Introduction: teachers' thought processes on learning difficulties are a way to analyze and reinterpret their conception of diversity. The present study is aimed at exploring the opinion of the Intercultural Educational Programme (IEP) co-ordinators in relation to the learning difficulties of Hispanic immigrant students. The following questions were addressed in this study: a) to know the co-ordinators' points of view about the presence or absence of LD in the Hispanic immigrant student; and b) to analyze the interpretation of the nature of LD and their relationship with the educational response to LD. Methods & procedure: thirty-three IEP co-ordinators and teachers in Primary and Secondary Education, with a high immigrant student rate, took part in this experiment. Data were collected through a Discussion Group technique. Five focus groups were set up, three for Primary Education and two for Secondary Education, each one with 6 or 7 co-ordinators. We made use of two different criteria for the formation of groups: a) the educational stage in which the teachers co-ordinated the IEP, and b) the Hispanic student rate in each centre. Results: the results reported in this study show that the co-ordinators attribute the presence of LD to differences in the country of provenance, differences between the educational systems and the social disadvantages suffered by their families. Furthermore, a discrepancy has been found between what the centre does and what the centre ought to do. Another outcome of this study is the need to look for alternatives based on diversity rather than on inequality. Conclusions: our results confirm that teachers believe that the causes of LD in Hispanic children lie outside the school and are more related with their social disadvantages than with their cultural origins. There are, however, other interpretations outside the adaptative models.

Discussion groups special needs Teacher perceptions Learning difficulties Hispanic immigrants

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