Download Overcoming a shameful past through civic education

“Roma culture”, school education
and teacher training
Calin Rus
Intercultural Institute
Timisoara, Romania
www.intercultural.ro
Structure
1. Key assumptions concerning the
relationship of school and “Roma culture”
2. “Roma culture”?
3. Impact of teachers / parents
acculturation orientations
4. Teacher training
Key assumptions


school can and should do something
to take into account "Roma culture"
teachers should know more about
“Roma culture”
Roma culture in school and educational
process

Potential benefits





Make school a friendlier environment for Roma
children
Build self-esteem of Roma children
Stimulate positive attitudes towards Roma
children
Enhance chances of successful learning
Obstacles



School structures, rules, curriculum
Teachers have little knowledge
Hard to find support within the Roma
community
Teachers and “Roma culture”

Many teachers want to learn about Roma
culture:



Curiosity
Understanding the behaviours of Roma
children and their parents
Search for easy solutions and ready-made
recipes
“Roma culture”


Diversity and complexity
Risk of a simplistic essentialist perspective;
culturalism; traditional / modern culture; culture of
poverty and social exclusion?

How to relate to the currently ongoing identitybuilding process

Identity dynamics and heteroidentification

Understanding “Roma culture” / Understanding Roma
reality (situational and contextualised)

Instead of understanding “Roma culture”, a pragmatic
approach focused on what is educationally productive
for Roma children
Consequences of discrimination



Social, economical and psychological
A very destructive consequence: internalisation of
the negative image of Roma and adoption of
negative behaviours that confirm the prediction of
the negative stereotype and generates a vicious
cycle that affects deeply the individuals
Consequences for learning:


Lower teachers expectations
Stereotype threat
7
Strategies to maintain a positive social
identity


Individual strategy – leaving the group,
refusing Roma identity, assimilation into
another group
Collective strategies:
o
o
o
Social creativity – identify criteria that put
Roma in a favourable situation
Redefining characteristics – redefining
stereotype characteristics to put them in a
positive light
Social competition – public requests for a
process to change the overall relationship
between groups
8
Majority / minority relations
Intercultural Communication
ASSIMILATION
INTEGRATION
Cultural Identity
MARGINALISATION
Adapted from J. Berry
SEGREGATION /
SEPARATION
Interactive Acculturation Model
Majority
Minority
Integration
Assimilation
Segregation
Exclusion
Individualism
Integration
Assimilation
Separation
Anomie
Individualism
R. Bourhis
Interactive Acculturation Model
Integration
Assimilation
Separation
Anomie
Individualism
Integration
Consensual
Problematic
Conflictual
Problematic
Problematic
Assimilation
Problematic
Conflictual
Conflictual
Problematic
Problematic
Segregation
Conflictual
Conflictual
Conflictual
Conflictual
Conflictual
Exclusion
Conflictual
Conflictual
Conflictual
Conflictual
Conflictual
Individualism
Problematic
Problematic
Problematic
Problematic
Consensual
1. Teachers and change: a misleading model
TRAINING
Teaching practice
reproducing or
ignoring
inequalities and
oppression
Oppressive policies or
policies deliberately
ignoring events, groups…
+
social conformism
Teaching practice
promoting
egalitarian values
and acknowledging
the shameful past
Affirmation of egalitarian values,
public acknowledgment of the
shameful past
reflected in policies
+
personal values and opinions
1. Teachers and change
Agreement with values of social justice and
antidiscrimination
Convinced but
ineffective teachers
(share the values but, for
various reasons, fail to
implement)
Committed and
effective teachers
(believe in what they do and
do what they believe)
Resistant teachers
(various strategies of
avoiding implementation
based on non adherence
to value system)
Superficial compliance or
« organized hypocrisy »
(implement changes but do
not believe in them)
Implementation of required changes
4. Consequences for training
Agreement with egalitarian values
Convinced but
ineffective teachers
(share the values but, for
various reasons, fail to
implement)
Committed and
effective teachers
(believe in what they do and
do what they believe)
Resistant teachers
(various strategies of
avoiding implementation
based on non adherence
to value system)
Superficial compliance or
« organized hypocrisy »
(implement changes but do
not believe in them)
Implementation of required changes
6. Conclusions




Culture is important but the perspective teachers
have on culture is crucial
Teachers need general historical and cultural
background information
Delivering anthropological and historical content
does not necessarily generate changes in
attitudes and in teaching practice
Balance is needed between background
knowledge and


skills to adapt to the specific situation
awareness of psychological mechanisms which can
block or enhance learning and positive social
relations