From Policy to Practice: Roma Education in Albania and Sweden

Abstract

This paper aims to make a contribution to recentering practice-and practitioner-oriented issues in Roma education studies. Gaps can be observed today between conditions of educational work in practice and the ways education is understood in mainstream academic discussions, compounded by the fact that educational workers in the field have limited access to academic environments. Also, as a subject dealing with minorities, education for Roma and Roma communities tends to occupy a marginal position in academic departments of Education. Inversely, in Roma studies, focus often lies on culture or history, and education is mainly considered through the lens of identity. This means that many important experiences in Roma educational work remain silent, and significant aspects of practices are not sufficiently shared across contexts. In this paper, experiences from education projects in Albania and Sweden are presented and considered against the background of Roma education policies in these countries generally. An analysis is made of the ways these projects directly or indirectly connect to local academic structures. Finally, suggestions are made of potential strategies for developing practice-and practitioner-driven research in this area, to make relevant experiences more accessible across linguistic and national borders.

Educational Challenges of Roma Minorities: The Case of the Republic of North Macedonia

“…This means empowering the disempowered and commitment of all of us to improve literacy levels of individuals from marginalized groups. But unfortunately, many important experiences in Roma educational work remain silent, and significant aspects of practices are not sufficiently shared across contexts (Avery and Hoxhallari, 2017).…”

“Reflexivity of reflexivity” with Roma-related Nordic educational research

“…Reality is subjective and constructed based on many truths that form a system of socio-political power, while discourse is controlled by rhetorical and political purposes (Lather, 2006). Knowledge is produced to change the world by building alternative power systems or alternative modernities through, as my data shows, praxis-oriented critical ethnography (Ravnbøl, 2017;Tervonen & Enache, 2017) and critical discourse analysis (Al Fakir, 2019;Alexiadou & Norberg, 2017;Avery & Hoxhallari, 2017;Keskinen, 2019;Montesino, 2001;Montesino & Al Fakir, 2015;Olesen & Eklund Karlsson, 2018), among others.…”

Albanian National Action Plan for Roma Inclusion 2016–2020: A Study on the Program Achievements at the Halfway Mark

“…However, as argued by Daniel Hyseni, Youth Coordinator at RAA; Roma families have acknowledged the importance of education, and the current tendency is to move away from separate schools for Roma, as segregated schools have led to a widening education gap and higher dropout rate (D. Hyseni, personal communication, August 30, 2020). Nevertheless, this tendency was contrasted by the unwillingness to enroll Roma students in schools in Korca, Morava, Berat, and two schools in Elbasan (Avery & Hoxhallari, 2017), while the anti-discrimination law implemented back in 2010 was never fully effective, with most citizens unaware of its existence (D. Hyseni, personal communication, August 30, 2020).…”

“…Together with in-school programs, school support at home has been promoted as well; in Drizë village in Fier district, the project "Parents and children learning together" has promoted around 300 families to bring parents and children to attend school together, as the majority of adult Roma population in Drizë village are illiterate. Other example comes from Allias-Kinostudio near Tirana, where extracurricular support to Roma pupils resulted in 53 children from an expected 60 enrolling in public primary schools and all of them advancing to the next grade (Avery & Hoxhallari, 2017). Roma programs have also drawn attention from civil society, with the 2019 Balkan Barometer showing that 86% of Albanians favor public help for Roma when applying for a secondary school or university (Balkan Barometer, 2019).…”