Good practices addressing school integration of Roma/Gypsy children in Hungary

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Abstract (may include machine translation)

Our recent projectFootnote 1 has a comparative perspective: it compares selected good practices of integration of ethnic minority children among three European countries (Italy, Switzerland and Hungary). The project examines several key areas of integration: governmental policies, NGO practices and most importantly good practices that might be transferable, irrespective of differences regarding national environment and ethnic group. We focus here on Hungary and aim to identify key elements of good practices of integrating Roma/GypsyFootnote 2 children such as creative pedagogical methods, differentiated personal treatment of children with learning problems, a multicultural curriculum, teacher training, extracurricular activities, community building and family involvement. This paper describes an innovative and transferable practice that promotes inclusion and addresses low school‐performance and high dropout rates among low status Roma children. The ‘Learnery’ project is an after‐school programme run by the minority community with the professional assistance of the public school. Results of the innovative practice are convincing: improved school performance, significant decrease in dropout rates, improved community relationships, and decrease of interethnic conflicts within the school.
Original languageHungarian
Pages (from-to)461-473
Number of pages13
JournalIntercultural Education
Volume19
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008

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