Challenges in Roma Education: Unveiling Anti-Gypsyism In Italian Schools

This chapter underlines the role that ethnographic research can play in unveiling deep-rooted anti-Gypsyism in European schools, particularly in Italy. This not only regards cases of proclaimed and evident discrimination, but also several cases of apparent “scholastic success” which hide a non-recognition of the cultural specificity of Romani groups and can result in their assimilation. The first section of the chapter offers a definition of anti-Gypsyism that includes the visions, practices and effects of this particular form of racism which, for centuries, has led so-called “Gypsy” groups in Europe to adopt resistance or elusion coping strategies against the hegemonic powers in our societies. The second part shows how anti-Gypsyism is also well-rooted and ongoing in European schools, particularly in Italy. A summary of the studies that have been conducted in anthropology of education and with the ethnographic method over the last thirty years shows just how disastrous the situation of Roma education in Italy is. Nevertheless, it also shows how relations between Roma and non-Roma at school can have varying degrees of conflict depending on the local context. The third and fourth sections of the chapter give a more detailed account of the only case study carried out so far in Italy on the scholastic success of a Roma community. It does, however, highlight how this scholastic success was closely connected to the “cultural loss” of a minority, which has literally “disappeared,” rather than “intercultural dialogue” between majority and minority parties within the local society. The concluding arguments underline that the challenges schools face today lie in recognizing and reflecting on their own anti-Gypsyism and overcoming it, not only by avoiding exclusion and patent discrimination, but also by not completely ignoring all the cultural specificity of Roma and therefore, not running the risk of assimilationism.