Greek Roma mothers’ relationship with education: aspirations and expectations regarding the educational future of their children

ABSTRACT

This paper explores Greek Roma mothers’ aspirations and expectations regarding the education of their children, analysing responses regarding three core issues: the value they ascribe to education, their educational aspirations, and their perceived resources for supporting their children’s education. The analysis is based on 27 in-depth interviews with Greek Roma mothers of 3–6 or 9–11 years-old children living in the broader Athens metropolitan area. The Super and Harkness’ theoretical framework of developmental niche guided the study. Thematic analysis according to Braun and Clark was employed for data analysis. Consistent with previous research, this study showed that Greek Roma mothers recognised the importance of school attendance and the positive effect it could have on their children’s lives in terms of upward social mobility and improvement in their standard of living. Their educational aspirations were high, and the role of poverty was a major factor in shaping attitudes towards schooling. Understanding their values and beliefs provides a more thorough perspective on designing social-educational interventions with the use of more culturally appropriate approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Roma mothers
• children
• developmental niche
• expectations
• aspirations
• education

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727069; Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the HFRI PhD Fellowship grant (Fellowship Number: 1401).

Notes on contributors

Ioanna Strataki

Ioanna Strataki is a PhD candidate at the Hellenic Open University, Greece, and worked as research assistant within the ISOTIS project. The general aim of the doctoral research is to explore parenting (behaviours, perceptions, expectations etc.) of Greek Roma parents.

Konstantinos Petrogiannis

Konstantinos Petrogiannis is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the Hellenic Open University, Greece. He was country coordinator for the CARE and ISOTIS projects and team leader in two national large scale projects regarding Roma children schooling inclusion and learning. His areas of research interest focus on childcare impact upon children's development, parental involvement, children’s resilience, Roma parents-children relationship and relations to school.