Perceptions and practices that affect the realisation of the Romanian Government’s policy to achieve ‘Equal access to quality education for Roma children’: A study of a Transylvanian rural community

Abstract

The research is based on the Romanian government’s policy of ‘equal access to quality education’ and its ten-year strategy to improve the situation of Roma. It focusses on a case-study of two connected schools, in a small self-administrating rural district of Transylvania, Romania. Data were collected in the two years from summer 2010, following the completion of the strategy.
I focused on what was happening within the school environment through qualitative and quantitative observations from 103 lessons, semi-structured interviews with Roma children, parents and teachers, as well as field notes and documents. Stated perceptions of the ‘policy’ were obtained from interviews with all adult participants, which included county and local administrators. Interpretative methodology was used together with thematic analysis of data.
Key findings were: 1. Neither the schools’ nor any implementation of the government’s policy took into account the difficulties Roma parents faced in engaging with schools, so that parental concerns were rarely addressed. 2. The ways in which teachers’ practices adapted to conflicting priorities of the existing school system and their different understandings of ‘equal access to quality education’ adversely impinged on school education, which disproportionally disadvantaged Roma children. This was compounded by the different practices between primary and junior-secondary departments. 3. The different perceptions of the policy, in part caused by a lack of communication from and between those who designed and modified the policy and those who had crucial roles in its implementation, together with an unequal distribution of funding, all contributed to its limited success.
It is argued that educational administrators and practitioners concerned with Roma children should not only view ‘equal access to quality education’ in terms of having non-segregated schools, but also in terms of practising inclusive education if the ‘policy’ is to achieve a more successful outcome.
iv

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ORCID for Kyriaki Messiou: orcid.org/0000-0003-3412-3108

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