The programme includes the delivery of relevant and up-to-date bibliographic collections and reading materials to 50 educational institutions with high migrant enrollment. Schools that decide to join the program sign a letter of commitment, which states that three teachers per school will participate in a training process, which can extend up to two years. Involved teachers are part of the Pedagogical Technical Unit (or equivalent) and teach language or art.

The material delivered consists of 25 titles, a wooden theatre (kamishibai), and a set of slides. It is proposed that these inputs be used in reading sessions with children and adolescents under the reading mediation approach, which allows the texts to be reinvented, analyzed, discussed from this pedagogical perspective, in order to build collaborative learning in an environment of care and protection.

These practices allow to explore differences in relation to biographical experiences and motivate expression of understanding and empathy, identity development, and intercultural exchange. The collection of books is aimed at all people and not only at foreign students, since the objective is to critically deal with the creation of categories that differentiate, incite conversations about identity, and critically work on the dynamics of exclusion in educational contexts.

The books that make up the collections can be classified into:

• Nonfiction books that present real situations in a colloquial narrative language.
• Stories with animals, metaphors of exclusions, abuses of power, and discrimination.
• Silent books with great potential to include those students who feel linguistically excluded from a class.
• Other books on internal and international migration which take into account the complicated factors that can lead to migration.

The program can be implemented in the classroom and in the Learning Resource Center (library), considering the alliance between different teachers, coordinators, and managers of the Learning Resource Center, which enhances the pedagogical experiences around reading and the conversation they can offer their students.

The programme is organized around the following components:

• Teacher training: training process for teachers responsible for the technical pedagogical units of the educational establishments that have formalized their participation, as well as the Learning Resource Centres (libraries) and other teachers.
• Enabling bibliographical material with an intercultural theme or approach, as well as ensuring the relevant infrastructure and furniture.
• Development of reading/mediation sessions with primary and secondary school children and adolescents, both domestic and foreign.

• National Policy for Foreign Students 2018-2022
• The School Inclusion Act No 20.845 (2015)
• National Reading Plan

Based on the document that presents the results of the evaluation in the pilot phase of the program (MINEDUC, 2018), the main conclusions are highlighted.

The program received a very good reception among students, and professionals and assistants who took charge of the implementation.

The response of the program regarding the need to address the issue of migration and diversity was positively valued, through a format that allowed students to connect with each other, with the topic and their own experiences according to their respective cultural matrices.

It was appreciated that the text collection allowed reflection, meaningful learning, and reading comprehension to work more deeply.

It was recommended to include more formally those in charge of libraries and increase the number of collections and reading mediation sessions.

Interview with key informants conducted on March 1, 2021:

• Verónica Chaverini – Head of Migrant Inclusion of the General Education Division – Ministry of Education of Chile. MINEDUC (2020). Migrant Library General Education Division of the Ministry of Education, Chile, 2020. Available at: https://migrantes.mineduc.cl/guia-que-desarrolla-los-contenidos-a-la-base-del-programa-biblioteca-migrante/
• MINEDUC (2018). Internal working document. Results Evaluation of the Migrant Library Program. December 2018.

The Migrant Library experience is an extraordinary pedagogical and cultural training opportunity favorable to the inclusion of migrant children and adolescents. On the pedagogical level, it allows the development of fundamental skills, related to the habit of reading, the development of reading comprehension skills, the capacity for analysis and debate.

In addition to the above, it is important to note that the program allows the formation of a dynamic and a space of integration among its participants. The collective appropriation of the subjective contents of children and adolescents allows that mobility experiences are not addressed as a thematic content, but as an opportunity for knowledge, acceptance and integration in the host community. In this sense, the experience reviewed is based on and at the same time reinforces meaningful learning and contributes to building a culture of coexistence and inclusion, which facilitates the personal development of an aesthetic, moral and collective understanding of cultural diversity as an opportunity for coexistence and well-being.

Finally, it is important to mention the challenge in terms of teacher training, since the program is articulated on a new role of the teacher, as a mediator, respecting the prominence of children and adolescents in their learning processes. This is an element of great importance for the adaptability of educational practices in mobility contexts.

Good practices of educational inclusion of migrants

Author: UNESCO IIEP Buenos Aires, Oficina para América Latina; Education Cannot Wait; United Nations Children's Fund.

Year of publication: 2021.