Bringing Successful Educational Actions in Dialogue With the Romà to All

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

Abstract

1.
This paper presents the main elements of Rom UP! Project: The inclusion of Roma through quality successful educational experiences, funded by the EACEA (EU). This research project has lead to the identification and dissemination of those successful educational actions (hereinafter SEAs) that lead to educational inclusion of Roma community in Europe.

2.
The educational exclusion of Roma community is a first-order problem present throughout different European countries. The situation of disadvantage and social and educational inequality that has historically hit Roma explain the high levels of dropout and school failure affecting this community (Gómez and Vargas, 2004; European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2012).

Following the impact of former research projects developed under the umbrella of the Framework Programme, such as Workaló (5FP) or INCLUD-ED (6FP); ROMUP is rooted in the idea of SEAs, that is, those actions based on scientific evidence that lead to obtaining the better results in every context (INCLUD-ED, 2006-2011). One of the main characteristics of SEAs is the relevant role played by end-users in the discussion with researchers and other professionals, in order to ensure that the real needs of the community are being taken into account. As expressed by Freire (2001) a true dialogue is only possible when all subjects learn together by confronting their differences. Only through this dialogic approach research on Roma community will contribute to overcoming discrimination and promoting more egalitarian societies (Flecha; in Touraine, Wieviorka & Flecha, 2004).

3 & 4.
The project has been developed under Communicative Methodology (Gómez, Puigvert & Flecha, 2011), which implies the participation of all subjects through an egalitarian dialogue. To ensure that Roma people’s voice was present during the whole project, a Quality Evaluation Group (QEG) was created, including Roma and non-Roma people with different profiles, Civil Society Organizations participants, teachers and researchers and administrators.
For the identification of SEAs, 22 experiences in the field of Roma integration were submitted and evaluated by the Consortium, in order to determine whether they accomplish the following criteria: a) To be developed in disadvantaged communities; b) To have relevant quantitative evidence of the improvement of the Roma educational situation; c) To have relevant qualitative evidence about how it reached the improvement; d) To have been developed with a strong community participation and empowerment; e) Transferability to other contexts; f) Inclusive experiences that overcome any kind of segregation.

5.
The project has identified those successful actions that are really effective for improving the educational opportunities of Roma and has provided useful guidelines in order to transfer this SEAs to various European countries.
Furthermore, the establishment of an International Romani Network formed by stakeholders from different countries ensures continuity and updating of all the work done after the life of the project.

6.
Project results exemplify how through truly transformative and egalitarian dialogue among grassroots associations, research community and administrators it is possible to contribute to a real improvement of educational opportunities for Roma children

Authors

• Sandra Girbes, Universitat de Barcelona

• Maria Padrós Cuxart, Universitat de Barcelona

• Pilar Alvarez, Universitat de Barcelona