For example, one of the students in Alberto’s class was a Galician girl with cerebral palsy.

Her parents wanted her to go to a mainstream school, so she had been put in the SEN class. There was another boy from Senegal who had autism and he had been assigned to the SEN class. Some of the other children there were deemed to have ‘socialisation problems’ and various learning difficulties. However, many of the students were Cape Verdean immigrants whose main learning ‘deficiencies’ were related to their language competency in Spanish and Galician.

Alberto told me that in the last ten years, more than three quarters of the students in his class had been Cape Verdean immigrants. In 2014 there were 13 students in the SEN class in IES Margarita, an exceptionally high number. The average school in Galicia would have 2 or 3 students that needed to attend the SEN classes. Alberto told me that the numbers were so high in IES Margarita because of the immigrant population.

The SEN classroom was very different to the other classrooms where the mainstream students were. The tables were set out in a round shape, the walls were full of posters and maps and there were many shelves with books on them. Furthermore, there was a wall full of lockers where the SEN students could leave their things. In contrast, the mainstream classes had a more clinical feel; the desks were set out in rows, the walls were usually bare and students did not use the room as a base once class concluded. It was clear that the SEN room served as a base for the children as well as a classroom.

Students frequently came and went, leaving their bags or collecting books. They used

the space freely and the atmosphere was relaxed. Unlike the other classes, which approximated a lecture environment, these classes were reminiscent of primary schools, encouraging play and group work amongst the students. In the SEN classes I forged the most meaningful relationships, getting to know the students better and establishing trust with the teachers. Reasons for this could be due to the class size, the nature of the classes and the fact that the classes were held much more frequently than mainstream classes.

After reading about the ethnographic research carried out by Pérez Milans (2007) in another Spanish school, his metaphor of the ‘island’ seemed all too familiar. Pérez Milans conducted his work in a ‘Welcoming Classroom’ put in place especially for immigrants. Reflecting on this class, he states that

Aquella aula comenzó pronto a convertirse en una verdadera isla, en un islote de bienvenida al que los estudiantes habían sido enviados y del que, poco a poco, me fui preguntando si conseguirían salir. (p. 121)

That classroom soon became a veritable island, a welcoming islet to which the students had been sent and where, slowly but surely I began to ask myself if they would ever be able to leave. (my translation)

Although the SEN classes in As Rocas were not specifically designed for welcoming immigrants, they served this function for the most part. They were described as a place that would support students in their ‘transition’ to the mainstream classes. However, the number of students ‘progressing’ to the mainstream classroom after being sent to the metaphorical island that was the SEN classroom was very low.

I saw an increasing disconnect between the SEN class and the rest of the school. The SEN class was colourful, full of posters, books and games. The mainstream classes were practically empty, with only tables, chairs and a blackboard. The SEN rooms were set up to facilitate interaction between the students at round tables. This was discouraged in mainstream classes; tables were set out in rows, facing the blackboard and any communication between students was reprimanded. The relationship between students and teachers in SEN was familiar, with the mainstream teachers remaining

formal and distant from their students. The SEN classes seemed to function within the walls of the school but completely independent from it.

I raised issues about the suitability of SEN classes for students that did not have recognised learning disabilities. I was informed that five years ago there was a language class in IES Margarita dedicated to students from immigrant backgrounds with no knowledge of Spanish or Galician. The students were entitled to attend these classes during the school day for a maximum of one year. However, the guidance teacher (Veronica) felt that the fact that IES Margarita was the only school that offered these classes was problematic. As the only school in the area which offered this facility, the number of students from immigrant backgrounds enrolling there was, according to Veronica, disproportionately high. This placed a strain on the limited resources of the school, especially with regard to staffing extra teachers to cope with the increasingly diverse needs of the student body. Veronica felt that running such language classes was ultimately detrimental to the overall functioning of the school, as they did not have the resources to manage such high numbers of immigrant students.