SWOT Analysis and Strategic Planning Techniques for the School Inclusion of Immigrant and Roma Children. The Case of Spain

In Spain dwell a high number of migrant and Roma children. Although there are differences in the situation of these groups, there is a common denominator that is the difficulty for their school integration. Phenomena such as segregation, school absenteeism or early school dropping out are frequent, but the efforts made to mitigate this situation from the public sphere have been proved not truly effective. The European Project RoMigSc for the school inclusion of migrant and Roma children has among its objectives to detect the causes that make their school inclusion difficult and to propose effective strategies to improve the situation. thin the framework of the project, a group of experts in school inclusion, migration and children in social risk from different backgrounds (third sector entities, Roma associations, public administration, etc.) were asked to participate in a focus group, a qualitative research methodology, to examine this problem. This way, the knowledge and practical experience of these experts was gathered and analysed in an organised way using strategic planning techniques (SWOT and CAME matrixes). The results of this analysis gave support to the proposal of a number of realistic intervention strategies that were based on successful practices and personal experiences. erefore, it seems critical to design and deploy tools and strategies to ensure that the experience and knowledge of the phenomenon's stakeholders is collected and properly managed in order to understand the complexity of the problem, as well as to formulate adequate and efficient strategies and courses of action.