Conflicting value systems: Gypsy females and the home‐school interface

Abstract

Drawing on data from a three‐year ethnographic study of Gypsy life in England, this article explores the experience and attitudes of Gypsy women regarding the home‐school interface. Specific attention is given to the following: role expectations in the different contexts; changing perceptions of role in the face of economic and social change; the contradictions and tensions arising from the process of schooling; and the identity dilemmas experienced by those young women who remain in the educational system. The findings suggest that, at the individual level, for many young Gypsy women, the different demands of home and school can lead to feelings of cultural dislocation and anxiety. At a group level, the widening of aspirations constitutes a challenge to structural patterns and traditional value systems that have underpinned both family and communal life.

Keywords:

• Gender
• Gypsies
• Home‐school interface
• Minority education

Notes

1. We have used the term ‘Gypsy’ terms in this paper in preference to ‘Traveller’, the term used, in general, by those working in the field. Both terms have their own connotations. Liegeois (1986, p. 16) rejected ‘Traveller’ and ‘nomad’ on the grounds that, by avoiding any ethnic content, such labels deny the existence of a specifically Gypsy culture. Our decision here is determined to a large degree by participants’ choices; although these varied, many preferred the term ‘Gypsy’, often on the grounds that it distinguished them from ‘New Age’ or ‘New’ Travellers. Some participants expressed a preference for the terms ‘Rom’ or ‘Roma’, though these themselves are terms that carry different meanings to different groups.

2. The term for non‐Gypsies used in the article – ‘Gadjo’ (sing.) ‘Gadje’ (pl.) – and used by many participants here as both singular and plural, also found in different spellings elsewhere (e.g., ‘Gorgio’, ‘Gauje’ ‘Gadze’) tends to have pejorative connotations. The role of the latter concerned the educational, and in some cases, the wider social welfare of children from Traveller families.