EDUCATIONAL
AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF GREEK GYPSY
POPULATIONS
Athan
Gotovos (University of
Ioannina, Greece)
The seminar "Educational and Social Integration
of Greek Gypsy Populations" was conducted
at the University of Ioannina as a measure in
the frame of the Council of Europe In-service
Training Programme for Educational Staff. It
has been accepted as an in-service training activity
within the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious
Affairs innovative project "School Integration
of Gypsy Children" and it was funded and
supported by it. The project "School Integration
of Gypsy Children" is being implemented
at the University of Ioannina since 2002 under
the direction of Prof. Panayotis Papakonstandinou.
The University of Ioannina based Vocational Training
Centre offered its infrastructure and technical
support in the organization and conducting of
the seminar. The seminar took place in Ioannina,
9-14 of April 2003. The organizing bodies of
the seminar were the Greek Ministry of National
Education and Religious Affairs, the Project "School
Integration of Gypsy Children", the Center
for Bilingualism and Cultural Diversity at the
Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology
of the University of Ioannina, the Research Center
on Social Exclusion and Evaluation in Education
at the Department of Philosophy, Education and
Psychology of the University of Ioannina, and
the Vocational Training Centre of the University
of Ioannina. The educational staff who attended
the seminar came from
five European countries. More specifically, two
of the participants came from Romania (Florin
Fleican and Prof. Gheorghe Sarau), three persons
from Cyprus (Maria Hadjimichael, Dr.Pavlina Hadjitheodoulou
- Loizidou, and Stella Tamami), two persons from
Lithuania (Rita Markovskaja and Natalija Mazeikiene),
one person from Slovenia (Alenka Pavlovec) and
one from Spain (Maria Del Carmen Ponce).
The seminar’s
contributions
At the opening session of the seminar Prof. Christos
Massalas, Rector of the University of Ioannina,
welcomed the participants and reminded the
audience of the university’s responsibility
as an institution for promoting social cohesion
through the dissemination of knowledge and
skills and through enhancing citizens’ awareness
of the cultural diversity and wealth existing
in every society. Prof. Dimitrios Glaros, Vice-Rector
and Director of the Vocational Training Centre
of the University of Ioannina, made reference
to the Centre’s role in establishing
equal opportunities in the occupational sphere
and in fighting against the established prejudice
that some groups can or should have access
only to certain types of jobs. The role of
the state as an agent of promoting a multicultural
society through intercultural education was
mentioned by Prof. Georgios Markou, President
of the Institute for the Greek Diaspora Education
and Intercultural Studies, based in Athens.
Prof. Markou presented the Institute’s
involvement in all intercultural education
innovations starting from the Greek Ministry
of Education. Meropi Savva, member of the Secretariat
for Greek Diaspora and Intercultural Education
at the Greek Ministry of National Education
and Religious Affairs, explained the Ministry’s
policies in the field of intercultural education
and more specifically in respect with the project “School
Integration of Gypsy Children”.
In the next seminar session Prof. Athan Gotovos
from the Department of Philosophy, Education
and Psychology of the University of Ioannina,
Deputy President of the Institute for the Greek
Diaspora Education and Intercultural Studies,
Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious
Affairs, and Prof. Panayiotis Papakonstantinou
from the Department of Philosophy, Education
and Psychology of the University of Ioannina,
Director of the project "School Integration
of Gypsy Children", presented the European
state of the art and commented on the academic
discourse about Gypsy/Roma groups in the European
Union mainly based on the concepts of exclusion,
marginality and ethnicity. Reference to the political
discourse about the education of Gypsy/Roma children
in a human rights perspective was also made by
Maria Papadopoulou, MA in Human Rights, member
of the Vocational Training Centre at the University
of Ioannina.
In the following sessions of the seminar Prof.
Gotovos presented the educational rationale of
the project "School Integration of Gypsy
Children" implemented in Greece during 1997-2001
and mentioned the main results of this educational
innovation (low drop-out rate, in-service training
for teachers, continuity in the educational careers
of Gypsy/Roma children, awareness of the public
as to the educational rights of all Greek children
of school age, Gypsy/Roma children included).
Prof. Gotovos discussed also the conceptions
of Greek teachers about the Gypsies as a collectivity.
Aspects of the negative experience – mainly
expressed as resistance against the spirit of
the innovation – made during the first
phase of the project's implementation were discussed
in the contributions of Yiannis Georgiou, sociologist,
MSc in Urban Sociology, and Maria Dimitriou,
social worker, member of the project’s
staff. The outline of the new project "School
Integration of Gypsy Children" (2002-2004)”,
its theory and approach, its educational goals,
actions and perspectives was presented by Prof.
Panayiotis Papakonstantinou, Director of the
project.
The socio-economic situation of the Gypsies
in Greece were discussed in the contributions
of Prof. Georgios Papakonstantinou, assistant
professor at the Department of Philosophy, Education
and Psychology of the University of Ioannina,
and Maria Pauli-Korre, political scientist at
the General Secretariat for Adult Education,
National Ministry of Education and Religious
Affairs in Athens. Prof. Papakonstandinou and
Mrs Pauli-Korre presented a comprehensive picture
of the occupational situation of Greek Gypsy
groups on the basis of empirical data collected
during the project’s implementation.
In the contributions of Prof. Leonidas Athanasiou
and Prof. Ioannis Vergados issues of curriculum
innovations and complementary educational materials
to enable Gypsy/Roma children’s bridge
the literacy gap due to previous drop-out practices,
were discussed. Prof. Athanasiou, responsible
for the development of educational material in
the project, presented also aspects of the contributions
of Prof. Elias Triandafylopoulos (material on
physical science education) and of Prof. Anastasios
Georgoulis (material on health education) who
could not be present. The contributors, authors
themselves of some of the educational material,
explained to the participants the rationale and
the process of their intervention, as well as
the reception of the textbooks by the teachers
and the pupils.
Issues of special interest were presented by
the rest of the contributors. A picture of the
past of Gypsy groups in Herakleion (Chandakas)
in the middle ages was presented by Prof. Ioannis
Mauromatis from the Department of Philology at
the University of Ioannina. Prof. Eleni Maragoudaki
from the Department of Philosophy, Education
and Psychology at the University of Ioannina
discussed the situation of Gypsy/Roma women in
Greece and the role the woman within the traditionally
oriented Gypsy community with the help of empirical
data gained in the first phase of the project
(1997-2000). The function of the national project
network for the mediation and facilitation of
the educational integration of Gypsy children
was presented by Nikolaos Poutsiakas, a sociologist-ethnologist
based in Larissa and responsible for the project's
implementation in the area.
Prof. Dimitrios Vergidis from the Department
of Primary Education at the University of Patras
presented to the participants his evaluation
of the project for the period 1997-2001 and discussed
aspects of its implementation at the level of
educational administration and teacher in-service
training, local society and teacher-pupil interaction.
