Building Inclusive Schools

This blog introduces Participació a l’Origen (Participation at Origin), a pioneer research project led by aFFaC, the Federation of Families’ Associations of Catalonia. The project explores how migrant families—particularly from Moroccan, Romanian, Pakistani, and Senegalese backgrounds—understand and participate in both their countries of origin and within the Catalan educational system. Using non-extractive, community-driven methodologies, it highlights structural barriers and proposes intercultural and antiracist strategies to democratize AFAs (Students’ Families Association) and schools with a Family Welcome and Orientation Plan. This case of study offers valuable lessons on how to build more inclusive educational communities worldwide.

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Introduction

Family participation has long been at the heart of Catalonia’s educational model. Since its formal foundation over five decades ago, aFFaC (the Federation of Families’ Associations of Catalonia) has worked to strengthen democratic school communities by supporting about 2,400 family associations (AFA) of educational institutions, representing more than 580,000 families. aFFaC advocates for a public education system that is high-quality, inclusive, equitable, free of charge, democratic, environmentally sustainable, and feminist.

In this context, aFFaC has promoted intercultural initiatives such as La informació és poder (Information is power) and Tothom a l’AFA (Everyone to the AFA), which have encouraged the participation of families from diverse backgrounds and provided guidance to AFAs in schools with high cultural diversity. These experiences have shown that multiple barriers hinder participation, especially for migrant and racialized families.

To deepen this understanding, aFFaC carried out the research Participació a l’Origen in 2023 and 2024. The project examines how migrant families—particularly Moroccan, Romanian, Pakistani, and Senegalese—experience participation both in Catalan schools and in their countries of origin, from a transnational perspective. The study highlights how diverse cultural backgrounds enrich participatory practices, while also revealing the structural barriers that hinder them.

What makes this study particularly innovative is its methodology. Rather than approaching families as passive subjects of research, Participació a l’Origen employs non-extractive, participatory approaches, involving the communities studied in the design, analysis, and evaluation of the project through the figure of an intercultural mediator. This ensures that migrant families are not only represented but also co-producers of knowledge and agents of change.

By highlighting both the potential and the barriers to participation, this work contributes to a broader reflection on how schools and family associations can become more inclusive, intercultural, and democratic spaces. It also raises questions relevant to educators and policymakers worldwide: how can education systems move from tokenistic/symbolic consultation towards genuine co-creation with families from diverse cultural backgrounds?

1. Participation and Democracy in Catalonia’s Education

Since Spain’s transition to democracy in the late 1970s, Catalonia has made family and community participation a defining feature of its public education system, conceiving it both as a democratic principle and as a driver of educational quality. International evidence shows that parental involvement not only improves students’ learning outcomes throughout their academic trajectories but also reinforces the democratic culture of schools, highlighting the need for education policies to further strengthen this dimension. In this spirit, the creation of AFAs provided mechanisms for families to engage collectively in school life, from organizing extracurricular activities to shaping governance through school councils.

aFFaC has played a central role in this process. As the umbrella federation representing over 2,400 AFAs, it provides advocacy, training, and a political voice to defend the public system and works to ensure that participation is not limited to the most privileged families. Its mission has consistently been to promote equity, inclusion, and the democratization of schools.

However, participation in practice is never neutral. Families’ ability to engage depends on social, economic, and cultural capital. Migrant and racialized families often encounter barriers—linguistic, bureaucratic, or symbolic—that limit their involvement. Participació a l’Origen emerged precisely to explore these dynamics and to reimagine participation in more inclusive terms.

2. Why “Participation at Origin”?

The title choice —Participació a l’Origen—reflects a fundamental insight from a transnational perspective: participation does not begin when families arrive in Catalonia. Instead, it is shaped by long-standing traditions, practices, and understandings rooted in their countries of origin.

Across these diverse contexts, families often identify rigor, discipline, and particular forms of respect toward teachers and school leaders as distinctive elements compared with their experiences in Catalonia’s public education. For example, Romanian parents may bring with them experiences of long-term relationships with their children’s primary school teachers (in contrast to Catalonia, where teachers are often reassigned every year or two); Moroccan families draw on traditions in which neighborhood networks play a central role in supporting education; Pakistani families often emphasize collective responsibility within extended kinship groups; and Senegalese communities maintain practices of community-based mutual aid—personal, in-person networks that largely disappear after migration.

By examining these practices, the project challenges deficit-based narratives that portray migrant families as “lacking” participation skills. Instead, it shows that they bring rich and diverse traditions that can strengthen school communities—if they are recognized and valued.

3. Methodology: Non-extractive, Community-Driven Research

A key innovation of Participació a l’Origen lies in its methodology. Traditional educational research often treats families as subjects to be studied, extracting information without reviewing research design or analysis with the communities. This project took a different path.

From the outset, intercultural facilitators, acting as community representatives, were involved in shaping the research design. They reviewed the bibliographic analysis and subsequently co-defined the research questions to ensure relevance. They participated throughout the entire research process, being present during the interviews to foster trust and cultural sensitivity, and provided feedback on the analysis, helping to enrich the results. Moreover, families also received feedback on the study’s findings, reinforcing transparency and reciprocity. 

The methodology was informed by indigenous and feminist perspectives, as well as previous research experiences with migrant populations, and included reflection on the researchers’ positionality. This broad understanding of “family” extended beyond mothers and fathers to include older sisters and former students of the Catalan school system, recognizing the important roles they play in their communities. This approach reflects non-extractive research, in which knowledge is co-created with communities, producing richer insights and recognizing families as active participants in educational change.

4. The research revealed several important insights:

• Participation is diverse: Families understand and practice participation differently depending on their cultural context. In their countries of origin, they often participate only when formally invited to the school. In contrast, in Catalonia, participation takes many forms: what schools may call “active family involvement” often assumes western middle-class models (attending meetings, councils, or organizing activities), while migrant families also contribute informally, through mutual aid or supporting children and families outside the school building. Furthermore, socioeconomic conditions and cultural capital also shape the level of formal participation, both in their countries of origin and in Catalonia.
• Structural barriers matter: Language differences, bureaucratic procedures, and lack of translated information limit families’ ability to engage. But barriers are not only logistical—they intersect with families’ basic priorities and socioeconomic conditions. For newly arrived families, housing, employment, or legal documentation often take precedence over school involvement.
• Symbolic barriers are powerful: many families experience subtle exclusion through stereotypes: assumptions that they are less interested, less capable, or merely recipients of support. These perceptions reinforce a gap between families and schools, discouraging participation. Prejudice, racism, aporophobia, and islamophobia further delegitimize their contributions and silence their voices.
• Intersecting inequalities: Participation is strongly influenced by families’ human capital (e.g., education level, familiarity with the school system), gender dynamics (women often carry the caregiving roles but face additional linguistic and cultural barriers), and cultural misunderstandings (e.g., interpreting Senegalese students’ avoidance of eye contact as disrespect). These dimensions reveal how exclusion is systemic.
• Time and support constraints: Lack of work flexibility, long shifts, or the absence of extended family networks in the host country make it harder for families to be involved in meetings or activities. Without this support, many migrant families experience higher stress balancing survival needs with school involvement.
• Existing strengths are overlooked: Migrant communities bring powerful knowledge of resilience and other types of collective action. Including these voices and practices into AFAs could enrich participation for all families, but this remains a profound challenge. It requires shifting their common approach toward educational inclusion where listening, asking, inviting, co-creating and adapting become central practices. The challenge is profound because society is built upon racist structures of power that shape and constrain us all, making genuine inclusion a difficult but necessary horizon.

5. Implications for AFAs, Schools, and Policy Makers

The findings carry significant implications for the co-creation of a Welcome and Orientation Plan for Families:

• For family associations: They must move beyond assistance based logic and actively transform themselves into democratic spaces that reflect community diversity. This does not only mean translating documents but also rethinking meeting formats, leadership models, and decision-making practices to ensure migrant families are included as political actors and knowledge holders.
• For schools: Teachers and leaders must recognize that family participation takes many forms. Mandatory professional training in intercultural communication and antiracist practices is needed to dismantle biases and value diverse ways of engagement. Faculty bodies should also reflect community diversity to serve as role models.
• For policymakers: Participation must be guaranteed as a collective right. This requires institutional commitment—resources for translation, training, and intercultural mediation; accountability measures for schools; and sustainable funding to strengthen schools as inclusive and democratic bodies.

It is important to recognize the diversity within immigrant and racialized groups, valuing their capacity to self-organize, articulate their needs, and define their roles in Catalonia. However, participation requires time and the fulfillment of basic needs. Communities should be supported to occupy spaces of representation, mentor newcomers, and share knowledge across networks, strengthening collective agency in education. Ultimately, participation cannot mean asking families to adapt to existing structures; it requires transforming those very structures, so they truly represent and include the diversity of today’s school communities.

6. Global Relevance and Broader Lessons

Although rooted in Catalonia, Participació a l’Origen addresses a global challenge: ensuring schools are not only places of learning but also spaces of democracy where all families have a voice. Migrant and racialized families worldwide face similar barriers, and participation is often tokenistic. The Catalan case shows an alternative: co-creation grounded in intercultural dialogue and shared power.

By considering families’ experiences both in their countries of origin and in Catalonia, the project highlights the value of transnational perspectives. Family practices evolve and adapt through migration, enriching education systems and building stronger communities. For researchers and practitioners, the study offers a model of non-extractive, community-driven research that transforms participation rather than merely observing it.
 

Conclusion

The participation of migrant and racialized families in Catalan schools is diverse and shaped by social, cultural, educational, and territorial factors from their countries of origin. Although many families wish to be involved, they face barriers such as unfamiliarity with the system, language difficulties, discrimination, shifts in family roles, and challenges in balancing school schedules. While some schools work toward inclusion, structural and social exclusion, including racism, remain present. Participation is not uniform, but a dynamic process shaped by tradition, culture, and context, as well as the obstacles families encounter, reflect systemic shortcomings rather than deficits on their part.
For educators, policymakers, and researchers, the challenge is clear: how can schools move from symbolic inclusion to genuine shared decision-making with families from all cultural backgrounds? Participació a l’Origen demonstrates that centering migrant and racialized voices, using participatory and intercultural methodologies, and fostering collaboration with communities are essential for designing inclusive policies and practices. The study provides a starting point for further reflection on equity, interculturality, and democratic participation in Catalan schools and beyond.
 

Author Biographies

• Verónica Robles-Moreno: Head of the aFFaC Observatory in Catalonia, Spain, where she leads educational research and policy projects. She holds a Master’s in Public and Social Policy from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and a degree in Sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her work specializes in education, networks, migration, and community participation. She has experience in Chile and Spain in research, evaluation, and the design and implementation of educational, social, and community programs and policies.
• Aida Arroyo Carreras: Observatory Officer at the aFFaC Observatory (Catalonia, Spain), where she contributes to educational research and policy projects. She holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Barcelona, specializing in comparative politics. Her work focuses on social research, as well as the design and evaluation of education policies for public administrations and third-sector organizations.
• Juanita Mesa Triviño: Observatory Officer at aFFaC (Catalonia, Spain), participating in educational research and policy projects. She holds a degree in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and a Master’s in Public and Social Policy from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). She has worked in Colombia and Spain on quantitative data analysis for public policy evaluation, specializing in education, security, and gender.

Further Reading

• aFFaC’s web page
• Web page of Participació a l’Origen with the report and Illustrated summary in 8 languages
• Academic article on Participació a l’Origen