Foreign students in the representation of teachers of a school in Santiago: elements to build an intercultural education

Abstract

The article addresses the perception of teachers around migrant students in a public school in Santiago, Chile. It is a quantitative, descriptive correlation study with a sample of 16 teachers. Data collection was carried out through an ad hoc instrument with quantifiable variables defined a priori. The main results show that teachers perceive that problems in the educational context are explained by variables of discipline and coexistence and that these problems vary according to the place of origin of the students; likewise, they identify differences in the form of linkage between native and foreign students and that there is a significant relationship between problematic migrant students and difficulties in establishing cooperative relationships. On the other hand, they perceive low commitment of guardians of migrant students. It is concluded that the teacher’s perception allows to identify the ways of constituting the social thought and the social construction of the migratory reality and that this is relevant to predict the barriers and, at the same time, the challenges to configure intercultural schools.