Successful Participation of Roma in Family Education: Findings From the EduRom Project

• In Event: Beyond Traditional Family Engagement: Building Educational Communities to Foster Students' Academic Success and Social Cohesion

Abstract

1) This paper is based on the results provided by the European project EduRom, focused on identifying successful ways to involve a systematically excluded population in Europe from education, the Roma people. Specifically, this paper shows how family education is contributing both to build a learning community where the Roma people participate actively, and obtain significant benefits for Roma families in terms of educational opportunities and personal self-esteem.

2) The situation of exclusion suffered by the Roma in Europe has been already pointed out by the most relevant scholars and institutions in the field (EU-FRA, 2014; Myers & Bhopal, 2009; Sordé, Flecha & Mircea, 2013). In fact, more than 70% of Roma adults in Europe have not finished primary education (EUMC, 2006). This exclusion is also observed regarding participation of Roma families in the schools (Vargas & Gómez, 2003). Actually, international organizations working for the Roma inclusion recommend “Roma active participation within education,” to increase their chances for success (European Commission, 2011; UNDP, 2015). In this sense, family education becomes a particular strategy to improve Roma people’s levels of education in Europe (Flecha & Soler, 2013).

3) This research uses the Communicative Methodology (Puigvert, Christou & Holford, 2012), recommended by the EU for its potential impact on overcoming inequalities affecting Roma (European Union, 2010). This methodology takes into account Romani voices which are traditionally excluded by the researchers who act as public scholars, doing research for the Roma and with the Roma (Flecha, 2014).

4) A case study is presented on a Primary School situated in one of the poorest Roma neighborhood of Spain, where 68% of students are Roma and most families have not finished elementary school. We present quantitative and qualitative data regarding the successful participation of Roma families and the benefits obtained. For this paper, apart from regular meetings, training courses and assemblies, 8 communicative focus groups and 8 in-depth interviews have been conducted with professionals and family members.

5) Data analysis carried out suggests that family education is providing a positive impact on the following aspects:
(1) Reaching an active participation of Roma families that had never participated before (30% of them are engaged in family educational programs);
(2) Improving their educational level and skills through their participation in programs to obtain the Basic Skills Certificate and the Secondary School Certificate;
(3) Increasing their self-esteem. I.e. now they feel proud to be able to help their children at home (“That makes me feel so proud (…), you feel as a better person, because you know that you are helping yourself and also your children”, Roma mother)

6) The results of the study reported in this paper suggest that creating real opportunities for Roma families to engage in family education programs is an action that impacts positively in terms of Roma’ inclusion. Findings indicate that increasing engagement among Roma families in education raises their self-esteem, improves their skills and creates new opportunities for them to engage in their children’s learning.

Authors

• Carme Garcia Yeste, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

• Pilar Alvarez, Loyola University Andalucía

• Fernando Macias, Universitat de Barcelona