Access and Inclusion for Gypsy Roma and Traveller

Access and Inclusion for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller students in Higher Education Dr. Kate D’Arcy

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Content • Who are Travellers? • Barriers in Education • Issues in Higher Education • Voices of Travellers • Where next ?

Travellers • The term Traveller is used by the Department for Education (2008: 1) to include: • Gypsies including Romanies, Romanichals, Welsh Gypsies/Kaale, Scottish Gypsies/Travellers; Irish Travellers, Minceir; Roma from Eastern and Central Europe. • As this definition suggests, some Traveller groupings have a distinctly common ethnic and linguistic heritage. Other groups who do not fall under the Df. E Traveller terminology include Showmen, Circus people and Bargees, because they are not recognised ethnic minorities but travel for cultural and business purposes. While the term Traveller is often used interchangeably, the groups it comprises are quite distinct and should not be considered homogenous.

English School Ethnicity • In English schools there are just two distinct ethnic groups used to register pupils’ ethnicity – ‘Gypsy/Roma’ or Irish Traveller. This data, collected since 2004, has been helpful in providing some evidence of Traveller pupils’ access and achievement in schools.

Challenges in Education • Travellers’ achievement in England has improved significantly at primary school level. • Recent analysis of achievement data (ACERT, 2013) indicates that gaps are closing for Irish Travellers at KS 2 and Gypsy/Roma at GSCE level, but all Traveller groups start at a significant disadvantage. • Why might this be ?

Activity POWER WALK

Barriers • Racism • Bullying • Discrimination • Negative teacher attitudes and inconsistent or inadequate support • Traveller pupils have the lowest school attendance rate of all ethnic minority groups • Traveller boys also have the highest school exclusion rate of all ethnic groups. • Within mainstream school Traveller children are more likely to be identified as having a Special Education Need.

Issues • There continues to be a lack of understanding and respect towards Traveller pupils. Consequently, expectations of these students are often low and the rate of drop-out during the secondary school phase is high • By Year 11, only 50. 9 % of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils were recorded on school rolls compared with 92. 4 % of non-Gypsy

Coping strategies Fight, flight and playing White (Derrington, 2007) Wilkin et al. (2010) reported that at individual pupil level almost 70 % ascribed themselves differently over their period in school. Interestingly, around 50 per cent of pupils changed their ascribed ethnicity when they moved from primary to secondary school

Acting White: Ascription and entry into higher education • I never put down that I was a Traveller at university because you never know what will happen, you put it down but you don’t know whether you will be a successful candidate because of that? There are probably a lot more Travellers that have not come forward. I did not put down that I was a Traveller at college but I am very open with it. I have a Traveller background but it does seem to – well in schools it does seem to have an —well bullying in school and labelling from teachers so I just thought, well I am doing all right as I am. (Jasmine, 2015)

One 19 year old female student stated she changed her surname on college forms so she would not be perceived as a Gypsy Being a Gypsy means people think you are dirty and you thieve. My family are well known in this town; we are on an illegal site so I know I would be looked down on. (Mathews, 2016).

Higher Education data 2013/2014 Higher Education Statistics

Ethnicity categories – HE Traveller students can only ascribe as being Gypsy or Traveller OR Irish Traveller. This limited categorisation shows how the state treats ‘ethnicity’ as an essential defining characteristic. The reality is that individuals negotiate their identity very differently. I am Gypsy, I have both Irish and Sinti heritage, but I am always classed as an Irish Traveller by outsiders, actually, by everyone. It’s just easier. (Bell, 2016) I didn’t tick the box, neither did my friend. I don’t want teachers looking at us any differently or thinking like they did at school that we need special classes. That’s what happens when we say we are Traveller. (Smith, 2016)

Galloway’s research (46 interviews) Both university staff and Gypsy/Travellers themselves have low expectations of education. • University staff - a majority perception that education was not for Gypsy/Travellers and this view was also reflected among some families. • College and university were seen to be completely inaccessible due to the qualifications required, especially among families who have problematic interactions with school or whose children have dropped out.

Traveller students’ perceptions and experiences of pre- Higher education • Students are influenced by close family and there is a lack of information about the range of educational opportunities available to them. This directly impacts on their perception of Higher Education as a limited opportunity afforded to others in society (Galloway, 2016). • Reay (2009) proposed that the prevalent ‘common-sense’ view of the white working classes is that they themselves are to blame for their underachievement, that it is about cultural deficits, lack of ambition, and the wrong sorts of attitudes that hamper their inclusion and social mobility. The same theory can be applied to Travellers.

Intersections of Inequality Not feeling like you belong in a way that it is not expected of you, is the biggest barrier. In university I felt at odds with wealthy peers – I have felt out of place because of class. Young people need positive role models who go to university too who encourage them, but they don’t need to be Travellers. People need to ask for help at university, ask for support- especially mental health.

Traveller students’ perceptions and experiences of pre- Higher education • Influenced by close family and a lack of information about the range of educational opportunities available. • This directly impacts on their perception of Higher Education as a limited opportunity afforded to others in society (Galloway, 2016). • These concerns are valid for a community who have experienced years of exclusion from mainstream institutions, and where discriminatory policies and practices have often attempted to simply assimilate and exterminate their cultures (Liégeois, 1998). Why would I want to be like you? How can a gorja ever be a role model? No teachers are Travellers, are they? (Joey, 2016)

Younger generation- Travellers • Attitudes from the younger generation were somewhat different. There was intense interest in college from the younger people (18 -22 years of age) and a strong focus on aspirations for university: I’m not sure what I have to do to get there, but there`s a few of us would like to show that Gypsies aren’t thick; we are clever , we have laptops and i. Pads and smart phones , like they do …. (Levi, 2016) Why can’t we learn and do well? I might go to Oxford like that girl did, the show family wasn’t it? (Sherri, age 18)

Resolve to achieve • The day my tutor told me at school- ‘you will never get anywhere in life’ - I came home and cried to my mum. But it makes you think ‘I can do it’, if you put your mind to it, it makes you want it more. People that say – you are never going to do it- you can say – ‘I proved you wrong’. . .

Summary - Main issues in HE 1. Ascription to an ethnic category that identifies the student as being of Gypsy, Roma or Traveller heritage. 2. Support and information for Gypsy/Traveller students and staff and those working with Travellers. 3. Awareness of teaching staff and wider society regarding Gypsy/Traveller cultures and communities. Lecturers in the focus groups stated that the only time that they had seen Gypsies was on the My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding programme `but I am sure that this was a clear misrepresentation, I would not know how these groups actually do live’. (Michelle, 2016)

Lack of diversity training • I did ask about meeting diversity and we did one module on it, but we were really looking at those cultures that there are more of in our locality, so class and poverty and disability issues in the main. There was no mention of Travellers at all. • Similarly, when undertaking staff induction, another lecturer mentioned that the `quick fix’ half day training does mention those affected under the Equality Act but ‘does not delve into the needs of those learners or how we might encounter them and how best to plan for them; half a day is not enough’ (Day, 2016)

DISCUSS How to Improve…. • Ascription • Support and information for students about routes into HE • Support and information for staff about Traveller culture and inclusion

Questions • Is ascription necessary ? • If Traveller communities want to access to Further and Higher education is the creation of safe spaces and opportunities to engage with Traveller families an impossible feat? • All that is needed is the institutional and political will to do so…………(? ? )

For more information and resources visit our website www. beds. ac. uk/ic or our blog www. uniofbedscse. com Kate. d’arcy@beds. ac. uk @uniofbedscse