The Construction of Romani Children as Disabled and Racialized in Slovak Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Revealing and Reinterpreting Social Inequalities in Schools

Abstract

Romani students in the Slovak Republic are overwhelmingly placed in segregated school settings for students labeled as mentally retarded. This study focuses on the systemic and interpersonal contexts and practices of institutional racism, discrimination, and prejudice that determine who is seen as worthy of being educated and who is denied meaningful education. In this paper I examine the ways that majority Slovak teachers construct Romani students as a disabled and racialized class through the meanings that Slovak teachers ascribe to the concepts of race, ethnicity, and intelligence. Their assumptions undergird their attitudes toward students from Romani communities and the relationships to classroom practices and access to equal educational opportunity.

Author

• Julia M. White, University of Rochester