An educationally inclusive school has been defined by the Office for Standards in Education (2000) as one that offers new opportunities to pupils who may have experienced previous difficulties, and takes account of pupils’ varied life experiences and needs. Inclusive schools monitor and evaluate the progress each pupil makes, and they promote tolerance and understanding in a diverse society. However, the search for ‘inclusive education’ is becoming an increasingly elusive goal. It is feared that cutbacks to school budgets are creating poor-quality learning experiences for many children, especially those at the margins such as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils. Furthermore, oversized classes, a monocultural and inflexible curriculum, and creeping forms of selection are undermining educational inclusivity (Cemlyn & Ryder, 2017). One of the most alarming outcomes of austerity politics in the UK has been the savage reduction of Traveller education services, local authority agencies providing support on home–school liaison, classroom assistance and strategic guidance to schools. A comment from a Gypsy elder in the UK that has always stayed with me, is: ‘Gypsies need education: they need to live in the 21st century. I’d like to live how we did when I was a child but we can’t go back to those days. Most of them kids, they couldn’t cope with that life but they need to be able to cope for this life.’ The challenge for schools in the 21st century is to offer learning environments that allow Gypsies, Roma, Travellers and other minorities to maintain their identity, but also to acquire new and adapt old skills. Sites of Resistance argues that a prerequisite to such inclusive schooling is partnership and dialogue within broader policy frameworks which are based on recognition and redistribution. Endnote Roma is the term generally used to describe the Romani communities of Central and Eastern Europe because a growing number see the term ‘Gypsy’ as pejorative, although they belong to the same ethnographic group as British Gypsies who prefer to continue to use this term. Irish Travellers descend from ancient Irish nomadic groups. Gypsies and Irish Travellers traditionally have close-knit family and economic networks, and nomadism – or the possibility of it – remains a strong cultural value in a way that it does not for the mainly sedentary East European Roma. In documentation and discussions, ‘Roma’ can encompass diverse groups such as Roma, Gypsies and Travellers.
Sites of Resistance: Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in School, Community and the Academy 2 by Andrew Ryder is published by Trentham Books at UCL IOE Press.
2 https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/social-justice- equality-and-human-rights-sites-of-resistance/
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Can schools alone raise Gypsy, Roma and Traveller inclusion or are wider measures needed? 2. What is the value and importance of learning about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller culture in the curriculum? 3. How can home–school links with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities be improved? Ryder, A. (2017). Sites of resistance: Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in the community, school and academy . Trentham Books. Ryder, A., & Cemlyn, C. (2014). Civil society monitoring on the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy in the UK . Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309728014_Ryder_A_ and_Cemlyn_C_2014_Civil_Society_Monitoring_on_the_ Implementation_of_the_National_Roma_Integration_Strategy_ in_the_UK_-_Decade_for_Roma_Inclusion_Secretariat Gillborn, D. (2008). Racism and education: Coincidence or conspiracy . Routledge. Office for Standards in Education. (2000). Evaluating educational inclusion: Guidance for inspectors and schools . https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/4455/ REFERENCES Cemlyn, S., & Ryder, A. (2017). Education for citizenship and social justice: The Case of Gypsies, Travellers and Roma. In A. Peterson, R. Hattam, M. Zembylas, & J. Arthur (Eds.), The Palgrave international handbook of education for citizenship and social justice (pp. 163–185). Palgrave. Derrington, C., & Kendall, S. (2004). Gypsy traveller students in secondary schools: Culture, identity and achievement . Trentham Books. Foster, B., & Cemlyn, S. (2012). Education, inclusion and government policy. In J. Richardson, & A. Ryder (Eds.), Gypsies and Travellers: Empowerment and inclusion in British society (pp. 61–81). Policy Press.
BERA BITES 15 | EDUCATING FOR ALL
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