International Journal of Roma Studies

Migrant Children in the Voice of Preschool Educators: Challenges and Strategies to Address Cultural Diversity during COVID-19

2023-04-19T06:58:55+02:00

The present study investigated the didactic and intercultural strategies used by Early Childhood Educators during the health crisis to promote learning in culturally diverse children. A qualitative methodology and an instrumental case design were used. The participants were three Early Childhood Educators from a public educational center in a commune of Santiago de Chile, characterized by poverty and migrant school enrollment. Through semi-structured interviews, the voices of the Educators were collected, transcribed, coded, and categorized inductively for analysis. The results indicate that Educators need training and updating in didactic strategies and resources to teach in diverse and adverse educational contexts. Difficulties arose, especially in the implementation of intercultural approaches in learning experiences. The Educators highlighted the importance of updated training in new approaches, which should be integrated into initial teacher training. Advances and limitations in inclusive and intercultural education in Chile are evident, especially in early childhood, where attention has been primarily focused on the inclusion of children with special educational needs, indigenous peoples, and language barriers, leaving aside the promotion of a deeper inclusive and intercultural environment. These findings highlight the importance of comprehensively addressing cultural diversity in early childhood education and developing training and updating programs for Early Childhood Educators.

Intercultural Teaching Degree as a Training Ground for Indigenous Teachers and Researchers: Exploring Ways to Transform Research Methodologies

2023-10-30T13:50:57+01:00

This article seeks to examine the potential impact of training indigenous teacher-researchers, particularly in the context of the Takinahakỹ Nucleus for Indigenous Higher Education at the Federal University of Goiás, as a catalyst for the decolonizing research approaches. The work aims to deepen the understanding of how Intercultural Education not only questions the dominant structures in knowledge production, but also acts as a point of convergence for dialogue among different academic disciplines, offering new methodological opportunities for research with comprehensive, decolonized, and intercultural application. The proposed discussions aim to contribute to the reflection on how education systems, academic training and indigenous research can trigger the revision of conventional methodological practices, potentially inducing changes in research methods in predominant areas of knowledge. The degree in intercultural education and the training of indigenous researchers emerge as crucial elements in this process, paving the way for the coexistence of knowledge and the transformation of research methodologies into emancipatory and decolonized tools.

Dialogic Leadership of Roma Women: A Case Study

2023-11-02T10:40:00+01:00

Research demonstrates that Roma women can be leaders to support educational processes that contribute to social change and transformation. However, there are few studies addressing the case of the role of Roma women in the learning communities project to show the ways they are committed to education, specially of young Roma women. This article analyses in depth the case of a learning community in which Roma women organize dialogical meetings to share their concerns about education, thus exercising dialogic leadership. Through the communicative methodology, a case study was developed using different techniques. The data analysis and results illustrate the powerful and inspirational narratives of change resonating with the dialogic leadership of the Roma women participating in the school.

Weaving Strong Relationships Within Roma Women Associations to Overcome Violence Against Women

2023-11-11T16:29:04+01:00

Cultural relationships shape individuals’ response towards some of the most pressing challenges, such as the urgent one of tacking violence against women. In this sense, women from ethnic minorities have to face more systemic barriers in accessing care and protection services for victims of gender violence. Despite the progress made in recent years, the official circuits continue to be far from the Roma reality. In this research, authors explore the key role played by two Romani women association in fulfilling this gap. Through the communicative methodology this research bridges together participants’ and scientific knowledge in a co-creation process to illustrate how, despite systemic barriers, two Romani women associations are working to prevent and overcome violence against women. The findings of this research warn of the impact of training in gender violence for Roma women, accompaniment and counselling for victims, to overcome the problem by strengthening intercultural relationships. Thus, the article analyzes the bridging work of those Roma associations and identifies how they are contributing to closing the gap between Roma women who had suffered gender violence and the institutions. How these two Roma-women associations counteract the under-representation of Roma identity in official services is also discussed.