Equality in the Making? Roma and Traveller Minority Policies and Basic Education in Three Nordic Countries

Abstract

The article examines policies intended to promote the basic education of Roma and Traveller minorities in Finland, Sweden and Norway by analysing key national Roma and Traveller policy (N=5) and education policy documents (N=3). Analysis shows how the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian Roma policies translate the general policy aims of improving the social positioning of people identifying as Roma consistently into policy measures responding to the special needs of Roma pupils. These policy measures are validated by problem representations regarding Roma parents and families. All the policies also problematise the relationship between Roma and Traveller cultures and schools. It is argued that the focuses of the current policy measures constrain opportunities for a change in terms of equality.

The Role of Perceived Unjust Treatment in Unmet Needs for Primary Care Among Finnish Roma Adults

“…These programs seek to promote human and minority rights and support minorities in maintaining their own culture and language. However, Helakorpi et al [70] has maintained that, while trying to increase the school attendance among the Roma children, policy programs have sometimes problematized the Roma and their relationship to school rather than concentrated on the structures and practices that produce the inequality in education. There is a risk that the well-meaning policy programs of equality may miss their opportunity to intervene in structures and practices hence making it difficult to address the root causes of inequality and the way it is reproduced in a society.…”

“Reflexivity of reflexivity” with Roma-related Nordic educational research

“…Knowledge is produced to challenge its own nature and disrupt unquestioned ways of knowing (Lather, 2006). As reflected in my data these can be achieved through, among others, poststructural feminist theory (Helakorpi et al, 2018(Helakorpi et al, , 2019, Foucauldian discourse/policy analysis (Vesterberg, 2015(Vesterberg, , 2016, genealogy (Pyykkönen, 2015), performative ethnography (Roman, 2018a(Roman, , 2018b, and autoethnography (Stenroos, 2018).…”

Knowledge about Roma and Travellers in Nordic schools

“…Finland, Sweden, and Norway have acknowledged the inequities in the educational outcomes of Roma and Traveller pupils and have introduced policies and practices to improve the educational situation. As one key measure, policies, and practices that promote the provision of knowledge about Roma and Travellers for the school communities have been recommended by different agencies (Helakorpi, Lappalainen, and Mietola 2018).…”

“…Like Kumashiro, Paul C. Gorski (2006, p. 165) claims that rather than simply providing knowledge about minoritised groups, the promotion of justice in education would call for institutional transformation with "a continual analysis of institutional power and privilege" (see also hooks 1994). Nevertheless, current policies promote increased knowledge about Roma and Travellers in schools in Finland, Sweden, and Norway, and the individuals working to promote the education of these groups are expected to provide it (see also Helakorpi, Lappalainen, and Sahlström 2019;Helakorpi et al 2018).…”

“…845-846). The practices are perceived as analogical because they are emerging in the intersections of similar kinds of national policy processes, which are entangled in supranational policy processes: the internationalisation of Roma and Traveller policies, minority policies, and education policies (Brubaker 1996;Kymlicka 2007;Vermeersch 2006; see also Helakorpi, Lappalainen, and Mietola 2018). Furthermore, the three countries have historically co-operated and are currently co-operating in Roma and Traveller policies, and the policies are intertwined historically and currently (Pulma 2006;AoI 2009;MSAH 2016;SOU 2009).…”