Mária Nagy: Gipsy pupils in schools. Teacher talk

An increasing number of Gipsy children have been completing their studies in the 8-year primary schools in Hungary, and a growing number enter secondary schools. The author, argues that, in spite of these data, in the era of rapid expansion in secondary schooling, dropping out and early school leaving means an enormous danger for the decreasing number of children (those of Gipsy origin highly represented among them) who do not obtain secondary school leaving certificates. So expectations are growing for teachers to combat school failure. Analysing open-ended questions of a 2001 survey among 540 beginning teachers in schools with a high proportion of Gipsy pupils (over 40% on average), the author tries to describe some characteristics of how teachers talk about these pupils. She calls attention to the fact, that the more concrete, professional and detailed their reports are, the more successful these young teachers feel themselves, while on the contrary, the less explicitly they describe school events, the more failure they experience. She also highlights how different resources the given schools themselves have, among them human resources, especially school support staff. She also identifies two main types of teacher role notions: a pupil-centred and a curriculum-centred one.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 102. Number 3. 301-331. (2002)

Levelezési cím / Address for correspondence: Nagy Mária, Országos Közoktatási Intézet, H­1364 Budapest, Pf. 120

 
PDF