Experiencing the same but differently: indigenous minority and immigrant children’s experiences in Cyprus

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of minority students from two different cultural groups, immigrant children of Pontian background and indigenous minority children of Roma descent, in the Greek-Cypriot educational system. Through a joint re-examination of results from two different qualitative studies, this paper delineates similarities and differences of how life at school is experienced through the eyes of children who are not part of the mainstream, in an effort to gain insight into the nuances of being a minority child in the specific educational system. Comparisons across the two groups of children suggest that although both groups shared a minority status, they nonetheless experienced marginalisation across different dimensions that were linked to their dual multilayered position as both insiders and outsiders. Attention to such complexities enables us to gain deeper understandings of children’s lives, as too often the category of ‘minority child’ seems to be treated as a monolithic and homogeneous one.

Keywords:

• minority education
• intercultural education
• Pontians
• Roma
• Cyprus
• children

Acknowledgements

During data analysis for Study A the first author was funded by grants from the University of Virginia. Study B was conducted as part of the Comenius Multilateral project INSETRom (134018-2007-CY-COMENIUS-CMP), funded by the European Commission (1 December 2007–30 November 2009). Views expressed in this article do not reflect the views of the European Commission.

Notes

1. Both of the original studies refer to and are situated in the Greek-Cypriot educational system currently under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Cyprus.

2. In August 2008 the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) sent a new circular to state primary schools regarding intercultural education, charting out new measures to be taken in light of the educational reform that is underway, such as the provision of intensive lessons in Greek in some schools and the publication of an orientation booklet for immigrant families.

3. Other-language students is the term used by the MoEC to refer to students whose native language is other than Greek.

4. The 2010 Annual Report by the MoEC estimates the percentage of non-Greek Cypriot students enrolled at state primary schools to be around 11.7% (MoEC 2011).

5. The letters m. for male and f. for female are used to denote participants’ gender. The abbreviations GC for Greek-Cypriot, Cy. for Cypriot, Gr. for Greek, Pnt. for Pontian, and Roma are used to indicate participants’ self-provided ethnicity.