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The authors base this article on findings from two qualitative studies conducted in Galiza (northwest Spain), in the province of A Coruña: an action research project in an early childhood education classroom; and a composite of ethnographic enquiries focusing on secondary education and vocational training programmes. Both studies sought to contribute to a fundamental transformation of schooling toward a more just, integrative and democratic intercultural institution. This effort includes denouncing the processes of social exclusion operating in those contexts, which are closely related to (neo)colonial and neoliberal practices.

Critical ethnographic inquiry guides this examination of the ways in which a group of experienced teachers at an urban secondary school in Spain have responded to a series of new regulations of their practice in the context of markedly increased student diversity at the school. The analysis centers on the ideological stances represented and produced through the educators’ discourse and actions and on the implications for the education of the school’s Roma/Gypsy students as members of possibly the most disenfranchised ethnic group of Spain. The article concludes with the exploration of some alternative means, especially through action research, for producing professional commitments that are more conducive to socially just and culturally responsive educational processes.

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