Maja Miskovic

Roma education in Europe: in support of the discourse of race

This paper reviews the research findings and policies regarding the conditions and educational needs of the Roma population in Europe. It examines assumptions, possibilities, and setbacks of translating and appropriating US‐American academic discourse on race into the debate across the continent. The central task for researchers, policy makers, and educators is to recognise the continuing significance and changing meaning of race and to argue against the colour blindness and the replacement of the concept of race by other, supposedly more objective categories such as class or nationality. We need to think of the emancipatory possibilities that the language of race and racism could have for the Roma who have long enough been treated as the ultimate European scapegoats and yet dismissed as a ‘social problem’.

Discourse and the containment of disability in higher education: an institutional analysis

We use a social model of disability to examine disability discourse at a regional university in the mid-western United States. Using an institutional unit of analysis and several different information sources (e.g. interviews, federal regulations, syllabus texts, surveys), we illustrate the ways in which disability-as-difference is governed by an architecture of containment at the university.

Race and racial ideology in classrooms through teachers’ and students’ voices

This qualitative study examines how cultural and racial similarities and differences between teachers, regarded in their school as successful, and their African American students affect the student–teacher relationships and how these relationships shape and are shaped by racial ideology. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to offer an insight on teachers’ and students’ beliefs, expectations, and practices related to schooling and education; and (2) to understand how racial ideology plays out among teachers and students in a predominantly African American school. We rely on an understanding of race as ideology, rather than as an independent variable to be quantified and measured. We found that seemingly neutral and objective educational terms such as classroom structure, discipline, or achievement are infused with racial meaning and are a product of and reflection on racial ideology in which education and schooling operate. The power of racial ideology is not that it ‘tells’ its actors what to do or say; rather, it lies in the power of interpretive choices that teachers use to tell the stories about the school and the students.

Inclusion, Integration or Perpetual Exclusion? A Critical Examination of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005-2015.

A total of 12 European countries with significant Roma populations are taking part in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005–2015 (the Decade). Each of these countries developed a Decade Action Plan with the aim of eliminating the marginalization and discrimination of Roma in the areas of housing, health care, employment and education. Nonetheless, as we near the end of the Decade, we find little evidence that disparities between Roma and non-Roma citizens of Europe have decreased. Of all the priorities noted in the Decade, education is seen as the most successful, and that success is minimal at best. This article critically examines why ‘inclusion’ has failed and offers insights into micro and macro contexts and educational goals formulated by the states participating in the Decade.

When numbers don't add up and words can't explain: Challenges in defining disability in higher education

Abstract This paper follows the discursive loops we have been attempting to untangle as a result of our work on a federally sponsored 3-year mixed methods research project at a private, not-for-profit university, which we will call Midwestern Regional University (MRU), in the mid-western United States. Grounded in the social model of disability, the project aimed to improve MRU’s ability to provide a quality education for disabled students. We explore two sets of tensions: methodological ones that emanate from different epistemological assumptions of qualitative and quantitative inquiry that we combined, and theoretical ones stemming from different ideological underpinnings that position the medical and social model of disability as incongruent. These methodological and theoretical tensions also reverberated to the ethical and political aspects of our research.

Action Research in Action: From University to School Classrooms

This multiyear mixed-method study was conducted to understand (a) the perceptions of the preservice and in-service teachers regarding the significance of action research in their teaching career and (b) how teachers draw on skills developed in the research courses as they initiate a reflective inquiry and conduct research in their own classrooms. Based on 176 surveys, we conclude that research plays an important role in the teachers’ professional life and that teachers desire (a) to have more time to do research, and (b) collaboration with and assistance from colleagues and administrators. Ethnographic data from three participants revealed that each understood research differently, which affected what was unfolding in the classrooms. Implications for teacher research are discussed.

Barack Obama and the Power of Critical Personal Narrative

This article contextualizes the narrative of the US President Barack Obama to provide an understanding of critical personal narrative (CPN) and its use in mainstream curricula. The authors contend that Barack Obamas narrative serves as a means to understand racial hegemony and the politics of representation in a curricular setting. Through providing an understanding of CPN it is suggested that educational opportunities exist for African American students to rewrite their own educational narratives and for educational practitioners to facilitate this process. In so doing, they are documenting the unfolding present, looking onward to the future yet to be realized.