Romani Mediators in Higher Education
– experiences and challenges from a Swedish mediator course
Christina Rodell Olgaç
Kulttuuri ja kieli ohjauksessa,
Järvenpää 2014-11-18
10-04-14
Sid 1
500 years of Romani diversity in Sweden
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The first written document concerning Roma in Sweden is from
1512.
Many different groups have arrived during different historical
periods (Kaale, Travellers, Kelderash, Lovara, Arlie etc.).
Approximately 50 – 100 000 Roma living in Sweden.
More than 20 varieties of Romani are spoken in the country.
Many different religious beliefs represented among Roma i.e
Catholics, Muslims, Lutherans, Pentecostals etc.
In year 2000 Roma, Samis, Tornedalers, Swedish Finns and
Jews were recognized as national minorities.
Sid 2
The Strategy for Roma Inclusion
2012-2032
The overall goal of the 20-year strategy is that a
Roma person who turns 20 years of age in 2032 is to
have the same opportunities in life as a non-Roma.
Five pilot municipalities will conduct development work
between 2012 and 2015 in cooperation with relevant public
authorities and Roma. The idea is to develop good
examples of working methods that can be disseminated
across the country.
State measures in the pilot project include training of
bridge builders, testing the use of health communicators,
and increased knowledge of the extent to which support is
given to Roma children in school.
(www.government.se)
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Sid 3
The school situation of Roma
in five pilot municipalities – some results
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More Romani children attend pre-school, primary and secondary
school are the main focus, attending upper secondary school is
still not so common.
The prevalence of low attendance among the children is
emphasized in the interviews.
Over–usage of placing Romani children in care seems to be
frequent, and some of the parents seem to send their children to
school out of fear of losing their children to the social welfare
service.
Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and secondary
traumatisation among parents and children, especially from
former Yugoslavia, are still prevalent and little support is given.
Limited knowledge about the historical and contemporary
situation of Roma among teachers and school staff.
Many of the young drop-out adults are now much involved in the
education of their own children.
The parents wish to have a better home-school communication (Rodell Olgaç & Dimiter-Taikon, 2013).
Sid 4
Theoretical perspectives
Minority parents often face teachers in possession of the kind of
symbolic capital, that is valued by the schools, thus favouring the
knowledge and experience of the dominant social groups (Bourdieu,
1991; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Lareau, 2003, Bouakaz, 2007).
”Schooling has become a crucial challenge, because illiteracy no
longer serves to protect people or make them independent. Their
changed circumstances, particularly their social and working lives,
demand that Roma and Travellers adapt actively and rapidly – in
order to go on living as Roma and Travellers – and that they adapt
by using the tools provided by schooling (Liégeois, 2007: 175).
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Sid 5
The mediator course
The mediators are employed full time, mainly in schools, in their pilot
municipalities during two years. Fifty percent of the time is devoted
to the studies in the mediator course. Some of them have already
been permanently employed.
30 credits divided into four independent courses of 7.5 credits:
• Intercultural Perspectives on the History and Contemporary
Situation of Roma and Travellers, 7.5 credits, spring 2013
• Intercultural Approach in Pre-school and Primary and Secondary
School and the Mediator's Role regarding Roma, 7.5 credits,
autumn 2013.
• Children’s Language Socialisation and Learning from a Minorities
Perspective, 7.5 credits, spring 2014
• Literacy and Learning from a Minority Perspective, 7.5 credits,
autumn 2014
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Sid 6
General course content
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Current research concerning the history and contemporary
situation of Roma and Travellers, as well as for the four other
national minorities (Sami, Tornedalers, Swedish Finns, Jews) in a
school perspective.
Communication and co-operation between home and school.
The history of the Swedish school system, the current school
system, an orientation concerning current curricula, syllabuses,
grading system, and other central concepts and routines.
Children’s language socialization and learning in a minority
perspective, formal and informal learning, and the encounter
between oral and literate traditions.
The value system at school, Human Rights and how to challenge
racism, discrimination and antiziganism in preschool and at
school.
An intercultural approach and intercultural communication at
school.
Training of study habits, generic competencies as
co-operation capacities, literacy development and ICT.
Sid 7
The organisation of the course
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2,5 days per month at the campus of Södertörn University with
regular university as sessions, lectures etc.
In between the campus stays - study of literature, preparation of
assignments, group discussions, preparation of power point
presentations etc.
During 2013 one visit during 2,5 days to each pilot municipality
with locally organized programme.
Participants
• 16 Participants, 6 women and 10 men, from the Arlie, Kaale,
Kelderash and Lovara groups with mixed educational
backgrounds.
Teachers
• one Romani, Angelina Dimiter-Taikon, and one
non-Romani teacher, Christina Rodell Olgaç,
working in tandem.
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Sid 8
Questions
- some examples from the mediators
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What issues do the mediators describe from their daily
work as mediators in their municipalities?
How do they describe their role as mediator?
Do the mediators express any consequences for
themselves in participating in the mediator course?
Sid 9
Example 1
“Here [in this municipality] we are four persons working in schools
as mediators. But we are all working in completely different ways
and in four different schools.
Mediator 1 works more deeply with the children through music (…).
Mediator 2 works more with individual pupils in the school. (…)
Mediator 3 has chosen another path. He is there before school
starts and is checking the presence of the children. Then he
brings some of the children to another classroom, where he has
lessons, homework support etc.
Mediator 4. I work in a different way from the other three. As you
already know, I work in a school where they had Romani staff
before. And it has not been easy. All the time, the school/the staff
expects me to follow my predecessors ways. But I have not done
this, instead I have tried to find my own ways and methods to
reach out to the Romani children” (Male, second term).
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Sid 10
Example 2
”In connection with the teaching process, leisure time
activities, and working with families I am:
• working directly with the teachers and pupils;
• communicating with children in their mother language;
• providing specific cultural input;
• supervising children during breaks;
• attending teachers meetings;
• using children’s natural openness to stimulate mutual
understanding and appreciation of other cultures;
• coordinating extra activities – school orchestra;
• taking part in cultural happenings;
• promoting positive social interaction;
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Sid 11
• providing guidance and support for all these activities, and
representing Romani culture;
• organizing meetings and working with parents, to get them
involved closely in the school process;
• promoting tolerance and the overcoming of prejudice, as
well as contacts between Romani and non-Romani parents
and children;
• mediating the special situations, that can appear in
educational or family environment with calm, patience and
tolerance;
• work in team with school director, school staff and
community representatives and facilitate communication
between them” (Male, second term).
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Sid 12
Example 3
”I visit different pre-schools and schools where I hold lectures
to the pupils and the staff about Romani history and culture,
and tell them how it is to live [as a Romni] in today’s Sweden”
(Female, first term).
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Sid 13
Example 4
”Romani mediators shall be a resource, a help to guarantee
thorough understanding and support to those in need. The
mediator is not and shall not be the solution of all problems in
society, as it is impossible that such a big and wide question
[the Romani issue] should only be promoted by the mediators’
resources. You have to be carful concerning this” (Female,
second term).
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Sid 14
Example 5
”The mediators shall not help the Roma to adapt to the
mainstream society, the mediator shall help to adapt the
mainstream society in such way that the Roma also have a
place in it” (Male, second term).
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Sid 15
Preliminary results
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The Romani mediators play an important role for pupils, parents
and staff and have in a very short time increased school
attendance substantially.
Disseminating more knowledge about the history and
contemporary situation of Roma among teachers and school staff
by the mediators result in more negotiations about different and
flexible solutions concerning the school situation of the children.
The mediators contribute to more dialogue and co-operation
between parents and all the staff at school.
The mediators contribute to organise extra activites for Romani
children inside and outside the schools.
They bridge between Romani children and other children.
They contribute to a more intercultural approach at school in
relation to the pupils and their families.
The Romani mediators are seen as the solution of all problems of
the Romani children at school, also structural problems,
and their workloads are often very heavy.
Sid 16
The indication is that the mediator course
provides
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increased knowledge about the history and contemporary
situation of Roma and Travellers, and of the four other
recognized national minorities in a school perspective.
increased knowledge about the history of and the current school
system, curricula, systems of assessment and other central
concepts and routines at school as well as special education.
increased knowledge and awareness about variations in
children’s language socialization and learning in a minority
perspective, formal and informal learning, and the encounter
between oral and literacy traditions.
improved generic competencies.
an intercultural approach to different issues related to the school
situation of Romani children.
theoretical explanations and analytical tools of the mediatiors’
previous practical experiences and knowledge,
and thus a strengthened role as a mediators.
Sid 17
However, some of the mediators express that they cannot
discuss the mediator course with their family and kin
anymore, “because they will not understand what I am talking
about” (Male, third term),
The accumulation of symbolic capital, in this case higher
education, and the social mobility that this may give, may
have consequences for the mediators participating in the
course, i.e. an increasing distance to other Roma in their own
community.
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Sid 18
Selected references
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Kultur och kritik. Göteborg: Daidalos.
Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J.-C. (1990). Reproduction in Education, Society
and Culture. London: Sage Publications.
Bouakaz, L. (2007). Parental Involvement in School: What hinders and what
promotes parental involvement in an urban school. Diss. University of Lund.
Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life.
Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Liégeois, J.-P. (2007). Roma in Europe. Strasbourg: Council of Europe
Publishing.
Rodell Olgaç, C. (2013). Education of Roma in Sweden: an interplay between
policy and practice. In S. Hornberg & C. Brüggemann (Hrsg.), Die
Bildungssituation von Roma in Europa. Münster: Waxmann.
Rodell Olgaç, Christina & Dimiter Taikon, Angelina 2013. ”Mamma, ska jag
säga att jag är rom?” En kartläggning av romska barns och elevers
skolsituation i fem pilotkommuner för Skolverket. Bilaga i Skolverkets
Delredovisning av regeringsuppdrag inom regeringens strategi för romsk
inkludering till Länsstyrelsen, Dn A2012/1387/DISK.
SOU 2010:55. Romers rätt: en strategi för romer i Sverige. Betänkande av
Delegationen för romska frågor.
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Sid 19