Hristo Kyuchukov

Transformative education for Roma (Gypsy) children: An insider's view

In this article I take a close look at the educational situation of Roma children and especially at the impediments that exist regarding their full participation in the educational process. At the present time the bilingualism of Roma children is either ignored or seen as a handicap. There is little appreciation in mainstream education of Roma culture or the Romani language. The challenge for educators everywhere is to adapt ones teaching methods and the curriculum in such a way that school becomes more interesting for Roma children, and also that majority students and teachers become more familiar with Roma culture and history. We suggest several ways to accomplish this.

Roma girls: between traditional values and educational aspirations

The paper presents findings from a survey of 720 respondents: 240 Roma parents, 240 Roma boys and 240 Roma girls between 12 and 25 years of age. The subjects were from various regions of Bulgaria and were members of different ethnic groups. The main goal of the survey was to study the current attitudes that Roma communities hold regarding an existing Roma tradition – the practice of keeping a girl out of school in order to preserve her virginity. The respondents gave varied responses; however, the majority of the parents surveyed declared that they would allow their daughters to go to school despite the Roma tradition of keeping them at home to preserve their ‘cleanness’ (i.e. virginity).

Theory of Mind and evidentiality in Romani-Bulgarian bilingual children

Theory of Mind and evidentiality in Romani-Bulgarian bilingual children The paper reports two studies of the development of false belief reasoning in bilingual Roma children in Bulgaria. No previous work has considered Roma children. Two studies were conducted, and in the second study the Roma children spoke a dialect of Romani that contains evidential markers, as does Bulgarian, their second language. Results reveal no advantage of bilingualism, and similar results with age to that found in other groups across the world. The bilingual group had better understanding of evidentials than the monolingual Bulgarian group, possibly related to the linguistic character of the markings. There is contradictory evidence about the relation of ToM and understanding of evidentiality.

Good practices in Roma education in Bulgaria during the years of transition 1

The aim of this paper is to present good educational practices from Bulgaria that relate to Roma education. In the so‐called Years of Transition, educational conditions changed considerably. Non‐governmental organizations have attempted to promote high‐quality education for Roma children. The Bulgarian Ministry of Education has made various changes in legislation which now allow Roma children to receive mother tongue education as well as intercultural education with a focus on Romani language, culture and history. This paper provides a short overview of projects that have been implemented in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, as well as adult literacy and education since the time of transition.

Roma mediators in Europe: a new Council of Europe programme

In several European countries the number of the Roma represents approximately 10% of the total population. Due to the global economic crisis, the rise of the far right in places like Hungary, and failed policies of the past, their present social and economic situation continues to become more vulnerable. In attempts to address the precarious situation of many Roma communities, various European institutions have adopted measures and attempted to assist national and local governments, as well as Roma communities themselves. The Council of Europe is one of those institutions. Following the ‘Romani language education’ project which took place between 2005 and 2009, the Council of Europe has now come up with a new idea focusing on the training of Roma mediators. Individuals with a Roma background, from local Roma communities or with a good knowledge of Roma issues, are trained and hired to act as mediators between the Roma and public institutions. Mediation is one of the measures used across Europe to tackle the inequalities that Roma face in terms of access to employment, healthcare services and quality education. The Council of Europe has experience in training mediators. In 2006, the Council of Europe published a Guide for Roma School Mediators/Assistants (written by C. Rus and M. Zatreanu) that presents an innovative philosophy of mediation. Many differences exist between countries relating to issues such as the situation and needs of the Roma communities, the terminology used and the extent to which mediators are professionally employed and trained with varying job profiles. Another new challenge is raised by Roma migrating to other countries. The so-called ROMED programme started in 2011 in 15 countries and is presently (2012) being implemented in 20 countries. The programme manager is Aurora Ailincai, Administrator within the Support Team of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues. Mediators are people with a Roma background who speak the language of the Roma community they are working with, if needed. Mediation has often led to significant improvements, but its effectiveness is frequently challenged by issues such as the low status of mediators and precarious employment conditions, dependency (on the head of the institution, political influence or community leaders) or the assignment of additional minor tasks, which are sometimes not included in the job profile. In addition, mediators might be used as an excuse to avoid direct contact with the community, or they are expected to shoulder full responsibility for solving problems. Their work can be day to day, reactive, with little or no planning, inconsistent evaluation and lack of support in performing their job. Such factors mean that success is strongly dependent on the

Teacher‐Pupil Interaction in Bulgarian Romani Classrooms

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the manner in which teachers and pupils interact in Bulgarian primary schools that are characterised by Roma attendance. For this purpose research was conducted with three groups of Roma children — Romani‐speaking, Turkish‐speaking and Romanian‐speaking children, who live in different parts of Bulgaria. The research results showed that teachers use more or less the same oral instructions, approaches and methods for introducing Bulgarian to Roma children as they do for teaching Bulgarian to children who have Bulgarian as their mother tongue. The teachers fail to take into consideration the limited knowledge that Roma children have of the Bulgarian language and expect the children to understand their instructions. There are no special methods or approaches for introducing Bulgarian to Roma children that take into consideration the fact that they are bilingual, and they cannot be taught in the same manner as monolingual Bulgarian children.

Best practices: intercultural integration of Arabic refugees in Berlin

Abstract The paper presents the work of a Berlin-based NGO (ANE) in Germany, which works with migrants and Arab refugees. The organisation has a strong record publishing a Parents Newsletter and conducting family counselling for migrants and refugees in Berlin. One of the major activities of the organisation in 2016 was an international conference with different German NGOs working with refugees. The conference was dedicated to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and developmental traumatic stress disorder (DTSD) of refugee children.

Peace education with refugees: case studies

Abstract The authors suggest the possibility of using concepts and practices drawn from peace education to assist in the treatment and education of refugees suffering from post-traumatic stress. They introduce four basic principles of peace education, which permit students/clients to work through memory and present conflicts, and calls on therapists/teachers to be flexible in their approaches. Three case studies are offered: Bosnian youth in a community center in Chicago, adult male Bosnian refugees in Berlin participating in a social integration project and recently arrived Syrian and Afghani youth living in a transitional setting in Leipzig. There is potential for work undertaken with refugees using principles of peace education to resolve ongoing internal conflicts, while helping to prevent the creation of new social conflicts in the process of integration.

Acquisition of Romani in a Bilingual Context

ABSTRACT The paper presents research findings from research on Roma children and their acquisition of different grammatical categories in the Romani language. Results from three different studies with Roma children from Bulgaria are discussed: acquisition of mental state verbs (MSV), Bates-MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) in Romani and subtests from DELV (Seymour, Roeper, & de Villiers, 2005). All the testing and research shows that Roma children follow the paths of normally developing children in their language development. Roma children are able to correctly use nouns, verbs, wh-questions and to assume different communicative roles.

Code-switching among Muslim Roms in Bulgaria

Abstract This article presents the language of Muslim Roms, who form a trilingual community in the northeastern part of Bulgaria, discussing language mixing between Romani, Turkish, and Bulgarian, applying the model of Myers-Scotton (1993). Two different Roma linguistic groups are observed: speakers of Vlax (Zagondzi) and non-Vlax (Xoraxani). The non-Vlax language, which is full of Turkish loanwords, is more prestigious than the Vlax language, which is more conservative, but both show almost the same patterns of language mixing. The study argues for the connection between language mixing and language prestige and looks at the question: Why do Roma speakers use elements from other languages when speaking Romani?