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Is Educa)on for All?
Travelling, Nomadic and Indigenous Communi5es
Dr Juliet McCaffery January 2015
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Rethinking
The idea that educa5on does not serve everyone challenges my 35 years’ experience in secondary school teaching in England, Denmark and America, and then as a facilitator, trainer and consultant in adult literacy
Two experiences started the train of thought • 1998 Nigeria -‐ the Fulani • 2004-‐11 Gypsy and Traveller research.
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• Much academic research and many project reports support the importance of literacy in terms of people’s self confidence and wellbeing.
• My research found that in our highly industrialised and text-‐dependent environment, many Gypsies and Travellers did not consider that literacy and formal educa5on contributed to their self confidence, their social status within their community or their economic situa5on (McCaffery, 2012).
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Many argue that our educa5on is Eurocentric – e.g. Griffin and MacEinri, ( 2014:11) say that this: • …translated into overt racial policies and discriminatory prac5ces, or into inadequate provision, or indeed into indifference within na5onal educa5ons systems with unspoken and hidden messages transmi\ed through mainstream curricula.
I start with Gypsies and Travellers.
Eurocentric educa5on
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A Vardo (wagon) at a country fair
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Accommoda5on
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Council site
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Private site
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Culture and origins
Ethnic minority: History, culture (work pa\erns, sexual, mores, hygiene,) and communica5on.
Languages: English, Angloromani, Gammon, Cant. If Mande rokkered the poggadi jib tuc wouldn’t jin what mande was pukkering. (If I spoke the broken language, you wouldn’t understand what I was saying.)
Kush5, chavi
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Educa5on – a slow start
• In 1963 the first School for Travellers was opened in Dublin
• 1967 the first school in England was established on the disused Hornchurch aerodrome.
• In 1967 the Plowden Report Children and their Primary Schools was published by the UK Ministry of Educa5on and things very slowly moved forward.
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Educa5on – a slow start
• 1977 Croydon Educa5on commi\ee refused to accept a Traveller child in school because she was resident on an unauthorized caravan site. Croydon lost its case in the High Court.
• 1980 the UK government directed that the local authority’s “duty was to educate all children residing in their area, whether permanently or temporarily” (Circular 1/81.Waterson, 1997:135).
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Achievements at GCSE and equivalent for pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 (2010/2011) Ethnic / No. %5A*-‐C %5+ A*-‐C incl %5A*-‐G Cultural Group eligible pupils grades English &Maths grades Gypsy/Roma 595 31.4 10.8 59.2 Traveller of 137 35.0 17.5 55.5 Irish Heritage White/black 6,444 75.6 49.1 59.8 Caribbean
White Bri5sh 464,056 80.1 58.0 95.0 Source: DFE 2011 12
Par5cipa5on Rates • In 1998 par5cipa5on rates of Gypsy and Traveller children at Key
Stage 2 were 84% and at Key Stage 4 were only 47% (DCSF 2006:8).
• In 2010, 20 % of Gypsy Roma and Traveller pupils failed to transfer to secondary school. (DFE 2011)
• In Brighton, which has no permanent sites but one transit site, 34% (26) of the children who were within the city boundaries during the school year 2008-‐9 did not a\end any school. (Brighton Annual TES Report 2008-‐9)
• The Traveller Movement reported that of those who transfer successfully to secondary school more than 50% of Gypsies and 62% of Irish Travellers dropped out, or were excluded before the statutory leaving age. (Moore and Brindley, 2012)
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Suppor5ve Educa5on Policies
• Government documents support improving Gypsy and Traveller educa5on
• Government funds a Traveller Educa5on Service, yet very low a\endance and achievement con5nues
• The ques5ons is “Why?”
• Parents are frequently blamed for not knowing the importance and value of educa5on.
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Reasons for low school a\endance • No place to stop:
1959 Highways Act; 1964, 1968 Caravan Sites Act; 1994 Criminal Jus5ce and Public Order Act (CJPOA)
25,000 have no legal stopping place. In 2006 there were 1,868 pitches in Southeast England but another 1,064 required by 2011. In July 2012 the bi-‐annual count showed a slight improvement but 16% of caravans s5ll on unauthorised land.
• Cultural mores not acknowledged. • Fear of assimila5on and loss of culture: formal (school-‐based)
literacy was s5ll viewed by many as being poten5ally divisive, its very use signifying a degree of assimila5on. (Levinson 2007)
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Canada and America
• In Upper Canada in 1846, the purpose of educa5on was deemed to be not ‘the mere organisa5on … of certain branches of knowledge, but that instruc5on and discipline which … dispose the subjects. For the appropriate du5es and enjoyment of life as Chris5ans and persons of business … and members of the community.’
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Canada and America • In both Canada and America, the government view was that the purpose of educa5on was to inculcate Eurocentric values in American Indians (AI) and Alaskan Na5ves (AN). Children were removed from their families because of – ‘what was perceived to be supers55ous and uncivilized prac5ces learned in tradi5onal indigenous communi5es and instead educated and socialised according to Chris5an belief systems’. (Cherubini 2014:150)
– and educated according to Eurocentric epistemologies and tradi5ons. (Marker 2000:80).
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Indigenous Educa5on The Coolanga\a Statement on Indigenous People’s Rights in educa5on was adopted in Hawaii 1999. The preamble states:
Ul5mately the purpose of this educa5on has been to assimilate Indigenous peoples into non-‐Indigenous cultures and socie5es. (para 1.3.1.)
Over the last 30 years, Indigenous peoples throughout the world have argued that they have been denied equity in non-‐Indigenous educa5on systems which have failed to provide educa5onal services that nurture the whole Indigenous person inclusive of scholarship, culture and spirituality. (Preamble)
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Indigenous Peoples Applies to Australian Aborigines, the Maori in New Zealand, the Fulani in West Africa, the San in Botswana and many others.
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References
• Department for Educa5on (DFE) (2011), GCSE and Equivalent AZainment by Pupil Characteris[cs in England 2010/11, London: DFE.
• Cherubini, L. (2014), Indigenous Groups’ Educa5on: the Case of North America’, in Educa[on in Indigenous and Travelling Communi[es (Ed), Griffin, R. London: Bloomsbury.
• Graff, H. J. (1979), The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the 19th Century City, New York: Academic Press.
• Griffin, R. and MacEinri, P. (2014:11), ‘Educa5onal Issues for Indigenous and Travelling People: A Global Overview’ in Educa[on in Indigenous and Travelling Communi[es. (Ed). Griffin, R. London: Bloomsbury.
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• Huffman, T. (2012), ’Na5ve American Educators: Percep5ons on Academic Achievement among Reserva5on Students: an Examina5on of Transcultural Theory’. Paper presented at BAICE conference, Cambridge, UK, 2010.
• Levinson, M. (2007), ‘Literacy in English Gypsy Communi5es: Cultural Capital Manifested as Nega5ve Assets’ in American Educa[onal Research Journal, 44, 1, pp. 5–39.
• Hancock, I. (2000), ‘Standardisa5on and Ethnic Defence in Non-‐Literate Socie5es’ in Acton, T. and Dalphinis, M. (eds.), Language, Blacks and Gypsies, pp. 3-‐8, London: Whi5ng and Birch Ltd.
• Marker, M. (2012), ‘Coast Salish youth and resistance to mul5cultural educa5on: Transna5onal iden55es and the re-‐inscrip5on of indigenous cogni5ve iden55es’. Paper presented at BAICE conference, Cambridge, UK
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• Moore, M. and Brindley, M. (2012), Gypsies and Travellers Shadow Report. hZp://www.irishtraveller.org.uk/wp-‐content/uploads/2010/12/ITMB Submission-‐to-‐CLG-‐Select-‐CommiZee-‐inquiry-‐into-‐Localism.pdf. Accessed Jan. 3, 2013.
• Plowden, Lady (1967), Children and their Primary Schools, London: Her Majesty’s Sta5onery Office.
• Shostak, M. (1981), Nisa, The Life and Words of a! Kung Woman, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
• Traveller Educa5on Service (2009), Annual Report on Traveller Educa[on 2009, report to the Children, Schools and Families Overview and Scru5ny Commi\ee, Westborough: Jan. 28, 2009.
• Tuhiwai-‐Smith, L. (1999), Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books, London.
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• Waterson, M. (1997), Clause 5 of DES Circular 1/81 Educa[on Act: Admission to Schools; Appeals, Publica[on of Informa[on and School AZendance Orders in ‘I want more green leaves for my children’ in Acton, T. and Mundy, G. (eds.), Romani Culture and Gypsy Iden[ty, pp. 129-‐151, Herdord: Herdordshire University Press.
• World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Educa5on, Hilo, Hawai‘i, August 6, 1999. hZp://ankn.uaf.edu/IKS/Cool. html C:\Users\juliet\Documents\ar5cles\The Coolanga\a Statement.mht Accessed Dec. 22, 2014.
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