Overepresentation and exclusionary practices of the foreign school community in special education in Spain

Abstract

The presence of minorities in the so-called "Special Education" has always been a controversial issue. International literature has been reflecting a disproportionate presence of these groups in "special education", but in Spain we lack a in-depth studies on the issue. In this article, we investigate a possible disproportionate presence of foreign nationals in "special education" in Spain.

Applying statistical criteria such as the z-score to the data set of national and foreign population, we can show that differences are significant, especially for certain nationalities in terms of such disproportion. In conclusion, we reflect how this disproportionality is part of the mechanism of the construction of difference in the management of diversity in schools.