Abstract:

In the light of the census data of Slovakia, the number of Roma nationals identifying themselves as native Hungarian speakers has shown an increasing tendency. However, currently there is no precise data on how many Roma people, of them how many Hungarian Roma people, live in Slovakia. Nor is there reliable information on the number of Roma pupils in Hungarian-language primary schools. Whereas Roma children are generally discouraged from learning, I believe it is very important to use Roma tales and Roma culture that are well-known to them as the basis for the learning experience in order to motivate them to learn. If the presentation of Roma culture is integrated in the curriculum through the tales, it will have the main educational impact of making the Roma children feel empowered and motivated, and it will also confirm to them that the culture they were born into is a valuable culture. It is also important to enable them to present their valuable culture to the majority. Thereby the Roma pupils will be more motivated, be on terms of perfect equality, and be strengthened in their common values through inclusive education. One of the most important factors for one’s identity is language. Slovakian Hungarian children may attend Hungarian-language schools. However, with respect to South Slovakia, an important question must be posed: What will happen to the Hungarian Roma who are in the minority in Slovakia? The biggest obstacle to the integration of Hungarian Roma living in Slovakia lies in their double minority status: besides being members of the Roma minority, they belong to the Hungarian minority within the society. It emerges clearly that State education programmes allow scope to include the thematic area of Roma culture and identity in education, as it is stated in the introduction of the State education programme that it is important to develop the pupils’ value orientation and interpersonal skills in order to enable them to integrate in society and to be active participants in social interactions. It draws attention to core competencies in relation to equal opportunities, the importance of belonging to a nation, understanding of and respect for different national cultures, and fostering linguistic culture, to name but a few. I would like to add, with regard to the last one, that, dealing with Roma children attending minority schools that use Hungarian as language of instruction, the fostering of linguistic culture is of dual nature: the domain of language use for those who speak Roma is limited to small-scale family environment; the other aspect is the process of language loss and language shift which means that, in practice, many Roma no longer speak the Roma language and use the Hungarian language as their mother tongue. Language loss or language shift causes a certain degree of identity loss or identity crisis. In addition to all this, the different forms of the social exclusion of Roma people, negative stereotypes of and discrimination against them, as well as xenophobia, create an even bigger gap between Roma and non-Roma people. I therefore consider the inclusion of the thematic area of Roma culture in education through Roma folk tales and tales created by an author as extremely important. Only those framework curricula and cross-curricular themes are dealt with below which contain recommendations concerning intercultural dialogue and multicultural education. This study does not aim to provide a comprehensive description of framework curricula and cross-curricular themes, but to highlight those of them which allow the inclusion of the thematic area of Roma culture in education.

The reason why I deal with Hungarian primary school children is noted in the introduction. Folktales can highlight the differences and similarities between different cultures, as well as to diversity, even in early childhood education. It is important to develop the pupils’ competencies, which will enable them to better understand the differences between mainstream society and minority society, to be more tolerant to each other, and to have respect for others’ traditions. Folktales and tales created by authors paint a broad picture of the Roma culture, the functions of primary socialisation, ethnic identity, religion, superstitions, traditions and customs, interactions within the family and outside the family boundaries, ancient homeland, bond with the school, and knowledge as an essential element for subsistence and living a decent life. Integrating Roma tales into the curriculum could contribute greatly to being able to draw the pupils’ attention to the differences and similarities between different cultures, as well as to diversity. These tales give insight in the Roma culture; they could help the Roma children have a better knowledge of their own culture, contribute to the cultural enrichment of non-Roma pupils, and build an intercultural bridge between the two groups.

Keywords:

Roma, education programme, multicultural education, primary education, tales.