Romani culture and academic success: arguments against the belief in a contradiction

Abstract

Roma, today perceived as the most numerous European minority, face marginalisation and exclusion. Education is considered to be one of the focal points for improvement, and numerous studies have analysed and reported on the educational situation of Roma. Several studies have argued that Romani cultural values are not compatible with institutional schooling and that Romani families perceive schools as an alien institution. Other studies have drawn upon cultural–ecological theory (CE theory), developed by Ogbu and colleagues, and argue that the Romani cultural frame of reference is oppositional to academic success and thus suggest that successful Romani students distance themselves from Romani culture. The paper discusses the application of CE theory in the context of the academic discourse about the educational achievement of Romani students. Drawing on interviews with Spanish Romani university students, the paper argues that Romani students themselves challenge the assumption that educational success leads to cultural alienation.

Keywords:

• Roma
• Gitanos
• Romani culture
• educational success
• educational inequality
• minority education

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Anna Mirga, Annabell Tremlett, Eben Friedman and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments. I am extremely grateful to all the respondents interviewed for this paper.

Notes

1. The paper takes a particular interest in the idea that subordinate minorities have developed coping strategies that hinder academic success. Other important layers of CE theory such as Ogbu’s minority typology and the distinction between universal, primary and secondary cultural differences are not discussed due to limited space. Gender as a criterion for the construction of difference is not discussed for the same reason.

2. In a posthumous edited volume, Ogbu (2008a) argues that the CE theory should not be reduced to the Fordham-Ogbu thesis that is centred on the ‘burden of acting white’. Fordham (2008, 136) even assumes that Ogbu ‘did not fully agree’ with the Fordham-Ogbu thesis. However, the idea that oppositional behaviour negatively influences educational achievement is a core concern of both CE theory and the Fordham-Ogbu thesis. Furthermore, Ogbu (instead of making differences explicit) continuously drew upon the ‘burden of acting white’ to underline the importance of community forces.

3. See contributions in Intercultural Education (Foster and Gobbo 2004), International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (Foster 2005), Horvat and O'Connor (2006) and Ogbu (2008b).

4. Roma are people who either self-identify with and/or are being identified as members of Romani-speaking or formerly Romani-speaking groups (Friedman 2003, 163).

5. The impression that Roma groups are nomads corresponds to the ‘fictional image of the nomadic Gypsy’ rather than to scientific evidence (Matras 2013).

6. Romani is a full-fledged language with its own lexicon, grammar, sound system and dialectical variation and can by no means be reduced to ‘a secret language’ (Heinschink and Cech 2013; Matras 2004).

7. Institutional factors that contribute to educational success of Gitano students are according to Abajo and Carrasco (2005, 25): (1) the appreciation, support and sustained commitment of teachers, (2) an integrated school experience and positive school climate, (3) the appreciation and support of the family as well as familiar aspirations towards continuing education and (4) the access to various resources including educational and economic resources.

8. Interestingly, Abajo and Carrasco did not find coping strategies that rejected minority belonging as suggested by Fordham and Ogbu (1986).

9. ‘Payo’ is a word used by Gitanos to refer to non-Gitanos, comparable to ‘Gadje’, a Romani word used for non-Roma.

10. See Mirga (2012, 10) for evidence on generational conflicts between Gitano elders and Gitano youth.

11. In a late response to his critics, Ogbu (2004, 18) notes that oppositional behaviour at school is only one possible coping strategy and ‘probably by no means the most prevalent coping strategy’. According to Ogbu, other coping strategies are assimilation, accommodation, ambivalence and encapsulation (ibid. 21–23).