Essay On The Article “Gypsies At School”

Essay on the article "Gypsies at school"

The article "Gypsies at School" of Miquel a. (2003), presents the context of the social group of gypsies in the field of education.

First, we must define the concept of "identity culture". This term refers to the set of behaviors, values, traditions, symbols and beliefs that together identify a social group, whose members are identified with these aspects.

Knowing this definition, we can affirm that for more than 50 years the institutions have directly related the school failure and success of the students with the identity culture.

Taking into account that there are isolated minorities, we can see how in the educational curriculum they are neglected to minorities, but these social groups are not far behind. Not being considered by the educational field, they oppose behaviors that can be brought into educational practice.

Not only educationally isolated, but also in the field of politics, economy, work, etc.

We reach the point that if a social group such as the gypsies are not represented in the curriculum we will have to devise various strategies to include them.

Research has exposed situations that occur with gypsy students. These usually start going to school much later than the rest of the children which translates into a low degree rate. In addition, there are a lot of absenteeism in the event that they are schooling.

This marginalization by the education system is due to its customs;to its routines;In his way of living without thinking about the future, a "here and now";to their periodization of adolescence as a very short time course that makes boys grow in an advanced way, especially girls;In addition, its oral tradition is predominant in their lives and do not adapt to the methodological style of the classrooms.

For all this, gypsies have a distorted vision of the school, do not accept it because they are not integrated into it. The school is an institution that threatens its way of life, since it conveys fundamental values for society. Seeing themselves and without the recognition of their cultural values they only treat school as a place to learn to read, write and do mathematical operations. They feel contempt for their cultural identity, which sometimes leads to aggressive responses.

Therefore, as future teachers we must be aware that the inclusion in the classroom of said community must be promoted and that, by including it, it is acquiring its own development linked to education. The changes must be flexible when welcoming the gypsies, their way of life, their communication.

To address integration we will take into account agreement and mediation. On the one hand, the Concertación is the negotiation that is established for gypsies to stop seeing school as something alien. In addition, it is important not to blame school failure to the life factors of this community (absenteeism, conflicts in school). The agreement must maintain a balanced communicative plane in which both parties collaborate and make decisions. At all times the negotiation must predominate, because otherwise we would lose the agreement. For everything to flow we must prevent cultural differences from being a wall during this process of inclusion in education. As teachers we must overcome each and every one of those differences so that the gypsy community embraces the idea of school, and vice versa.

Sometimes the figure of the mediator that helps with the final decisions and to make the communication is correct. The mediator must give freedom of speech to both negotiating parties.

When the agreement and medication are carried out ideally, the parents of gypsy students are involved in the educational life of their children, which results in academic success.

If we get a healthy relationship between family and school, we could get future generations to school. We would be faced with a success that would have to be perpetrated with effort, will and with a lot of communication and negotiation.