This presentation will explore how Galizan educational policy has responded to an increasingly diverse population, the result of a recent rise in immigration as well as the existing socio-historical situation. We interrogate the neoliberal practices reproduced in schools and explore the potential offered by a post-colonial perspective for students who are systematically marginalized in educational settings. We critically analyze official policy concerning the integration of immigrants into the school system as well as the ways in which we have found that even very young children begin to construct understandings of foreigners as the Other, as the enemy. In what ways might the institution of schooling serve to reinforce these conceptualizations, and serve as a colonizing force through neoliberal pedagogical practices? We base this presentation on two studies that were conducted in and around the city of A Coruña (Northwest Spain), one an ethnography focusing on secondary and post-secondary education and the other an action research project that took place in an Early Childhood Education classroom. Based on our analysis, we propose some curricular orientations that might contribute to a fundamental transformation of schooling toward a more just and democratic intercultural institution.