Roma Involvement in Transforming Their Schools and Their Communities: A Transformative Case Study in Europe

• In Event: Empowering the Romà Through Dialogic Research: Contributions From Paulo Freire, Ramón Flecha, and Jesus Gómez’s Friendship to Social Inclusion

Abstract

1. Objectives
This paper focuses on the participation of Roma adult people in classrooms and other school spaces transforming their lives but also the neighbourhood and the lives of the children in the community. Recurrently, cultural minorities, low literate and working-class people have been excluded of management and decision making positions of the learning organizations they attend.

2. Theoretical framework

Dialogic management comes from an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, including Freire’s (1997) dialogic action, Habermas’ (1984) theory of communicative action, Flecha’s (2000) dialogic learning, Welton’s (1993) and Holford’s (1996) learning in social movements and, Conway’s (1984) participation in decision-making. All of them recognize the significance of learners’ participation and the possibility of change in society, taking into account that human beings can be transformative and capable of acting to reverse inequalities (Freire, 1970; Giroux, 1983; Habermas, 1984). It is central the idea of dialogue as a tool that enhance critical thinking for transformation (Flecha, 2000; Freire, 1970; Vygotsky, 1978), as well as the theory of transformative action in dialogue with the oppressed (Freire, 1992). Cultural background can be, however, used to transform educational contexts, empowering the most excluded and oppressed (Freire, 1970). The involvement of community members in schools leads to better coordination with the home context, leading to positive impact on Roma students’ school success (Gómez & Vargas, 2003).

3. Methods and data sources

This paper is based on one longitudinal case study in La Paz elementary school conducted between 2007 and 2010. Four rounds of data collection were conducted through communicative approach (Gómez, Flecha and Puigvert, 2011) mixed methods research: quantitative and qualitative data in the school and in the neighbourhood.

4. Results

The idea of connecting scientificity and utopia was stated by Freire (1997) on education, “education needs both of technical, scientific and professional education as well as of dreams and utopia” (p.34). Throughout their several meetings Jesús Gómez (Pato), Paulo Freire and Ramón Flecha spoke continuously about social inequalities of humanity and how to overcome them, and regarding education on how to transform it. The joint reflection with Roma people in the studied neighbourhood contributed to identify Successful Educational Actions (SEA) that avoid school segregation of Roma and increases school success. One particular successful action implemented in La Paz school was a decisive family and community participation in the ways as follows: participation in decision-making and evaluation processes, in children’s learning activities, and adult learning programs took advantage of families’ cultural intelligence as a resource to improve children’s engagement in school.

5. Significance

The dialogue with the Roma is crucial to make possible the definition of educational actions that contribute to the overcoming of inequalities (García, Melgar & Sordé, 2013). Successful actions are significant “Freire loved that Ramón and Jesús explained him the experience of the School for Adults of la Verneda, and he used this basis to define the movement of adult education learners in Sao Paolo in which he later was Secretary of Education” (Giner 2011, p.83).

Authors

• Rocio Garcia-Carrion, University of Deusto

• Javier Diez-Palomar, Universitat de Barcelona

• Joan Cabre Olive, Rovira i Virgili University.CIF: Q-9350003-A