Table Of Contentjana obrovská
roma identity and ritual
in the classroom
Th e Institutional Embeddedness of Ethnicity
Roma Identity and Ritual in the Classroom
Jana Obrovská
Roma Identity and
Ritual in the
Classroom
The Institutional Embeddedness of
Ethnicity
Jana Obrovská
Faculty of Education
Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic
ISBN 978-3-319-94513-2 ISBN 978-3-319-94514-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94514-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952084
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Acknowledgments
This book would not have emerged without the project, Educational
Strategies of Migrants and Ethnic Minority Youth (P404/12/1478), financed
by the Czech Science Foundation. Thanks to its generous support, I
could conduct my research study. However, it offered me much more
than only financial support. I had the opportunity to cooperate on this
project with my colleagues Lucie Jarkovská, Kateřina Lišková, and Adéla
Souralová, who accompanied me along the ethnographic journey and the
path toward publishing the results. Our common publications were a
source of inspiration for several of my interpretational links in this book
and also for the actualization of my own research. The reader will find
several references to these publications throughout the book. The greatest
thanks belong to these three colleagues. In addition, I am grateful to
Associate Professor Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky for numerous consulta-
tions on the proposal for this book and language proofreading. She has
been an exceptional professional as well as a source of friendly support.
Similarly, I extend great thanks to Jolana Navrátilová for prompt chapter
translations of very high quality. I am also grateful for the comments,
notes, and professional insights of everyone who has provided me with
feedback. These include my doctoral colleagues and friends, especially
Petr Kubala, for his very constructive ideas and comments at advanced
stages of the text. Furthermore, I want to thank Martin Nový, Hana
Porkertová, Dita Jahodová, Karina Hoření, Elaheh Mohammadi, and the
v
vi Acknowledgments
others who discussed the problems as well as the dead-ends of my research
(not only) during the Athos seminar at Masaryk University. Sincere thanks
go out to my supervisor, Associate Professor Radim Marada, for individ-
ual consultations and professional support during the writing process.
Additionally, I thank Professor Pavel Barša for kind and constructive
feedback within doctoral seminars, Associate Professor Csabo Szaló not
only for his advice but also for his permanent smile, and all the anony-
mous reviewers of my texts, especially those from the Czech Sociological
Review. I am also very grateful to Veronika Štefečková for the preparation
of my final text and help with indexing. Last but not least, I owe thanks
for the financial support provided by a grant from the Faculty of Education
at Masaryk University, through which I was able to pay the costs related
to translation and proofreading.
I would never have been able to realize this study without the kindness
and generosity of my research participants. I am especially indebted to
the school head for allowing me to conduct my research at the school and
the teachers of classrooms 8A and 8B for the patience and willingness to
have a curious observer in their classes. However, my biggest “thank you”
goes to the students of the two classrooms, who were always friendly to
me, spoke with me in a very open way, and shared their opinions, views,
and experiences. Without them, my research would have never been
possible.
I am indebted to my sister for willingly having read the whole book.
The greatest appreciation of all is directed at my partner Peťa, for more
and less academic discussions, for analytical coaching, and sharing the
common search for the sense of Everything. And also to my daughter
Anička Alkmini, who would sleep so patiently while I was finishing this
book.
Contents
1 Roma Education in Post-socialist Classrooms: Between
Segregation and Inclusion 1
2 Everyday Ethnicity and Ritual 27
3 T he Methodological Aspects of Educational Ethnography
in Ethnically Diverse Classrooms 59
4 The World of the Town and the School: The Institutional
Embeddedness of Ethnicity 83
5 E thnicity in Breaktime Interaction Rituals 101
6 E thnicity in Classtime Rituals 145
7 The Future of Roma Education in the Czech Republic:
From Homogenization to Diversification? 171
I ndex 193
vii
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Characteristics and types of rituals/ritualizations in the school
environment 51
Fig. 7.1 Relationships between rituals and the positions of ethnic
minority boys in classes 8A and 8B 181
Fig. 7.2 Positions and inclusion strategies among Roma girls in classes
8A and 8B 181
Fig. 7.3 Gendered inclusion strategies and positions of Roma boys and
girls in classes 8A and 8B 182
ix
List of Tables
Table 3.1 Overview of methods and data sources 69
Table 4.1 Overview and characteristics of basic schools in DiverCity 89
Table 5.1 Students in 8A 102
Table 5.2 Students in 8B 102
xi
1
Roma Education in Post-socialist
Classrooms: Between Segregation
and Inclusion
In the fall of 2017, Czech social networks circulated an image of first-
grade students from the basic school Plynárenská, in which an ethnically
mixed classroom was pictured, with children from the Czech majority, as
well as students (presumably) of Vietnamese, Arabic, and Roma back-
grounds. Many people commented on the photo, one of them indirectly
suggesting that those children should be sent “to gas,” because “at least
they are from BS Plynárenská [Gasworks Street]. The solution is at hand.”
(Golis 2017) The author of this statement later said to defend himself:
“This really has been taken out of context. I am no (big) racist.” A woman
in another comment chastised majority parents for sending their children
to the same classroom with minority children. Media cases like this are
not at all rare in the Czech context—news articles and documentaries
about the Roma often spur hateful and heated debates, in which the
Roma are labeled as “parasites” or “shirkers.” The above-mentioned exam-
ple is symptomatic, because the author of a strongly racist comment
defends himself saying that he is no “big” racist. This commenter thus
personifies the discourse of ethnic intolerance that has become wide-
spread and legitimized, especially in relation to the Roma. What the
authors of similar comments cannot stand is ethnic diversity, which they
© The Author(s) 2018 1
J. Obrovská, Roma Identity and Ritual in the Classroom,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94514-9_1
