Journal articles on the topic 'Roma Rights and Education Project'

Abstract This article is about the rights of the Roma in Sweden and the level of discrimination that Roma are facing. The aims and objectives of the article is theoretical and practical understanding of the situation of the Roma and their human rights through our research and analysis of reports from international organizations, civil society organizations, deep interviews and data from the collected 57 questionnaires. The data is collected during the two study visits in November 2016 and February 2017. The article sumarises the actual situation of the Roma in Sweden and shows new data I have collected while visiting Göteborg, Stockholm, Vänersborg and Trollhättan. I did 4 deep interviews with representatives from Civil Right Defenders, Kronan School and members from UNHCR Sweden. The interviews were composed out of 22 questions about the current condition of Roma in Sweden, implemented projects for improving the Roma human rights, discrimination, police harasment, Roma register, legal remedies against discrimination, financial benefits if persuing education, non-governmental organization working for and with Roma, equitable representation of Roma in the state bodies, affirmative actions (positive discrimination), Romani political parties, allocated funds for projects improving the Romani situation, system of minority right protection, equality of Roma among the Swedish citizens. The questionnaire about discrimination is composed out of 15 questions about the forms of discrimination, feeling or witnesing discrimination, discrimination in delivering services, discrimination in employment, and reporting discrimination.

The situation of roma since the fall of socialism is a paradox. On the one hand, many organizations, international governing organizations (IGOs), such as the European Union (Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the World Bank and the United Nations (UNDP, UNICEF, ILO), local and international/transnational NGOs, government agencies are involved in projects for Roma to improve their situation in Europe. Roma have become the target of social inclusion programs of the European Union (EU), the Decade of Roma Inclusion - a project of the Open Society Foundation and the World Bank -, Strategies for improving the situation of Roma developed by governments in Southeastern Europe. On the other hand, Roma continue to be marginalized, discriminated against, politically underrepresented, with a higher probability of being unemployed, not having access to public services - education, health , housing - compared with the majority population. This paper seeks to understand how was it possible to understand the recent shift from the representation of the Roma as a non-European minority, which lasted since their arrival in Europe until the fall of socialist regimes, to their representation as an European minority as it is shown in documents of the European institutions and the World Bank? How did Roma appear on the EU social inclusion agenda, the Human Development agenda of UNDP or the minority rights agenda of OSCE?

Abstract The Scottish Government has a strong commitment to strengthening children’s human rights, with the aim of making Scotland ‘the best place to grow up and bring up children’. The Education (Scotland) Act 2016 introduced a raft of measures to boost the rights of children with additional support needs (ASN). The programme for government in Scotland, published in September 2020, included a commitment to incorporate the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child into Scottish domestic legislation. In order to examine the extent to which the rights of Gypsy/Traveller children are being respected in practice, this paper draws on an analysis of official statistics conducted as part of an ESRC funded project entitled Autonomy, Rights and Children with Special Needs: A New Paradigm? (ES/P002641/1), which ran from 2018 to 2020. In addition, the paper uses findings from an Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment which was carried out in summer 2020 with a view to investigating the impact of the emergency measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the terms of the Coronavirus Act 2020, schools across the UK were closed, with widespread implications for children and young people, particularly those with additional support needs. The central aim of this paper is to explore the impact of the emergency measures on the recently enhanced rights of children with ASN, with a particular focus on the rights of children from Gypsy/Traveller backgrounds. I conclude that people living itinerant lives experience long-standing exclusion from mainstream schooling and wider society, and their marginal status has been reinforced during the recent pandemic when children’s human rights have been side-lined.

Multiculturalism policy in Serbia is an example of compromises made by monoculturalists between the issues surpassing the conservative paradigm of tolerance for ethnic and cultural differences and the normative protection of their identities. An unsystematised approach to shaping multiculturalism policy led to disregard or misinterpretation of demographic factors. Through the examples of how the rights to ethnic and cultural identities are obstructed for the Bosniak population in Priboj and Aromanians in Serbia, and the analysis of problems stemming from the centralist organisation of minority selfgovernments, the paper points to the weaknesses of the current multiculturalism policy and the need for introducing demographic criteria for it to be brought into line with the nature of multiethnicity in the country. The paper points to the issues and difficulties arising from this for the Roma national minority in the realisation of their rights. Despite of being a large national minority, its members are not able to enjoy full cultural autonomy because the realisation of rights is not in line with the demographic characteristics of the Roma. A reform of the multiculturalism policy would remove the existing obstacles and enable effective protection of ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities of minorities. Multiculturalism policy in Serbia is an example of compromises made by monoculturalists between the issues surpassing the conservative paradigm of tolerance for ethnic and cultural differences and the normative protection of their identities. An unsystematised approach to shaping multiculturalism policy led to disregard or misinterpretation of demographic factors. Through the examples of how the rights to ethnic and cultural identities are obstructed for the Bosniak population in Priboj and Aromanians in Serbia, and the analysis of problems stemming from the centralist organisation of minority selfgovernments, the paper points to the weaknesses of the current multiculturalism policy and the need for introducing demographic criteria for it to be brought into line with the nature of multiethnicity in the country. The paper points to the issues and difficulties arising from this for the Roma national minority in the realisation of their rights. Despite of being a large national minority, its members are not able to enjoy full cultural autonomy because the realisation of rights is not in line with the demographic characteristics of the Roma. A reform of the multiculturalism policy would remove the existing obstacles and enable effective protection of ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities of minorities. Multiculturalism policy in Serbia is an example of compromises made by monoculturalists between the issues surpassing the conservative paradigm of tolerance for ethnic and cultural differences and the normative protection of their identities. An unsystematised approach to shaping multiculturalism policy led to disregard or misinterpretation of demographic factors. Through the examples of how the rights to ethnic and cultural identities are obstructed for the Bosniak population in Priboj and Aromanians in Serbia, and the analysis of problems stemming from the centralist organisation of minority selfgovernments, the paper points to the weaknesses of the current multiculturalism policy and the need for introducing demographic criteria for it to be brought into line with the nature of multiethnicity in the country. The paper points to the issues and difficulties arising from this for the Roma national minority in the realisation of their rights. Despite of being a large national minority, its members are not able to enjoy full cultural autonomy because the realisation of rights is not in line with the demographic characteristics of the Roma. A reform of the multiculturalism policy would remove the existing obstacles and enable effective protection of ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities of minorities. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. III 47010: Social transformations in the process of European integration - a multidisciplinary approach]

This article deals with the linguistic situation in Colombia. In addition to its enormous biological and geographical diversity, Colombia also has an astonishing number of autochthonous languages that still exist. In total, there are 65 indigenous languages, two Creole languages and the Romani of the Roma community. First, the status quo of these languages is outlined. Special attention is given to language policy and language maintenance, because the current legally protected rights of the indigenous peoples, also with regard to the use of their own languages, required a longstanding struggle. The most important stages of this development are outlined, starting with the constitution of 1991. The project of ethnic education, initiated in 1985, is an outstanding example for all of Latin America with regard to an inclusive language and cultural policy. The most important milestones of this development are briefly discussed. The long way to achieving equal participation of the autochthonous peoples, the protection and preservation of their languages is not over yet. For this reason, the article concludes with a look at the latest language and cultural policy project, the Ten-Year Plan for Native Languages in Colombia, which will set the guidelines for language policy between 2022 and 2032.

The paper presents research findings with 56 Roma children from Macedonia and Serbia between the ages of 3-6 years. The children’s knowledge of Romani as their mother tongue was assessed with a specially designed test. The test measures the children’s comprehension and production of different types of grammatical knowledge such as wh–questions, wh-complements, passive verbs, possessives, tense, aspect, the ability of the children to learn new nouns and new adjectives, and repetition of sentences. In addition, two pictured narratives about Theory of Mind were given to the children. The hypothesis of the authors was that knowledge of the complex grammatical categories by children will help them to understand better the Theory of Mind stories. The results show that Roma children by the age of 5 know most of the grammatical categories in their mother tongue and most of them understand Theory of Mind. References Bakalar, P. (2004). The IQ of Gypsies in Central Europe. 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This article seeks to provide some insight into the multiple human rights challenges facing the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Under Communism, the bulk of the Roma benefited from wide-ranging social and economic rights introduced in the CEE states including rights to work, housing, healthcare and education. Paradoxically, the transition to democracy, economic liberty and a new emphasis on civil and political rights has precipitated a massive crisis for the region’s Roma. Subject to spiralling unemployment and sharply escalating living costs, most Roma have not been able to take advantage of the political, cultural or economic opportunities now available to them. Similarly, the recognition of minority rights in both regional instruments and national legislation, particularly since 1990, has had relatively little impact on the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe. Against a background of heightened racial animosity and persistent assaults on Roma victims, many Roma are afraid to assert their identity. For the mass of impoverished Roma, notions of minority rights are irrelevant. Finally, the article explores the failure of criminal justice systems in Central and Eastern Europe to respond to widespread physical intimidation directed against Roma subjects.

This article addresses contemporary Roma rights issues in Central and Eastern Europe by exploring the relationship between internet technologies and the discourses surrounding human rights and the post-socialist transition. Because the Roma are a transnational European minority ethnic group, they have been used as a 'test case' by western human rights groups to evaluate minority rights in post-socialist nations. The article highlights the role of new media technologies in redirecting concerns about the lack of human rights in Europe as a whole to the former Eastern bloc countries. It draws attention to the limits of western liberal discourses and new media technologies to redress racial and material discrimination against the Roma.

AbstractThe Roma constitute an ideal case of educational injustice meeting linguistic difference, racism, social marginalization, and poverty. This paper asks whether human-rights or capabilities approaches are best suited to address issues related to the language education of Roma students in Europe. These children are disadvantaged by not growing up with the standard dialect of whatever language is preferred by the mainstream population, and by the low status of the Romani language, and non-standard dialect of the standard language they usually speak. We examine language education for Roma students in Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, describing similarities and differences across contexts. We explain weak and strong version of language rights arguments, and the ways these principles are expressed, and not expressed in education policies. Sen’s capabilities approach can be employed to generate contextualized visions of education reform that speak directly to disadvantages suffered by Roma children.

The problem with the education, socialization and upbringing of Roma children in Bulgaria is serious and requires the joint efforts of universities and schools. For many of these children, education is not a value. They study only in primary school and then remain traditionally in their family. It must be recognized that traditional family values ​​and traditions for the Roma have the force of law. Many Roma families managed to socialize by leaving the ghetto and settling in Bulgarian communities - but many of them do not want to change their lifestyle. The cooperation between the schools and the university is presented in the university project "Innovations in the socialization of bilingual students through communication and speech development" presented here. A methodological innovation for the education of Roma children has been introduced. This innovation combines tradition (Roma fairy tale) and the development of reader literacy, thinking, and solving cases. A total of 415 Roma students participated in the empirical study. With their participation in the project it is established that they increase their reading skills, learn the Bulgarian language better and develop critical thinking.

Roma women are the focus of this article and the Spotlight offers a Roma woman’s testimony as a starting point. The article weaves in the personal narrative of the now director of a Roma organisation based in Hungary and combines the individual journey of Anikó Orsós , a Roma woman, educator, activist and human rights defender. Orsos is the president of Amrita Association and this paper describes the work of the association while also allowing her own reality to reflect the transformative potential of education.

Roma are the largest minority ethnic group in Europe, but very few Roma achieve a level of education that enables them to secure employment or positive life chances. The general perception of Roma is based on a series of stereotypes such as poverty, asociality, unemployment, poor education, a tendency towards social tension, and susceptibility to educational deficiencies. Their values, lifestyle, principles, language, generally lower social status, and their socio-cultural traditions are noticeably different from those of the majority population of any given European country. The inclusion of Roma in the education system would soften the existing discourse and encourage their integration into a society. The paper aims to point out the possibility of integrating the Roma population into schools, with the given model of project teaching, in such a way that the other students also get to know their culture and traditions. The paper proposed the model of project teaching, which aims to introduce students to the Roma people and their famous representatives through the contents of legends, music, and true war stories, in order to develop knowledge about the other and different, and foster a climate of togetherness in the class and school.

In the Czech Republic, a number of strategy papers and policy documents are guiding the direction of Roma inclusion, including in the area of health. The conceptualization of Roma and how mainstream political and public discourse operate with the term “Roma” contribute to a mistakenly homogenous and harmful image of Roma that conforms to negative stereotypes. The aim of our study was to examine the conceptualization of Roma in policy documents related to social inclusion and health in the Czech Republic. Relevant political, strategic and project documents were selected for analysis. Emphasis is placed in them on individual responsibility in relation to health, while structural conditions and discrimination are mentioned less often. Roma are described in relation to health primarily as people who should be educated. More emphasis is placed on the economic benefits of eliminating health inequalities than on citizens’ rights and the importance of inclusion. When “participation” or “empowerment” is mentioned, it is done vaguely, usually in addition to references to completely non-participatory practices. The majority is the primary actor in the field of eliminating health inequalities, as it defines the “path” that Roma need to be shown or determines what is needed to “stimulate” citizens. Although the political discourse concerning Roma has shifted more towards human rights, equity and combating discrimination in the Czech Republic, subtle forms of anti-Gypsyism still seem to be present.

Multiculturalism is an established feature of the UK and other European States since the establishment of the Treaty of Rome in 1959. Enlargement has brought EU membership from six (1952) to twenty eight members since its foundation, and allowed free migration across its borders. However, many countries, in spite of agreements to adhere to ‘democratic’ practices, deny minority citizens their full rights, particularly in education contexts. Some recent accession EU States have education systems that are less adaptive to expected policy responsibilities. It is a more unstable aspect of Eastern Europe because of the failure of many of these countries to reduce social and educational inequalities and to establish rights for minority groups, particularly the Roma. An educational focus is used as a platform to highlight issues re the segregation, and discrimination against, Roma children in Europe, typically through the use of special education, which is not suitable for them. Europe generally, both East and West has failed to fully integrate the Roma. Often, institutional blame is placed on Roma communities, rather than situate them socially and economically due to ingrained structural inequalities. Stereotyped categories are often used to ‘label’ them. Countries with high Roma populations, four in Western and five in Eastern Europe are evaluated and compared in relation to the education of Roma children.

The article analyses the forms of «antigypsyism»towards the use of Romani language, education of Roma children in their mother tongue and the linguistic human rights of Roma. After defining the «hate speech» and «antigypsyism», «antiziganism», «online hate» given by different authors, research with some Roma communities in Slovakia is presented. The «antigypsysim» is expressed directly or online towards Roma. The forms of personal/individual, institutionalized antigypsyism,institutionalized personal antigypsyismare discussed. Romani is in daily use mainly in the segregated Roma settlements. However, neither in the segregated nor in the special schools are the children offered lessons to build formal literacy in their mother tongue. The attitudes of the teachers towards the use of the Romani language at school are often not positive and they do not have any activities supporting the use and development of Romani. They do not recognize that such children have a right to acquire literacy in their home language. It is not viewed as an asset but precisely the opposite: the teachers think that they do not need their mother tongue and that the official school language is more important. The official languages used by the children are also an object of hate speech in social media and society, because often they use a variety of the official language called «ethnolect», and not the official language. Applying the insights of Auduc (2006), Iconcluded that the discrimination against young Roma is even stronger when they are highly qualified. The antigypsyism is much greater towards educated Roma who are fighting for their language and identity rights. That is because in their countries of origin this category of human capital, e.g. educated Roma, cannot be integrated, and most of them emigrate to West European countries to find their professional realization. Keywords: Roma, linguistic human rights, education, antigypsyism

Since the 1990s an increasing body of genetic studies of Roma people has been conducted and used to understand their lives. This includes research on health issues such as genetic predispositions to obesity or high cholesterol levels and the migration of European Roma from the Indian subcontinent. Such work needs to be contextualised within the wide-ranging historical oppression of Roma people including their enslavement, the Holocaust, denial of human rights and a lack of access to education. Aligning genetics research to educational policy has often been problematic in the context of discredited, ‘race’ science; recently more nuanced arguments have promoted ‘post-genomic’ solutions, such as biosocial strategies, that address social justice issues. This article argues that an economy of knowledge emerges in the ‘postgenomic era’ that privileges predominantly White European, majority populations and this is particularly apparent in the context of the Roma. The promotion of educational solutions framed by genetics research underpins how cultural capital, in this case scientific knowledge and its framing within social theory such as Deleuzian assemblage will, in all likelihood, maintain the status quo for the Roma.

This paper investigates representations of the Roma Holocaust in European textbooks on history, civics, and geography for pupils in upper primary to the end of secondary education. By applying critical discourse analysis (CDA) to a dataset of 472 passages and images referring to the Roma Holocaust from 869 textbooks, this paper reveals educational discourses of in/exclusion by focusing on narratives and linguistic tools, such as speech acts, level of detail and specificity, perspectives in semantic and grammatical forms, vocabulary and syntax. Most knowledge disseminated on the Roma Holocaust concerns numbers and technicalities of murder while Roma-specific details, survivor stories, and individual voices, as well as Romani terminology for the Holocaust (Porrajmos) are rare. Generally, the textbooks show little commitment to circulating knowledge about the Roma Holocaust, or specifically focusing on civic or human rights education. Portrayals of the Roma Holocaust are permeated by both explicitly and implicitly racist discourses, coupled with a distinct lack of critical tools withwhich to deconstruct these narratives. Overall, current textbook representations of the Roma Holocaust mirror social discourse and possibly serve to reproduce Romani exclusion and risk reinforcing antigypsyism attitudes.

Introduction: The perception of health and sickness are culturally determined and, therefore, ethnic and religious socialization forms attitudes toward the medical system. During everyday practice, patients’ rights and obligations, which are based on the norms of the major society, confront Roma minority norms. Aim: The aim of the authors was to explore the main interferences of patients’ rights and obligations during the medical care of the Roma. Method: The authors analyzed the results of medical anthropology, health sociology, and the experience obtained from more than 40 courses about patients’ rights. Results: Cultural determinants, effects of the lower socioeconomic status and social-psychological mechanism equally form the situations of healthcare and the observance of patients’ rights and obligations. Conclusions: Most of the misunderstandings between healthcare workers and Roma patients stem from the lack of knowledge about cultural differences. Therefore, transcultural approach and Romani studies should be significant part of graduate and postgraduate courses in the field of medical education. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(18), 712–717.

Abstract The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recently had its 30th anniversary. Emerging from the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, it has since become the most ratified international human rights treaty ever. Most European countries ratified it and are thus obliged to ensure the implementation of children's rights in practice. Operationalizing the UNCRC raises practical, conceptual and ethical issues. For example, questions arise concerning children and young people's competence to make autonomous decisions in different social domains, especially in education. There are also debates about children's involvement in dispute resolution and the extent to which rights must always be associated with redress in order to make them meaningful. Clearly, the relationship between the rights of children and young people on the one hand and those of parents and teachers on the other are particularly salient. In addition, challenges may arise in relation to children from the Roma-minority in educational institutions. Article 28 (1) of the UNCRC stresses that “States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity”. Nonetheless, Roma students frequently experience multiple forms of discrimination in educational institutions which amplify their existing disadvantage. Across Europe, there have been different rates of progress in terms of incorporating aspects of the UNCRC into domestic law and put them into practice in schools and other education institutions, and in many cases Roma children have yet to experience the benefits of enhanced children's rights.

This article examines a 2006 European Court of Human Rights judgment concerning educational discrimination against Roma children in the Czech Republic and the involvement of educational psychologists in the case. The court held the school to be the proper final arbiter on the question of the best interests of the child regarding educational placement. Based largely on culturally biased psychological testing results, the Roma children in question were declared mentally handicapped by educational psychologists. On that basis, they were placed in a segregated school for the intellectually disabled where the curriculum was quite deficient. Despite statistical evidence of the overrepresentation of Roma children in such segregated Czech schools, and of widespread discrimination against Roma in schools and in the larger society, the court rejected the claim that the children’s right to an education had been violated. The implication for psychologists and educators internationally, to avoid becoming pawns contributing to an oppressive human rights situation, is discussed.

Current research has suggested many possible benefits of rights education, including increased empathy, tolerance and respect (Alderson, 1999; Allan & I’Anson, 2004; Covell, 2005; Decoene & De Cock, 1996). In this case study of a rights education project - the Rights Project - we demonstrate some ways rights discourse served to transform the understanding of a group of four year-olds in a preschool. Rather than contributing to the maintenance of a hierarchical, rules regulated classroom, rights education transformed the classroom into a new learning environment based on equity, inter-dependence and group accountability. This article focuses specifically on children’s discussions around, and practical use of, two articles stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 13, ‘the right to be listened to’ and Article 31, ‘the right to play’ (United Nations General Assembly, 1989). As children explored the meaning of each right, their understanding of social being transformed and their recognition of the relationship between rights and responsibilities seemed to shift their perspectives from ‘me’ to ‘we’.

The main objective of this article is to analyze the situation of the Roma minority in Poland, by presenting its economic situation, access to education, implementation of language rights and the degree of implementation of the principles of equal treatment and prohibition of discrimination in relation to this community. The basis for this is the analysis of the opinions of the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the reports of the Committee of Experts on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The main thesis of the work is the statement that in the analyzed period there was an improvement in the situation of the Roma minority in terms of access to education, living conditions and the implementation of language rights. However, the Roma minority is still perceived negatively in Polish society and there are cases of discrimination against it.

AbstractThis article is about the rights of the Roma in North Macedonia and the level of discrimination that Roma are facing while employed in the public sector in the Republic of North Macedonia. The aims and objectives of the article are theoretical and practical understanding of the situation of Roma and the violation of their rights through direct and indirect discrimination at work. The data was collected during the period from May-July 2019 via 52 collected questionaries from a total of 70 public servants who were asked to be a part of the research.The article shows new data we have collected from employed Roma as public servants in different institutions in the state. The surveyed public servants were 52 in total, from which 34 are employees with secondary education, 17 are with university education and only 1 has a masters degree.The questionnaire is composed out of 17 questions about the forms of discrimination, feeling or witnesing discrimination at their workplace, who caused the discrimination, witnessing the spread of prejudices and stereotypes about the Roma, rejection of colleagues to share an office with Roma, and who caused the discrimination. One of the results shows that 55% of the surveyed Roma did not have a single training from their employer in the last 12 months and that 69% of those surveyed stated that they felt discrimination in the last 12 months on everyday basis.

The previous report from 2022 presented a newly started international anti-hate speech project with the participation of students from the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava. Despite the EU-funded project started in April 2022, in December of the same year, we were already able to present tangible results. At the end of 2023, the project can be described as fully established and set to reach its ambitious goals thanks to the synergy among students, volunteers and the client Forum for Human Rights (“FORUM”). This report is a follow-up to the first one and presents new interesting developments and challenges. It focuses on the role of students, aspiring young professionals, in protecting the human rights of Roma people.

The Republic of Kosovo is a country that observes all the rights and obligations of its subjects with no discrimination in national, racial, linguistic sense. Even though we have these rights in place, in practice the situation is different and not very positive. This is since the non-majority communities Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian in Kosovo face several problems in different areas, especially when it comes to their right on integration to education. This paper will address and evaluate current policies and legislation of Kosovo for inclusion in education as a condition for completion of the education system. This paper will be developed by considering the assessment of the Constitution and relevant legislation referring to the right to education for non-majority communities. Given all this legislation, it will be assessed in harmony with the practical problems that exist regarding access to the education system for non-majority communities. Therefore, this paper aims to bring innovation in this field of research aiming to identify how much the Republic of Kosovo is keeping a pace with the standards for inclusion in the education system, what are the reasons that in current state of play we do not have a satisfactory inclusion in the education by category of children from non-majority communities of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian in pre-university education. Key wordS: Inclusion, Children from Non-Majority Communities of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian, Education Policy, Pre-University Education.

The article was prepared as part of the project: Promoting equal access to quality education for Roma children, implemented by Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues in Europe. The study consists of three parts. The first one concerns the basic information related to the analysis of the current state of knowledge on equal access to education of Roma children in Poland, the second – indicates the current statistical data on the education of Roma children, and the final part, which is a summary – presents the results of research and recommendations for practice in to improve communication between Roma parents and officials and teaching staff. The pilot study was aimed at identifying problems related to equal access to education of Roma children at the preschool and kindergarten level. They were conducted in Silesia – in Chorzów and Bytom – using the method of a structured interview. An interview with school principals, officials, and Roma’s parents revealed a significant need to build a bridge based on trust and fluent communication.

Research demonstrates that Roma women can be leaders to support educational processes that contribute to social change and transformation. However, there are few studies addressing the case of the role of Roma women in the learning communities project to show the ways they are committed to education, specially of young Roma women. This article analyses in depth the case of a learning community in which Roma women organize dialogical meetings to share their concerns about education, thus exercising dialogic leadership. Through the communicative methodology, a case study was developed using different techniques. The data analysis and results illustrate the powerful and inspirational narratives of change resonating with the dialogic leadership of the Roma women participating in the school.

Discrimination against the Child in Access to Education Based on Ethnic Origin as Examplified by the Roma Minority in Selected Countries Summary The aim of this study is to draw attention to the common problem of discrimination against children in access to education due to their ethnic origin. This problem affects particularly children of the Roma minority, who are subject to practices prohibited by anti-discrimination law, in particular school and class segregation and the practice of improper placement of Roma children in special schools. The article presents an analysis of the situation of Roma children in three selected countries: Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, based on source data, in particular research on discrimination and minorities conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and other collected data. The study also presents methods and attempts by states to combat practices that discriminate against children of Roma origin.

Discrimination against the Child in Access to Education Based on Ethnic Origin as Examplified by the Roma Minority in Selected Countries Summary The aim of this study is to draw attention to the common problem of discrimination against children in access to education due to their ethnic origin. This problem affects particularly children of the Roma minority, who are subject to practices prohibited by anti-discrimination law, in particular school and class segregation and the practice of improper placement of Roma children in special schools. The article presents an analysis of the situation of Roma children in three selected countries: Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, based on source data, in particular research on discrimination and minorities conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and other collected data. The study also presents methods and attempts by states to combat practices that discriminate against children of Roma origin.

The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees all children the right to an education, and this paper focuses on Roma children and that right. The extent of Serbia’s strategy documents was reviewed, particularly in light of their responsibility for guaranteeing equity, accessibility, and equal educational opportunities for all children. The study’s objective is to assess how content related to the Roma is portrayed in current curricula (N = 16) and textbooks (N = 93) for the 2022–2023 academic year. It was discovered that despite the objectives in each of the analyzed courses (Serbian language, The World around Us, Nature and Society, Music Education, and Civic Education) clearly promote equality, diversity, and mutual appreciation, democratic values, inclusion, and anti-discrimination, none of them explicitly mention the words Roma or the Roma people. Only a few times do the Roma people explicitly appear in textbooks on nature, society, and music, and then only as a numerical representation of the national minority; no mention is made of the positive traits of the Roma people, who have their own identity, tradition, and culture as well as well-known members. The results highlight the need for textbooks to include specific content about the Roma people as fundamental teaching tools. This content should also be included in the curriculum because it would help students of Roma origin feel less excluded and more empowered to participate in school on an equal footing.

The paper was based on contemporary legal, sociological and anthropological literature concerning the issues of discrimination and integration of Roma, as well as on the data obtained in two research projects realised in 2020: "Research on Social Relations among Ethnic Communities in Serbia" (Institute of Social Sciences) and "Roma Equality through Increased Legal Access" (Minority Rights Group). Results of the former project were based on data collected by quantitative methods (national internet sample and field research), while those of the latter were gathered by means of qualitative methods, i.e. interviews with 42 female and 17 male respondents realised in eight focus groups. Crossing the empirical data pertaining to discrimination of the Roma citizens living in Serbia, with the legislative system which should supress and gradually eliminate all forms of discrimination, indicates the depth of the social dimension of this problem, but also the vagueness and deficiencies of the very system.

In the interwar period, for the first time in their history, Romanian Roma managed to organise themselves on a modern basis, by forming Roma associations and unions, and issuing their own newspapers and programmes. In an effort to define themselves, they became politically active, claiming and negotiating rights. In my article I analyse the context of the interwar Roma movement, how Roma leaders of the time saw themselves and their movement, what programme(s) they had, and how they tried to achieve their goals. This was a serious challenge: As they were not self-sufficient, they heavily depended on support from Romanian institutions, and hence they had to act with caution in order to avoid any hostile reactions from the Romanian majority. Overall, the discourse of Roma elites in interwar Romania ranged between: 1) a national approach directed inwardly, toward the Roma, for ethnic mobilisation purposes, including calls to unite in order to acquire their rights, efforts to combat ethnic stigmatisation, discussions on ethnonyms (Gypsy vs. Roma) or on the importance of Roma in Romania and worldwide, the beginning of a national/ethnic mythology (past, origin, enslavement, heroization vs. victimization, etc.); and 2) a pragmatic approach directed outwardly, toward Romanian authorities and public opinion; rather than a national minority, Roma leaders presented the Roma as a social category with specific needs, due to their historical legacy. Of these two, throughout the interwar period, pragmatism prevailed. Special emphasis was placed on the issue of social inclusion, and on identifying specific problems and solutions (i.e., better access to education, settlement, deconstruction of prejudices, etc.).

AbstractAfter a long history of living in Europe, latterly in democracies governed with reference to human, and children's, rights, Roma children still have a very low education status and very low school participation rates. The aims of this article are to review the current state of participation of Roma children in education in European countries, with a special focus on Romania, and to discuss some issues about how the right to education is, or is not, respected in the region. Data accumulated in the last decade are revisited and educational policies are analyzed. Particular attention is given to issues of segregation in education, scrutinized through the lens of Romanian and international education practices. The article recommends a number of policy responses, including the value of added cash transfers, as well as action to ensure quality standards in all education settings frequented by Roma children.

In this article, the authors present data gathered in the Reclaiming Adolescence research project, which investigated the educational hardships of Roma youth by comparing their experiences with their non-Roma peers' in Belgrade, Serbia. Serious inequalities in access to secondary and tertiary education affect the life and career opportunities of Romani adolescents in Europe. Yet, despite a plethora of reports and surveys on this topic, the views of young Roma themselves remain undocumented. This article reports on research that addresses this lacuna in terms of both substantive findings and methodological innovation. Using participatory research techniques and focusing on the young people's voices, the authors reveal the direct impact of experiences of discrimination on Romani students' educational and career choices. Youth-based participatory approaches and support for youth leadership emerge as key tools to building robust and sustained adolescent investment in social and political change.

In the Italian context, the first law directly affecting the urban planning and building sector dates back to approximately 160 years ago, precisely Law 2248/1865. It established the administrative unification of the Kingdom of Italy, empowering municipal councils to deliberate on ‘hygiene, building and local police regulations’, and was followed a few months later by Law 2359/1865 on expropriations for public purpose. By contrast, the first regulations for the protection of artistic, historical, archaeological and ethnographic heritage (1089/1938), and natural beauty (1497/1939), are just over 80 years old. From that time onwards, the rules governing planning and design actions have been considerably enriched and developed. Hence, it is worth reflecting on the effectiveness and efficiency of a regulatory framework that has been governing territorial, urban and building transformations in an increasingly articulated and specialised manner with a view to improving the quality and sustainability of natural and anthropic habitats. Moreover, its ability to govern the ways, times and cultural and technical contents of the project production process to carry out high quality creations is worthy of consideration. Perhaps the issue of standardisation has never been the centre of attention in all sectors of civil life as today: in public administration and scientific research, among economic operators, planners, and citizens themselves. Regulatory systems are increasingly pervasive in regulating design activity and the characteristics of works in response to a general «increase in the variety and complexity of public interests that appear worthy of protection, such as the quality of the environment, the safeguarding of the natural and historical-artistic heritage, the protection of health, the safety of persons, and security […]» (Bassanini et al., 2005). Changing interests require frequent updates to adapt regulations to rapid socio-economic, cultural, and technological changes. The centres of regulatory production have also multiplied, breaking up into different levels and sectors of regulation, namely with multi-level (international, EU, national, regional, local), sectoral (economy, environment, territory, landscape, infrastructure, cultural heritage, health, etc.) and institutional governance structures, with corresponding different interests (public/private, collective/individual) and complicated relationships of interconnection, conditionality and/or competition (Raveraira, 2009). The scenario is even more complex, if we broaden the scope to include, in addition to prescriptive and binding rules, the vast universe of guiding principles, voluntary standards, guidelines, best practices, etc. Moreover, also due to the nature of the legal system model of reference (civil law derived from Roman law, as opposed to the common law of English-speaking countries, founded on the binding force of practice and judgements), Italian legislation has been stratified by an anomalous number of rules, which are often not mutually coordinated, sometimes contradictory or bearing inconsistent definitions. They are either incapable of producing the desired results, or are not the cause of effects even diametrically opposed to those expected. The attempt to solve every problem through a special regulation results in limiting the free and responsible action of citizens (and planners). Indeed, as Marco Romano points out, «to reduce people’s desires to rights codified in the doctrine of planning, imposed by enlightened and pedagogical governments on rebellious citizens unaware of their own good, is to erase what makes them citizens: the diversity of their individual life projects» (Romano, 2013). On the other hand, the discrepancy between this regulatory approach and the reality that surrounds us is evident. On Alessandro Pizzorno’s death, Fabrizio Schiaffonati recalled how, back in the 1960s, the doyen of Italian political sociology had already warned that in Italy «everything must be regulated so that everything can be conceded», pointing out that «this is still the case nowadays, more than half a century later, with good peace for the quality of the project, which is overwhelmed by constraints and contradictory procedures that are obstructive to a necessary qualitative transformation of the anthropic environment within proper time and costs» (Schiaffonati, 2019). This hypertrophic growth of laws and regulations (a true ‘legislative inflation’ or ‘regulatory pollution’) is accompanied by their rapid variability over time, so much so that a building intervention begun within a given legislative framework risks being completed in the presence of a different regulatory framework, which would not have allowed its execution, and vice versa. Not to mention the «badly written, lengthy regulations that are difficult to read and even more difficult to apply, (which) now represent a constant factor with which even the most prepared and motivated operator must come to terms» (Gorlani, 2022), which lead to confusion and interpretative doubts. This makes bureaucratic formalities unnecessarily complex, overloads administrative action, and increases the regulatory and management costs for citizens, businesses and the public institutions themselves, including those dedicated to monitoring and control actions (which, in a context of shrinking public resources, are often the first to be lacking…). Legal uncertainty leads to opaque, if not arbitrary decisions, facilitates corruption, increases discrimination and social conflict, and limits economic development, sometimes to the point of inhibiting it (Bassanini et al., 2005). A vulnus with dramatic effects, if it is true that certainty does not have to be of the law, but: «certainty is law, just as, vice versa, law is certainty, if it is true that law […], is constituted for the specific purpose of giving certainty, or rather: certainties» (emphasis added; Ruggeri, 2005). The body of urban planning legislation has expanded considerably, imposing on city and regional planning new objectives and constraints aimed at protecting and improving the quality of the environment and landscape. Strategic environmental and impact assessments, regulations to limit land consumption, to increase climate resilience and to regenerate the built environment have been in use for many years now, with their rich set of analyses and tools to manage knowledge, build scenarios, compare alternatives, and quantify their effects through indicators (environmental, socioeconomic, etc.). And yet, all this does not seem to have produced the expected effects, as witnessed by the continuing degradation of urban suburbs, the continuous increase in soil erosion by new urbanisations and infrastructures, the abandonment of ‘inland areas’, and the hydrogeological instability of the most ‘fragile’ territories. Instead, by moving more and more on the level of so-called policies, planning seems to have lost its technical capacity to conform the quality of spaces, even in their cultural value and use, in a sort of throwback of illiteracy forgetting the grammatical and syntactical rules of construction of the European city. The disciplinary crisis of the plan is evident, incapable of governing land uses and built forms, as well as the quality of public space, relying, instead, on the abstraction of ‘tactical squares’ and social streets totally inadequate to determine an organic configuration of the urban structure. There is no large city that does not have a plan for climate resilience or sustainable mobility, nor is there a major project that cannot boast top-level environmental and/or energy performance, duly certified even when it plans to replace a tree-lined park of more than 50,000 square metres with green roofs on a shopping centre (for example, San Siro in Milan). Greenwashing operations often characterise the private actions of real estate operators, in the absence of checks and controls by the public authorities. The public works sector has long been searching for a better balance of time, cost and quality of works. «A long journey, which has allowed for advances […] and regulatory innovations during the Nineties» (Schiaffonati, 2006) and which, after thirty years of conjunctural measures (suspensions, temporary derogations, emergency decrees, special procedures and competences, variations of thresholds, etc.1) has led to the new Procurement Code (legislative decree no. 36/2023). It features a text of more than 150,000 words, to which the regulatory and procedural innovations introduced by the PNRR must be added, with the related set of regulations, guidelines, explanatory circulars, protocols and technical instructions2. It is a seemingly unstoppable process of continuous correction and integration to reform the reform, in the absence of the indispensable monitoring activity that should, instead, verify and assess the effects of the application of the regulation to correctly finalise its amendment. Nevertheless, there has been no lack of significant precedents in this regard, as in the case of the French experimentation of the Spinetta Law on construction insurance systems3. If we apply to the standard the historical notion of “quality as fitness for intended use” (Juran, 1951), or to the more recent notion of «the set of properties and characteristics of a product or service that provide the capacity to satisfy expressed or implicit needs» (UNI EN ISO 8402:1995), it clearly appears that the challenge to be faced concerns not so much or only regulatory and administrative simplification, or the replacement of redundant, obsolete or unjustified regulations, but precisely the “quality of regulation”. A direction undertaken since 2001 by OECD and Apec countries with a Regulatory Reform (reference criteria to ensure quality and transparency in regulatory activity), in line with the obligation to formulate rules that are conceptually and semantically precise, clear and comprehensible in the terms used, in the objectives set, in the required behaviour (Constitutional Court, ruling no. 364 of 1988) and, above all, with contents derived from consensual and shared planning (Raveraira, 2009). Responsibility, consensus and collaboration are, I believe, the key words to possibly rethink the relationship between design and regulation. In fact, I agree with Marco Dugato’s observation in this Dossier when he argues that «the fault of normative hypertrophy cannot be attributed to the omnipotence of the regulator by itself, rather it is attributable to the contribution of the ones regulated». If it is true that architectural design is constrained by regulations, it certainly cannot be mechanically determined by them for mere reasons of conformity. Conversely, as Maria Chiara Torricelli emphasises again in the Dossier, the norm is a tool that provides valid and shared knowledge to the project; and the project itself, as a projective activity, contributes proactively to its definition. There are many examples spanning technical directives regulating the implementation cycles of the INA Casa, the result of design research in support of the political project, and the various procedural and meta design regulations derived from research in the Architectural Technology Field. Such design experiences have unfolded in an experimental manner, in derogation of the regulations and leading to their renewal. Instead, deductive design approaches seem to prevail today, due to the growing availability of algorithmic procedures that do not merely support the design process, but develop it in an almost automated manner through conditioning and prevailing indicators and parameters. These tools legitimise choices where conformity to the standard acts as a screen for the assumption of precise responsibilities. There is a conceptual and operational reversal with respect to creative, responsibly inductive design action, which experiments and innovates, putting the principles of adequate performance and compliance with needs over the criteria of formal conformity. This is evident in the relationship between technical regulations and techno-typological innovation for evolutions that move the parameters of regulatory congruity “forward”, but sometimes even “sideways”. This also counteracts the phenomena of norm obsolescence. In consideration of the pervasiveness of the regulatory systems that rule design action, it is, finally, disturbing to observe the very limited importance assigned to this subject in the education of new designers. The didactics of design, which have long been the focus of Architecture studies, rarely envisage a structured discussion on regulatory and normative aspects, leaving them to the discretion of professors. Hence, at the end of the course, a large proportion of students have never heard about the Code of Procurement, environmental impact assessment or minimum environmental criteria… Whereas it is, instead, essential to solicit, from the first year, critical attention to the normative paradigm, also for the ethical, social and professional responsibilities it entails, and to encourage the assumption of norms and constraints as factors that nourish the entire design process. The norm thus becomes a «tool for guiding and controlling design choices», which as such «must be assumed in the organisation of the starting data» (Del Nord, 1992). Not to mention the need for qualifying training programmes, as Mario Avagnina points out, so that all those involved in the process, particularly public clients, are able to carry out their tasks. The objective is far from being achieved, and «necessarily passes through the training of the figures involved, starting with the RUPs». Figures characterised not only by technical knowledge of the building process and its rules, but also by a culture of standards and conscious responsibility that can only derive from a design practice, which is continually verified in the real context, and by design actions based on an experimental method that aims to face the issues of society. Figures characterised not only by technical know-how of the building process and its rules, but also by a culture of standards and conscious responsibility, which can only derive from a practice continually verified by comparison with reality, and by design actions marked by an experimental method that finds its arguments in taking on the problems of society.

The Roma population has always been an integral part of the demographic diversity of Transcarpathia. However, representatives of this particular national community are traditionally the least involved in educational processes. Given the rights and opportunities for equal access to education for all citizens, regardless of their nationality, as well as the need to integrate the Roma population into civil society, the problem of involving Roma children in education, which depends on a number of conditions (social, economic, ideological, etc.), is relevant. The issue of "harming" Roma children in Transcarpathia at the state level began to be addressed in the early twentieth century, both through legal regulation and by establishing the first school for Roma children in Uzhhorod in 1926. Purpose: article is devoted to the study of the history of the formation and development of school education of Roma children in Transcarpathia. The methods are content analysis of historical, historical-pedagogical, archival and reference sources on the problem under study; problem-chronological method for studying trends in the development of school education of Roma children in Transcarpathia. Results. The article deals with the historical and pedagogical retrospective of the formation and development of school education of Roma children. For the first time, the question of the need for a settled lifestyle for Roma families arose during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Hungarian government issued a decree on the fulfillment of civic duty in the context of protecting the homeland on the eve of World War I and the necessity of registering Roma children, their socialization and prohibition of begging. Later, when the territory of Transcarpathia was part of the Czechoslovak Republic, the Czechoslovak government initiated the issue of involving Roma children of school age in school. In 1923, with the assistance of the Abstract of Schooling of Subcarpathian Rus in Uzhhorod, Roma children began studying in separate classes of the Uzhhorod Ukrainian School. And in 1926, twenty-two Roma children entered the first grade of the newly built Roma school, which is considered the first such educational institution in Eastern Europe. During the Soviet period, the Transcarpathian Roma maintained a secluded lifestyle, moving from one end of the country to the other in search of work, and Roma children were rarely involved in school education (mostly only in primary school). The beginning of the twenty-first century for the Transcarpathian Roma is characterized by the consolidation of actions by the regional authorities, NGOs and representatives of the Roma intelligentsia to solve the educational problems of Roma children and the gradual increase in their coverage of general secondary, vocational and higher education.

Discrimination against the Roma minority has been a subject of continuous debate. Despite the ‘conditionality’ to acquis communautaire on anti-discrimination, the role of the accession States remains questionable regarding implementation and compliance on the ground. This article critiques the lack of competence of institutions including the Court of Justice (ecj), and the Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in areas such as mainstream education and employment. The issue demands a more robust approach both from the concerned States and the European Union (eu). The imbalance between the protection of the economic freedoms and fundamental rights of the Roma need to be addressed in line with the influencing factors emerging from an empirical study conducted in Hungary.

Abstract Based on findings from the project ‘Socio-graphic mapping of the Roma Communities in Romania for a community-level monitoring of changes with regard to Roma integration’, the article analyses the role of school mediators in influencing school practices for the reduction of the inequalities Roma students face within the education system. This study investigates the school mediators’ perception of causes and solutions for the difficulties Roma students face within the education system, while keeping in mind the current legislation and the public discourse on Roma. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding, we also investigate school mediators’ perception towards their work, as well as the manner they evaluate collaboration with colleagues, Roma families and other local stakeholders. Our findings illustrate that the school mediator carries out a multitude of tasks sometimes only partly related to the field of school mediation. At the same time, school mediators engage in a type of public discourse with regard to Roma which highlights individual responsibility and merits as solutions in order to overcome disadvantage. With regard to work satisfaction, although school mediators are poorly trained and they deal with a difficult and high amount of work, they report being highly satisfied with some aspects of their work.

Increasing employment opportunities for segregated Roma might prevent major economic losses and improve their health. Involvement of the private sector in Roma employment, on top of intensified governmental actions, is likely to be a key to sustainable improvement, but evidence on this is scarce. Our aim was to determine the potential outcomes of such a partnership regarding increased employability and the resulting improved well-being and health. We therefore investigated a Roma employment project called Equality of Opportunity, run since 2002 by a private company, U.S. Steel Kosice, in eastern Slovakia. We conducted a multi-perspective qualitative study to obtain the perspectives of key stakeholders on the outcomes of this project. We found that they expected the employability of segregated Roma to increase in particular via improvements in their work ethic and working habits, education, skills acquisition, self-confidence, courage and social inclusion. They further expected as the main health effects of increased employability an improvement in Roma well-being and health via a stable income, better housing, crime reduction, improved hygienic standards, access to prevention and improved mental resilience. Social policies regarding segregated Roma could thus be best directed at increasing employment and at these topics in particular to increase their effects on Roma health.

Despite a series of judgements from the European Court of Human Rights and the enactment of the EU Racial Equality Directive, the educational segregation of Roma pupils persists in several European states. State action plans submitted pursuant to the European Framework for Roma Integration rarely provide clear targets and do not commit to inclusive schooling. Taking education as a principle indicator of social inclusion, this article identifies that structural inequality and entrenched discriminatory attitudes are the main obstacles to Roma inclusion. This can only be addressed through the diffusion of legal and social norms that mainstream equality. Focusing on the legal obligations, it is argued that the European Commission must be more decisive and effective in the enforcement of non-discrimination rules. A closer dialogue between the European Court of Human Rights and the EU institutions, grounded in a non-targeted social inclusion frame, could provide a platform for European consensus which may help to secure meaningful change.

Abstract The Roma community in Europe has experienced persistent marginalisation and disadvantage over many generations, with Roma regularly experiencing problems of access to healthcare, accommodation, education and employment within the European context. Ireland is a relatively new destination for Roma migration and, as yet, the experiences of Roma in Ireland are under-researched. However, problematic access to healthcare has emerged as an issue faced by the Roma community in Ireland. With reference to the work of the Tallaght Roma Integration Project (TRIP), this article aims to illuminate some of the challenges faced by Roma in this regard. The work of TRIP is informed by community development principles, including concepts of participation and social solidarity. This article explores how community development can offer a framework through which the Roma community can engage collaboratively with service providers in order to highlight need and mobilise change in service provision.

Összefoglaló. A befogadás (inklúzió) eredetileg a szegénypolitika (szociálpolitika) szakkifejezése volt. Onnan terjedt át a társadalompolitikába és a pedagógiába (gyógypedagógia). A Lisszaboni Egyezmény (2000) óta az Európai Unió hivatalos állásfoglalásaiban visszatérően szerepel mint törekvés a „társadalmi kohézió” erősítésére. A jogvédelem eredete visszanyúlik az 1960-as évtized amerikai polgárjogi mozgalmára. Két eset ismertetésével a szerzők bemutatják a kétféle mozgalom hasonlóságait és különbségeit; összekapcsolva őket a roma/cigány oktatáspolitika dilemmáival. A roma/cigány szegénység még mindig szükségessé teszi a befogadás politikáját. Ugyanakkor a szegénységből kiemelkedő roma/cigány középosztály köreiben erősödik a politizálás szándéka és a jogvédelem igénye. Summary. “Inclusion” has initially been a social policy term. Its use spread from there to policies of welfare, healthcare and education (special education). Inclusion has repeatedly mentioned since the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) in European Union resolutions as an effort to strengthen “social cohesion”. “Legal protection”, on the other hand, goes back to the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. By describing two Hungarian cases, the authors present the similarities and differences between the two policies; linking them to the dilemmas of Roma education policy. Inclusion as a social policy is still necessary because of existing Roma poverties. At the same time, the intention to politicize and the need for legal protection is growing among the new Roma middle class, which emerges out of poverty and steps into the political arena.

Aim. The main goal of the article is to generalise and describe the aspects revealed during the ethnographic research conducted in 2018 that are related to the gender of Roma girls, as representatives of ethnic group, which have influence on the process of education in the context of school community. Concept. During the ethnographic research conducted in one of the schools in Lithuania in 2018, the fragments of Romani customary law were revealed, which are directly related to the female gender and show how belonging to a certain gender can have impact on the process of education at school. The Roma students were observed in their daily learning and communication environment, i.e. at school. The ethnographic research helped to reveal the ways a Roma school student thinks (interview method) and behaves (observation method) in a basic school. The present research was based on anthropological methodology (Okely, 2002; Bhopal & Myers, 2008; Durst, 2010) and mainly focused on one case-study. Conclusion. The Roma girls in the research acknowledged that life of Roma men is easier and that a heavy burden is placed on the shoulders of girls, what often hinders their successful learning. The burden mentioned by the Roma girls is related to responsibilities in housework and family. She is accompanied by the pressure of community to start a family early: to get married and to give birth to children and, thus, to emphasise and confirm own belonging to this ethnic group and continuation of traditions. The situation is exacerbated by the stereotypes in society and the Roma community, which in most cases are ruthless towards Roma girls and women. Cognitive value. The patriarchate, as the basis of Romani culture, and the unwritten customary law accompanying it frequently become a source of ambiguity. The Roma people, as an ethic group, draw a very distinct boundary between the understanding of "we" and "they", i.e. "the Roma people" and "gadje". Being a non-Roma researcher, i.e. gadje, one faces a difficult challenge - not to make mistakes interpreting various aspects of Romani culture, especially such sensitive ones as gender, gender roles and inequality. However, it becomes easier evaluating indisputable facts: the Romani customary law has influence on the process of their children's education. Roma children (girls in particular) still abandon the system of education too early (from our, gadje, perspective). EU documents (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights [FRA], 2014) indicate that more Roma girls than boys indicate the fact of marriage or pregnancy to be the reason for early school leaving. The academic discourse, feminist anthropology allows for particularly critical evaluation of processes.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has shaken the institutional structures of many countries, including education systems. Authorities are calling for measures to limit the spread of the virus. Media and street notices remind people of the importance of 'washing hands regularly' and 'staying at home and avoiding contact with others'. The aim of this article is to analyse the learning and teaching experiences of Roma pupils in Poland. It presents research on the impact of COVID-19 on the education of Roma pupils on the example of a focus interview with 11 teachers of SP3 in Chorzów conducted in 2021. The content of the article will also include the author's four years of practical and substantive experience as a former Roma education assistant in Silesia in Primary School No. 15 in Chorzów and in Primary School No. 3 in Gliwice. In addition, the author has worked for five years with the Integration Community Centre in Chorzów, where the project "Roma of Tomorrow" was implemented.

This research attempts to analyze the phenomenon of early marriage in traditional Roma communities in Transylvania, Central Romania, and its impact on the education of Roma children. The methodology of this paper is a reflection of a field work conducted in the region of Transylvania, Romania and mainly the city of Târgu Mureş (Τírgu Mureş) the period February-July 2012, following several meetings and interviews with policy makers, representatives from local authorities, civil society, academics, political parties and representatives of traditional Roma communities and local schools. The organization that hosted me and facilitated me in my fieldwork is the NGO Liga Proeuropa and its President Smaranda Enache and her team. This work is a result of my personal interaction with some of the local communities in the region (Tírgu Mureş, Sighişoara, Alba Iulia, Brasov, Sibiu) as well as the capital Bucharest which I had the opportunity to visit at that period of time. The project was funded by a small European grant (Leonardo da Vinci). The town of Tirgu Mureş is where I was based, since the largest number of traditional Gabor Roma who still apply early marriages can be found there.