European Education Sweden's Double Decade for Roma Inclusion: An Examination of Education Policy in Context (original) (raw)
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Sweden's double decade for Roma inclusion: An examination of education policy in context
This article analyses the Swedish Strategy for Roma Inclusion. Drawing on interviews and documentary materials produced around the Strategy by official sources and Roma organisations, we describe its background, rationale and evolution, but also the rifts it has revealed around the issues of minority representation and the framing of inclusion. We describe the Strategy as a framework for education policy, aligned with the European Framework for Roma integration, and discuss it in relation to issues of representation, inclusion, and policy formation. We argue that, at the discursive level, the Strategy has engaged positively with the politics of Roma inclusion and has introduced a number of new issues in the public debate. However, at the same time it has given rise to policy tensions that reflect inadequate representation of and discussions with Roma stakeholders. For policy makers this has presented opportunities to rethink the design of the Strategy and to opt for an open final text that allows for a more versatile and flexible set of policy options to emerge at local level.
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2018
The article examines policies intended to promote the basic education of Roma and Traveller minorities in Finland, Sweden and Norway by analysing key national Roma and Traveller policy (N=5) and education policy documents (N=3). Analysis shows how the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian Roma policies translate the general policy aims of improving the social positioning of people identifying as Roma consistently into policy measures responding to the special needs of Roma pupils. These policy measures are validated by problem representations regarding Roma parents and families. All the policies also problematise the relationship between Roma and Traveller cultures and schools. It is argued that the focuses of the current policy measures constrain opportunities for a change in terms of equality.
Roma, Education, and Higher Education Policies: The international context and the case of Sweden
2015
This report is the outcome of a Marie Curie Actions Research and Innovation Staff Exchange project, (Grant agreement no 643739). The project (title: Higher Education Internationalisation and Mobility, HEIM) investigates policies, interventions and methodologies for the internationalisation of higher education in different national locations. HEIM focuses on the Roma community in Europe as a critical example of a marginalised group, at both staff and student levels, to consider how principles of equity and inclusion can be applied to higher education internationalisation strategies and programmes. HEIM is a collaboration between three universities (Seville, Sussex, and Umeå) and the Roma Education Fund (REF), in Hungary. The project comprises a number of different work packages, delivered over 3-years, from January 2015 to December 2017, including secondments, staff exchange and collaborative inquiry. The specific work package informing this Report on Supporting Roma Students in HE involved researchers from Seville, Sussex, and Umeå being seconded to the REF head-offices in Budapest, Hungary in March 2015. The current report provides a review of the international policy context relevant to issues of education access for Roma young people. We present and evaluate selected policy frameworks that regulate the access of Roma children and young people to high quality education, and policy solutions that have been offered in response to existing inequalities. Our report draws on documentary and academic analysis of relevant policy documents, reports and articles, produced by international organisations, civil society, and national agencies. Our selection of such documents is informed by their focus on the definitions of Roma rights, Roma education, and HE access. In particular, we examine: 1. The regulatory frameworks provided by the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and Civil Society, as far as these pertain to education rights. We discuss issues of implementation and the implications of actions taken to redress national practices of discrimination against Roma students. 2. We focus on the European Union framework, and we review education and higher education policy. We provide a critical account of the capacity of the EU to implement successfully the National Roma Inclusion Strategies (NRIS) in the sphere of education. We discuss such capacity from the perspective of policy analysis of the ET2020 framework, and the nature of the ‘soft law’ instruments employed to effect change. 3. Finally, we focus on one national case: Sweden. We provide an account of the Swedish strategies on Roma education, and highlight areas for policy action and (possibly) policy learning.
Ensuring the Right to Education for Roma Children: an Anglo-Swedish Perspective
International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
authors express their gratitude to the journal's anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. NOTES 1 For the purposes of this article, we use the Council of Europe's definition of Roma: 'The term "Roma" used at the Council of Europe refers to Roma, Sinti, Kale and related groups in Europe, including Travellers and Eastern groups (Dom and Lom), and covers the wide diversity of groups concerned, including persons who identify themselves as "Gypsies"': Council of Europe (2012), n.7. However, we refer to these groups individually in places in the article, particularly when referring to the UK (on which, see n.96 below).
The Prolonged Inclusion of Roma Groups in Swedish Society
Inclusion policies focusing on Roma groups started in Sweden during the 1950s, when the Swedish government recognized the formal citizen status of the so called “Swedish Gypsies”, a group consisting of approximately 740 people. As the Roma were perceived as people living outside the boundaries of normal society, the challenge facing the Swedish authorities was how to outline and organize the new policies. In our analyses we focus on the taken-for-granted premises of these policies. We discuss the “entry process” of these Roma into Swedish society. People-processing organizations classified Roma as “socially disabled” in different administrative contexts. In the early 1960s adult male Roma were classified as socially disabled on the labor market. Later during the same decade, experts and professionals increasingly focused attention on the Roma family as a problematic institution. In this context, Roma adults were classified as disabled in relation to the normative representations of parental capacities during that time, while Roma children of school age were defined as children with difficulties and put in special groups for children with problems. The related interventions were justified by a discourse on social inclusion, but in reality produced a web of measures, practices and yet further interventions, which in the long run have contributed to perpetuate the social marginality of Roma groups.
“What is the problem represented to be?” Two decades of research on Roma and education in Europe
Educational Research Review, 2018
This review article offers an analysis of research on Roma and education. A total of 151 peerreviewed research articles were sampled through systematic searches in four databases, covering the period 1997-2016. Inspired by critical approaches in policy analysis, we draw on the concept of problem representations to identify dominant discourses in the research material. The analysis identifies nine problem representations; absence from school, academic achievement, socioeconomic issues, cultural differences, invisibility, teachers' competencies, hostility, segregation and misguided policy and action. The content of these problem representations suggest that Roma is often framed as either victims or problems in educational research, and that cultural differences are much more dominant as a problem representation in the field than structural aspects such as socioeconomic issues. This critical review can contribute to raise awareness regarding how we frame research questions in the field of Roma and education.
Framing education policies and transitions of Roma students in Europe
Comparative Education
The aim of this article is to identify the contexts and conditions that allow for successful education transitions and opportunities for the Roma minority in Europe. Thus far, transnational and national policies have failed to ensure Roma inclusion and education equality, even though some progress is visible. Using a combination of policy analysis and interviews with NGO and European Union actors, University academics and Roma students, the article examines the key contexts that frame education policies and create the necessary conditions for education transitions. It identifies the problems and challenges within the contemporary EU education policy frameworks and highlights the tensions between political rhetoric and policy commitments that are visible at national, transnational, and local levels. In addition, through a focus on individual student experiences, the article captures the lived reality of Roma students who have managed their education transitions with success.
2017
The year 2015 concluded the Decade of Roma Inclusion-an unprecedented international cooperation among governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs aimed at eliminating discrimination against the Roma. At the end of this decade, two crucial questions arise: First, how can we evaluate the best practices and current challenges of integrating Roma at all levels of education, in both Europe and North America? Second, how can we measure the effectiveness of the European Union's (EU) Roma Framework, the initiative intended to combat social exclusion among this minority group? Examining the EU initiatives aiming at Roma inclusion as an issue common to most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries presents possibilities for conversation across the continents. Similar challenges face the education systems in the EU, USA, and Canada in terms of meaningful inclusion of children from minority ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds at all education levels. Thus far, Roma students in North America have not been identified as a group requiring special attention or accommodation. There are about one million Roma in North America and their number is slowly growing (Hancock, 2013); however, with the exception of concentrated efforts aimed at the anticipated influx of Roma from the Czech Republic and Hungary, the Roma who have come to Canada from other countries remain unrecognized and invisible. The Roma Experience program, created by the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Roma Community Centre in 2000, is an example of how Roma and non-Roma students can learn to tackle racism and prejudice, and understand what many Roma and other children of non-mainstream cultures endure. However, despite all of the efforts made by the education authorities in Ontario, Steven Harper's Conservative federal government introduced a refugee law that discriminated against Roma in Canada, and they were deported to the Eastern and Central European countries from where they had fled. The possibility of collaboration among scholars in the EU, USA, and Canada on the inclusion of Roma populations is demonstrated in this special issue. A large number of EU-wide initiatives under the umbrella of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Declaration (2005-15) were focused on education, including the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) (European Commission, 2012). Along with indicators like employment, healthcare, and poverty reduction, quality education is a fundamental measure of social inclusion. However, as Ryder in this issue argues, not only did educational measures fail to provide a "silver bullet" to facilitate the inclusion of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller (RGT)
Narratives of Social Inclusion in the Context of Roma School Segregation
Social Inclusion, 2015
Despite a series of judgements from the European Court of Human Rights and the enactment of the EU Racial Equality Directive, the educational segregation of Roma pupils persists in several European states. State action plans submitted pursuant to the European Framework for Roma Integration rarely provide clear targets and do not commit to inclusive schooling. Taking education as a principle indicator of social inclusion, this article identifies that structural inequality and entrenched discriminatory attitudes are the main obstacles to Roma inclusion. This can only be addressed through the diffusion of legal and social norms that mainstream equality. Focusing on the legal obligations, it is argued that the European Commission must be more decisive and effective in the enforcement of non-discrimination rules. A closer dialogue between the European Court of Human Rights and the EU institutions, grounded in a non-targeted social inclusion frame, could provide a platform for European co...