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Teachers’ Attitudes about theIntegration of Roma:the case of SpainServando Perez DominguezPublished online: 28 Jul 2006.

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European Journal of Intercultural Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1999 219

Teachers' Attitudes about the Integrationof Roma:1 the case of SpainSERVANDO PEREZ DOMINGUEZ

ABSTRACT This article, taking data from my thesis dissertation, examines the attitudes ofSpanish teachers towards Roma children (and other ethnic/cultural minorities) in theirschools, and the role that teachers, schools, parents and the community play with regard tothe integration of Roma in schools and in society. Although teachers' views of Roma are,on the whole, positive, confusion between acculturation and integration exists in some cases.With the intention of shedding some light on these attitudes, the Roma community withinSpain's multicultural context is introduced, and general data provided.

This work is based on original research undertaken in 1996/97, mainly throughquestionnaires distributed in state primary schools consisting of 25% or more ethnic/culturalminorities. The questionnaire included both closed and open questions.

Introduction

It could be said that until the 1980s Spain was a typical emigration country. Now,the tendency has changed. December 1995 figures show that the number offoreigners2 with resident permits was 499,773, of whom 255,702 were Europeans:especially British (65,251) and Germans (41,942), while 95,725 were Africans,mainly Moroccans (74,886).

Gonzalo & Villanueva (1996) estimated the number of foreigners living in Spainto be 800,000 (about 2% of the total population), half from the Third World andhalf from European countries or North America. Official statistics from December1996 confirm this estimate. If we count both legal and "illegal" foreigners (alsocalled "irregular" by a number of scholars), at the end of 1999 around 1,000,000foreigners are probably presenting living in Spain (Santos-Rego & Perez Dominguez,1999). This would be about 2.5% of the total population, although this percentageis still far lower than the percentage we find in other European countries, such as theUK, France, Belgium or Germany. In fact, the average number of foreigners in theEuropean Union exceeds 6.5% (see El Pais, 1998).

Nevertheless, Spain has been a multicultural society since before the 1980s (seeCowan & Perez Dominguez, 1996). Spain's diversity derives from those who cometo work and/or live in Spain, but also from those Spaniards who maintain their ownindividual cultures within Spain. I refer to Spain's internal diversity, which ischaracterised by its three co-official languages (Catalan, Basque and Galician—and

To Dr Bryan J. Cowan, University of Reading, in memoriam.

0952-391X/99/020219-13 ©1999 Taylor & Francis Ltd

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their respective cultures) along with Spanish; and by the presence of Roma since thebeginning of the 15th century.

Some General Data about Roma in Spain

According to most scholars, such as Liegeois (1987) or Fernandez Enguita (1996),Roma entered Spain on 12 January 1425, with safe conduct given by King AlfonsoV to the Roma patriarch called "Don Johan de Egipto Menor" (other scholars saythey entered as early as 1417). In 1499, the so-called "Reyes Catolicos" (Catholic"Kings"—Fernando II, King of Aragon, and Isabel I, Queen of Castille) orderedthat Roma needed to have a fixed abode and a known job, otherwise they would beexpelled from Spain. The years 1633 and 1749 were also fateful dates for Roma:they were persecuted and actively rejected by the Spanish kings of the time. Duringthe present century, in 1942, with the dictator Franco's consent, the Civil Guardwas ordered to watch Roma scrupulously, taking special note of their distinguishingmarks, clothes, and to find out about their lifestyle and ascertain why they weretravelling and where to, etc.

Despite the fact that they have already been living in Spain for over 500 years, thehistory of the Roma, since they entered Spain, has been one of exclusion andrejection, along with inadequate administrative attention, humiliation, anathema,insults and reproach (see San Roman, 1997). The present is not as bad, but theycontinue to be the most rejected minority3 in Spain (although they are and feelSpanish). They still have little social or political credibility. Public interest centres ontheir music and dance. Some political measures have been taken and have helped toincorporate Roma children into the education system, at least putting to an endgenerations of exclusion from it.

The Roma population now is estimated to be around of 800,000 and constitutesthe largest ethnic minority in Spain. It is also worth noting that Spain has differentgroups of Roma—sometimes with markedly different social/economical status too—and more Roma than any other West European country.

The Research

My research took place between 1996 and 1997, and it was essentially undertakenthrough questionnaires completed by over 500 teachers (431 valid), containing 38items, and entitled "The Opinions of State Primary School Teachers RegardingTeaching in a Multicultural and Multiethnic Society". The questionnaire wascomposed of a number of statements, to which the teacher was asked to "Stronglyagree" (SA), "Agree" (A), be "Indifferent/Undecided/Neutral" (I), "Disagree" (D),or "Strongly disagree" (SD). There were also open questions, questions withalternatives—to which the teacher was asked to indicate with a cross or a circle—andsome yes/no questions.

The purpose of the questionnaire was to identify in what way Spanish teachers,with a minimum of 25% of pupils from ethnic/cultural minority groups in theirschools, react to the ethnic/cultural diversity of their pupils.

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Integration of Roma 221

After a long bureaucratic process, addresses and permission to submit 10 ques-tionnaires to each school were received. The questionnaires were distributed to allthe seventeen Autonomous Regions of Spain, so the schools were located all over thecountry (including Ceuta and Melilla—two tiny Spanish cities located in northernMorocco) and Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). In this article, I will only referto Spain.

In the main, most pupils emanate from Roma families (89.8%), followed byAfrican (mainly Moroccans—7.2%), and Portuguese students (2.1%). Theremaining 0.9% are distributed mainly between those from South America (mainlyPeruvians), North America, Asia (mainly Chinese and Pakistani), or from theformer Yugoslavia. The completed valid questionnaires from 87 schools wereanalysed.

Some or all of these open questions were answered by 51.7% of the teachers;some even sent me newspaper cuttings or school reports about issues derived fromthe present polemic issue about integration/segregation of Roma (both in schoolsand in society as a whole). Also, a number of teachers (most of them school headteachers) gave me their phone numbers. Some also phoned me and offered theirhelp and support. I had, therefore, informal talks (some of them in person, some byphone) with a number of teachers from different parts of Spain, before, during andafter the reception of the questionnaires. All this helped me to gain a betterunderstanding of their answers to the questionnaire.

The questionnaire was based on the Association of Teacher Education in Europe(ATEE) questionnaire of 1990 (see Alkan & Breede, 1990), which was adapted byProfessor Jose Antonio Jordan Sierra (from the University Autonoma of Barcelona)in research he undertook in 1992 regarding the opinions of primary school teachersteaching in Spanish multicultural schools (see Jordan Sierra, 1994).

The questionnaire sought to distinguish the following five types of information:

(1) "General Information" (which asked about the respondent and the school,where the teacher was asked about her/his gender, age, teaching experience ingeneral, position held, whether or not she/he belonged to a multi/interculturalorganisation or similar, attendance of multi/intercultural programmes/courses orsimilar, the location of the school, the approximate percentage of ethnic groups,the largest ethnic group, etc.).

(2) "The Role of the School" (which includes general aspects of integration,cultural change, encouraging native languages, confronting cultural diversity,involvement of parents and community, etc.).

(3) "Multi/intercultural Education and Academic Performance" (which exploresthe relationship between teaching ethnic/cultural minority children and theacademic achievement of all the children in the school, how this achievementcould increase, etc.).

(4) "Teacher Training" (which explores the relevance of the staffs' teacher trainingcourses and how training could be improved, the perception they have of theneed for a certain percentage of minority teachers, etc.).

(5) "Additional Information" (which includes personal views of working with

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222 5. Perez Dominguez

minority groups, aspects of the influence of the European Union in multi/intercultural education, or the appropriateness of the Spanish 1990 EducationReform Act—or LOGSE—with regard to multi/intercultural education).

Outcomes of the Research

I will first expound on these outcomes, following the types of information into whichI divided the questionnaire. At the end of the article I will make some generalcomments concerning them.

Section One: "General Information"

Here information about the respondent and the school was provided.

The respondents. 65.3% of them were women, and 34.7% men, and all were whiteSpaniards. Most of them (32.4%) were between 40 and 47 years old, only 5.6%were over 56. Regarding their teaching experience, 39.4% have had less than 6 yearsexperience. 68.1% were teachers while the remainder were head teachers (11.5%),support teachers (12.2%), and deputy-heads (8.2%). 94% do not belong to anymulti/intercultural organisation or similar; therefore only 5.6% did belong. 67.2%have never participated in any multi/intercultural programme/course or similar,while 32.8% have participated.

The schools. 74.2%, 18.6% and 7.2% of the schools were located in urban,semi-urban and rural areas, respectively.

Section Two: "The Role of the School"

Teachers believe that schools should be more concerned with making minoritystudents feel integrated within the school in a positive way (31.3% agreed and54.3% strongly agreed), but without imposed "integration". But a danger of accul-turation exists when teachers say that minority children (especially Roma) shouldadapt to the "Spanish culture" (38.5% agreed and 27.8% strongly agreed). Fortu-nately, they also recognise that schools must help these children to adapt, but at thesame time respect their own culture (27.8% agreed and 64.7% strongly agreed).Integration comprises both academic and social opportunities and a general accept-ance of varying cultural behaviour. 37.1% agreed and 52.2% strongly agreed thatthe school should compensate for possible shortfalls of the minority students.

Teachers also stated that minority students should have the chance to continuecultivating their own culture and mother tongues (34.1% agreed and 60.1% stronglyagreed), through state organisations (80.3%), and in the community (68.7%),followed by the school (54.8%) and within their family (49.2%). Moreover, they feelthat parents and community groups should take an active part in the education ofminority children (28.1% agreed and 64% strongly agreed), although at present inSpain, few Roma parents participate in school activities. Naturally, each school

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Integration of Roma 223

should consider what type of schooling is appropriate for the various minoritygroups being taught (42.9% agreed and 43.9% strongly agreed). This implies, ofcourse, trained teachers, money, a broader understanding of minority groups andtheir cultural attitudes (see Cueva, 1999; Fermoso Estebanez, 1992; Grant, 1981).

A comment from a teacher in Albacete reflects that there exists a lack of interestamong Roma parents concerning school matters, which has a negative effect on theirchildren:

It is essential, if schools are intending to produce a better understanding ofcultures, that parents take an active part, that they respond to invitationsand share feelings. Because of the lack of interest of parents, certain areasof the child's culture can be ignored.

An interesting comment derives from a school in Palencia, which serves nearly100% Roma children. One teacher who had been teaching for over 25 years inmulticultural contexts said that schools alone cannot successfully tackle the prob-lems. The system requires creative co-ordination from all those institutions involvedwith Roma children. From such collaboration, ideas can be tried out and processedwith important support from the other schools. She notes that until now schoolshave ghettoised themselves. This has happened in different schools, for instance inanother school (also in Palencia), when the former Ministry of Education andScience, during the academic year 1987-88, decided to integrate 80% of the Romapupils from another school exclusively dedicated to Roma. Parents withdrew theirchildren and the school became a ghetto. The danger that majority parents will taketheir children out of school is still a reality (Perez Dominguez, 1997).

Indeed, real integration is not an easy task, because, generally speaking, Spanishprivate schools do not want to have minority children. In El None de Castilla(a newspaper in Palencia: 23 May 1996), it was stated that eight private primaryschools (which receive funding from the government—"Escuelas Privadas Concer-tadas") did not want to integrate Roma children, because they would exceed 25pupils in each class. They argued that they were not prepared to concern themselveswith the needs of these children and that their decision of not integrating them intheir schools "has nothing to do with the fact that they are Roma". The head teacherof one of these schools said: "It is not a feeling of rejection of Roma children,because most of these schools already have Roma enrolled in their classes ... If they(the Department of Education) think that Roma are equal to other pupils, then theymust obey the rules as the rest of the children." Speaking about freedom for allchildren to choose their school, this head teacher continued, saying that "... it seemsthat these children were forced to go to these schools". The Director of Educationin Palencia said that this measure is necessary for all those ethnic minorities whosesocial conditions make it difficult to integrate. While the head teachers of theseschools saw two Roma children entering their schools as an imposition, they alsostated that awarding opportunities for Roma children to attend these private schoolswould not help them.

A teacher (from a state school) responded to the newspaper article, suggestingthat integration of minorities is vital for positive learning and that such integration

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would benefit both minorities (Roma in this case) and the rest of the pupils. Sheargued that it would increase a strategy of humanistic learning for all children.

Section Three: "Multi/intercultural Education and Academic Performance"

Most of the teachers (83.5%) commented that all parents should participate with theactivities of the school, but without interfering with the activities of the teacher(37.6% agreed and 45.9% strongly agreed). They regret that Roma parents inparticular do not work together with the school, or do not seem to have an interestin their children's academic progress. Teachers also say that it is not a good idea toplace vast numbers of Roma or other minority children from specific cultures in asingle separated school (66.1%) or in a special class within the same school (60.3%).There should be opportunities for children to learn from each other. Again, inte-gration needs to be managed sensitively, with careful monitoring of the numbers ofchildren attending the school (Abajo Alcalde, 1996).

I would like to show the results of the research in this section, indicating the mostrelevant percentages taken from the questionnaire:

(1) The presence of minority students in the school/class produces tension amongteachers (32% disagree and 18.3% strongly disagree; those who agreed andstrongly agreed were 26.7% and 8.1%, respectively).

(2) Fewer minority students in the school/class means an easier job for the teacher(33.6% agreed and 26.9% strongly agreed).

(3) Each school should adapt its syllabus to reflect the cultural differences existingamong the students (45% agreed and 36.4% strongly agreed).

(4) When the presence of minority students causes a problem, this is usually due to:

—their linguistic, academic or intellectual difficulties (35.3% said Yes and64.7% said No);

—their different customs or behaviour (69.4% said Yes and 30.6% said No);—their different values, beliefs or motivations (53.4% said Yes and 46.6% said

No);—their class differences (18.8% said Yes and 81.2% said No);

(5) The teaching dilemmas or conflicts that the teacher in a multicultural school hasto face are usually:

—the clash between habits, traditions and values of minority and majoritystudents (39.2% agreed and 14.6% strongly agreed);

—the diversity of faiths (31.6% disagreed and 12.8% strongly disagreed);—the diversity of languages and dialects (28.1% disagreed and 11.4% strongly

disagreed);—the relationships with the families and minority communities (35.5% agreed

and 13.5% strongly agreed);—the folklore celebrations at school (32% disagreed and 19.5% strongly dis-

agreed);

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Integration of Roma 225

—certain negative attitudes, especially among ethnically different students(44.1% agreed and 13.2% strongly agreed).

(6) The academic progress of the minority students depends, among other thingson:

—the teacher's efforts (43.4% agreed and 30.4% strongly agreed);—external social conditions (40.4% agreed and 32.3% strongly agreed);—the individual's interest/motivation (41.3% agreed and 45.9% strongly

agreed);—the parents' interest in their children's progress (37.6% agreed and 45.9%

strongly agreed);—parents helping at home (36.2% agreed and 27.4% strongly agreed);—the teachers' pedagogical training (44.8% agreed and 22% strongly agreed).

(7) The academic achievement of the minority students would improve:

—if each ethnic group had its own school (30.4% disagreed and 35.7% stronglydisagreed);

—if ethnic groups were taught in special classes in the same school (30.4%disagreed and 29.9% strongly disagreed).

(8) As an educator, the difficulties which arise during the education of ethnic/cul-tural groups is:

—something which must be accepted as a norm (25.5% disagreed and 13.2%strongly disagreed);

—due to personal failings as a teacher (32.9% disagreed and 31.8% stronglydisagreed);

—due to professional failings as a teacher (30.6% disagreed and 30.6% stronglydisagreed);

—something which must be dealt with calmly and professionally (36.2% agreedand 51.7% strongly agreed).

Of course, it was not the purpose of my questionnaire, nor of this article, to blameteachers (on the contrary), but to know their opinions and feelings (normallyignored), from which to build the educational measures that help all pupils in allschools. We should not forget that the statements of the questionnaire were inten-tionally thought provoking. I am aware of the difficulties of teaching in multiculturalcontexts where there is lack of support, training, etc. Criticism, however, wasmanifested by one teacher, who felt that the questionnaire was blaming teachers. Iwould like to share this teacher's comments with the reader:

Not all the responsibility is always of the educator. That's enough blamingus for everything that is not working. During the process of teaching-learn-ing various factors intervene and any could fail. The problem of my schoolis so complex and difficult to solve that this questionnaire is insufficient toreally know what is happening in here.

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Section Four: "Teacher Training"

In Spain, there are a certain growing number of intercultural courses and pro-grammes for teachers (see Sales Ciges & Garcia Lopez, 1995, 1998). Unfortunately,these programmes and courses are not well co-ordinated. Many teachers showexcellent efforts and have had valuable experiences, but the training of teachers isstill often fragmented, isolated and dispersed because of the lack of clear regulationsin multi/intercultural education. It is, in the end, teachers' willingness or lack of it,that determines the success or failure of many multi/intercultural programmes andinitiatives (Perez Dominguez, 1997). Furthermore, they are sometimes run whenteachers are not able to attend and, frequently, there are not enough.

As an outcome of the research in this section, the percentages for the followingstatements were:

(1) Teachers with ethnic/cultural groups in their classes must have specialisedtraining (50.8% agreed and 14.8% strongly agreed).

(2) Teachers who still do not have ethnic groups in their classes should receivespecialised training too (45% agreed and 8.4% strongly agreed).

(3) Support teachers are the ones who should solve the multi/intercultural problemsat school (47.1% disagreed and 28.1% strongly disagreed).

(4) Among teachers there should always be a certain percentage of ethnic/culturalgroups (here teachers are not sure, so 36.9% were undecided, followed by25.5% in agreement and 7.4% in strong agreement).

(5) Training in multi/intercultural education could be best obtained through:

—courses and talks given by experts (53.6% agreed and 17.2% strongly agreed);—talks among the teaching staff (51.5% agreed and 12.8% strongly agreed);—activities that encourage tolerance and open-mindedness towards ethnic and

cultural diversity (49% agreed and 36.7% strongly agreed);—psycho-pedagogical instruction (53.6% agreed and 17.6% strongly agreed);—experience, teaching (53.1% agreed and 29.2% strongly agreed).

Section Five: "Additional Information"

The importance of teachers' attitudes is crucial (see, for example, Calvo Buezas,1990a, b; Cueva, 1999). Seven statements were used to summarise teachers' viewsabout teaching in a multicultural situation. The following comments are of interest.

The majority of staff felt that seeing a mixed ethnic group in a class was a positiveaspect of teaching (78%), although some teachers felt indifferent (3.9%) or indeednegative (18.1%) towards this. With regard to the presence of ethnic groups slowingdown the learning process, some respondents thought that learning took longer(39.9% agreed and 22.5% strongly agreed), while others felt that it did not havesuch a negative influence on the learning process (12.8% disagreed and 5.6%strongly disagreed). But, in general, teachers recognise that many, although not all,of the problems that Roma suffer are due to poverty and not to the fact that they areRoma (see Abajo-Alcalde, 1996; Calvo Buezas, 1995). When respondents were

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Integration of Roma 227

asked whether they would wish to continue teaching in a multicultural situation ornot, the majority (69.4%) expressed that they would like to continue to teachin multicultural/multiethnic classes; the remaining 30.6% preferred to have lessminority children and teach "monocultural" classes.

Slightly more than half of the teachers (54.1%) saw working with minority groupsas a professional challenge, although they found working in these areas stressful andlacking in support. New teachers saw it as a professional challenge, while those whohad been in this situation a long time felt that classes should be smaller to enablethem to cope with the existing and increasing diversity, as mentioned earlier. Ateacher in Bilbao said: "In each class there should only be three [Roma] pupils at themost in order to achieve their real integration."

Despite the difficulties, few respondents felt that teaching in multicultural schoolswas a reason to receive higher salaries or other benefits (10.4%). It was alsointeresting that exactly 50% of teachers claimed that working with minority pupilshad not changed their former opinion towards their pupils. Some teachers, however,did specify that working with Roma had transformed their opinion negatively(7.3%). The rest of the teachers had changed their view of them positively (42.7%).Regarding the difficulties they face, a teacher in Cadiz noted that these were:"... complete or almost complete lack of interest on the part of the family, thecouncil, the Administration ... The multiracial/multicultural differences are not,therefore, those which most affect teachers' jobs."

With regard to the question concerning the benefit of the EU and its approachtowards multicultural teaching in Spain, the majority of respondents were indifferent(46.6%) or positive (30.8%), while some did not respond (18.1%), and the smallestproportion perceived it as negative (4.4%). Their concern was with the fundamentalpracticalities of how to improve teaching techniques.

Furthermore, the majority did not see the 1990 Education Reform Act asbeneficial to their work. A number of respondents—though less than I had expectedafter my talks with teachers—claimed that the Act is inappropriate in fulfilling thedemands of multicultural schools, including Roma children (37.6%). Reasons givenwere the lack of funding, that the philosophy of the Act was not put into practice,that the Act did not prepare teachers for action, and that teachers felt they were notconsulted concerning multi/intercultural issues.

Problems and Managing Solutions

In spite of the general positive attitudes, we cannot ignore certain underlyingcomments, especially among open questions, where teachers recognised the import-ant problems Roma children have to deal with in and out of school, so as not tobecome outcasts. Referring specifically to the school, teachers have signalled anumber of such problems, which are:

• Low self-esteem: which leads them to try all the possible and impossible means tobe loved and to be noticed. Some of them do not even know their own names or

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the names of their parents, identifying themselves only by nicknames. The oldestones do not even know when they were born.

• Aggressive behaviour, very frequent and difficult to correct. They are unable tosolve their conflicts without fighting. They easily alternate between calm gamesand anger and fury.

• Lack of attention: it is very difficult for them to concentrate on what they are doing,and when they are able to concentrate it is for a very short time, even in playfuland amusing activities.

• Lack of maturity: with reactions which one would expect from smaller children.• Irregular schooling: which is one of the main problems. It is a consequence of the

lack of interest in everything related to school and family problems. Some of themare enrolled but do not attend classes at all during the academic year. Others haveto go with their parents to work. In Autumn, for example, they help withharvesting.

• Wrong moral values: with almost exclusive reference to the Roma relations amongthemselves. With the non-Roma, absence of moral responsibility. They do notrecognise the sense of respect and obedience towards teachers, especially if theyare female teachers.

• The lack of interest in learning: especially learning that requires some effort on theirpart. Once they have grasped the basic notions for reading and writing, theypractically lose all interest in furthering their knowledge.

Educational problems do not have an easy solution, and are closely related toothers, which are not exclusively concerned with school. Attempts to find solutionsrequire a common and co-ordinated effort of all the sectors implicated—with anample quantity of resources and for a long time (see Nieto, 1999). For this purpose,as a report sent to me from the head teacher of one of the schools stated:

It is of capital importance the creation of a post which would exclusively bein charge of taking care of these children: their health problems, going tospeak to the parents when the children were not attending school or werefailing or having other problems, to control their hygiene habits, collectingthem from their homes when they failed to come to school or when theyrun away, etc.

This head teacher asked himself if such a post was a fantasy. He decided it is not,because in fact this post already existed, created by the department dedicated toCompensatory Education of the former Spanish Ministry of Education and Science,and had very positive results. The person who occupied this post should, however,feel more supported and at all levels he/she should be offered adequate ways toput pressure on the necessary people and institutions. But this again must beco-ordinated work.

Teachers should foresee that those children who belong to different ethnic/cultural groups have a tendency to behave in a different way at school (and out ofit). As a consequence of these differences, and possibly because of other factors,teachers tend to behave in a different way, depending on the pupils they teach, too

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Integration of Roma 229

(Rey, 1986; Santos Rego, 1994; Villar Angulo, 1992; Zeichner, 1995). Therefore,teachers have to be conscious of their attitudes when relating to their pupils, sincethey do not necessarily depend on ethnic or cultural origin alone, but frequently onother factors, such as gender, social class, religion/faith, language or motivation.

Conclusions

To conclude my research, it could be said that:

(1) Teachers believe that the presence of ethnic/cultural minorities requires spe-cialised training in multi/intercultural education (65.4%), and also a bit morethan half of them (53.4%) consider it necessary even if they have no ethnic/cul-tural minorities in their classrooms as yet.

(2) They believe that schools should be more concerned with making minoritystudents feel integrated within the school (85.6%), and think it is necessary tocompensate possible shortfalls they may have when beginning school (89.3%).

(3) They reject any kind of segregation of minority children, be it separate schoolsfor each ethnic/cultural minority (66.1%), or having special separate classeswithin the same school (60.3%).

(4) When asked whether they would like to continue teaching in multiculturalschools or not (if they had the chance to choose), 69.4% of teachers said yes,and 54.1% saw teaching as a professional challenge (Perez Dominguez, 1999).

A close look at the questionnaire as a whole (including the open questions and thetalks I had with some teachers) shows that those who answered the questionnairehad a positive attitude towards Roma and other ethnic/cultural minorities. In fact,most of them see their integration (at the same time respecting their individuality)as positive (31.3% agreed and 54.3% strongly agreed). There is still a long way togo before we achieve real, lasting integration; integration which requires dialogue,combined with urgent and decisive political and legislative measures. Teachers andsociety as a whole should permanently bear in mind that nobody can integrate intoa society that does not permit integration. It is a vicious circle.

Address for correspondence: Servando Perez Dominguez, Departamento. de Teoría eHistoria de la Educacion, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educacion, Universidad de Santiagode Compostela, Campus Sur, 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Tel.: + 34-981-563100; ext. 13753; Tel.: + 34-986-543412; Fax: +34-981-530438; E-mail:< heservan@uscmail. usc. es >

Notes

1. As it is the most widely accepted terminology, the term Roma will be used instead of Gypsies.However, it should be noted that in Spain the Roma population prefers to call themselves"Gitanos", therefore Gypsies.

2. In Spain, there is certain confusion when we speak about "immigrants" or "foreigners". On theone hand, the term "immigrant" is normally utilised to refer to poor "economic immigrants",

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that is to say, to those who come to live in Spain in order to make a living outside theirrespective country. Those who come to live in Spain, not for work reasons, but also those whocome seeking work—but with a medium-upper-class status—are known, to most Spanishpeople, as "foreigners". However, official statistics register those living in Spain with residencepermits under the umbrella denomination of "foreigners", which also includes "immigrants".

3. Sometimes, the term "minority" is ambiguous, as minorities may constitute "majorities"within specific groups of people. In the article, this term would refer to those who constitutea lower percentage in the population of the country as a whole, which is often associated withlack of power.

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