A Silenced Conflict: Segregation Processes, Curricular Gaps and Dropout among Spanish Gitanos or Calé

Abstract

This paper offers a basic model of some of the main intersecting causes of the early abandonment and school failure of the Gitano or Spanish Romani adolescents. It is based on a long-term research in an educational community where the presence of Romani students has been particularly important. In this research, we studied how professors, parents and students experimented, perceived and voiced the processes that lead to a marked segregation of schools and of Gitano children in school, and how that related to the gradual lag in competences and grades of these children compared to the majority of pupils. One manifestation of this lag is that Gitano children have to repeat courses more often than their non-Gitano partners and become disillusioned and alienated from school routines, become older than their fellow students, thereby increasing conflicts. The problem becomes more severe during the transition from primary to secondary school, which often involves the displacement to an unknown and less protective environment, and a more demanding curriculum. In high school, Gitano pupils keep failing behind, and often become frustrated and discouraged. Around 16 years of age, the limit age of compulsory education, most Gitano adolescents abandon education for good and quickly become adults in hard but gratifying environments where early marriage and labor with kin offers a shortcut to adulthood and independence. Satisfying as this could be in the short term, it did not bode well for the future independence and the sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the Spanish Romani minority.