So much to offer: an exploration of learning and cultural wealth with Roma Slovak post-16 students

ABSTRACT

The newly arrived Roma Slovak community in a large urban city in the north of England has been widely perceived as having a myriad of social problems and there is a conflict with the wider community. This paper presents the results of a project to explore barriers and possibilities for the social and educational integration of newly arrived Roma Slovak migrants in the UK. The research carried out ethnographic fieldwork in a post-16 service for young people, using a CRT approach based on Yosso’s community cultural wealth model. The paper also applies an intersectional analysis and problematises assumptions that portray Roma communities as homogeneous, marginalised, and uncritically family oriented. The findings recover the voices and perspectives of the Roma Slovak community from a critical, though positive, perspective. The Roma Slovak students’ stories that emerged from this research are in stark contrast to the negative stereotypes commonly shared about the community.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical Race Theory (CRT)
• cultural wealth
• Roma
• education
• marginalised communities

Introduction

Context

The current research is set in a large urban city in the north of England where the Roma Slovak community has grown in significant numbers after Slovakia gained accession to the European Union in 2012 (Payne 2014). The main area of settlement consists of 350 overcrowded two-bedroomed terraced Victorian houses in very poor condition, which are not suitable for the large families that have settled there (Payne 2017). Local public services describe high levels of health and social care needs, and the community’s lifestyle has been perceived as creating problems for themselves and the wider community. The Roma Slovak community has suffered a history of oppression and exclusion in Slovakia (Penfold 2015; Payne 2017). The community though, is ambitious, having come to the UK ‘for a better life for their children’ (Brown et al. 2016).

Roma communities cover a breadth of population groupings residing in many nation states in Europe and beyond. The oppression they have suffered over many centuries is well documented, including persecution in the Holocaust of the Second World War (Penfold 2015). After the fall of the Iron Curtain, there was significant social exclusion of Roma communities in the former Soviet bloc of Eastern European countries, including Slovakia. This led to ghettoisation in slum conditions without adequate water and sanitation and with 80% unemployment (Penfold 2015; Payne 2017). Many Roma have had little formal education, often no primary schooling and limited secondary education with post 16 education very rare (Penfold 2015). The inclusion of more countries in the European Union in 2012, including Slovakia, and freedom of movement led many Roma Slovak communities to seek employment and education opportunities in other EU countries including the UK (Brown et al. 2016).

Roma communities often experience significant negative media coverage (Richardson 2014; Okley 2014; O’Nions 2014; Bhopal 2018). Newspaper articles¹ covering events in the Roma Slovak community have referred to ‘explosions’, ‘mass brawls’, and the need for ‘tough police action’, which was in sharp contrast to the minor public order incidents that took place. Even more measured coverage has used negative phrases of ‘exclusion and neglect’ and coverage remains a problematised description of Roma communities. This negative stereotyping of Roma communities in the media encourages ‘outsider misrepresentation of gypsies, Roma and travellers, with ‘centuries old stereotypes’ that ‘reveal minimal if any contact with the people portrayed’ (O’Nions 2014, 68). Research has shown that there is a lack of engagement with Roma communities (Payne 2014; Penfold 2015). There is little understanding of the diverse nature of Roma communities (Cools et al. 2015) with a history of centrally led policy interventions designed to assist integration into mainstream life through a ‘normalisation of Roma culture’ (Ryder, Rostas, and Taba 2014, 42).

This research sought to understand how a community of Roma Slovak with so many apparent problems, yet high aspirations (Brown et al. 2016), can progress educationally. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) with ethnography, the educational experience of a group of marginalised young people in a post-16 centre was explored. CRT seeks to turn around the focus of disadvantage in education from deficits to strengths (Yosso 2005) and provides a positive framework for building on the strengths of communities. Yosso’s (2005) cultural wealth framework was applied to explore how learning might be improved by an appreciation of the cultural wealth that students from marginalised communities bring to the classroom. As a result of this theoretical framing, the aim of this research was to explore how learning may be improved by an appreciation of the cultural wealth of Roma Slovak students within an educational context through spending time in the classroom with teachers and students.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

CRT (Yosso 2005; Delgado, Stefancic, and Harris 2012; Taylor, Gillborn, and Ladson-Billings 2015) provides a positive framework for building on the strengths of communities and students’ capabilities through an appreciation of their cultural wealth. Cultural wealth is the resources an individual brings to the educational context from their home, heritage, and individual experience. Students from marginalised communities such as Roma are often problematised, with their culture seen as the root of their educational failure, and low achievement effectively ‘their fault’ (Yosso 2005, 6). Schools resort to the ‘banking method of education’ critiqued by Freire (1993), which addresses this assumed deficit with a greater intensity of teaching of the curriculum. CRT takes a positive view of the cultural wealth of marginalised communities and learning from their ‘cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts  …  that often go unrecognised or unacknowledged’ (Yosso 2005, 6). For CRT, it is not young people that have to adapt to schools but the educational offer that needs to change (Yosso 2005).

CRT in education focuses on marginalised communities students’ experience of educational contexts and how their experiences effect ‘ … their ability to access the schooling opportunities and resources’ (Chapman and Bhopla 2019, 1114). CRT gives precedence to the experiences of marginalised groups and the racism they experience in everyday life through counter stories (Delgado, Stefancic, and Harris 2012; Gillborn et al. 2012). CRT can capture the lived experience of individuals, challenge stereotypes and, for Roma Slovak students, help to ‘tell their story’ (Solorzano and Yosso 2001, 475).

Whilst CRT identifies racism as the main factor in suppressing the life chances of marginalised communities, there is a recognition of the multiple factors affecting individuals and more than one factor may affect any individual, for example, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, age, and life experiences (Barley 2014; Spencer 2014). These factors intersect (Crenshaw et al. 1995) and can reveal the ‘interlocking nature of oppression’ (Collins 1986, 519). CRT challenges traditional modes of understanding that are ‘depersonalising and dehumanising’ and cannot ‘yield the deeply textured multi-faceted reflections of the lived experience of participants’ (Spencer 2014, 157). Grill (2012) describes the ‘underlying tendency to reify Roma communities’ (Grill 2012, 1270) and Payne (2014) emphasises that Roma communities are not homogenous. Whilst a Roma community may have some common recognisable characteristics, categorisation can contribute to othering and exclusion (Hall 1996a; McCall 2005). As migrants, for example, the Roma Slovak community are subject to a negative discourse, as opposed to being seen positively to be creating their own future through their own cultural agency (Grill 2012). For the Roma community, the economic and class factors, history of oppression, and migrant status require consideration to better understand them as individuals and as a community.

Education and marginalised communities

Research into teaching and marginalised communities indicates that the cultural context of students impacts on engagement with education. For Emdin (2016), the teaching of marginalised communities does not accommodate ‘the vast divide that exists between the traditional schools in which they teach and the unique culture of their students’ (Emdin 2016, 2) and, therefore, is not able to build on their strengths and potential. Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti (2005) sought to address how teachers interact with communities outside of the classroom to ensure they value the cultural context of individual students and their ‘lived experiences become validated as a source of knowledge’ (Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti 2005, 72). Building on strengths is about the teacher knowing the child as a whole person – including their family and home circumstances – to build trusting relationships ‘as without trust only part of the child is present in the classroom’ (74).

Trust is not present when teachers view marginalised communities in ways that reflect the negative representations of these communities in wider society (Sabrin 2020). Tereschenko, Bradbury, and Archer (2019) found wider societal negative notions of Eastern Europeans were reflected in assumptions by teachers with the consequence of low expectations of young people’s future potential. This low expectation shapes teachers’ negative dispositions of Roma who are perceived by teachers to have limited interest in education (Matras, Howley, and Jones 2020). Baracsi’s (2016) critical and engaged ethnographic research with Roma in Naples, Italy found teachers ‘appeared’ to be teaching to an idealised image of an ‘imaginary child, of which there are only two or three a class [but]  …  they continue to teach only these students’ (Baracsi 2016, 91).

Research has described home and community life as important aspects of learning for Roma with a family and community environment, where they learn from parents and their extended family (Kirilova and Repaire 2003; Kurek et al. 2012). For effective learning in education, Roma students, ‘ … must feel valued and accepted in an environment in which they are able to be proud of their backgrounds and identity for effective learning to take place’ (Bhopal 2018, 37). Whilst Roma communities are seen to draw strength from their family and community life this may include traditional roles and expectations for women as the carers in the family (Sime, Fassetta, and McClung 2018). Education may also be viewed by Roma communities as a threat and parents worry they will be exposed to values incompatible with their culture (Kurek et al. 2012; Engebrightsen 2015; Sime, Fassetta, and McClung 2018).

Cultural wealth

Theories of cultural capital have been applied in ways that can suggest some communities are culturally wealthy while others are culturally poor (Yosso 2005, 76), with white middle class culture as the standard. CRT instead shifts the focus to the cultures of marginalised communities to their ‘constellation of capitals’ (Wallace 2018). Instead of cultural capital as something marginalised communities are deprived of, Yosso (2005) describes forms of capital that reflect their skills, knowledge, and capabilities: often developed in overcoming adversity. With this approach, Yosso seeks to describe the ‘overlooked capabilities of communities long deemed to be culturally and materially impoverished’ (Wallace 2018, 471).

Yosso’s (2005) cultural wealth model sets out six types of capital that can be used in education in interaction with students consisting of:

• Aspirations (Hopes and dreams) – supporting the growth of their aspirations, and the assumptions being made about students’ aspirations.

• Linguistic (Language and communication skills) – developing their skills and strengths from their own language.

• Familial (wisdom, values, and stories from their home communities) – how families are enabled to participate.

• Social Capital (peer and other social contacts) – helping the students stay connected to their communities and establish other networks to develop their life skills and opportunities.

• Navigational (understanding institutions) – developing skills to access social institutions.

• Resistance (solving challenging problems in their family and community contexts) – supporting them to address their community’s challenges.

All forms of capital can be used to empower individuals and Yosso (2006) developed this model to ‘capture the talents, strengths and experiences that students of colour bring with them to their educational environment’ (Yosso 2006, 43). This framework provides a way to explore the factors related to cultural wealth in reviewing how learning may be improved within an educational context.

Materials and methods

Methodology

This research was ethnographic which, like CRT, enables a focus on the lived experience where ethnography involves ‘ … studying at first-hand what people do and say in particular contexts. This usually involves fairly lengthy contact, through participant observation … and/or through relatively open-ended interviews designed to understand people’s perspectives … ’ (Hammersley 2006). Ethnography is therefore very relevant to a community where there has been a recognised lack of engagement. A critical ethnographic approach was used in the context of the structural disadvantage of the Roma Slovak community experience. This approach can ‘link social phenomena to wider sociohistorical events to expose prevailing systems of domination, hidden systems, ideologies and discourses’ (Carspecken 1996, 62). Whilst the intention through Carspecken’s (1996) approach to begin the fieldwork without an a priori approach, the formative theory of Yosso’s cultural wealth model will provide a framework for the current research.

Data analysis

The data has been analysed and findings have been organised in three axis. First, using Yosso’s (2005) Cultural Wealth framework as the lens in which to consider the data collected from the observations and interviews and detailed in the ‘what’ section below. This was combined with LeCompte and Schensul’s (2010) thematic analysis to ensure the findings are grounded in the data captured from the classroom experience. The first stage of which is ‘inductively searching bottom up for obvious smaller and larger themes and patterns’ (LeCompte and Schensul 2010, 200) with the researcher then trying to ‘figure out what was there’ (200). In line with LeCompte and Schensul (2010), the thematic data analysis has drawn out several factors from the fieldwork, including interpersonal relations, building trust and symbolic violence, that impacted on the learning context, and this is set out in the ‘how’ section. Like the cultural wealth model, these themes are not entirely separate elements as there are interplay between them. Finally, an intersectional analysis enabled a fuller appreciation of the heterogeneity of a community subject to reification, stereotypes, and othering. This is presented in the ‘who’ section. Intersectional factors of race, ethnicity, socio-economic context, gender, class, family, migrant status, and health were considered within the scope of the research. This illustrated the importance of intersectionality to better understand the Roma Slovak as a heterogeneous community; whilst recognising they are connected by common cultural factors, history and structural disadvantages which remain impactful on the young people and the families in the research.

The LeCompte and Schensul (2010) essential ethnographic methods deepen enquiry, aids understanding, and enables the research questions to be addressed by more than one data source to gain different perspectives and positions in the project (Denzin and Lincoln 2005). I read and reread the field notes for observations, interviews, informal discussions, and social activities including a day out, enabling the key factors to emerge to form items, patterns, and structures. Whilst each methodological approach has been addressed within each section, there are common strands to provide a total picture of the fieldwork data.

There was a focus on observations in the research as this enabled me to spend time amongst the community in their learning setting, to address the lack of engagement identified in previous research. I attended class alongside the students, and I would talk with them informally in the class and at break times, similarly with the teachers. The interviews gave me opportunities to talk individually with the participants about their experiences.

The day out gave me insight into the way the students engage with the wider community, and this is included later in the ‘What’ section below. This aspect is an important part of the centres’ work with the students. I was able to be part of the group and experience the day out, to see what took place first hand (Hammersley 2006).

Familiarisation

The current research followed the academic year to give time to ‘discern both the depth and complexity of social structures and relations’ (Jeffrey and Troman 2004, 538). I sought to establish this approach by the way relationships were established with teachers and students. I took time to familiarise myself with, and become familiar to, the participants, in order to more effectively access young people’s voice from ‘so called hard to reach groups’ (Barley and Bath 2013, 5). A key ethical consideration of CRT is to ‘centralise the marginalised voice’ (Spencer 2014, 158) and recognise the impacts of an unequal society with an engagement with, and a respect for, the capabilities of the participants in the research (Lather 1991). I introduced myself to the students as a student, ‘I’m learning just like you’. I went on ‘I’m at … University doing a project about how students learn’. I was clear also that it was me that had limited skills not the students: ‘you are better than me’ I would tell them when the subject of languages came up as they spoke two or more languages. The students initially saw me as a member of staff, or even initially in the police, but in time I gained acceptance in the classroom.

As a researcher of Irish heritage with life experience of historic systematic problematising and social exclusion in a UK context, this gave me some ‘insider status’. I was very clear to myself though, that I did not have a history of contact with the Roma Slovak community and therefore had no affinity with that community and I was an ‘outsider’. Through the familiarisation approach, I sought to mitigate my outsider status and positionality as a non-Roma privileged older white male. As a white researcher speaking for and about other ethnic groups, I may be contributing to the ‘continued marginalisation of those groups’ (Chadderton 2012, 366) and centring the voice of the participants is essential. Reflexivity is key in research to deploy methods ‘that authorise marginalised voices and decentre the experiences/interests of privileged groups’ (Rice Carla and Friedman 2019, 412) and the theoretical framing and ethnographic approach have shaped the research in this context.

Fieldwork

The fieldwork took place with Roma Slovak students at the High Town post-16 centre local to the community. The centre provides classes for ‘English for Speakers of Other Languages’ (ESOL) as part of a pathway to further education and employment.

Fieldwork took place during two school terms in 2017 and 2018 over eight months with participant observation including:

• Regular weekly three-hour classroom sessions of up to 16 students,

• Informal discussions with students and teachers at break times,

• A social event,

• A day trip to the city centre, and

• Semi-structured interviews with 12 students and 4 teaching staff.

All 16 students in the class took part in the research. Field notes from these observations captured how cultural wealth featured in the setting using Yosso’s (2005) framework. The short semi-structured interviews with students were held in the classroom, separate to the ongoing lesson, and the 30-minute interviews with staff were in the centre’s staffing areas. Data gathering by audio recording was not appropriate because of the intrusion and power balance effect and so verbatim note taking was difficult yet preferable. My note taking enabled me to capture ‘the fine detail to help memories be vivid’ (Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw 1995, 11). The English language level of the students is reflected in the data captured.

Whilst there were 16 students in the class and attendance was variable, the students attended other days, I chose Wednesday mornings as the class was mainly Roma Slovak with two Syrian students also from the High Town area and one Czech Roma. I included the Czech and Syrian students in the research as they form part of the classroom experience and to help avoid a negative ‘othering’ of Roma (Hall 1996a; McCall 2005; Okley 2014; O’Nions 2014). The staff included were the class teacher, Aisha, and teaching assistant Jenny and the centre manager Feisal and the family support teacher Viktoria. In the class, there were seven Roma Slovak male students (Milan, Peter, Michal, Josef, Martin, Tomas, Marac), one Czech Roma male student (Stefan), and two Syrian male students (Mansour and Amir). There were six Roma Slovak female students (Eva, Kristina, Helena, Zuzana, Anna, and Marta). On one day, two classes were combined with an additional teacher, Mahala, and several other students (Imani, Andrej, Jasmin). As well as anonymising names and places, I was conscious of the need to ensure my findings would not be taken out of context and used to further marginalise the community (Salway et al. 2009). Dissemination of this paper is with the advice of both the High Town Centre and Roma interest groups.

Results

The results have been considered across three axes: utilising Yosso’s framework to consider how cultural wealth is contained within ‘what’ is included in the classroom experience. The second section builds from the LeCompte and Schensul (2010) thematic analysis and has drawn out the ‘how’ the learning developed in the relationships between teachers and students. Thirdly, a consideration of the ‘who’ the students are draws from a consideration of intersectionality and categorisation of the Roma Slovak community. In the results section, all fieldwork quotes are in italics.

The ‘what’ of lesson content

Yosso’s six-part Cultural Wealth Model focuses on the strengths that students bring to learning and how this was reflected in the learning experiences captured in observations and the interviews with teachers and students. The model includes six types of capital, consisting of aspirations, linguistic skills, family strengths, social capital, navigational skills, and resistance. These capitals overlap and are connected as part of a ‘community of cultural wealth’ (Yosso 2005, 44). For example, aspirations are developed within social and familial contexts and they ‘can be used to empower individuals building on the strengths and the experiences they bring to the educational environment’ (44). Due to limitations of space, I will briefly illustrate the data that the research gathered in each of the six areas – using examples drawn from the larger data set.

Aspirations

Developing and supporting students’ aspirations, their ‘hopes and dreams’ (Yosso 2005, 45) is reflected in the interview with the centre manager, Feisal, through the centre’s aim to raise the expectations of students in respect of further education and employment. Feisal described how, from the centre’s work, the link between learning and future jobs is clearer to students and their families, and ‘young people are now more aware of their path to employment’ to meet their ambitions and to help parents develop a ‘longer-term vision’, where education is the starting point.

In the interview with Viktoria, the family support teacher, she described how families were now aspiring to a greater range of jobs; ‘at first they wanted simple jobs at factory. Now it is police officer, school, nurse’. The encouragement of students’ aspirations was reflected in the interviews with the students; Michal wants to be an ‘assistant teacher’. Josef said he wants to work ‘in his dad’s furniture company … to get a job in business’. Amir said he wants to ‘go to college to learn more English’ and his dream job was ‘Doctor or nurse maybe. If not, police’. Marta described her ambition ‘to work, save money, buy house, babies’. Milan spoke of his ambition ‘to go to college and be a mechanic and he was getting help at the centre for his ambitions’.

Linguistic skills

For the students, as bilingual speakers, being able to use their own language should be seen as an asset and included in learning (Yosso 2005). As part of my time in the classroom, I observed that whilst the use of Roma, Slovak, Czech or Arabic languages was not part of the curriculum, the teachers did consistently link classroom content with the students’ own languages, using examples of Roma, Slovak, or Arabic words offered by the students:

‘It’s my favourite song, it means a lot to me’, says Aisha

She hands out the lyrics and says, ‘we can sing it too’.

They also discuss the words featured in the song in Arabic and Slovakian.

‘What’s towel in Arabic?’ Asks Aisha.

‘Mansheter’, says Amir.

‘Ouchez in Slovak’, says Kristina.

In their interviews though, the students expressed comfort with the English-only approach in the classroom and the benefits that learning English would bring; Josef ‘ … wants to learn English to get a job in business and be a landlord’ and then ‘go to college to learn more English’. The students were being regularly engaged in the classroom activity, including opportunities to use their own language as part of the ‘norm’ of classroom learning. The teachers showed awareness of the importance of language to students and – as the teacher Aisha put it – this also included ‘taking time to learn their own language, their own version of reality’.

Family strengths

Family and community networks provide social and personal resources. The centre’s teaching and community activity builds on both resources by drawing the students’ home and family life into lessons. In the interviews with the teachers, it became clear that their engagement with families, including home visits, was for them, a positive feature of relationship building and a way to increase their understanding of the community. Viktoria described the strong relationships she has built with the families; they will stop her in the street like a friend to talk to her and will often invite her into their home.

In the classroom, the students were regularly encouraged to describe their home and family experiences and reflections on life in England and Slovakia, Czech and Syria as part of the lesson topic. In one class, Aisha asked them about England and their home countries:

‘People no good, no jobs’, says Tomas about England, ‘my house in Slovakia is a castle with ten toilets’, he says jokingly.

‘Slovakia has no jobs’, says Tomas.

Martin says about Slovakia, ‘there are friends, nice friends, no jobs. School is 7:30–2. There are big houses, six bedrooms. The food is good, Holooshi, Goulash, Spaghetti. The best is Madjaski’.

Stefan says about the UK, ‘Good people, expensive drinks, very beautiful’.

Eva says, ‘nice food. KFC! KFC in Slovakia better!’

Josef says, ‘it’s dirty here, everywhere houses. Slovakia has better bigger houses.’

The teachers showed they were aware of the students’ pride in their communities in Slovakia, Czech and Syria and included this topic in classroom teaching. The students’ description of their country of origin and negative views of the UK was in stark contrast to that depicted in broader discourse.

Social capital

This is about the networks of people and community resources, for example, the church, and local social groups, that support families so they are ‘not alone in their struggles’ (Yosso 2005, 42). In the interview with Aisha, she noted how the Roma, like all newly arrived families, support each other. She described the importance of recognising the experiences of migrant communities and that a positive understanding and appreciation can be accommodated in the classroom. As Feisal explained, they build on the community’s strength by engaging with families: ‘Parents, some supportive, some not … The community has changed, first they may have just arrived, and now some have been here a few years …  education is the starting point, to move to the next stage’. The family as a source of strength appears to be changing in migration.

The lesson content was consistently linked with the home experience of the students’ lives in England and Slovakia. In the observations of classroom activity, the teacher introduced topics which the students could relate to their home and community life. The students often took the lead in class in describing their experience of their home lives in Slovakia and England, using, for example, Google Maps on the white board to assist presentations and show what their home environment looked like with enthusiasm. When teachers presented English types of houses, or food types, which were a key part of the curriculum, they took the opportunity to relate the topic to the students’ own experience. For example, a discussion about family Christmas meals which are a significant family event in Roma households where everyone, including children, are involved in preparations:

Aisha explains, ‘we are discussing Christmas at home, who helps with the cooking? Everyone?’

Tomas says, ‘All the family in the home’

‘Christmas is the same’ says Peter to Aisha smiling.

‘What do you love about Christmas?’ Jenny, the teaching assistant, asks.

Marac says ‘I went back to Slovakia last Christmas and travelled Christmas Day. There will be a huge Christmas this year’.

Students also appeared confident in writing on the white board and presenting their favourite foods to the class. Teaching from the front was not the norm, and class engagement was high with group discussions and presentations by students a common approach. Family and community experiences were woven into the classroom, and rather than being silenced (Emdin 2016) students were able to share their knowledge and experience, which was a valued part of the lesson.

Navigational skills

Navigation is about accessing social spaces and institutions. Interviews with teachers highlighted their work with students to access community and public services such as health and care. In the interview with Feisal, he explained: ‘we arrange activities and trips, so they see life outside their area and build the skills they need when they leave to access the community’. The centre’s teachers see this as an important part of the students’ development. Feisal described how they are developing courses that build on the students’ strengths and ambitions to enable them to more easily ‘navigate a way through to employment and education’.

The day out was an important part of the centre’s work with the students. This included a visit to the museum and a restaurant in the city centre where students displayed some usual teenage behaviour, having fun together, appearing very comfortable in this environment, even when coincidently meeting extended family members at the city centre restaurant we attended. At the museum, I observed the apprehensive reactions of other visitors to a large group of teenagers, but their concerns were not borne out by any poor behaviour and exemplary manners were shown in the museum and cafe.

In the classroom, the curriculum included awareness of the local area to ensure students can be confident in accessing their wider community, including local shops, the library, council offices, and the health centre. In classroom activities, I observed how the focus was placed by the teachers on how the students experienced their local area and their awareness of what is available and how to access public and other services. Local community workers describe the reluctance of the Roma Slovak community to attend events outside their area, and this was seen as an important part of students’ learning.

Resistance

Resistance is about supporting students ‘to develop opportunities to participate in a diverse community’ (Yosso 2005). In one lesson with another class of students, I observed a discussion about diversity and discrimination:

‘Tell me about different races’, says Mahala the teacher.

‘Black see white people and they do or don’t talk to each other,’ replies Andrej.

‘Do you think it is black [people being] racist to white?’ Asks Mahala

‘No, white’, Andrej replies.

‘Minority groups. It’s a political term. Used to refer to non-white people. I am Asian woman, but I will describe myself as a black woman’, Mahala explains.

‘It doesn’t matter if you are black or white’, says Andrej.

‘It shouldn’t yes. It does matter. You should have respect. What do other people think?’ Asks Mahala.

‘Some people think it’s a problem’, says Andrej.

‘Some people have good heart’, says Jasmin.

‘We are the same’, says Imani.

This discussion enabled students to reflect on their experiences in a diverse community and to consider and express their views. I noted also this topic requires a high level of trust by the students and was an example of the confidence that the teachers place in the students to participate in such a sensitive issue (Emdin 2016).

Through the lens of Yosso’s (2005) Cultural Wealth model, the data collected describes the content of the student learning environment at the centre. The education offer was adapted to the young people’s life experiences, and this was consistently reflected in a high level of engagement in a broad range of topics. The students clearly had an appetite for learning when subjects were made relevant to their skills, knowledge, and experiences. This included the range of social capitals and was indicated not only by references in the classroom to the students’ country of origin but also engagement with their current interests. The following sections, however, show how the review of data revealed significant aspects of the interaction not initially drawn out using the Cultural Wealth model.

The ‘how’ of lesson experience

If the above aspect of the fieldwork was about the ‘what’ in terms of the content of classroom topics, this section is about the ‘how’, the way in which positive relationships are developed. In addition to the use of Yosso’s (2005) formative theory, the fieldwork analysis has drawn out several other factors in the classroom that impact on learning. From several reviews of the data, characteristics began to take shape using LeCompte and Schensul’s (2010) thematic analysis and this led to a consolidation into three overlapping factors as follows:

1. Interpersonal relations – the care, kindness, and respect that teachers show to students and encourage between students.

2. Building trust – through encouraging agency and a focus on student views and opinions.

3. Symbolic violence – including the narrow scope of curriculum and exam condition requirements.

Whilst these are factors that may be implicit in Yosso’s (2006) approach there is increased emphasis in the current research on the interaction between teachers and students as part of any consideration of cultural wealth. I have illustrated the themes below with examples from the wider data set.

Interpersonal relationships

A regular feature of the classroom observations, even when there was disruptive behaviour, was the respectful and kind behaviour of the teachers towards the students with a high level of engagement and a positive rapport. The students would be welcomed positively to the class:

‘You’re on time Tomas, it’s fantastic you are on time’, Aisha says.

Even when students were late, the opportunity to punish was not taken and a more positive approach was used, although students were reminded of the need to be on time:

Tomas arrives smartly dressed wearing a gold cross.

‘Why are you late?’ Asks Mahala, the teacher.

‘Sleeping Miss’, says Tomas.

‘Not good enough’, says Mahala, ‘Put your alarm on. What time do you need to get here?’

‘Nine’, says Tomas.

‘Make more effort. What if it was a job?’

‘Kick us out!’ says Andrej laughing.

‘You were honest you could have said ‘I slipped ten times’. It’s important to think about punctuality – be on time’, Mahala smiles, ‘can you make a little more effort?’

Tomas smiles, ‘Yes Miss’

As they worked through the lesson, there was a mixture of answering questions posed by the teachers interspersed with humour. I reflected in my field notes about how the group was having fun and how comfortable it felt.

The interviews with the students reflected these qualities as an important aspect of the learning experience. Milan and Marta spoke about the ‘kindness and respect’ of the teacher. Zuzana described ‘Aisha, beautiful, very nice, kind, respect’. Michal said the teacher was ‘good, knows how to explain things’. Mansour said he likes the teacher who is a ‘friend’. Josef said to the teacher ‘Friendly, helpful, my friend. Best teacher’. The importance of respect was emphasised by Anna in her interview when I asked:

‘Were the teachers good to you?’

‘Teachers different, different ways. Teachers good, show respect. Teachers respect difference. I respect their differences’.

I noted in my fieldwork I was immediately touched by her expressions of self-awareness and expressed acceptance of difference in others.

Building trust

The development of positive relationships between teacher and students and between students themselves was evident and reflected in peer-to-peer activity. The teachers developed the students’ agency through systematically asking for their views and their opinions. The teachers would engage with the students and share their own opinions. In preparing for a talent competition the students and teachers discussed terrorism and their views and feelings which the class put to music. The music group Black-Eyed Peas’ song, ‘Where is the love?’ was used and an instrumental version was played on the screen, while Stefan and Amir and others shared the song the students had written with the teacher:

‘Yo yo yo yo,

you make me sad,

because you’re bad,

you hurt them a lot,

the worlds gone to pot.

Why you doing this to the people?

Show me your face,

we are all the same race,

stop being racist,

we can all make this’.

The tone of the discussion, exemplified by students being unusually quiet and focussed on the subject, was of sadness at the violence and terrorism and the students expressed empathy with the victims. It appeared to reflect the high level of trust required to engage students effectively in this topic, particularly as some students had direct experience of conflict in their countries of origin.

Symbolic violence

Symbolic violence drawn from Bourdieu (1991) can be illustrated in this context by the impact of exam preparation, which did not seem to offer the types of opportunities suggested by Yosso’s (2005) framework. The teachers adapted to this by offering support and encouragement and adjusting the material, where possible, to be more appropriate. Adherence to exam conditions, however, did not seem to offer the types of opportunities suggested by Yosso’s (2005) framework. Exam preparation seemed to create a more fearful atmosphere despite the teacher’s efforts to address this by an honest explanation of the rules:

Aisha tells the group about exam conditions, ‘You will have to take your jacket off’.

There are many rules from last week, ‘If you don’t take your jacket off, they will fail you. It’s so you don’t cheat. You can’t have drinks’.

Mansour says, ‘but Miss today is not a real exam’.

‘It’s good practice Mansour’, says Aisha. She told them of someone she knew who had to do their year again for writing on her hand and going into an exam.

The ability to cope with structured learning can be seen as a necessary skill and as part of a pathway toward further education and employment. The teachers adapted to the challenge by offering support and encouragement and adjusting the material to be more appropriate to the students’ life experiences, but there were limitations as the exams are set externally. This contrasted with the impact of relevant topics that reflected their lives as outlined in the ‘what’ section above.

In this section, the focus on the ‘how’ is about the relationships established within the learning setting, between the teacher and the students and between students themselves. Students often struggled to maintain concentration and would complain of being tired, but this was interspersed with energetic and engaged interaction. Through the data analysis, I began to draw out higher levels of energy and engagement present not just when cultural wealth factors were included in the dialogue between teacher and students, but also when humour, kindness and respect were evident in this interaction. This created the conditions for trust and a positive learning environment. Feisal in his interview said the aim was ‘to create a home and feel they are valued’ and for some ‘it may be the first time they have been listened to’. The teacher’s apparent acceptance of students as individuals, not just solely as a member of a community and reflective of wider negative discourse, was a key aspect of the classroom experience, and the next section explores more fully the ‘who’ the students are.

The ‘who’ are the students?

If the first section was about the ‘what’ that was being studied in the classroom and the second section was about ‘how’ relationships, this third section is about ‘who’ is the focus of the learning? Who are the Roma Slovak students and how do we understand them as individuals and as a community? Roma communities are often regarded as homogenous, (Payne 2014; Sime, Fassetta, and McClung 2018) though they have emerged from different histories (Brown et al. 2016). The underlying tendency to reify Roma (Grill 2012) risks exacerbating exclusion and inequality. As Salway et al. (2009) suggests there is a tension between the benefits of using major social divisions to identify disadvantage and ‘avoiding giving it essentialising power’ (Salway et al. 2009, 4). Social divisions can omit the concerns of individuals who are impacted upon by intersectional factors such as gender and race (Crenshaw 1989). Intersectionality recognises that people’s identities and social positions are shaped by multiple factors including socioeconomic context, health, ethnicity, gender, disability, migrant status. The fluidity of identity described by Hall (1996a, 1996b) also emphasises the changes in identity, particularly for people from migrant communities as they develop a new life, ‘a reimagining of their futures’ (Grill 2012, 1283). By moving away from assumptions of identities as fixed, essentialised and homogenous, the focus can shift to challenging the ‘discourse of oppressions’ (McCall 2005, 5) to individual’s agency and own stories and ‘one can uncover inequalities as experienced and internalised’ (5).

The Roma Slovak community has a lack of access to good quality housing and jobs, both in their countries of origin and in the UK. Their experiences of structural disadvantage and racism, reflected in wider media discourse are significant barriers to the community’s progress. In terms of class or socio-economic context, the Roma Slovak have come from a context of extreme poverty with some benefits of employment in the UK. The changing aspirations for work highlighted by the centre’s staff in their interviews, demonstrates positive change, though the employment prospects for Roma Slovak remain limited at low skilled employment yet aspirations remain high.

The intersections such as gender, ethnicity and social class are significant when analysing the wider social contexts which impact on Roma Slovak everyday lives, ‘a Roma girl, for example, could experience discrimination on the basis of her gender, age, disability, ethnicity or migrant status’ (Sime, Fassetta, and McClung 2018, 319). Poor health is a significant issue for the Roma Slovak community, reflective of social exclusion and poor living conditions in their country of origin and newly settled conditions in the UK. This latter point was exemplified by one female student, Marta, was often ill. At one of the lessons, she arrived unwell and spent the lesson complaining of being in pain:

‘It hurts miss’, says Marta as she touches her gums.

‘Ulcer, we call it Ulcer in England’, says Aisha. Marta continues to touch her gums and complains of the pain.

Later Marta looks sick, and she goes over to the waste bin momentarily and returns to her chair.

‘I’m sick miss’, Marta says to Aisha, feeling her mouth again.

Aisha, in her interview, described the high level of ill health in the community, particularly mental health, and how Marta is often ill and misses learning. In her interview Marta refers to her sickness issues and the positive support she gets from the centre’s teachers. All these factors and how they intersect are important to understand Marta and how this may be reflected in her education context.

One of my initial perceptions of the Roma Slovak classroom experience was the overriding impression that I was observing teenage behaviour that I felt was far from different or ‘other’, I was struck by the apparent ordinariness of the experience. The teenagers appeared to be flirting with each other, showing off in front of peers, losing interest in some topics though showing enthusiasm in others. On one occasion several the male students gathered around a male member of staff who seemed to have taken on an additional role of behaviour management. The male students convened in a semi-circle in front of him and exchanged stories of drinking, relationships, and world travels. Michal fist pumped me as a sign I was accepted in the group. Not all the male students were there, though there weren’t any female students, and it appeared a male only context within the wider setting. In observing the class that included mixed gender group work, exchanges between students did not generally show overt behaviour that excluded female students, or where male students dominated. Though they tended to group together outside of class, this was no different to other teenagers and did not appear specific to the Roma Slovak community.

The teacher Aisha said that the girls’ boyfriends do not like the girls’ attending college because of other boys being there. One day when it snowed Eva was on the phone to her friend:

‘Eva, are you calling Kristina?’ Aisha asks.

Eva nods smiling.

‘Her boyfriend says she can’t come’, Jenny the teaching assistant says smiling.

Aisha says smiling, ‘her boyfriend tells her to do everything!’

Eva smiles and says, ‘Kristina is sick’.

Eva had similar issues, but with encouragement from teachers, she came on the day out to the city centre.

A generalised description of the nature of the students was of questionable benefit when the changing nature of their lives was considered. When I asked Marta in her interview about her home life and learning English, her answer revealed a range of factors in her identity that are changing:

‘My sister husband Pakistani. Speaking lots of English. I speak Roma, Slovak, English and Czech. I want to work, save money, buy house, babies’.

The multiple intersections impacting on Marta, such as there being a more complex ethnic and cultural mix in her household and that she was a young woman aspiring for both family and independence. Her view of her world is reflected in this expression and a sense of change in aspirations.

The changing experiences of the students as migrants was captured in an interview with student Anna:

‘Where do you live?’ I asked her.

‘I live High Town; I like High Town. People happy, family there … ’

‘Where would you like to live?’

‘Long here innit. You know everything, you feel here. Your life is here, not in your country, all you is here’. She smiles as she talks, and she speaks with a lot of positive emphasis on her words and sentiments.

The UK is becoming home, and Anna is expressing comfort with that, and her cultural wealth context is changing from her heritage to a developing life in the UK. In her interview, Aisha described the uncertain life of migrants where it is family first, and she reflected on her own experience of her parents ‘what would you do in their place, the priority is family, work, food, particularly for first generation?’. Aisha also commented on the strengths of newly arrived Roma Slovak families, where their immediate priority is somewhere to live and employment: it’s not education, ‘why would it be?’ she asked. In his interview, Feisal described a changing community with ‘younger people getting  …  a better understanding  …  of education, community, and neighbours  …  as they get more confident, they enjoy their learning more’.

In an interview with Viktoria, she attempted to describe the culture of Roma who live in the area, she expressed her view that:

 … young people in Roma families may get married young, they may have children at 15 or 16 and students may have one or two children’ and ‘whilst family is a key part of Roma resilience it’s not without its problems … There may be family breakdown.

Whilst this reflects the more widely ranging views and stereotypes, she said the community was changing and the centre acknowledges and supports the community, ‘we don’t want to change traditions’ said Viktoria, ‘but we want young people to know their choices and girls are now more aware and are making different decisions’. Family experience for Roma appears to be changing as parents and young people’s expectations are also changing.

In one class observation, when Helena, Marta and Anna are talking about weddings, Jenny, the teaching assistant, looked at a video on Anna’s phone of a Roma Slovak wedding in Slovakia:

Jenny asked, ‘so when do you get married?’

‘18 or 19’, says Anna.

‘At 17?’ Asks Jenny.

‘No’, says Anna, ‘you have to wait to be married’.

I then asked Anna about marriage in her interview:

‘Do you want to get married?’

‘Wait till 100%. 38 [years old]. Boy who cares about me. Respect me. Listen to me’.

I was surprised when she subsequently told me she had a daughter of 16 months, but this is, perhaps, illustrative of her changing expectations.

In his interview, Feisal explained the centre would like to do more to help the Roma Slovak students and he was very clear it was ‘more education focussed on girls, education for future careers, to influence the next generation’, to ‘empower’ but not ‘ghettoise’ the young Roma Slovak girls. He also explained there are ‘mixed classes which may have family, cousins, boyfriends, so they may hold back current expectations [so they won’t] be seen negatively if they are themselves’. Feisal talked about the centre now having a girls-only gym and that the centre staff, ‘ … encourage them not to get pregnant early, to realise they have choices  …  it’s about breaking the mould for the next generation’. Viktoria explained that for Anna who has a child the teachers have managed to get her to ‘stick to education’ and keep her on course.

This section first considered the nature of the learning context of young Roma Slovak students growing into adulthood, acknowledging structural disadvantages and potential barriers impacting on their lives. The fieldwork data has captured how the young peoples’ lives may be changing, and the different experience for young women. While the data is purely illustrative, these appear to be young people adapting to their new lives, with some changes in their families’ perspectives, and raised expectations of future job prospects. This may be impacting on traditional expectations for women, and it may also reflect how the young people are adapting to their new lives. The challenges the Roma Slovak community face are significant: there are indications in this research that a more positive view of the cultural wealth of the community can create greater possibilities for educational improvement. An understanding of students as individuals with intersecting issues, not solely as a member of a homogenous community, can help identify ways to make more positive progress in learning. The data suggested, in contrast to the assumptions about homogeneity and problematisation, that these were young people, who are influenced by a mixture of their life in Slovakia and a life in England, who have positive aspirations for the future, for family, and for personal ambitions. Through a positive, supportive educational provision with family and community involvement changes can emerge. The High Town Centre appears acutely aware of this and are developing opportunities for all students and a focus on young women.

Discussion and conclusion

Barriers and possibilities

This paper started by describing the negative view of the Roma Slovak community in wider media coverage as a ‘problematised other’, whilst acknowledging the very real barriers the community faces. An ethnographic approach was taken, combining ethnography with a CRT framework. CRT, like ethnography, has a focus on voice and storytelling. CRT provides an approach to education research that builds on the strength of communities and individuals. This research suggests that education can have greater possibilities for marginalised communities if it better reflects the cultural wealth of students and includes relationships that build trust, confidence and agency, and recognises the individuality of the students. Whilst structural barriers remain significant, there are opportunities in how the students are engaged in education to improve learning. Using a CRT approach based on Yosso’s (2005) cultural wealth model and applying an intersectional analysis, the research challenges the negative perceptions of the Roma Slovak community. The data gathered captured how the centre and teachers built strong relationships with the community and families and include their skills, knowledge, and experience in the learning offer. Rather than an emphasis on a need for the students to adapt, there needs to be a greater focus on the educational offer changing. Integration in education is also about acceptance of the Roma Slovak students’ skills, knowledge, and experience and its inclusion in learning. Yosso’s (2005) cultural wealth framework should enable a focus on, not just the ‘what’ of classroom learning, but also the ‘how’ and ‘who’; in this case capturing the voice of young Roma Slovak students and their Czech Roma, Syrian and other classmates.

Limitations of study

The research was site specific in a class setting with more flexibility in delivering education than may be evident in a mainstream post 16 or secondary school setting. I had no direct contact with the families and community in the research. The language skills of the students and my own may also limit some of the understanding, for example, in interviews. Ethnography, though, enables multiple data collections and may mitigate some of this. Further research will be beneficial to explore mainstream education, with increased engagement with the families and community, to understand and what can be learned from the Roma Slovak students’ experience of barriers and possibilities in education for the benefit of all students.

Their stories

This research has sought to centre the voices of the Roma Slovak community by observing and engaging with the young people capturing their lived experiences. The stories that emerged from spending time with the students and teachers tells a different story to the stereotypes and images that are commonly shared about the community. These are stories of young people who do not describe themselves as a problem or having problems and where, through the lens of CRT, potential and capability is emphasised. The students showed ambition to speak English and to progress to further education to get a good job, a house of their own, as well as getting married when they are ready. There is humour, creativity, and energy in class, and working with others in groups as a team is a feature of learning. Kindness and respect feature in the relationship with teachers and with one another including individuals from different communities. The students displayed values of a ‘good heart’ and positive attitudes to others and have high hopes for the future in respect of their careers and families. The changing nature of the community means new opportunities to which the students can aspire; including for young women to consider new employment roles that may not have previously been open to them. This may be contrary to traditional roles in Roma Slovak families and there are signs that expectations are changing. As Aisha described, even though there might be a ‘conflict of heritage and identity development, the future them … [they] are learning to be someone  … .to be who they want to be’.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the students, teachers, and staff at the High Town Centre for allowing me to spend time with them, learning about their lives, and gaining insight into how kindness, respect and caring can make a difference to learning. Thanks also to my research supervisor Dr Ruth Barley for her support, encouragement, and insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 To ensure anonymity of the population, I have avoided some detail of relevant local and national headlines. The specific population has been subject to significant negative media commentary and this research aims to avoid further exacerbating this negativity as part of any dissemination.