Multicultural Education: Policy, Planning and Sharing

6-7-8 May 1999

Dobogóko, Hungary

CONFERENCE REPORT

AGENDA

PARTICIPANTS

WELCOME LETTER

SCHOOL VISITS

DISCUSSING THE POLICY PAPER

SCHOOL SUCCESS FOR ROMA CHILDREN

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

SESSION: TEACHING TECHNIQUES

SESSION: OPEN SCHOOL PROJECT

SESSION: SUPPORTING ROMA FROM KINDERGARTEN TO UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION TO AVAILABLE RESOURCES

WHAT IS MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? WHAT DOES IT DO?

ORAL HISTORY

ISSUES OF MINORITIES AND EDUCATION IN THE REGION

STRATEGIC PLANNING

NEEDS OF OUR REGION - DISCUSSION GROUPS

VIDEO: "HÉTSZÍNVIRÁG" SCHOOL

Conference report

Background

Multicultural education and the education of minority pupils, especially Roma, has been targeted as a priority for all foundations.

With the draft Policy paper ready it was especially important to create the possibility for foundations to discuss the arising questions. There was also an urgent need to give foundations the possibility to share their experiences and methods relating to multicultural education in general and especially the special needs in the education of Roma students. With organising the conference, IEP wanted to provide an open debate about these questions.

The Purpose of the Conference

The purpose of the conference was to:

1. To introduce the policy paper, "Multicultural Education and the Education of Minority Pupils" developed by IEP, and to begin to discuss and answer the question - What are the implications for foundations;
2. To support the process of strategy development in order to create an effective strategy and programme portfolio relating to the policy;
3. To share information about effective foundation programmes, including good methods and techniques particularly related to the successful schooling of Roma children.

Conference Participants

There were 40 participants from 16 countries.

The foundations that participated in the conference were from the countries where multicultural education, or the education of minorities is a priority area. Most countries in Central and Eastern Europe have problems in this field, thus many of the countries in the region participated.

Conference Program

The work at the conference was divided into three major parts in the following way:

The first day was devoted to policy. An introductory presentation outlined why and how the draft policy paper was prepared with the help of the foundations themselves. Susan Róna addressed questions regarding more general issues on Roma education in her presentation "School Success for Roma Children". There were presentations and discussions concerning the implementation of the policy paper. The first part concentrated on a broader view while the second part of the day was rather discussions.

The second day was mainly spent with the planning and methodology aspects. Charles Temple and Byrd Stasz as respected experts in the field conducted a workshop through the day. Their presentations and group sessions focussed on the aspects of multicultural education, the problems and importance of children's books in a multicultural education framework and oral history.

The third day was almost entirely the time for sharing practice and discussing problematic points in connection with minority education. Stephen Heyneman's keynote speech addressed several important questions in the field of minority education today. Focus was given to group discussions and sharing practical methods. One especially helpful and useful session was the regional group discussions where foundations had the possibility to discuss common problems and ways of solutions in the field of multicultural education.

Conference Outcomes

It was IEP's hope that Foundations would return home and digest all that they had experienced, that they could integrate multicultural education and the education of minority pupils into their overall education strategies, and to have fresh ideas about creating new programme areas or revising existing ones to meet the multicultural education needs in their countries.

The outcomes of the conference are summarised in details in the "Proceedings of the Multicultural Education Conference" on IEP's web page: http://www.osi.hu/iep.

Hard copies are also available for reference.

Report prepared by: Csaba Fényes

Christina McDonald

Budapest, 31 May, 1999

Agenda

Wednesday 5 May, 1999

School Visits

18:30 Buses leave Nádor 11 for Dobogóko

19:45 Arrival at hotel and dinner

21:00 Discussion of School Visits

Thursday 6 May, 1999

Policy

9:00 Welcome Christina McDonald, Senior Program Officer, IEP, OSI-Budapest

9:15 Introduction to Policy Development and Draft Policy Paper, Péter Radó, Fellow IEP, OSI-Budapest

10:15 Coffee Break

10:30 School Success for Roma Children: From Policy to Practice – Susan Rona, Senior Advisor in Education, OSI - New York

11:00 Engaging in Draft Policy Lines – Mapping of Programs

11:45 Strengths and Weaknesses Compared to Draft Policy Lines

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Plenary

15:00 Concurrent Sharing Sessions:

1. Step by Step: Roma Initiative - Panel discussion chaired by Susan Rona
2. Whole-School Change and Teaching Techniques – Krajnyák Magdolna and Nyirtelek School, Drama in Education – Anita Mészáros
3. Teaching Techniques in Bilingual Classrooms - Hristo Kyuchukov
4. Open School Project (Russian Minority) Iveta Silova – Latvian Foundation
5. Supporting Roma: From Kindergarten to University – Hungarian Foundation

16:00 Coffee Break

16:15 Introduction to Resources: The Web and Resource Package

17:15 Close

19:00 Dinner in Esztergom – Primas Pince

Sharing *Charles Temple and Bird Stasz developed and will conduct all following sessions

9:00 Introduction to the Morning – Hristo Kyuchukov, Fellow IEP, OSI-Budapest

9:20 Multicultural Education: What Is It? Why Is It Relevant? – Charles Temple, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA and Bird Stasz, Wells College, USA*

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 How Is Prejudice Perpetuated? How Is It Interrupted?

Children’s Books and Educational Materials Can Be Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution.

How an Oral History Project Works.

Oral History Exercises.

13:00 Lunch

14:00 A Videotaped Oral History.

Writing from Oral Histories.

How To Create an Oral History Project With Young People.

15:30 Coffee Break

16:00 How a Writing Project/book Publishing Project Works.

An Example of a Writing Workshop.

Patterns of Multicultural Books.

Standards for Writing Non-didactic Works for Children.

Illustrating Books for Children.

Using Multicultural Materials with Students.

A Preview of What a Multicultural Education Project Might Look Like.

18:00 Adjournment

19:30 Dinner at Hotel

Saturday 8 May, 1999

9:00 Issues of Minorities and Education in the Region – Stephen Heyneman, Vice President International Operations, International Management and Development Group, Ltd.

10:30 Coffee

10:45 Multicultural Needs of our Countries – Group Discussions

12:30 Lunch

14:30 Program Possibilities – Charles and Bird

15:00 Strategic Planning – Multicultural Education Component

15:30 Needs Assessment

16:00 Coffee Break

16:30 Next Steps

17:30 Close and 1. Viewing of video Hétszínvirág Primary School or group discussion with Kyrgyzs Foundation

19:00 Farewell dinner at Rákos Pince

 Participants

Welcome letter

Welcome Letter

Dear Participant,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Multicultural Education: Policy, Planning and Sharing Conference in Dobogóko, Hungary, May 6-8, 1999. We hope that the conference will be a rewarding and useful experience for you, and your foundation’s work.

We also hope that the conference will help us learn about and work with some new directions in which the network will be moving. To help us with this, our conference objectives are:

1. To introduce the draft network policy paper, "Multicultural Education and the Education of Minority Pupils," and to begin to discuss and answer the question - What are the implications for foundations;
2. To support the process of strategy development in order to create an effective strategy and programme portfolio relating to the draft policy;
3. To share information about effective foundation programmes, including good methods and techniques particularly related to the successful schooling of Roma children.

Presenters…We are pleased to have many distinguished presenters, both from outside and inside the Soros Foundation Network.

Bird Stasz has been the Director of Elementary Education, Wells College, in Aurora New York since 1993. Besides her duties as director, she teaches courses in Education, as well as Ethnography, Educational Psychology, Children’s literature and First Year Experience. She has written extensively on subjects such as literacy, volunteerism, oral history and process writing, children’s literature, critical thinking and problem solving. She has previously worked in Romania as a consultant to the network on writing the oral history of Roma.

Charles Temple is professor of Education and Hobart Williams-Smith College in Geneva, New York. Charles is the author of many textbooks, scholarly

articles as well as children's books. He has worked in the Dominican

Republic and has also worked extensively with the Soros Foundation Network in numerous countries, especially in connection with the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Network Program.

Stephen Heyneman is the Vice President for International Operations of the International Management and Development Group Limited (IM&D Ltd.) in Washington, D.C. IM&D helps education clients expand into international markets, acquire new partners, provide public and private education and training services of higher quality and competitive costs, and restructure and retrain workforces in transition economies. Prior to joining IM&D in September 1998, he was the Lead Education Specialist for the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank where he contributed to analytic justifications for lending and policy work on education, training and labor markets for countries in Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltics, the Caucuses, the Russian Federation and Central Asia. Spanning two decades, his responsibilities in the World Bank included managing programs of education research, training design, operations policy and evaluation. His areas of expertise include, among others, education finance and education quality, economic choices of education technology, cognitive skills and economic productivity and the contribution of education to social cohesion and social stability.

In addition to these guests, we are honored to include presenters from our own Network.

Péter Radó, IEP Fellow and former State Secretary for Minorities at the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education and a previous Roma Educational Board Member for the Soros Foundation. Susan Rona, former Director of the Education Program Support Unit is currently Senior Advisor in Education for OSI-New York.

Practical Notes…

Please use the free time available to explore the environment around Dobogóko. If you need any special services, Eva Badar, Logistics Coordinator, or any member of the IEP team will be pleased to assist you. Note that any phone calls or other additional charges to your room must be paid by you at check-out.

We look forward to working with you over these three days. Please do not hesitate to provide us feedback or suggestions on any aspects of the program.

Sincerely,

Christina McDonald

Conference Coordinator

DiSCUSSING THE POLICY PAPER

Discussing the Policy Paper

The Draft Policy Paper

Multicultural Education and the Education of Minority Pupils

This policy paper is presented for OSI Board for consideration and approval. The paper describes the background to the problem the process of policy development, and the main policy lines, which – if approved – will be the guidance to Foundations and network programs in the field of minority and multicultural education.

The development of the policy

This policy paper from the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) focuses on the education of minority children and multicultural education. It is the first contribution to the evolution of an overall framework of educational policy for the OSI network. The matters considered in that paper overlap with other important issues; for example, equity, gender, community education, democracy in education, textbook design or teacher training. All these related issues will be addressed later by other discussion papers. The resultant policies (like this policy on the education of pupils with minority affiliation) will be developed through a similar discussion process. The whole process is intended to produce a suite of policy documents which, taken together, will offer a framework of ideas to guide and support the relevant activity of the Foundations. The process of development of this present paper, the first in the series, is set out in Annex A.

Multicultural Education and the Education of Minority Pupils

Policy Paper for the Soros Network

The primary aim of policy development in the Soros network is to ensure that programs relate directly and effectively to the overall mission of promoting open societies. This involves the identification of key issues, their exploration and analysis, and the formutaion of ways in which the needs might be met and the problems overcome. This policy paper will provide guidelines for Foundations and network programs in relation to the education of children with minority affiliation.

1. Background

Regardless of their provenance, minorities all over Central-Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEE and NIS) have suffered considerably in the past: many of them continue to suffer. Especially in this region, nationalism has throughout the years, consistently overridden principles of international solidarity, political universalism, and cultural pluralism, and has repeatedly caused people to disregard others’ claims to justice, or reason, or a common morality. As a result of this, the region periodically experiences examples of disturbing resurgence of xenophobia, ethnic bias, and racism - often resulting in violence. Present circumstances bear witness to the truth of this assertion.

Ethnic conflicts and racism are, in part, a consequence of the division of societies along ethnic group lines, to form new nation-states - for example at the end of the First World War). However, a number of other factors are also important. For example, the enduring and profound economic problems which have followed the end of Soviet political and military domination in the region had, as one consequence, intensification of competition for scarce commodities and the rescinding of restrictions of free speech and association. It is also possible argue that it has resulted in widespread public tendencies to seek scapegoats in difficult periods.

The importance of the field of education to this topicis well illustrated by a range of considerations. For example:

• The existence and treatment of minorities are highly politicized issues; in more than a few countries this topic is one of the central issues of politics. Importantly, state’s treatment of minorities often influences inter-state relations and the chances of these countries of being integrated into the political and economic structures of Europe and the developed world. As a consequence, the education of minority students has become one of the most sensitive questions in the region.

• The treatment of minorities is a "litmus test" by which the openness of a society can be measured. In the long term, education and the public media are the most effective devices by which the acceptance of minority rights and tolerance toward minorities can be strengthened.

• Education is one of the most important vehicles by which the integration of minorities into mainstream society can be promoted. It has a special importance in cases such as Roma when exclusion from society is a major cause of the spiral of social deprivation.

Genuine ethnic problems in the education of pupils belonging to minorities manifest themselves in three main areas: language, culture, and discrimination. Beyond that, another major set of problems are raised by failures in the processes of education of the majority in regard to minority issues. In this regard the understanding and valuing of cultural diversity is a key issue.

In relation to language, national legal frameworks, which restrict mother tongue and bilingual instruction in schools, can present a serious obstacles. Even where the law allows minorities education in the mother tongue, there is often no knowledge or infrastructure for mother tongue or bilingual instruction. Sometimes, too, implementation is impeded for other, more political, reasons. Further, where the willingness to pursue positive policies exists, technical problems remain. For example, when learning in a second language, minorities are often at a disadvantage if methods training, a revised curriculum and appropriate textbooks have not been provided. And there are other, frequently experienced, obstacles to proper language acquisition. Amongst these are a lack of resources for materials development: a lack of skilled teachers able to teach in minority languages; the low prestige of minority language in many cultures; and an inadequate provision of space in the curriculum for everyday and formal language usage in the minority language; In addition, good practice in this field is often impeded by poor opportunities for cultural exchange among host and mother countries.

The culture of minorities is very often not respected in most countries of CEE and NIS. Minority children frequently have no access to their history, culture and traditions within existing educational programs. Nor do majority children receive information or knowledge about minority culture. The result is a mutual lack of knowledge, and too often, prejudices in the majority group persist. (The above problems refer to the content of education, extra-curricular activities, how education can build on the services of cultural institutions, and the lack of multicultural and intercultural programs.)

Discrimination is a problem that all minorities face. In our Region, educational discrimination is most acute for the Roma community. It is manifest in several forms such as segregation, detrimental pedagogies, and racist behavior. The segregation of Roma students in the educational system is very often the result of a "ghettoization" of Roma in settlements and neighborhoods of cities and towns. Schools in these settlements are often considered "Roma" schools and have poorer conditions and quality than other schools. In other cases, Roma pupils are segregated to the schools for mentally handicapped, so called "special schools." Within the existing school systems, Roma pupils are placed in "special classes," or Roma children are placed in the back of the room and forgotten there. These examples do not refer to the separation of the children justified by Romany language mother tongue instruction. Detrimental pedagogies have a rich, and frequently powerful, set of techniques such as different standards for assessment, lowering of expectations and requirements, different treatment of the children, etc. Finally, racist behavior can be both powerful and insidious. It is very often not the result of overt racism, however, it can be caused by the low level of consciousness of ethnic problems. or by the lack of knowledge or pratice of effective conflict resolution techniques.

Of the problems which exist in a society’s majority population, and which have negative consequences on minorities, the most serious are: negative attitudes (lack of tolerance, prejudice, racism and anti-Semitism); a lack of basic information about minorities, discrimination (segregation or assimilating policies) the low prestige of minority languages in mainstream culture; and a lack of preparation in teacher training and materials in combating racism. In many countries, the content of mainstream education is far from being multicultural and intercultural learning programs are seldom used.

An effective policy for equity and equal opportunity must recognise and deal with all of the above issues..

2. The outlines of the policy

2.1. The mission of the network

At the heart of the Open Society’s Mission is a commitment to develop the structural elements of an open society including a democratic state under the rule of law, a vital and thriving civil society,and a business community that is not corrupt andindependent of the state.; We are also committed to support and develop citizens who have an ethical commitment to the values of an open society in their beliefs and their practices.

It is impossible to conceive of any process for supporting and developing open democratic societies which is not based on an education system, which mirrors and exemplifies the same values. Equal rights and equal opportunities in education for minority pupils in terms of access, treatment and learning outcomes are at the core of that democratic vision.

This analysis indicates the vital importance of education – and in particular to the state processes of education - to this central aspect of our mission. The question then becomes one of developing ways to ensure that this main goal is reflected not only in the rhetoric of our mission, but in the details and objectives of our everyday work This paper addresses this issue.

2.2. The main principles of the policy

Taking into account the values of the open society mission, the international norms in regard of the treatment of minorities and the experiences accumulated in the field of the education of minorities in the last few decades, several principles can be laid down. These principles apply equally to government policies and to the policies of development agencies.

• All problems faced by minorities in terms of social positions, human rights, interethnic relations and the autonomy of minority groups should be considered. All minority education strategies should be based on a holistic approach, which takes into account all aspects of their "problem world".
• A clear distinction should be made between genuine ethnic problems, which are addressed by special school provisions and not ethnic problems, which are addressed by quality education. Genuine ethnic problems in education are language, culture and discrimination. Non ethnic problems in relation to the education of minorities refer to the quality of the teaching-learning process in general. Children belonging to minorities should have access to the same quality education as their peers belonging to the majority.
• Discrimination (exclusion, segregation, detrimental treatment) in education should be prohibited and terminated. However, this doesn’t mean only that support of such programs and schools should be avoided or, where existing, should brought to an end, but also requires active support of reintegration of minority children into the mainstream education.
• A certain level of separation in education based on the agreement of the parents and the children and on mother tongue or bilingual instruction is not against the overall goal of integration. However, maintaining and supporting separate minority schools should not lead to the "ghettoisation" of the problems of minority and multicultural education. When it is possible, (for example, when it doesn’t decrease the intensity of mother tongue instruction) minority and majority children should learn together. In these cases intercultural learning might serve the integration of minority children and the incorporation of minority culture into the content of education, as well.
• Children belonging to minorities should have access to their cultural heritage as well as to the culture of the majority. The opportunity to learn about the children’s own cultural heritage is crucial not only from the point of view of minority rights in education, but also from the point of view of the pedagogical effectiveness of the entire teaching-learning process. At the same time, access to the language and culture of the majority is an important condition for the equal opportunities of pupils with minority affiliation.
• In order to foster the integration of minorities the multicultural content of mainstream education should be strengthened. In addition separate multicultural programs are important, because they provide models, produce valuable content and are able to raise the level of awareness of ethnic problems. They therefore feedback into mainstream education. Nevertheless, the sustainable solution to the problem is to influence the content of in- and pre-service teacher training and textbook publishing for mainstream education.
• An inclusive environment that is provided by the schools, which are educating children belonging to minorities, should be strengthened. It refers to the relationship between teachers and students, teachers and parents and to the treatment of the children in schools.

3. Implementation of the policy

1. Implications for Foundation and network programs

All Foundation and network programs, when planning projects, should take into consideration the implications of the above mentioned principles. These implications include:

• Educational programs should based on a better understanding of the specific context of the problems of the targeted minority group. Programs should based on reliable results of an assessment of needs.

• Programs addressing educational provisions for pupils with minority affiliation should serve the goals of the overall educational strategy of the Foundations.

• All educational development programs should target minority children, too, and should address and incorporate institutions and educational provisions in general, which target children with minority affiliation.
• In cases, when the low absorption capacity of targeted educational institutions is an obstacle to high quality program delivering, Foundation programs should operate in a proactive, operational way.
• Programs should meet the quality requirements of any other kind of educational development. Evaluation criteria should be linked to the principles of this policy.
• The involvement of minorities in decision-making procedures – and if possible in the implementation of programs - should be made possible and encouraged.
• Programs should respect and strengthen the cultural identity of minorities.
• Programs should foster the improvement of interethnic relations.
• The targets of programs should be primarily the educational provisions for children with minority affiliation and not the minority communities themselves.
• Separate programs for minorities are reasonable if they address genuine ethnic problems, like language, culture and discrimination.

3.2. Implications for cooperation with governments

The role of government is central to both the problems identified in this paper, and to their solution. Thus the establishment of links, and of co-operation, with governments and other state organisations on these issues should, where such is possible, be a priority for Foundations. State policies might be influenced in several ways, such as:

• Providing examples and models.
• Generating public discussion and shaping the discourse on the matter.
• Strengthening minority involvement and building the capacity of minority organizations.
• Building policy, development and management capacity in the countries.

2. Implications for schools

Both grant-giving and operational programs that address the problems of children with minority affiliation should have an inherent component of evaluation based on sound quality indicators. Indicators can be developed in relation to:

• The set of objectives of individual school projects.
• The set of objectives of Foundation or network programs.
• The criteria used to measure the effectiveness of educational programs in general.
• The principles of this policy.

3. Implications for IEP

In order to promote the points of this policy, the cooperation and information exchange among Foundations and network programs should be fostered. IEP should play a key role in this process by:

• Fostering strategy development.
• Providing technical support to Foundations.
• Supporting needs assessment by consulting and by dissemination of information.
• Helping the Foundations with evaluation and monitoring.
• Creating opportunities for information exchange inside of the network.

3. Conclusion

The treatment of ethnic and other minority groups within our Region is a matter of which we who live in the Region have cause to be ashamed. It is also a significant, and growing, cause of dysfunction in our societies. It is central to our ethical, and our operational, goals in the Open Society network of institutions to set right these injustices and to build open, honest, caring, and democratic societies. This paper identifies and explores the problems to be overcome by such a process and offers guidance on ways in which this might be carried forward. It is to be hoped that the quality of the guidance and support offered within it match the importance and magnitude of the problems addressed.

Annex A

The purpose of this present paper is to describe the process of the development of the policy paper on "Multicultural Education and Education of Minority Children".

1. The purpose of the policy

• supports decision-making procedures in the network;
• supports the Foundations in selecting among the needs and problems and identify those which are key to the mission of the network;
• respond to the key policy issues of the countries of the network;
• are based on the similarities of the countries of the region but allow space for adjustments to the diversity of country contexts;
• contribute to the development of shared values and norms in the network;
• are developed by a process which models open society values inside the network.

1. The process of policy development

Based on the experience accumulated by the Foundation network and taking into account the mission of the Soros network in education, IEP has identified the problems of the education of minorities as one of the key issues which should be given special attention. The growing emphasis on this issue (especially the growing focus on the problems of Roma communities) in the network make it obvious that one of the first domains of educational development requiring clear policy background is multicultural and minority education.

The policy development process began with the preparation of a discussion paper, which is based on the empirical research and academic work of the staff of IEP. The discussion paper Multicultural education and the Education of Minority Pupils was written by Christina McDonald, senior development officer, Péter Radó and Hristo Kyuchukov, both fellows, in May 1998. The paper was discussed at the Network Education Conference in June 1998. After the Conference eight Foundations provided written comments on the paper. In September 1998 IEP organized one day Seminars on the paper in six countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic and Estonia). The participants in the Seminars were the representatives of minorities and governments, experts, practitioners and the staff of the Foundations. The seminars discussed the paper and provided recommendations for its further improvement.

After summarizing the comments and recommendations, IEP took out the most important policy points in terms of principles and program issues and developed a draft policy framework for educational development and support in the network in relation to the issue.

The preliminary assessment of the policy development process proves, that:

• the discussion paper addressed an issue that has real relevance in the countries of the network;
• Foundations are open to participate in and contribute to network policies;
• the discussion generated by such papers is an effective means of policy formulation, a process which can also serve as a model in other areas;
• the discussion of the paper in several countries provided opportunity for the representatives of minorities to articulate their concerns and claims to policy makers, especially in countries where public discussion on the topic is lacking;
• the results of the discussion clearly demonstrated that it is essential to complement the wisdom and expertise of specialists with the contribution of those who have a stake in the targeted area.

1. The discussion

In general the discussion of the paper among Foundations and stakeholders provided positive feedback in terms of the approach and main underlying policy points. The comments and recommendations can be grouped in four categories: (1) the context of the problem, (2) the overview of the background of the problems, (3) principles and program issues, and (4) comments which are against the principles of the discussion paper.

1. In relation to the context of the issue that addressed by the discussion paper, the observations refer to the state of different minority groups within the different countries, to the links between educational problems and other social spheres and to the overall educational policies. In terms of minorities in general, it was mentioned several times that the paper is too general and that it does not give proper emphasis to questions which of great importance in several countries. On the other hand, there were comments stating that some issues (like segregation) that are over-emphasized taking into account the context of several countries; for example the problems of ethnic Russians in the former soviet countries, the problems related to language policies and the lack of state minority policies (the lack of implementation of minority rights). In the case of minorities with low socio-economic status (like Roma communities) several comments stressed the importance of welfare policies, which are sine qua non conditions of solving educational problems. In terms of overall educational policy the lack of equity of the educational systems of the countries of the region was raised several times.

2. The discussion paper attempted to list the most important obstacles and needs in the educational systems of the region in relation to the education of children with minority affiliation. The discussion contributed to a much more detailed description of the problems and proved, that the relative weight of these problems varies from country to country and from minority group to minority group. It emphasis the importance of completing a preliminary need assessment in each case and the importance of the involvement of the minorities themselves.

3. During the discussion a wide range of policy or program related recommendations were formulated. Most of these recommendations suggest paying more attention to the different obstacles to school success of minority children; for example, the lack of involvement of parents and minority communities, the lack of information available for schools on the lingual and cultural background of the pupils, the lack of representatives of minorities in the teaching staff, the lack of capacity of teachers to deal with ethnic elements of education, the lack of an integrated approach, and the lack of technical and pedagogical support to schools.

4. It should be mentioned that not all of the hidden or overt policy considerations of the discussion paper were totally agreed upon. Although sporadically, there were some comments that are against the values of an open society approach to the education of minorities. These are comments, such as "the integration of minorities should be resolved by minorities themselves," or the denial of relevance of minority related problems in countries, in which there were (or still are) violent ethnic conflicts. Another example is the use of the term "integration" in order to justify assimilationist or nationalistic approaches (especially in the cases of Roma and ethnic Russians).

Policy Development for the Education of Minority Children

(slides)

Péter Radó

Fellow

Institute for Educational Policy

Policy Development for the Education of Minority Children

• The purpose of policy development
• The policy development process
• The entire policy framework
• The main policy points
• The implications of policy points
• The way ahead

The purpose of policy development

• To focus attention
• To contribute to the development of shared values
• To support decision making
• To help selecting among needs
• To influence emerging Foundation strategies
• To model open society by the policy development process itself

The policy development process

• The sources of policy development
• The discussion paper
• The discussion
• Formulating policy lines
• The process of approval

The entire policy framework

• Genuine ethnic problems
• Language
• Culture
• Discrimination
• Ethnically neutral problems
• Equity
• Overlapping policy issues
• Content of mainstream education

The main policy points 1.

• All problems faced by minorities in terms of social positions, human rights, interethnic relations and the autonomy of minority groups should be considered.
• A clear distinction should be made between genuine ethnic problems, which are addressed by special school provisions and non ethnic problems, which are addressed by quality education.
• Discrimination (exclusion, segregation, detrimental treatment) in education should be prohibited and terminated.

The main policy points 2.

• A certain level of separation in education based on the agreement of the parents and the children and on mother tongue or bilingual instruction is not against the overall goal of integration.
• Children belonging to minorities should have access to their cultural heritage as well as to the culture of the majority.
• In order to foster the integration of minorities the multicultural content of mainstream education should be strengthened.

The main policy points 3.

• An inclusive environment that is provided by the schools, which are educating children belonging to minorities, should be strengthened.

Equity in education

• "Educational equity refers to an educational environment in which individuals can consider options and make choices based on their abilities and talents, not on the basis of stereotypes, biased expectations or discrimination. The achievement of educational equity enables females and males of all races and ethnic backgrounds develop skills needed to be productive, empowered citizens. It opens economic and social opportunities regardless of gender, ethnicity, race or social status."

The implications of the policy

• Implications for Foundation and network programs
• Implications for cooperation with governments
• Implications for schools
• Implications for IEP

The way ahead

• Development of the entire policy framework.
• Development of a proactive network strategy for the education of Roma children in accordance with the policy lines.
• Development of evaluation criteria in accordance with the policy lines.
• Incorporation of policy lines to the Category A strategy review process.
• Network support in order to foster the implementation of the policy.

Comments on policy paper (May 5)

(Note taker's notes)

focus should be children, not communities

• trying to focus the attention on the education process itself

NOT CLEAR – why is there a distinction between non-ethnic and ethnic problems?

Latvian group sees them as closely linked and related

PAPER

• focused too much on minority and not enough on majority
• emphasize more the role of majority
• mainstream education – minorities could be strengthened
• look at how diverse the curriculum could be in majority schools

LATVIA

IF we focus too much on language and culture, then we lose the social skills they may need to integrate

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICY

• what about involving local government and NGOs

After the policy is completed, how will we implement it?

• policy guidelines for all network
• the foundations will implement it! Foundations will slowly adjust their programmes to the strategy
• IEP core team can help with implementation

SCHOOL SUCCESS FOR ROMA CHILDREN

School Success for Roma Children

School Success for Roma Children

from Policy to Practice – from Practice to Policy

speech by Susan Rona

Transcribed by Anita Mészáros

On your agenda it is said School Success For Roma Children – from Policy to Practice. I added "from Practice to Policy", because one of the questions raised earlyer by Hristo was how do we implement policy. Linda D. Hammond of Columbia University and Teachers’ College in New York said that policy is only as good as the people, who implement it. Even if it depends on the smallest committee nominator, it is the teacher in the classroom, who knows how good the policy is.

I’d like to begin with some myths. Over the last five years in the region I have heard these myths in every country I have visited. Roma parents don’t care about their children’s education. How do we know?

"They don’t send the to school. They don’t attend parent meetings. They don’t buy them education materials. They send them in dirty and torn clothes, and they don’t supervise their children’s homework. Roma children don’t care about education, after all they don’t do homework. There are many of them who don’t even bother coming to school. They are hard to discipline, they fail continuously and than they drop out. Roma children are not capable of academic success. But they are talented in music and dance, and that only. They don’t speak the language of the majority, they are not ready for school when they come, they have no work habits, have poorly developed basic skills, and they are just not motivated to succeed in school. So they fail continuously."

That is how to look at the reality, as I see it.

Roma parents, like all parents do care about their children’s education. But they don’t send them to school, because they need to work – to take care of siblings. Because they are discriminated against by teachers and other children, and they don’t see their children benefiting from the education they receive. They don’t attend parent meetings, because they don’t feel welcome and they only hear bad news about their children. They don’t buy education materials, because they are poor. They send them in dirty clothes, because often times they don’t have running water or change of clothing for their children. They don’t supervise their children’s homework, because they may be illiterate. They may never have been shown how to be involved in their children’s education. And it is very foreign to them.

However, Roma children would care about their education, if they understood the language in which they would be taught in, they were able to experience success, felt that someone in their school environment cared, if they knew that their culture and language were expected and respected, if they did not feel invisible, if they had a voice, if they were expected to succeed rather, than fail, and if they did not experience hostility and discrimination from the entire school community. Those were my opening thoughts that I would like you to reflect on.

I think today that school success for Roma children from policy to practice are defined school success as academic success, where all children develop to their full potential. In order to look at a comprehensive approach of addressing this issue, we need to look at the relationship between policy, practice and research. I will address mainly issues of practice, as Peter Rado has really dealt with issues of policy, and research is not something we do very much of in the OSI, so I will only go through it on a passing way. However, I think it is very important to look at all three levels. As Peter said this morning, we need policies to address issues of quality, equity and access. Here are some examples of policies preventing school success for Roma children:

• rigid curriculum requirements that lead to failure;
• culturally biased assessment and placement tests (some of you, who attend my afternoon session on the special schools’ project that we are doing in Roma communities, will hear more about that issue);
• policy is created by the majority with minimum minority involvement;
• legislation that pushes children out of school.

For example in Romania if a children is three years overage, he/she is not permitted to re-register in school. Let me translate it for you. A Roma child goes to grade one, fail three times, because they cannot meet the requirement of the curriculum, they can not longer register into grade two – that child is now out of school. And that is a policy.

In countries like Hungary, where we have more liberal legislation, Peter Rado brought to my attention that recently legislation is in terms of a special education policy. The Hungarian government suddenly said: "Wait a minute! All these Roma children are in special education, let’s do something about it!" So what they did, is they made it very difficult to place children into special education and they are now those integrated into regular education, but did they address the issues of implementing this policy of "What happens to these children in regular education?", Will they be any more successful in regular education?" As I spoke to educators across the country, they told me "No. Now, instead of being in classes of eight students, they are going to be in classes with 25 students at the back of the class and ignored."

Why do we need practice and how does it relate to policy? One of the main reasons we need practice is that we all know that "seeing is believing". A very good example in this respect is the Step By Step Program. In 1994 the SBS Program began by developing model sites. These sites have been criticized by many as "being rich, full of beautiful equipment that no one could ever replicate". But as a result of these sites and the systematic training in 1999 we have the following policy results:

The Step By Step Program is now accepted as an alternative curriculum in 26 countries, it is in teacher training colleges in all those countries and it is now expending entirely by itself due to policy intervention, and no longer needs the intervention of the Soros Foundation Network for that to happen.

We can look at a smaller scale example of how "seeing is believing". In a small village in Slovakia (Spisska Tomasovce), Eva Koncokova, an educational reformer in Slovakia, placed a Roma Drop-out Program into the mayor’s office. These Roma huddles were running around above the mayor’s office in city hall. What happened? This little Pilot Project changed the attitude of the whole town to Roma and their schooling issues. A very small and meaningful example of how practice attacks policy. There are many other reasons why we use practice to influence policy. An obvious one is that allows us to try things in a small scale to find out what works and what cannot be duplicated or where we can go to scale. Research is an area which we have left out in a lot of our work in this network. We need research for reliable data, as a basis for strategy development.

But because I was asked to speak about issues related to practice, let me now look at those issues as they relate to children and teachers, keeping in mind school success for Roma children. Let’s look at Roma children’s background. They are often poor, malnourished, ill. They are clearly not ready for school, most of them never attended kindergarten, they have never had access to toys or books at school. There are different cultural expectations in a Roma community. Let me give an example. A Roma child in a Roma family is treated as an equal partner, like an adult, a Roma child has a voice, his/her opinion is asked, given freedom to move and be independent. You place this child in a very highly structured, Eastern-European context and the child gets up and goes to the bathroom, because he needs to go to the bathroom. Ant the teacher says: "What are you doing? You did not asked for permission to got to the bathroom." But I am sure he says to himself: "But I am making decisions about much more important issues than going to the bathroom. Why do I have to ask you? I know I have to go to the bathroom." But the teacher looks at that child and considers him a behavior problem.

They also come to school speaking a different language in many cases, and in most cases what I’ve seen in Eastern Europe, they are in special education with no education materials or supplies. I’ve seen in many countries Roma children sitting in classrooms without pencils and papers, while every other child has that equipment. What happens then to the child in school? Often tested in a language he does not speak. He/she experiences hostility and discrimination at all levels. In countries, where they are allowed to stay in schools beyond being three year overage, like in Romania, they repeat the same grade over and over again. In Bulgaria I walked into a grade one class a saw a young girl going through puberty. They are exposed continuously to low academic expectations. And I don’t think I have to tell you about the literature on marginalized, on minorities and on drop-outs that tells us that it is only through high academic expectations that this children succeed, and as long as teachers continue to have the lowest possible expectations of them, they will continue to live up to those low expectations. As Roma do not exist in books of any kind, the child learns quickly to hide his/her culture, language and identity. I was shocked to see this in action when I was in a school with Hristo in Bulgaria. I said to Hristo: "Talk to that child, and find out a little bit about how this one landed in special education." Hristo looked at me and says: He understands exactly, what I am saying, but he answers me in Bulgarian. He prose me he does not speak Romanes, but he understands exactly, what I am asking. There was not one child in that classroom in Bulgaria, but the child was not willing to open his mouth in Bulgarian.

There are some other issues related to teachers. In my experience most of the teachers in the region are totally unaware of their own biases and discriminatory practices. The teacher, who puts the child in the back of the class is often totally unaware of how this prevents equal access to education to that child. As Heather Iliff said: "We are all biased in North America, but at least we have learnt it is not OK to be biased." The teachers have no experience of Roma culture or communities. They have low expectations of all Roma students and Roma students live up to those expectations. And they very clearly confuse social disadvantage with mental handicap. And in no way do they adapt the environment that are needs of a Roma child.

At present these are the educational options available for the majority of Roma children in the region. They are called integrated, but ignored, sitting in the back of the class. They are segregated from the majority in Roma classes, as I saw in Romania with lower expectations, worse teachers, no heat in the classroom and no educational materials. Or they are placed in special education with no possibility of improving and being integrated into the regular system. As I visited special education institutions in four countries, in none of these institutions had any child in the special school have ever been integrated in the mainstream system. So a child, who enter special education in grade one is there for a life. And the last option if he/she can take the other three is the drop-out.

Let’s take what I’ve said and relate it to our Soros foundation network. The greatest accomplishments, I believe, have been our initiatives on the ground. I would highlight examples only this is far from an exhaustive list, I have only picked from my head initiatives that came to mind. Here are some examples of wonderful initiatives that are happening on the ground.

In Hungary we have many individual school reform projects in model sites – the school in Nyírtelek, with Lázár Péter, a very-very talented Roma educator and with Magda, the excellent school principle and very-very talented member of the majority, who had the wisdom to find the support to this Roma educator to do this great job. There are many examples of this kind of initiative in Hungary.

In Slovakia there are examples of coordinated comprehensive community projects, which include Step By Step, Community School, Drop-Out Prevention Program, Trade Training for the unemployed, training of Roma teachers and teaching assistants.

In Albania: Roma language curriculum and training.

In Macedonia: a wonderful community project for teenagers.

Romania has several initiatives on the ground: a book-writing project with Charles Temple, trying to integrate the Roma present into children’s books. Oral History project with Bird Stasz going into Roma communities, getting the stories and making sure that they have voice and have the heard. And they also have an affirmative action program for training Roma teachers.

In Kyrgyzstan I have experienced a wonderful multicultural program and although their concerns with Roma are very different, because Roma are not nearly as poor, they did a wonderful job of multicultural education.

In our regional and network programs we have we have a tutoring and mentoring initiative, which came from the region. It was based on a model developed in Hungary and that now exists in the region. The Step By Step methodology, which is working very well for Roma children and providing successful outrage for Roma communities. And a new Roma special education initiative, which I will be talking about with my colleagues this afternoon. We have begun in the network the process of sensitization. We have introduced an anti-bias approach through a conference, we did last year. However, there has been no network program developed to date and our efforts have only begun.

What are some of impediments to our accomplishments in the region? I’d like to examine the impediments that prevent us doing more from going wider and broader. Let’s look at the internal Soros impediments and the external environmental ones. What are some internal problems that prevent us from succeeding? We have a lot of coherent and comprehensive strategy at national network levels to address the issue of Roma children in schools. We have a lot of communication and coordination between programs both network and national level, leading to duplication, limiting scale and impact. Roma program officers in national foundations often work in isolation. The bias of foundation staff, both Roma and non-Roma the lack of quality research and data as a basis for decision-making. Let’s examine some of the external impediments to our work. These are the internal impediments that came out of my experiment in the network, so please argue with me. External impediments that are not related to us as a network necessarily. Throughout the region there is an overwhelming level of accepted bias at all levels of society from school to government. There is a lot of fair and open policies and even were policies all more fair there is an inability to implement them – as I gave the example of the new policy with regard to special education in Hungary, but we have no implementation plan. We have just removed the children from special education, but we are not doing anything for them. The key issue is the lot of partnerships at all levels between Roma and Roma, non-Roma and non-Roma and between Roma and non-Roma. The majority are patronizing even one well intentioned. They have the attitude of wanting to convert the natives be like us. I have heard over and over in the region teachers and administrators tell me "until all Roma people learn to be like us, there is no hope." As if being like us is the only way to be. There is a total lack of awareness, biased and damaging behavior. I have walked into classrooms in all over the region, where teachers talked about Roma children as if they were not there: "This one is mentally retarded, this one has no parents, this one is sexually abused" – right in front of the children. Total insensitivity and intolerance of Roma culture and social behavior on the part of the majority.

And I’d like to give a little anecdote here. When I first came to Hungary in 1994 to live and wanted to work in a Roma community, I caught up Varga Gusztav, who some of you may have known, he is a very talented Roma musician. But he also has a foundation that deals with education of Roma drop-outs. And I wanted to find out what this musician was doing with these kids. So he said: "I only have time from 3 to 4 p.m., so please come to my office, but I really have to go at 4 o’clock, because I am rehearsing with my band." This band is world-famous, they travel all over the world. So I was there at 3 o’clock. At 4 o’clock he looks at me and says: "- Have you had coffee?" I said no. "So let’s go have coffee." I was thinking: did not he say he had to go to a rehearsal at four? At 5.30: "- Aren’t you hungry? I have not eaten anything today." I said: "- Yes, but isn’t your band waiting for you?" "- Yeah, but do not worry about it." At six o’clock we sat down to dinner. At ten o’clock was the last time, when I looked at my watch, and I said: "- OK Guszti, please tell me, did you have a rehearsal, or did you just tell me that you had a rehearsal, because you thought "if this woman is boring, I want to be able to get rid of her in an hour". He says: "- No, no, no. I had a rehearsal at four o’clock." I said: "- Tell me, where are these people?" He says "- By now they have gone home." "– You did not make a call to say you are not going to be there? You did not look nervous that you are sitting here talking to me. You did not do anything. How are you going to face them tomorrow? What are you going to say?" He says, it is very simple. I am going to go there and say: "- Life took me elsewhere." And I said: "- Will they kill you?" He said: "- No, they are not going to kill me. They would do exactly the same thing." I met this person, I got involved in this conversation, it was a moment in time and life, when I could accept that "- They will understand, they would do the same." I realized than, that cultural expectations and norms are very different. I want to highlight this anecdote, because I thought about it a great deal (this happened in 1994) and one of the stereotypes that is proved to be over and over again with my experiences with Roma people is according to our majority standards they have no sense of time. They are always late – if they come at all. Because time always takes the elsewhere. And I was reminded a story my husband told, who used to be head of aboriginal employment and training in Australia, and when he would have a meeting with an aboriginal person, he always knew that they would not show up. But one day he had a meeting with one of the aboriginal leaders, and it was a very important meeting at ten o’clock on Monday morning. And of course, the guy did not show up. The man shows up three weeks later at ten o’clock on Monday morning. My husband looked at him and said: "- What are you doing?" And he said: "- I am here for a meeting. Isn’t it ten o’clock, Monday?" "- Yes, but it was three weeks ago." "- Yes, but it is ten o’clock on Monday!" These issues bring to mind the needs of cultural tolerance and understanding. And I think the responsibility is on both sides. (I had this issue out with Hristo, not too long ago, but I won’ tell the story.) We, the majority must understand that life takes Roma people elsewhere. But Roma people also have to understand that we have a limited tolerance for life taking them elsewhere. And somehow, if we want to work together, they have to limit how often life take them elsewhere. And we need to understand as well.

Let’s now look at Roma and why we cannot form partnerships with them. They are very damaged and mistrust, not only the majority, but each other. There is lack of leaders with skills to lead, the just don’t have a Martin Luther King. There is political infighting and power struggles at all levels. And they want to do, but don’t know how, and spend a lot of time complaining. I am reminded of a story in the Czech Republic in a small community called Rokizcani, where the Roma community had an uprising and said: "We need Romipen in the Step By Step Program." And we kept saying: "what is Romipen?" And they said Romipen is Roma culture, history, language, etc. in the classroom and we need it. So Liz Lorant said to them: "- You need it? Then develop it and do it! We, white people cannot develop Romipen for you, because your history is an oral one, we don’t have any materials to base it on. Do it!" Three years later it is not done. But they still say they need Romipen. So, I think Roma people also need look at themselves and their actions in terms of how they look at these issues.

I really believe that when we look at school success for Roma children, we need a strategic framework for action. This action needs to take place at three levels: prevention, which deals with pre-school and primary school; intervention at the secondary or Gymnasium level; and rehabilitation for those, who have fallen out of the system and who we want to bring back. This framework, actually, comes from my dissertation on drop-outs, but I feel it works very well with the whole issue of the School Success for Roma Children. And we also have to look at this framework of actions at three levels: policy, research and practice. I believe that it is only once we look these three levels in terms of policy, research and practice then we can begin. Let me give you a few examples in terms of prevention, and I would challenge you to take away this very basic framework, and fill it in for yourselves over the next few days. Think about the kind of actions you may want to undertake in terms of policy, research and practice at all of those levels. And I’d like to have your feedback by the end of the conference.

Examples of prevention: children need access to go to early-childhood education, anti-bias training, the development of Roma materials, so that children see themselves represented and they have a voice. The need for Roma teachers, working with communities – these are examples only.

Intervention: what can we do with the kids, who somehow manage, by some miracle, to make it to that secondary level, to keep them there. Mentoring and tutoring programs – we have some wonderful programs that are beginning to be developed in Romania, there is no reason why they cannot be spread. Carrier counseling – Roma children have no one to talk to about what they are going to be when they grow up. Not like the majority children, who are told what they were going to be, as I was from th age of five. I was going to be a doctor, but it did not work. Conflict-resolution, pure-mediation, work with communities, dealing with school to work transition. We all need help in the school to work transition, since it is a very frightening moment in the life for anyone to finish school and enter the world of work. But the Roma children especially need help, because they don’t have anyone to discuss it with.

In terms of rehabilitation we have drop-outs, we have street children and delinquency. A very important point that I think we all had to consider as a network, and I think it is something that governments are well aware of is that as we go up this level from prevention to rehabilitation, the cost increases. It is much more expensive to keep a child in a juvenile delinquency center, than it is to give him/her a good early childhood education. So the cost increases and the chances of success decrease, because the older the child, or the further the along toward the role of the dropping out of being on the street, the harder is to bring them back. Charles Temple gave me a good example from the US. They did a study recently, looking at the bottom ten percent of reading levels in a grade one class. In other words the children, who are the lowest reading levels in the class. And when they followed these children from grade one to grade four, four years later they found that 84% of those children, who had been at the bottom of the class, and 87% of the children, who had been at the bottom of the class at grade one were still there. That is telling us that in grade we know who is going to fail or be a problem, and in grade one we can predict who is going to drop out of school, because in the literature of drop-outs there is a very high correlation between the difficulty to read and dropping out of school.

So, in fact we know what to do from very early on. There are some suggested actions that we could take at policy level. We need affirmative action to train Roma teachers, social workers and other professionals. We need to reform teacher training institutions and their curricula, to deal with bias, to deal with teaching methodologies, to accommodate diversity of learning styles, and to include Roma culture and history in their curricula. We need to develop fair policies for testing and placement, nad we need to put some flexibility to curriculum requirements the are unrealistic and lead to failure for the majority children as well. And we need desperately to get rid of the concept of failure especially in the early grades. A child, who learns at age 6 that he/she does not measure up has that self-image for life. What are some actions at the "grass-roots" level? Grass-roots movements must use a whole school improvement approach that deals with all members of the school community or we will have one classroom that is doing critical thinking and another classroom that is doing debate. We need a comprehensive whole-community approach that combines economic development as oppose to charity, civil society development and education, a holistic approach, as Peter Rado mentioned. Teaching methodologies that foster self-esteem and excitement for learning and that are not punitive – these must be methods that give children choices give them a voice, faster initiative and values their own life experiences, and helps them connect what goes on in the classroom to their own lives. We need anti-bias training at all levels.

I’d like to wrap up with a few thoughts. I often see the term "Roma education" and I find it very upsetting. Makes me think of "Black education", "aboriginal education", mentally retarded education", "blind education" – I believe there is no such thing "Roma education". There can be education in Roma language, in Roma culture and history, but any initiatives that I have seen are successful for Roma children are merely good educational practices. They are not "Roma education". Roma children need what all other children need: a good education. There is a notion of community in the Roma culture that does not exist in the majority culture. That has been very much of a key to their survival. We need to translate this into the classroom and to build on this partnership that exist within the community. We need to help children form the connection between the school and their lives that many of them never had. We need schools a psychologically safe place to be. We need to start with ourselves by examining our own values, beliefs and biases by facing them, before we face others. We need to recognize that everyone in this region has been damaged by years of abuse, both the minority and the majority, and than hurting people often hurt others. We need to recognize that part of the cycle of oppression is that the oppressed internalized the values the oppressor and they are afraid of the freedom of responsibility that comes from their liberation. We need patience and we need to celebrate our small successes. This is not something that one can go to scale tomorrow. We need the sense of community around our actions, because this work is just so hard. And by sense of community, I mean the simple things, making a call to a colleague in support, sending an E-mail saying "How are you doing? I am having trouble with my work.", giving awards, sending out newsletters, informing each other about what we are doing. At last, but not least good parties.

My work with drop-outs, which lasted over fourteen years, from 1978 to 1992, I worked actively as a practitioner with drop-outs, and people use to say: "- How can you survive it?" I survived it, because I think it is easy to work with majority, middle class children. Any good teacher can work with them. But when you work with children, who has been on the street with the reject of the society, in theoretical terms the value added is incredible. When majority white children succeed, I think if you really ask yourself as an educator, you would probably say with our without you they would probably succeed anyway. Or maybe not as much, but they would succeed. When you look at a drop-out, who has succeeded and come from the street, and becomes a high school graduate, the value added is enormous. We called it academic therapy, when we were not going to send drop-out kids psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers or other officers. We were going to force them to succeed academically. Because it was only once they measured up in the terms that society dictated: "Be like everybody else and all the rest would follow." And through academic success school failure became school success. The sense of hopelessness lead to sense of hope. These youth had lost their dreams. In the case of Roma children, I was reminded yesterday, that they probably never even had dreams for their future. The children I had dealt with had dreams, but they lost them. But now they had new dreams for their future. Did we need to evaluate our work? We knew it needed, when 67% of our students were high school graduates and we started with 0%. These were the kids. Who had been thrown out and pushed out. The schools’ academic result rated tenth on the provincial list of high school leaving results. The students in an alternative high school had the tenths highest academic achievement result in the province. The regular high schools were outraged, they said we cheated and I said "- How? These are provincial examinations that come from Quebec city. And the answer was, because we had high academic expectations. There were no special ed. math courses, I was the math teacher, they had to do geometry, algebra, functions like everybody else. We did not offer our equivalent of special education, which was business math.

So, why did we do research? And I want to relate back to the relationship between research, practice and policy. We did evaluate these programs. Not because we did not know that we were doing well, but we did it to influence policy at all levels. I’ve raised funds to do an evaluation of what I knew was good. We needed 50.000 USD to do an evaluation of this whole project and I went out fundraising to do it. So, we had an evaluation and what happened? Today the Ministry of Education of Quebec boasts of its network of alternative schools, now there are ten in the city of Montreal, and how – it is its greatest achievement. During that time I was very inspired by the work of Paolo Friary and I want to leave you with a few thoughts. In preparing this presentation to you I skimmed through my books that I nave not read since my own revolutionary "Hippie" days in the 70’s, and I started to read the pedagogy of the oppressed. I found it spoke to me even more, than it spoke to me then, after my experience with Roma in the region. Paolo Friari is a Brazilian revolutionary educator, who gave up being a successful lawyer to develop literacy programs in the garbage dumps in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He believed that literacy programs gave power, when they were rooted in people’s experiences. In other words not just literacy for the sake of literacy, but literacy programs that were rooted in people’s experiences. He combined learning, awareness and action for social justice. He believed that true education, where is critical consciousness, where the following ingredients are present: love, respect, honest communication and shares power. So I would like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Paolo Friari: "True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes, which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued. The reject of life is to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving, so that these hands, whether individuals or entire peoples need be extended less and less in supplication so that more and more they become human hands, which work, and working transform the world."

Thank you.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strengths and Weaknesses

Thursday, May 6, 1999

Strength and weaknesses of educational programmes – multicultural aspects

The outcomes of the session's brainstorming work:

SESSION: TEACHING TECHNIQUES

Session: Teaching Techniques

Thursday (6 May) 15:00 – 16:00

Whole-School Change and Teaching Techniques

Krajnyák Magdolna (from Nyirtelek School),

What is the task of a primary school?

Teaching skills (reading, writing and counting) and abilities (i.e. knowledge that pupils can apply in practice), enabling pupils to continue their studies at a secondary level. For this, it is also important to prevent children from dropping out.

STARTING PRIMARY EDUCATION (1^st and 2^nd grades)

"To provide equal opportunities at the start of schooling!"

Running a separate class for backward children can only be successful if (within a period of 2-3 years) the abilities of the children improve to an extent that makes it possible for them to integrate into "normal" classes when they start learning in the 3^rd grade. INTEGRATION!!!

CONSOLIDATION, MONITORING (3^rd-6^th grades)

• establishing small groups (Within the traditional framework based on working in traditional classes)

• differentiating

COMPLETING PRIMARY EDUCATION (7^th-8^th grade)

• working in small groups based on the pupils’ choices concerning their secondary education (from the 7^th grade on)
• preparatory courses in the subjects relevant for the pupils’ secondary education (in the 8^th grade)

Drama In Education (DIE)

The three main characteristics of DIE are:

1. learning through activity;
2. problem resolution in the classroom;
3. revealing hidden meanings through self-experience

The most significant aims of drama are to get the students taking in consideration different viewpoints and achieve deeper understanding. Sub-goals are forming groups and communities built on partnership, development of communication-skills and different forms of non-verbal expression.

The method helps the students (through active involvement) to build their global social knowledge form information that seemed to be separate before.

What is the task of a primary school?

Teaching skills (reading, writing and counting) and abilities (i.e. knowledge that pupils can apply in practice), enabling pupils to continue their studies at a secondary level. For this, it is also important to prevent children from dropping out.

STARTING PRIMARY EDUCATION (1^st and 2^nd grades)

"To provide equal opportunities at the start of schooling!"

Running a separate class for backward children can only be successful if (within a period of 2-3 years) the abilities of the children improve to an extent that makes it possible for them to integrate into "normal" classes when they start learning in the 3^rd grade. INTEGRATION!!!

CONSOLIDATION, MONITORING (3^rd-6^th grades)

• establishing small groups (Within the traditional framework based on working in traditional classes)

• differentiating

COMPLETING PRIMARY EDUCATION (7^th-8^th grade)

• working in small groups based on the pupils’ choices concerning their secondary education (from the 7^th grade on)
• preparatory courses in the subjects relevant for the pupils’ secondary education (in the 8^th grade)

Drama In Education (DIE)

A short introduction

"Education is concerned with individuals; drama is concerned with the individuality of individuals, with the uniqueness of each human essence."

/Peter Slade/

Definition

"Educational drama is anything which involves people in active role-taking situations in which attitudes, not characters, are the chief concern, lived at life-rate (that is discovery at this moment, not memory based) and obeying the natural laws of the medium. These laws aim at suspension of disbelief; agreement to pretence; employing all past experiences available to the group at the present moment and any conjecture of imagination they are capable of, in an attempt to create a living, moving picture of life, which aims a surprise and discovery for the participants rather than for any onlookers" (Heathcote, 1993). "The process evokes all relevant knowledge possessed by any of the participants, but when this information is shared it becomes part of a common knowledge" (Szauder, 1998).

"Big Guns" of the methodology

With his first book, Child Drama (1954) Peter Slade shook the British educational field: after many years of "desk and chalkboard"-type education he suggested that children should play in schools, for play is learning.

Brian Way thinks about the "person" as something that can be viewed – and therefore developed – in different segments. The key words for Brian Way are exercise, experience and individuality. As he writes: "...moments of direct experience, transcending mere knowledge, enriching the imagination, possibly touching the heart and soul as well as the mind. This, in over-simplified terms, is the precise function of drama".

Gavin Bolton formulates arguments supporting the idea of placing drama in the curriculum as a means for creating basis for a socially concerned education. His main concept is that drama is a mental activity that can effectively enhance empathy, and by doing so it can contribute to shared understanding among people: "[drama’s] main purpose then can be stated as: the development of common understanding through the exercise of basic mental powers".

By David Hornbrook dramatic sort of education "must be theorised within culture and history as a demonstrably social form. Production, then, is the making of dramatic text, by writing, improvising, acting or role-playing. ... As an extension of this formulation, we may usefully describe the dramatic realisation of existing text... as re-production. At its most sophisticated, re-production may involve a range of non-acting skills as well." He also made an interesting note on the role of the teacher in the process: "...while it may not make sense to talk of the teacher ‘making’ meanings for the group, he or she can nevertheless participate ... in the process whereby interpretations are produced ... to reach temporary satisfaction with a shared understanding of how things are.

Dorothy Heathcote believes and teaches that teaching is not only a "passing on knowledge" activity, therefore the teacher has to be deeply involved in the process. However, to do so, first we have to look at ourselves:

Before we can relate to people successfully, we must first come to terms with ourselves. ... We need, too, allow ourselves to be restless spirits – to be in the process of becoming. Everything that has happened to humanity Dorothy Heathcote has something common with; ... she helps children find that they ... too, belong to humanity.

Characteristics of DIE

The three main characteristics are:

1. learning through activity;
2. problem resolution in the classroom;
3. revealing hidden meanings through self-experience

As Dorothy Heathcote stated: "In a classroom drama, the end point is the discovery of human experience, the reaching of a deeper insight about the significance of the act or situation in the drama. ... The teacher can show them [i. e. the children] the significance of things that might otherwise seem insignificant. The teacher can move the class from a general idea to a dramatic focus and then to a universal."

Gavin Bolton takes for granted that: "...the children’s assumption is that the activity is ‘for itself’. Indeed if this were not the case no drama would ever get started, for it is the pleasure in making believe for its own sake that provides the critical motivation for doing it." Nevertheless, others believe in sharing even the "play for the teacher" with the pupils, possibly right at the beginning of the devising process. This could not only raise the importance of the dramatic event for the children but would also share the responsibility over the material and the process between the children and the teacher. This "sharing" can also strengthen the trust between the teacher and the class, and can lead to the recognition of drama as a meaningful activity.

Objectives

The most significant aim of drama are to get the students taking in consideration different viewpoints and achieve deeper understanding. Sub-goals are forming groups and communities built on partnership, development of communication-skills and different forms of non-verbal expression.

The method helps the students (through active involvement) to build their global social knowledge form information that seemed to be separate before.

1. Exercises (short, closed, obvious, demonstrative type of activities of small groups or individuals, requiring high level of concentration)

• Getting direct experiences (observatories) from several parts of the students’ physical and social environment (together with the teacher).
• Development (plays) of dramatic skills: perception; interaction; concentration; speaking in different styles; vocabulary; intonation; etc.
• Situation exercises: non-verbal interactions; making interviews; role-playing.
• Drama plays: through physical exercises; concentration; skilfulness or building group-cohesion.
• Using other art forms to complete the drama in progress: story-telling; writing an essay; drawing; song-composing; making a choreography; taking photos or video films.

2. Dramatic plays (no time-restriction, determined aim or end; emphasised continuous and spontaneous action, defined context and hidden topic);

• situations of particular sites;
• situations from family or other social spheres;
• tense situations before fighting or any catastrophic event;
• situation determined by a concrete story;
• role-playing determined by special characteristics.

3. Basic dramatic knowledge of the teacher (meanings and usage in practice): skills and methods to create and ease tense situations):

• contrast;
• focus;
• time - of the plot and how to deal with it;
• scene - ways of the usage;
• the plot;
• different models of complications of actions;
• conflict;
• situation;
• creating, understanding and dealing with symbols;
• dramatisation and editing life-plays.

• tales (legends, myths);
• real historic event;
• relationships in the classroom; - with the aim of group-development;
• drama built on students’ favourite stories or interests (Indians, cowboys, Robin Hood, bank-robbers, etc.);
• concrete social problem-investigation;
• understanding works of art (music, literature, painting);
• moral problems (through consequences of decisions);
• l’art pour l’art;
• functioning of social organisations.

References:

(With special thank to Erik Szauder Ph.D. for providing information of his writings and the background of DIE)

Bolton, G: Drama as Education

Brian Way: Development through Drama

Heathcote, D. keynote speech at the NATD Conference, 1989.,In: Byron, K. (ed.): The Fight for Drama - The Fight for Education, NATD, 1990

Hornbrook, D.: Education and Dramatic Art

Slade, P.: An Introduction to Child Drama

God Almighty and Pharaoh, king of the Gypsies

Focus

How can differences of value and life-style be reconciled?

Skills to be developed

Techniques of conflict-resolution, development of debate-strategies, find out the ways to live in peace with people from a different culture.

Frame

People from a "different" culture face the unacceptable demands of the sovereign.

1. Narration of the teacher

"I would like to play an old story with you. Once upon a time there was a king, whose name was Pharaoh. He had such a great power that he was not afraid even of God Almighty. All his people had to honour him and to work hard in the fields. They had a very bad fate, the Pharaoh did not spare them at all, people had no time to do anything, but work. Let’s have a look a closer look at his empire. I brought some pictures to you, in which you can see what these people looked like and how they lived. Try to imagine in more details how they made their living and how they felt in this empire.

2. "Role on the wall"

Let’s figure out together the most important features of the Pharaoh’s people (suggestions):

- how do they live/in what kind of houses (financial status)?

- what do they eat/cook?

- are they healthy/what sort of diseases do they usually have?

- how do they work?

- do they have any free time/what activities do they do?

- do they have celebrations?

- do they have school?

- do they have army?

3. Suggestions for taking roles - narration of the teacher

The children are sitting (or lying on carpets) relaxed, with eyes closed, while the teacher is going on with the story. Quiet, pleasant music is played during the second part of the tale:

"However, there was another nation living in the empire as well. The small community found its home in the Pharaoh’s country after a long-long time of wandering. So far they could live here in peace, but their way of living was very different from that of the Pharaoh’s people. Blue sky, rich meadows and clear fountains gave them everything they had ever wished. Their children were happy to live there, they were all equal and worked only as much as they should not lack anything. Women were collecting herbs in the meadows and in the woods, boys were pursuing girls all day long. The young girls put wonderful flowers into their long, shiny hair. In the evenings all of them were sitting around the bonfire, under a big tree, where they were singing, dancing and telling "nice stories" to each other." Now, I would like you to become these people.

4. Improvisation in small groups

We have to know that our nation and the Pharaoh’s people are not on very good terms with each other. Consequently, they rarely meet and there are some conflicts between them. Let’s give a name to our people and perform three events from their everyday life.

• a girl from the Pharaoh’s people and a boy from our community meet at the fountain, on their way to get some water (improvisation);
• collecting herbs, processing and selling them on the market (fixed pictures);
• process and features of a celebration in one family.

5. The teacher takes a role

After the three scenes are over, the teacher arrives, while imitating clatters of hoofs. He/she stops among the children has a look at them abusively and drops a letter to the floor. Then he/she turns back and runs away with clatters of hoofs again.

Let us see the letter:

Strangers!

You are not from my race! You do not work as hard as my people do! You are cunning fellows who do not honour the sovereign!

The two communities cannot live together. Neither me nor my people can tolerate parasites in the empire!

You are useless, worthless and inferior people. Unless you can prove the opposite, all of you have to leave my country!

Tomorrow, when the Sun is getting the top of the Pyramid, I am inclined to give you a hearing, if you want to convince me. But no doubt it will not be successful.

Then, I will torture all of you to death.

This is my last word!

Pharaoh

Sovereign and Emperor Over All

6. Gathering - the teacher taking a subordinate role

The teacher suggests that they organize a meeting (brainstorming) on how to persuade the Pharaoh about their value (they are not more useless, than the other group). They would like to live the way they used to and cannot go anywhere else (they live on an island). The students should find something common in both nations, which may convince the sovereign.

7. Panel - theatre

A delegate is appointed to visit and convince the Pharaoh (the form of "panel-theatre" means that all the students work together to prepare the delegate for the successful meeting). The teacher assumes the role of the Pharaoh and receives the delegate. However, he refuses to accept the arguments the group gives for their life-style and values. After a long and hard debate, the Pharaoh finally suggests that the aliens should live in peace with the other nation, without any conflict or debate for one day. If they are able to fulfil his demand, they can stay and live in their former homeplace.

8. Brainstorming

In the form of a gathering we do some brainstorming about the situations, which usually might lead to conflict situations between to nations. Let’s think of everyday situations, where different people must meet each other, such as travelling, shopping (marketplace), celebrations, free-time activities, education, etc.

9/a. Role-play in small groups ( the teacher in role)

Let’s perform some acts based on the brainstorming. The teacher takes a role either as an authority against the group or a member of the team as a secondary commander.

9/b. Role-play in small groups ( the teacher in role)

In the case the group did not manage to find a suitable situation to show the conflict, the teacher may suggest some alternative ideas. (The role of the teacher in both cases is to emphasize that the students have to solve the conflict and make peace.)

• The empire is going to celebrate the 500th anniversary of its foundation. Our nation is going to participate in the celebration as well. We have been working on a performance of our songs, poems and dances for a long time. At the time of the celebration the guard at the door (the teacher) does not want to let them in, he also tells them off. His reasons are that they cannot behave properly, they would drink too much, turn everything upside down, moreover, they would steal the belongings of the participants.
• A girl and a boy are wondering in the meadow, holding hands. Another guy is approaching them from the other direction and is offending their feelings, behavior and appearance.

- we may ask the whole group to give suggestions to the couple - how to cope with insult;

- possible strategies: undertake their difference (strangeness) as something natural;

unexpected (pleased) response to the rude words;

looking for common (shared) points, problems (both nations are tortured by the Pharaoh);

the same consequences in case of fighting (prison)

• The National Museum of Fine Art is going to organize a new exhibition They are going to collect the works of art and articles of personal use, which are interesting, valuable and represent the nations. Our group is starting to collect their works for the exhibition.

The students sit down in a circle and pass a basket around in turns. Everyone "puts" his/her product into it (which looks as if we put something into the basket). All of them have to explain in details, what is the object like, what is it made of, what is it for, in order the others could imagine those exactly.

10. Meeting the Museum Director

Somebody from our group introduces our nation and our products to the organizer in chief. When looking at the products, the reaction of the director is:

"Your nation must be very stupid and clumsy, if you make such waste. How many years did it take to prepare this worthless stuff? Even the materials are very rubbish!

But what could we expect from a useless nation like you? If you could work hard, you would not make so ugly things! It is obvious that you cannot imagine anything because of your easy and rest life. You must have never learned anything, otherwise you could have some talent to an art form."

11. Discussion of the whole group, "What happened?", Closing

The Students (from outside of their roles) evaluate the scenes they have played. They discuss which situations they managed to solve and how, which one was the most difficult and why. What alternative forms might have been worked out? We may show some parts again. Some can comment on the act (news, police report, documentary film, history-book, etc.) while others are playing.

Notes on Drama Session

The three main characteristics of DIE are:

1. learning through activity;
2. problem resolution in the classroom;
3. revealing hidden meanings through self-experience

The most significant aims of drama are to get the students taking in consideration different viewpoints and achieve deeper understanding. Sub-goals are forming groups and communities built on partnership, development of communication-skills and different forms of non-verbal expression.

The method helps the students (through active involvement) to build their global social knowledge form information that seemed to be separate before.

SESSION: OPEN SCHOOL PROJECT

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Session: Open School Project

Thursday (6 May) 15:00 – 16:00

Open School Project (Russian Minority)

Iveta Silova – Latvian Foundation

An unfortunate legacy of Soviet rule in Latvia is an inherited, complex ethno-demographic situation characterized by ethnic discord among different groups of society. The attempt to preserve the concept of "nation" and the need for the integration of the Russian speaking population sets a difficult task for Latvian education reform. One of the strongest manifestations of ethnic fragmentation in education is the existence of two parallel school systems with Latvian and Russian languages of instruction. This presentation will provide an overview of the needs assessment study conducted by the Soros Foundation - Latvia (SFL) and describe the project "Open School", implemented by SFL in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Naturalization Board, aimed at fostering the approximation of the two school networks and its effects on curriculum, teacher training, and pedagogy.

1. SURVEY OUTLINE

1.1. Survey goals and objectives

The goal of the survey was to examine the current situation in schools with Latvian and non-Latvian languages of instruction, in order to facilitate effective and need-oriented planning of the "Open School" project. The objectives of the survey were to assess:

• the actual situation in the Latvian and/or bilingual learning process;
• integration-related problems and needs in schools;
• the attitude of schools to different models of bilingual education and alternative development options;
• school development perspectives.

• Directors of schools with Latvian as the language of instruction;
• Directors, teachers and students at schools with other languages of instruction;
• Representatives of pre-service and in-service teacher training institutions.

1.3. Survey methodology and methods

In order to get comprehensive information about integration in the field of education, various sources of information were used, for example, representatives of pedagogical institutes, government officials, school directors, teachers and students. In addition, attention was focused on gaining both quantitative and qualitative data.

Quantitative data on integration in schools was obtained from the directors of Latvian and non-Latvian language schools using questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed at regional conferences of the school directors, which took place in Riga, Daugavpils, Jekabpils, Saldus and Jelgava. Since the number of questionnaires received from the Riga and Liepaja regions was insufficient, additional questionnaires were sent to Riga, Riga District, Liepaja and Liepaja District schools. Altogether, 240 (19% of all Latvian schools) questionnaires were received from school directors, of these 141 (16.8% of all Latvian language schools) from Latvian language schools and 99 (44% of non-Latvian language schools) from schools with non-Latvian or mixed languages of instruction.

In order to reinforce the data gained from the questionnaires submitted by school directors, interviews were conducted with teachers and students. Among those interviewed were:

• 93 teachers from 25 schools, among them schools in Aizkraukle, Daugavpils, Liepaja, Rezekne, Riga, Riga District and Ventspils; and

• 154 students from 8 schools in Daugavpils, Liepaja, Riga, and Riga District.

In addition, qualitative data was gained by:

• visiting schools and observing classes (15 schools);
• interviewing experts in pre-service and in-service teacher training (9 experts);
• compiling the findings of existing studies (8 master's and doctor's theses);
• analysing existing legislation and other documents.

2.1. General information

240 questionnaires were received from school directors, of these 141 from Latvian-language schools and 99 from schools with other languages of instruction. Some of the directors of mixed-language schools identified their school as a Latvian language school and some, as a non-Latvian language school. Questionnaires were received from all regions in Latvia, with the greatest number (27.9%) from Latgale, compared to 20% from Vidzeme, 18.8% from Kurzeme, 17.5% from Riga and 15.8% from Zemgale.

A classification of data by school type shows that 56% of the respondents are from secondary schools (grades 9-11), 34% from elementary schools (grades 1-4) and 5% from primary schools (grades 1-9). The results of the survey also reflect the situation both in small rural schools (up to 100 students) and large schools (more than 1500 students).

2.2. Latvian language schools

Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) statistics show that, in the last seven years, the number of students in schools with non-Latvian languages of instruction has been decreasing, and increasing in schools with Latvian as the language of instruction. The number of children receiving instruction in Latvian has increased by 15.4%. This trend is connected not only with an increase in the birth rate in Latvian families at the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, but also with the increase in the number of minority children attending Latvian schools. The results of the survey confirm a trend which sees more and more non-Latvian parents choosing to send their children to Latvian schools because they feel that studying in Latvian will promote their child's integration into the social processes and the employment market of this country.

For example, 95% of the directors of Latvian language schools say that they have students whose native language is not Latvian. The survey shows that the greatest number of minority children can be found in elementary schools and secondary schools. It is important to point out that 83% of the minority children in schools with Latvian as the language of instruction attend mixed classes, and only 13% attend special segregated classes. The percentage of children of other nationalities in mixed classes is generally quite small. For example, 74% of the directors of Latvian schools said that there were only a few Russian-speaking children in their classes. 16% gave the number as one third, 6% said one half, and 6% - more than a half. Compared with other regions, the percentage of children of other nationalities is much greater in Latgale and Vidzeme.

In a letter (No.4-37) sent to schools in 1995, the MoES Education and Science recommended that non-Latvian children be accepted in educational institutions with Latvian as the language of instruction, if the child and at least one of the parents have fluent command of Latvian, and if Latvian is spoken with the child at home. It was also recommended that schools with Russian as the language of instruction should, at the demand of the parents, set up special classes with Latvian as the language of instruction.

Latvian sociolinguist and language policy maker Ina Druviete (1998) finds that "this phenomenon, which could have been considered as positive in the majority of European countries, has not produced the expected results in Latvia. Children arrive at the education establishment without any knowledge of Latvian, and progress is very slow. The language barrier becomes an obstacle to knowledge, the teachers have to switch to Russian quite often, and usually Latvian children learn Russian before non-Latvians learn Latvian. The communication among children takes place in Russian even if there are only two or three Russian children among twenty Latvian. Therefore, the simple mixing of children with different native languages has not been considered as an optimal solution. Instead, the emphasis is put on the strengthening of Latvian language teaching in minority schools and kindergartens so we can expect significant changes in education policy in Latvia during coming years." (Druviete, 1998)

Unfortunately, there are no studies on the growing tendency of mixed and non-Latvian families to send their children to Latvian schools. One of the sociological studies (Liepina, 1997) draws attention to the pedagogical aspects of the integration of children from non-Latvian and mixed families into Latvian elementary schools. The survey finds that the problem of integrating non-Latvian children into Latvian elementary schools is not simply the problem of individual schools, regions, or cities, but that it is becoming a national problem. According to the study, it is imperative that this process be well-considered and pedagogically regulated.

Number of students receiving instruction in Latvian or Russian in public day schools in 1989-1997 (MoES data)

 

 

 

 

Problems encountered by teachers. Survey data shows that the greatest problems faced by teachers who work with ethnically and linguistically mixed classes are:

• lack of understanding for the idiosyncrasies of different mentalities (40%), especially in Zemgale and Kurzeme;
• insufficient methodological skills (38%), especially in Vidzeme and Riga;
• lack of special textbooks and teaching materials (33%); and
• difficulties in communicating with parents (24%).

The results of the survey show that the most serious problem in elementary schools is a lack of teaching materials, in primary schools - a lack of methodological skills, but in secondary schools – a lack of understanding for the idiosyncrasies of different mentalities. The lack of understanding for different mentalities is increasing in schools with large numbers of students. In identifying the type of help that is needed, teachers in the Latgale region name teaching materials and aids, but in other regions it is in-service training, since there are no special courses for teachers.

Problems encountered by students. The results of the survey show that non-Latvian students who attend schools with Latvian as the language of instruction have greater difficulties with arts subjects than with science subjects. Interviews with students showed that there are fewer problems with mathematics and other science subjects which can be learned by heart or "crammed". Students admit that one of their greatest problems is expressing their thoughts, especially in writing. For example, it was explained that "Russian-speaking students think in Russian" and their written assignments reveal that sentences are translated literally from the native language. To improve their results, non-Latvian students in Latvian schools are advised to learn by heart or to take private lessons. One of the methods, which is successfully applied by teachers who work with mixed classes, is to have classmates (Latvian – non-Latvian) help each other.

The attitude of parents and teachers. The attitude of parents of Latvian students to the integration of minority students into schools with Latvian language of instruction is generally neutral (56%), or positive (37%). Similarly, 50% of the teachers see the integration of non-Latvian students into Latvian language schools as positive, and 40% are neutral. The most positive attitude is found in primary schools and in Vidzeme.

Conclusions and needed support. In view of the problems that were identified in the course of the survey - the difficulties that non-Latvian students have with participating in debates and expressing their views, the passive attitude of parents to cooperation with the school, teachers' lack of training for work in a multicultural environment - it is possible to conclude that methodological and organisational support is needed for Latvian language schools (especially in Riga, Latgale and Vidzeme) which already practice the integration of non-Latvian students into a Latvian learning environment, by providing:

• teacher in-service training,
• development of teaching materials and aids;
• individual consultations in schools;
• parent support.

2.3. Non-Latvian language schools

The survey provided information about the actual situation regarding subjects taught in Latvian and/or bilingually in non-Latvian language schools, including:

• different approaches to teaching a subject in Latvian and/or bilingually,

• teaching methods most often employed by teachers when teaching subjects in Latvian and/or bilingually,
• problems encountered by teachers and students,
• initiatives which help teachers to effectively teach subjects in Latvian and/or bilingually.

Choice of subjects. When naming the factors which determine the choice of subjects to be taught in Latvian/bilingually, school directors first mention the availability of qualified teachers (66%), then - student language skills (43%), student demands/choices (40%) and parent demands (25%). The interviews confirmed that, at present, the choice of subjects to be taught either in Latvian or bilingually is primarily determined by the availability of teachers and only secondly by the specifics of the subject and the range and requirements of the curriculum.

In the course of the interviews, teachers and students were asked to name the subjects which are taught bilingually, and to give a short description of a lesson and the relative proportions of the languages used during the lesson. There was little or no difference between the answers given by teachers and students. Visits to schools revealed that, in the majority of the schools, at the elementary school level handicrafts, sports, visual arts and, in some schools, natural science and music are taught in Latvian or bilingually. The teachers say that subjects such as sports or handicrafts are easier for the students because they require less speaking and more understanding of the language, which is reinforced by motions, actions and gestures.

All find that it is logical to teach Latvian history and geography in Latvian. For example, in grade 5, the programme allows the teacher to choose the language of instruction. Knowing that bilingual instruction requires more time, the teacher may choose to leave some topics out and teaching others in Russian, but to devote more time to topics that involve Latvia and to teach these in Latvian. The civics program for grade 9 includes discussions about legislative documents. Since such documents, for example, the constitution, are rather complicated, teachers may choose to read them in Russian to make sure that all students are able to understand and learn the subject matter.

In some schools, mathematics, computer science, the history of culture, business basics, chemistry, drafting, basic accounting, biology and ethics are taught bilingually.

Classroom procedure. Several models can be observed in teachers' work in the classroom. The choice of model is determined primarily by the teacher's language skills (whether a teacher's native language is Latvian or not), the availability of teachers and teaching materials, the school administration's level of information about bilingual education, its willingness to experiment and its attitude to teaching in general.

There are four main approaches to classroom procedure:

• primarily in Russian, with terminology translated into and learned in Latvian;
• primarily in Latvian, with explanations and translation of terminology in Russian;
• equal use of both languages;
• entirely in Latvian.

1. Primarily in Russian, with terminology translated into and learned in Latvian With this approach, classes are conducted primarily in Russian and information is complemented with information from Latvian language sources. In general, bilingual education is understood mainly as putting together vocabularies and understanding what is read. This approach is employed by 66% of the teachers interviewed (32 teachers interviewed).

Elementary school handicrafts, visual arts, and natural science teachers: "Complicated topics – in Russian. Questions about subject matter that has already been dealt with - in Latvian. New subject matter – in Latvian."

A history teacher: "In Russian, with additional reading in Latvian." Students have not named this as a subject that is taught bilingually.

A geography teacher: "The most important part of the material is explained in Russian, then the text in Latvian. New words (chosen by the students) are not written down in a vocabulary list, but on cards which are used in other classes as well. Assignments are written in work books in Latvian." Students find this method to be effective.

2. Primarily in Latvian with explanations and translation of terminology in Russian

With this approach, classes are conducted primarily in Latvian. Information is complemented and learning reinforced with material from Russian language sources. This approach is employed by 13% of the teachers interviewed (8 teachers interviewed).

A geography teacher: "I explain in Latvian, translate words that student's don't understand, and they write down the new words and terminology. If the topic is complicated, I repeat what I have told them 2-3 times. I use charts and maps."

A geography teacher: " To judge how much students have learned, I check to see whether a student can do an assignment, make a drawing, understand charts. It would not be logical, if all they did were learn stories by heart."

A home economics teacher: "To start with, students are given the terminology in Latvian and Russian, an explanation of the new subject matter in Latvian with translation into Russian. Home assignment questions are written in an exercise book in Latvian."

A history teacher: "We greet each other in Latvian. Questions and answers to repeat what has been learned – in Latvian. New subject matter in Latvian (if necessary, students translate on their own for each other)." The teacher explains the terminology in Latvian, students write it down in their vocabularies. Then the teacher explains in Russian. Questions about new subject matter – in Latvian. The answers – in Latvian, if there are difficulties, then in Russian. Questions are written down in exercise books in Latvian. The answers are written by the student as a home assignment.

Physical education teacher: "Teams and refereeing in Latvian. If students don't understand, the teacher translates, sometimes the students themselves translate. Remarks, conversations – in Russian. In secondary school, the students prepare for written examinations in Latvian – work books, learning by heart."

Biology teacher: "Everything is taught in Latvian, except for complicated topics."

Art teacher: "I hear, I see, I do – that is the road to understanding."

This approach is used by 10% or 5 of the interviewed teachers. Equal use of Latvian and the native language has various different approaches and departures, for example:

• classes are conducted mixing Latvian and the native (Estonian)language, without specification of the language to be used

Natural science, mathematics, visual arts and handicrafts teachers: "Classes are conducted with mixed use of Latvian and Estonian, without specification of the language to be used. When necessary, everything is first explained in Latvian and then in Estonian."

• information needed for work in pairs or in groups is gained from Russian and Latvian sources

A cultural history, music and ethics teacher: "The class is conducted using cooperative learning methods."

Home economics teacher: "Terminology in Latvian, Russian and English (compiled by the teachers for all parallel classes), repetition and explanation of new material in Latvian, if something is unclear – in Russian. Questions (written) in Latvian. Answers (written) – in Latvian and Russian, whichever the students prefer."

• classes are conducted by two teachers working side by side. One teaches the basics of a new topic in Russian, the other speaks Latvian with the children and supervises assignments, knowledge is reinforced.

4. Entirely in Latvian

The class is conducted in Latvian. The teacher uses the language of instruction between classes as well. All explanations are given only in Latvian. This approach is used in special classes which have been formed in schools in which Russian is the language of instruction. This approach is employed by 11% or 6 of the interviewed teachers.

Problems encountered by teachers. In the questionnaires submitted by school directors, the three main obstacles to teaching subjects in Latvian or bilingually are identified as:

• lack of teaching materials (88% of those respondents),
• teachers' lack of language skills (69%), and
• teachers' lack of methodological training (68%).

The problems encountered by teachers differ from region to region. For example, teachers in Daugavpils find that the main problem with transition to bilingual education is teachers' lack of language skills. The teachers themselves must overcome their complexes about speaking Latvian. Work in the classroom is monotonous, because, due to their lack of language skills, teachers are not able to improvise. If the teacher has a limited knowledge of the language, the prestige of Latvian suffers. A situation is created where terminology, definitions, the "necessary", the "compulsory" is learned in Latvian, but all that is substantial and interesting is dealt with in Russian. Students give critical assessments of their teachers' language skills, for example, "I would take all subjects in Latvian, if the teacher knew the language and could explain everything to me."

Teachers frequently point out that they have received insufficient methodological training. At present, institutions of higher education have not yet included specific, target-oriented bilingual education training courses for future teachers in their programmes. The Riga Teacher Training and Education Management Academy (RTTEMA) has included an experimental 32-class course, "Methods of Teaching Subjects in a Second Language," in its 1998/99 programme for elementary school teachers. In-service training courses are offered by the Teacher's Educational Support Center (TESC), the Riga School Board, regional and city school boards, the educational centres and associations of institutes of higher education. However, these courses are often very short, are not available to all who would like to participate, and do not take into consideration the different levels of professional qualification of the participants.

When speaking about teaching materials, teachers point out that the choice of available books is adequate. "Books are available, all you need is money". But bilingual teaching requires additional teaching aids, a lot of copies must be made, and, at the same time, more textbooks and work books are needed. For example," it is not possible to buy, and the schools don't have a large political map of the world in Latvian". Schools usually use the parallel text method – textbooks in Latvian with a Russian translation, but this does not encourage interest in a subject.

The quality of textbooks and teaching materials can also be a problem. For example, it is sometimes impossible for the teacher to identify a certain plant from its illustration in a work book. The dictionary does not have the name in Latvian and the teacher does not know the name in Russian. To date, there is one textbook of Latvian as a second language for grade 5, which has been written specifically for dealing with issues of second language acquisition and bilingual education.

Teachers mention other problems as well. One is that normative regulations disregard the concept of bilingual education and its needs. For example, since it is possible to choose the language of instruction, students may be taking subjects such as mathematics, physics or geography in Russian, but for the national subject competitions, the assignments are prepared only in Latvian. This means that students who have been learning in Russian do not have the same starting position as those who have been taking these subjects in Latvian. Regional competitions sometimes use translators who are not specialists and translate inaccurately, so that students need more time to understand the assignments, but the time limit is the same for all participants. Ministries will sometimes send Russian schools examination papers in Russian (for example, civics examinations), although, at the start of the school year, the school has informed the ministry that the subject is being taught in Latvian. Teachers feel that, if examination papers are prepared in Latvian for all schools, students who are learning a subject bilingually should at least be given more time to complete the assignments.

School initiatives which have facilitated teaching of subjects in Latvian or bilingually. When naming school initiatives which have helped to start teaching subjects in Latvian or bilingually, school directors mention:

• in-service teacher training courses, particularly on teaching methodology (72%),
• Latvian language courses (61%),
• school action plans (59%),
• development of dictionaries (41%),
• development of teaching materials (27%).

Subject teachers' associations and in-service teacher training courses. In answer to the question about what has helped them to teach a subject in Latvian, teachers name in-service teacher training courses first. Non-Latvian teachers also mention Latvian language courses (mainly those organised and financed by the State Latvian Language Programme). Several teachers note that cooperation between subject teachers' associations is particularly important. 16% of the teachers say that they have received needed information from subject teachers' associations, 32% have shared or gained experience in bilingual teaching. For example, in Liepaja, in answer to the question about what has helped them most in their work, teachers mention work in subject teachers' associations. Here non-Latvian teachers have the opportunity to practice their Latvian by speaking about profession-related topics. However, in Daugavpils, the language used in subject teachers' associations is Russian, and methods of teaching a subject in a second language are not discussed.

Taking advantage of the experience made in other countries. In some schools, bilingual teaching has been started on the basis of experience gained from other countries. Several schools hold regular teaching methodology workshops in which this experience is examined and evaluated. There is a positive attitude to participation in larger projects that stimulate the initiative of teachers and students and provide experience, such as the Soros Foundation Latvia "I*earn" and "Step by Step" educational projects. Students benefit from participation in projects such as UNESCO-Latvia, because the language used here is Latvian.

Cooperation with teachers of Latvian as a second language (LAT 2). 10 % of the teachers who teach bilingually replied that they cooperate with a teacher of Latvian as a second language (LAT 2), if they have difficulties with terminology. In such cases, LAT 2 teachers provide consultations or organise courses. A small number of subject teachers (8%) cooperate with LAT 2 teachers in projects and methodology questions. According to the teachers, cooperation is hampered by a lack of coordination between curricula. Some schools have started to think about the need to integrate the subject matter of bilingually taught subjects and Latvian. Subject teachers in different departments develop special subject vocabularies which are to be taught preferentially in Latvian class. Teachers recommend that when students start to learn a subject in Latvian, in the first year the class should be divided into groups, and that work would be more interesting if the class had two teachers (the subject teacher and a LAT 2 teachers).

The attitude of students. The interviews disclosed that the attitude of students to taking subjects in Latvian/bilingually is generally positive. They can explain why they take subjects in Latvian. "We don't have an environment where we can use the language. Class is the place where we can use Latvian." Schools query students to find out whether they feel that their language skills have improved, which subjects they would or would not like to take bilingually, however, none of the schools discuss strategies of bilingual education with the students. There are discussions about whether or not the students are making progress in learning a subject, but no attention is paid to the skills that are developed as the result of bilingual learning.

The attitude of parents. Schools have differing information about the attitude of parents. In general, parents want their children to have good command of Latvian. Some parents would like more subjects to be taught in Latvian. Some of the schools do not know the views of the parents. Although the teachers also agree that the goals of bilingual education should be discussed in parent councils, so far, this has not been done.

2.4. School development perspectives

In the questionnaires, the directors of both Latvian and non-Latvian schools evaluated six education models for the development of minority schools in Latvia, including four MoES bilingual education models. School directors were also given the opportunity to propose alternative models. Each model was evaluated according to a five-point system, for example, 5 – the most recommended, and 1- entirely unacceptable. When the questionnaires were analysed, the positive evaluations (the most recommended and could be recommended) and the negative ones (unlikely that the model could be applicable, and entirely unacceptable) were compiled.

A bilingual education model which gradually prepares students for instruction in Latvian. In this model, in grades 1-4 Latvian is used as the language of instruction in five subjects: visual arts and handicrafts, sports, music, natural science. In grades 5 and 6, geography, biology and mathematics are taught bilingually. In grades 7-9 all subjects, except the native language and literature are taught in Latvian.

A bilingual education model in which Latvian is used as the language of communication and instruction. In grades 1-2, 70%-95% of each subject are taught bilingually. In grades 3-6, 50%-75% are taught bilingually, and the native language and the block of cultural subjects are taught in the native language. In grades 7-9, 40%-60% of geography, history, social studies, health, biology and mathematics are taught bilingually. With this model, students gain the same level of knowledge both in Latvian and in their native language.

A bilingual education model which implements a gradual transition to instruction in Latvian. Starting from grade 1, one subject is taught entirely in Latvian and each year another subject is added.

A bilingual education model in which, in grades 1-3, all subjects are taught in the native language and Latvian is taught as a second language. In grades 4-6, 50% of the optional subjects are taught in Latvian. In grades 7-9, foreign languages, mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, music, computer science, and health are taught bilingually. Geography, social studies, visual arts, home economics and sports are taught in Latvian.

Instruction entirely in Latvian In this model, all subjects are taught only in Latvian.

Instruction in Latvian, with the exception of the native language and culture In this model, all subjects, except for the native language and the block of cultural subjects are taught in Latvian.

The views of the directors of non-Latvian schools. School directors evaluated each of the proposed models. The directors of non-Latvian schools see the future of their schools, in connection with introduction of a MoES biligual education model, as follows:

• 52% positively assessed MoES bilingual education model 1;

• 50% positively assessed bilingual education model 3;
• 50% positively assessed bilingual education model 4;

• 47% positively assessed bilingual education model 2.

Only 8% of the directors of non-Latvian schools opted for instruction entirely in Latvian as the best model for their school. It is important to note that 59% of the directors of non-Latvian schools feel that instruction entirely in Latvian, with the exception of the native language and culture, is absolutely unacceptable.

An analysis of the survey results by regions shows that the situation in Riga is similar to the situation in the country as a whole. In Zemgale all the proposed models were more or less equally acceptable, including transition to instruction entirely in Latvian in non-Latvian schools. In Kurzeme, model 3 received a positive assessment from 69.3% of the respondents, model 4 - by 46%, models 1 and 2 - by 38%, and instruction entirely in Latvian, with the exception of the native language and culture, was acceptable to 23%. The majority of the school directors in Kurzeme (69.8%) had negative views on the transition to instruction entirely in Latvian in non-Latvian schools.

The majority of school directors in Vidzeme (61%) preferred model 3. 54% of the school directors chose model 2, 46% - models 4 and 1, and 31% would like to have instruction entirely in Latvian, with the exception of the native language and culture. In a parallel with Kurzeme, 69.2% of the school directors in Vidzeme were negative about transition to instruction entirely in Latvian in non-Latvian schools.

In Latgale, 72% of the school directors gave a positive assessment of model 4, 55% chose model 1, 51% -model 2, and 48% - model 3. 79.3% of the respondents in Latgale feel that instruction entirely in Latvian, with the exception of the native language and culture, is the least appropriate model for the development of non-Latvian schools.

The views of the directors of Latvian schools. The directors of Latvian schools feel that the following models are best suited for the development of non-Latvian schools:

• bilingual education model 1 (41%),
• instruction entirely in Latvian (38%),
• bilingual education model 3 (37%),
• bilingual education model 4 (32%),
• instruction entirely in Latvian, with the exception of the native language an culture(23%),
• bilingual education model 2 (20%).

It is apparent that the directors of Latvian and non-Latvian schools have basically similar views about the development of non-Latvian schools in Latvia (see chart 2). For example, quite a large number of both Latvian and non-Latvian school directors give a positive assessment of MoES bilingual education models 1 and 3. Views differ strongly with regard to the transition of non-Latvian schools to instruction entirely in Latvian, or in Latvian, with the exception of the native language and culture. The directors of Latvian schools are quite positive about this option, but for the majority of the directors of non-Latvian schools (59%) it is completely unacceptable.

development perspectives for non-Latvian schools

Alternative bilingual education models. 10 of the non-Latvian schools submitted their own models and comments. As alternatives to the MoES models, directors of the non-Latvian schools propose:

• up to 50% of the subject matter taught in Latvian/bilingually, with preference to teaching in Latvian rather than bilingually;
• examination of the question whether the science subjects should be taught bilingually, (2 opposite views);
• various modifications of MoES model 2 (4 proposals).

2.5. School cooperation opportunities

The answers received from school directors show that the directors of both Latvian and non-Latvian schools would like to improve cooperation between schools. For example, 92% of the non-Latvian and 73% of the Latvian schools would like to establish cooperation with each other. The results of the survey also show that cooperation is already taking place between 69% of the non-Latvian schools and 65% of the Latvian schools. The activities mentioned most frequently are:

• extracurricular activities (45% non-Latvian and 38% Latvian),
• camps (24% non-Latvian and 21% Latvian),
• joint projects (22% non-Latvian and 18% Latvian),
• exchanges (12% non-Latvian and 12% Latvian).

Conclusions and needed support. The results of the survey show that most directors of non-Latvian schools are interested in introducing bilingual education models in their schools. Some schools have already taken positive steps in this direction. There are, however, problems which hamper successful implementation of bilingual models, for example, teachers' lack of methodological skills (use of traditional methods in the bilingual teaching process, for example, translation methods), lack of a language environment, lack of teaching materials, teachers' limited knowledge of Latvian, lack of cooperation between teachers, etc.

In the context of this project, special attention will be devoted to activities in the following areas:

• development and implementation of curricula and teaching methods for bilingual education,
• use of interactive methods for teaching subjects, especially the arts subjects, which would promote effective use of the language by students,
• development of bilingual methodology courses and introduction of these courses in pedagogical institutes of higher education, which would ensure a balance between theory and practice in in-service training courses as well,
• development of models of cooperation between LAT2 teachers and subject teachers,
• development of cooperation between Latvian and non-Latvian schools, which both Latvian and non-Latvian school representatives regard as positive and would like to see improved.

References

Druviete, I. (1998). Republic of Latvia. In B. Paulston & D. Peckham (Eds.) Linguistic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe. Multilingual matters Ltd.: Clevedon, UK.

Liepina, Dz. (1997). Nelatviešu un jaukto gimenu bernu integracijas latviešu sakumskola

pedagogiskie aspekti (Pedagogical aspects of integration of children from non-

Latvian and mixed families into Latvian elementary schools).Skolotajs, 1, 51-56.

Liepina, Dz. (1997). Nelatviešu un jaukto gimenu bernu integracijas latviešu sakumskola pedagogiskie aspekti (Pedagogical aspects of integration of children from non-

Latvian and mixed families into Latvian elementary schools).

Skolotajs, 2, 98-107.

Notes

An unfortunate legacy of Soviet rule in Latvia is an inherited, complex ethno-demographic situation characterized by ethnic discord among different groups of society. The attempt to preserve the concept of "nation" and the need for the integration of the Russian speaking population sets a difficult task for Latvian education reform. One of the strongest manifestations of ethnic fragmentation in education is the existence of two parallel school systems with Latvian and Russian languages of instruction. This presentation will provide an overview of the needs assessment study conducted by the Soros Foundation - Latvia (SFL) and describe the project "Open School", implemented by SFL in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Naturalization Board, aimed at fostering the approximation of the two school networks and its effects on curriculum, teacher training, and pedagogy.

SESSION: SUPPORTING ROMA FROM KINDERGARTEN TO UNIVERSITY

Session: Supporting Roma from Kindergarten to University

Thursday (6 May) 15:00 – 16:00

Supporting Roma: From Kindergarten to University

(Hungarian Soros Foundation)

1. Short introduction of Roma Educational Programs led by the Hungarian Foundation

• Roma Versitas – scholarship for Roma youth in higher education
• Alternative kindergarten and primary school program for Roma children in Edeleny (an Eastern-Hungarian village)

• Scholarship for Roma secondary school students and their mentors

(Increasing Roma students' opportunities for secondary education; helping them take the general certificate of education examinations.

Proving the feasibility of a support model which prevents Roma students from dropping out of high schools)

• Providing summer vacation for participants of the Teacher-Student Grant Program for Roma High School Students; creating an opportunity for children with similar problems to get acquainted; exchange of experience and promotion of social integration. Introduction of a new form of extra-curricula education which will serve as a model to demonstrate how to prevent Roma students from dropping out of high school.

2. Guidelines of supporting Roma education

END OF THE YEAR REWARD-SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Promoting Roma students' opportunities in accessing education and training and in self-realization in a majority society. Proving the feasibility of a support model which gives incentives and assistance to Roma students in the higher grades of elementary school to continue studies at a secondary level.

Surveys show that the number of Roma students in high schools in far below their proportion among the child population. If this is to be changed, we should help Roma students in the 6th and 7th grades of elementary school (where the rate of drop-outs is largest) to finish their primary studies, thus improving their chances to continue in secondary education. This was the Foundation's intent when it launched the year-end grant to Roma students program in 1996 as part of the Public Education Development Program.

Eligible applicants are Roma students aged 12-13 whose grade point average at the end of the academic year reached 4 at the end of the 6^th, 7^th grade. Applications can be submitted once a year. The USD 40 award gives an incentive to students to perform better at schools. This year about 340 students will receive a grant.

ONE TIME SUPPORT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Promoting Roma students' opportunities in accessing education and training and in self-realization in a majority society. Proving the feasibility of a support model which gives incentives and assistance to Roma students in the higher grades of elementary school to continue studies at a secondary level.

Surveys show that the number of Roma students in high schools is far below their proportion among the child population. Roma families find it extremely difficult to pay current costs of schooling let alone to undertake the burden of sending their children to secondary education. Consequently, Roma children very often do not even start secondary studies. In 1996, the Foundation initiated the Grant to Promote Secondary Education Scheme as part of the Public Education Development Program. Achievements so far seem to underscore the initial supposition that the grant compels families to send their children to high schools who would not have dreamed about this earlier.

Launched once a year, the program offers a one-time USD 104 grant to Roma students applying to study in high schools providing a general certificate of education at the end of the studies. The grant can be used to purchase school textbooks, clothing or transportation card. This year about 250 students will receive grants.

Increasing Roma students' opportunities for secondary education; helping them take the general certificate of education examinations.

Proving the feasibility of a support model which prevents Roma students from dropping out of high schools.

Even if they make it to high schools, Roma students do not finish their secondary studies in most cases due to financial and/or family reasons. The Foundation addressed this problem when it initiated Joint Teacher-Student Grant Program in 1996. Not only do Roma students receive financial support but they are assisted by a teacher (mentor) in coping with difficulties in their studies. The mentor's role is also important in helping students with family or other problems which might cause them to give up studies.

Past experience has shown the positive impact of this grant scheme on students as well as teachers.

Launched once a year, the program supports Roma high school students who are assisted by their chosen mentor in their studies and also on a human scale, so that they can take a successful end-of-studies examination. During the 1998/99 academic year, approximately 600-700 students and their mentors receive USD 20 and USD 12 respectively over a period of 10 months.

Promoting the emergence of Roma middle classes and intellectuals, proving the feasibility of a support model which helps Roma students to accomplish university or college studies and to obtain a degree.

Surveys show that the proportion of Roma students in higher educational institutions is very low. One reason is that Roma families are unable to shoulder the financial burden of higher education.

The need to continue supporting Roma students higher educational studies first arose in conjunction with high school students who received grants prior to 1996.

Over the years the program proved to be extremely successful. Currently more than 350 Roma students receive high school grants.

In the wake of the Soros Foundation's program, the Hungarian National Ethnic Minorities Public Foundation also initiated a similar higher education grant scheme for Roma students.

Roma students admitted to a university or college offering degrees or diplomas accredited by the state can apply once a year. The grant amounts to USD 50 per month and extended for a period of ten months.

Notetaker's notes

Prepared by Natalya Shablya

Hungarian Foundation on Roma Projects

It is important when one works on designing Roma programs that the situational analyses and needs analyses of Roma problems like: Roma population, governmental degrees related to Roma, and economic situation they live in be well studied first. This information will help to develop projects which will contribute to the success of programs put together to remedy the situation in Roma education. None of the Foundations will be able to solve problems of Roma. Only the government can intervene to produce a systemic impact in dealing with this issue.

The problem of Roma drop out is very serious and very important therefore we would like to concentrate on it as well as on the integration of children into the mainstream schools.

Roma initiative project.

Our school started to operate in 1992 with 30 children out of which 29 are Roma. Children could enter the school only through attendance test which meant that a lot of them would not make it to school. Before 1992 the school was financed and supervised by municipal educational authorities. When my colleagues and I decided to undertake new approach in education of Roma children the management of the school did not agree with us and we got unemployed. In one year and a half municipality stopped to maintain the municipal school and a lot of children came to the school which we opened by then. The school was supported by the Soros foundation. In 94-95 we became legal successors of the municipal school and we opened a primary school.

Kindergarten

We try to persuade parents of small children to send them to kindergarten at the appropriate age so that children will be prepared for the primary school. Our kindergarten approach is based on educating children together with parents. We use American approach. Our school is supported with state funds as well as various foundations. Children come to us the age of 3 then they go to primary school and secondary school.

We also try to strengthen our work by involving community leaders in the school life. We realised that scholarships are not the solution to help with the education for Roma. Financial support is needed for teachers who assist students in their studies .

Participants were presented a film about the summer camp in which students and teachers spend two weeks together.

Roma Versitas

The proportion of Roma students in special schools is very high. Sometimes it reaches 80-90%. Research on social situation of Roma in Hungary was conducted. The results showed that there is little progress in educational provisions/outcomes for Roma. The only achievement was that more students were finishing primary education which said that only six percent of primary students could finish the school and 1.5% can finish primary school from the whole Roma population in Hungary.

Roma Versatis

The situation in Romani access to higher education is even worse. Out of 1000 students only one gets into universities. This project helps Roma students not to drop out from the universities and also to create Roma elite which will be able to protect Roma civil rights. Three tasks of this program is to assist in professional studies of Roma students, develop their inner human competencies and establish communities which will not be seen as the disadvantaged communities only because Roma people live there. About 350 students all over Hungary participate in this program and study at various Hungarian institutes.

Participants of this session requested for materials on programs presented during the session to be sent to them .

INTRODUCTION TO AVAILABLE RESOURCES

Lucinia Bal's presentation

The Internet:

- distributed (located on different computers)

- multimedia format

- hyper-linked (pages can be accessed through links)

- readily available

- virtual (built of many independent and remote pieces)

- possibly interactive

Build on positives, avoid negatives:

- how the IEP site will help you in this respect

Search engines

- accessible from the IEP site ( --> resources --> links )

- types:

keyword-based search

categories

- time-consuming

- info lacks "recommendation"

Lists of links

- provided on the IEP site

( --> minority education --> links)

( --> resources --> links)

- provided by other sites

- best if reliable sources are used for the lists

Types of information available on the web

- resource packs for teachers

- resource packs for development

- papers

- information about organisations

- interactive sites

Information provided on the IEP site

- lists of links

- workshop materials

- IEP publications

- minority education site

links

- Roma education site

sharing of information on programmes and country data

The Roma Education Resource Book

Csaba Fényes presented the Roma Education Resource Book that was recently published by IEP for network-internal use.

The Resource Book contains articles and papers that deal with theoretical and practical issues in the field of minority education, especially focussing on Roma children.

Such a resource material was requested by foundations years ago.

Further resource materials will be collected and distributed later as an ongoing project at IEP. Participants were asked to recommend papers or other materials that could be used by other foundations too.

The resource book was distributed among participants and further copies are still available from IEP.

WHAT IS MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? WHAT DOES IT DO?

Cultures are the linguistic, religious, artistic, and mythological ways in which groups of the species homo sapiens express their originality. Of course, cultures can seem like stronger divisions than that: Cultural differences can become the fault lines in a society that offer pretenses for mistreatment, discrimination against, and oppression of one group by another.

Multicultural education came into being where fair-minded people sought ways to respond constructively to the challenge of members of different cultural groups sharing the same society (And to the extent that people in the world are becoming interdependent, this challenge involves all of us). Although social action for justice may begin in other domains-- laws and policies, hiring practices, housing, or access to health care, for example--sooner or later, schools must be involved in the effort. That is because progress in social arrangements ultimately requires that citizens adopt new attitudes, which in turn need new knowledge and experiences. A new education is needed by people on both sides of the cultural divide. Children of groups who have been oppressed need bolstering; and children of privileged groups need to broaden their perspective to take into account the views of children from other groups. Multicultural education, then, is a movement in schools to promote awareness, mutual appreciation, and harmony among people of different cultural groups--usually with the ultimate goal of achieving social justice and social cohesion.

Multicultural Education and the Two Curricula

Those who pay serious attention to what happens in schools know that schooling has a formal and an informal side. On the formal or explicit side are the objectives of the state curriculum and the content of school books and lectures, as measured by examinations. On the informal or hidden side are power relationships and implicit expectations for behavior: For example, do we succeed by cooperating or competing? Do students share responsibility for the classroom or only take orders? Also part of the informal side are attitudes toward one sex or one cultural group as opposed to another. This aspect of the informal or hidden curriculum is often evidenced in what is not included in the formal curriculum: Whose pictures do not hang in the hallways, or are not seen in books? Whose stories are not told? Whose contributions to society are not chronicled?

As we shall see below, teachers who approach multicultural education often begin with the formal curriculum--with the content that is taught. Some, however, attempt to change the implicit aspects of schooling, too--to make aspects of schooling like power-sharing and interaction among students more supportive of students from all cultural groups and ultimately of the goal of social change.

A Model of Prejudice and Multicultural Education

Attitudes are not learned cognitively like facts and dates. How does multicultural education affect attitudes and outlooks toward cultures—one’s own and others? The answer lies in the interaction between concepts and experience. Let us look, first, at how this interaction affects members of the dominant group.

In their early years, members of Group Y begin to hear disparaging remarks said about members of Group X. They may hear these remarks, and detect the attitude they convey, before those members of Group Y have any real experience with members of Group X. The prejudicial remarks predispose them to have negative experiences with members of Group X when they eventually meet one: Members of Group Y will be willing to interpret virtually anything the Group X person says or does as evidence of their ________ or their _______ (whatever negative attribute they have learned to associate with members of that group). When that happens, they are now likely assume that our negative view of members of Group X is based on direct experience! They know that members of Group X have these negative attributes, because they have seen them with their own eyes!

(See Figure 1)

Unfortunately, this phenomenon may affect members of Group X as well, if all majority of the cultural reminders they see in public either ignore Group X--or worse, portray them in a negative light-- members of Group X may, at best, conclude that they are not very important, that they don’t really belong in the school or in the community; and at worst, that they really do possess the negative features that members of Group Y have ascribed to them.

These gloomy processes can be prevented from happening, however. Cognitive psychologists tell us, just as the model suggested, that we tend to notice what we know about: A person who knows her wild flowers will have an altogether different experience of a walk through a field than a person who knows nothing about wild flowers. Similarly, if in school, children from Group Y are taught many fascinating features of the culture of Group X, as well as many features that Group Y has in common with that group, then their personal experience with members of that group will no longer automatically lead them to form negative conclusions about them. Similarly, if members of Group X see people like themselves reflected in the school curriculum, and begin to see positive features and accomplishments of their group validated in the school, they will feel less alienated and more encouraged by their school experiences.

Both of the examples given above together have been called the window and mirror effects of multicultural education (Simms Bishop, 1996). Multicultural education provides a window into the cultures of minority children, through which children from majority groups can see them accurately. It also provides a mirror of their own culture, to children from minority groups, who heretofore may have seen only negative reflections of themselves, or no reflection at all, in the school curriculum.

Admittedly, a few widely scattered exercises in cultural awareness will not go very far to combat years of prejudicial attitudes that have been absorbed at home or in the neighborhood. That is why many experts in multicultural education argue for the infusion of multicultural influences throughout the curriculum and throughout the school day, week, and year.

In fact, approaches that have been taken to multicultural education can be plotted along a continuum from occasional topic lessons to a transformation of the school.

Models of Multicultural Education

In the most straightforward of venues, multicultural education is limited to discussions of school curriculum. From a practical standpoint, this translates into using materials such as children’s books, or projects such as oral histories, to increase awareness and understanding of

the various cultural perspectives of the students in the school or classroom. The idea is that the content connects to the child and hence, each child will see himself or herself reflected in the daily curriculum and studies that take place in the classroom. Further, that the class will see itself as a collective made up of different experiences, all of which are equally important and valid, and by doing so will increase the understanding of each child of the other.

In other contexts, such as the political arena, multicultural education takes on a much broader scope and has been defined as "any set of processes by which schools work with rather than against oppressed groups." (Sleeter, 1992, p.141) The most inclusive definitions (Nieto, 1992, Banks, 1994) suggest that multicultural education is a transformational process that permeates and impacts every aspect of the operation of an educational system, including government policy, staffing, curriculum, disciplinary policy, student involvement, parent and community involvement, pedagogy, assessment, and funding. One of the underlying premises of multicultural education as transformation is "that as schools go so goes the nation," At the practical level, multicultural education then becomes a venue for social and political reform. Discussions of oppression, social inequality, power dynamics, race and ethnicity, as well as the role of the dominant culture, in the shaping of society’s basic assumption about what constitutes school knowledge, appropriate social behavior, and national identity, is all part of the multicultural education discourse.

Regardless of where practice comes down on the definitional continuum, researchers, architects, and practitioners of multicultural education hold certain goals and assumptions in common.

1. Multicultural education assumes that pluralism is a good thing and that race, ethnicity, cultural and social class are all salient parts of a pluralistic society. Participation in a variety of ethnic experiences ultimately enriches one’s understanding of the human experience and leads to a more fulfilling life. ( Banks 1999)
2. A central goal of multicultural education is to help individuals live more productively in a pluralistic society. This is accomplished in two ways:

1. Individuals gain a greater understanding of themselves by seeing themselves through the lens of other cultures.
2. Individuals gain the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to

function within their ethnic culture and within and across other ethnic cultures.

1. Multicultural education is premised on the need for accuracy. In order for individuals to get a true picture of historical and social events, which have shaped national identity, they need to listen to multiple voices and understand multiple perspectives. It is not a matter of leaving out one version of events in favor of another; rather it is about re-envisioning history using an inclusive model that more accurately portrays events as they happened.
2. Multicultural education is a commitment to helping all students master the essential academic and social skills to become knowledgeable, caring, and active citizens in an increasingly polarized and troubled world.

Models of Multicultural Education Programs: Theory Into Practice

Regardless of how individuals view the multicultural education movement, there are some general models and specific areas of research that offer educators and policy makers a road map for program development. The two most often cited general modes are offered by Banks (1999) and by Sleeter and Grant (1993). These models differ from one another but are not mutually exclusive. (See figure 2)

Other researchers such as Nieto (1992), Delpit (199?), and Ladson-Billings (1992) focus on particular areas of multicultural program development and offer suggestions relating to pedagogy, curriculum, and structure. Ladson-Billings, for example, focuses on the specifics of successful literacy education for African American students. Delpit ( 1988 ) is concerned with power relations in a classroom that can exist when minority children are taught by teachers of the dominant culture. Nieto(1997) is focused on institutional reform and student achievement.

When discussing theoretical models, how they actually look and operate in a classroom or school is often left out of the conversation. In that regard, Burnett (ERIC clearinghouse on Urban Education 1998) suggests a third model that combines Banks, Sleeter, current research with an overview of actual programs as they are currently underway in the United States. Burnett’s typology is particularly useful in that it reflects the translation of theory into practice and divides programs into three general categories according to program emphasis.

Content-Oriented Programs

Content-oriented programs are the most easily recognizable and hence the most common form of multicultural education. Content-oriented programs are committed to the inclusion of material that reflects the cultural make-up of the class or the school. The primary goal of these programs is to make students more knowledgeable about cultures within their schools or their communities. Content-oriented programs come in various levels of engagement and infusion of the curriculum. In its simplest form, " this type of program gives a multicultural patina to the standard curriculum" (Burnett 1998) by incorporating a few readings and the celebration of heroes and holidays of diverse groups. It gives only a cursory nod to multicultural education by focusing solely on "heroes and holiday." Students would read books, do projects, and learn about a variety of holidays but through the lens of the standard canon. At this stage, multicultural education is an add-on or tangential to current curriculum without changing the actual focus.

More sophisticated and complex programs, however, set out to actually transform the curriculum. These programs have three goals: (Banks 1999)

• to develop multicultural content across the disciplines

• to incorporate a variety of different viewpoints and perspectives in the curriculum

• to transform the canon, ultimately developing a new paradigm for the curriculum

These programs can come in many forms, but often the most common is a single group study, such as women’s studies, ethnic studies, etc. These programs can be the focus of the whole school, as in the examples of Afrocentric and single sex schools, or only portions of the curriculum.

Student-Oriented Programs

Student-oriented programs address the academic and learning needs of carefully defined groups of students, most specifically minority students. The goal of these programs is often to raise the academic achievement of these groups. Research in learning styles, language use and development (Heath 1986), etc. often forms the basis of these programs.

Since the goal of student-oriented programs is to improve the academic success of specific groups and thereby make it possible for them to enter the mainstream, they are often seen as compensatory in nature. Further, there is no particular guarantee that student-oriented programs will be done in conjunction with content oriented programs. In fact, it is entirely possible to have one without the other. Again Banks (1999) suggests four broad program categories:

• programs that use research into culturally-based learning styles in order to match teaching styles to a specific group of students
• bi-lingual education or language/cultural immersion
• special math and science programs for groups, such as females and minorities that are seen as underachieving in these areas.

• Language programs and cultural programs specific to minority group

Socially-Oriented Programs

Socially-oriented programs are generally the most inclusive and broad-based. They are also often controversial and as a consequence less common. Programs such as these attempt to reform "both the schooling and the cultural and political contexts of schooling" ( Burnett 1998). The over-arching goal of socially-oriented programs is to increase cultural and racial tolerance and reduce bias as well as rearrange the social structure to reinforce and support this new paradigm.

In order to accomplish this, socially-oriented programs have a number of distinguishing characteristics:

• They seek to revise and transform the curriculum to create a new canon that is reflective of the current society.
• They seek to use current educational research to discover new ways to engage students in the educational enterprise in order that they may be academically successful, regardless of ethnicity and class.
• They use the instruments and strategies of social activism and community organization to accomplish these goals.
• They focus on the outcome of preparing students to be socially – active citizens and agents of change.

Sleeter and Grant (1993) have described socially-oriented programs as about human relations in all its many forms. As a consequence, such programs use a variety of approaches borrowed from disciplines as diverse as philosophy, ecology, and psychology. Some programs emphasize critical thinking and critical discourse, collaborative learning and multilingualism. Other programs focus on the use of the ecological model to enhance understanding of social structures and the diffusion of change, still other programs focus on the nature of inclusion and consensus and how best to translate those concepts into practice, not only at the classroom level but at the school and community level as well.

Final Thoughts

There is a danger in multicultural education programming of letting the political rhetoric and the academic research agenda overshadow the benefits of designing and implementing interesting and lively opportunities for children to learn. In fact, the reasons to use a multicultural approach in schools are simple and compelling.

1. A multicultural approach makes learning more interesting and relevant to children’s lives.
2. A multicultural approach gives all students a forum in which to share information about who they are, how they live, what is important to them and their families.
3. A multicultural approach gives students another lens through which to view history and society.
4. A multicultural approach encourages tolerance and respect and supports notions of social reform and community cohesion.

Oral Histories: school and community based opportunities for multicultural education

What is an oral history?

It is often the case that when a teacher says the word "history" to a group of youngsters there is a collective groan as eyes roll back and students brace for the worst. History can evoke images of dusty books, dimly lit libraries, and the tedious memorization of names and dates that take a long time to learn and a short time to forget. Fortunately, oral histories have none of those characteristics.

The broadest and simplest definition of an oral history is the reminiscences and recollections of living people concerning the past. These recollections can be passed down orally from generation to generation or may be the oral memories of an individual who was present at a specific time and event. The only caveat is that the story is "collected" by an interviewer and then transcribed into text with some accompanying narrative or explanation that fleshes out the background of the storyteller and the particular situation. The topic is fairly irrelevant as long as it is about an actual memory or incident. Topics can be virtually anything from surviving a flood, putting food by, building a boat, memories of school days, tales of courage and moments of sheer hilarity and electrifying suspense.

The elements of a good oral history are the same as the elements of a good story. There are vibrant and fully realized characters such as; an eccentric aunt, Uncle so and so who was captured by pirates, the strongest man in the village or the lady across the street who loved cats. Each one of these people has a role in the tale and, most importantly, exists or existed in real life. There are problems to be solved. They can range from the grave to the mundane such as; harvesting food in a year with no rain, surviving the great depression, building a dyke against a flood or how to fix a roof, make a quilt or build a house without using nails. The solutions to these problems or, in literary terms, the resolution, often illustrate everything from outstanding resourcefulness to blatant stupidity. The voice or the point of view of the oral history is that of the person telling the story. The researcher acts as the invisible narrator who only adds those things, which help enhance or illuminate the dark corners of the tale that may be opaque to the reader. Finally the language or tone that the oral history takes is, and should be, true to the "teller". It is not the job of the oral historian to change the person’s syntax and make them more or less educated, sophisticated or different from who they are. An oral history is not an exercise in creative writing but an exercise in telling the truth as someone else knows it.

Oral histories can be turned into books, articles, displays, and even videos. They are also a perfect venue for developing multicultural curriculum in schools. There is a compelling quote from the poet Rilke that ultimately summarizes what oral histories actually do.. "Who ever tells the story shapes the world" The oral history is the story, what a teacher does with it can shape the world.

The Steps in an Oral History Project

What follows is an abbreviated outline of the steps in an oral history project. For more complete information please see Telling stories, writing lives: a guide to using oral history folklore and folklife

Getting started

The hardest part of an oral history is to decide on the topic. As students and teachers think about topics, perhaps the most salient question to answer is " will it make a good story". Think about events and people in a community that are pivotal. Wars, floods, and desperate times are natural starting points and usually come instantly to mind. Another avenue to explore is memorable moments in people’s lives such as weddings, births, chance meetings, and significant life choices. . These projects can result in stories of humor and grace that are informative as well as interesting. Families are full of these stories and they run the gamut from the serious to the romantic. How grandparents came to live where they do is a good start for an oral history on immigration. How uncles and aunts learned their professions or met one another are opportunities for oral history around work and romance. How great aunt so and so learned to ride a horse or make a quilt or won a special prize at school are all part of the significant fabric of people’s lives and are good choices for oral histories. The point to remember is that the stuff of life is the stuff of oral histories.

Where to go, who to interview and how

Once teachers and students have settled on a topic, the next hurdle in an oral history project is gathering information. This entails finding people to talk to, convincing them that that is a good idea, and finally, figuring out what to say. Gaining access is a term that refers to identifying and locating individuals that know about the topic. The interview is made up of a series of questions that encourages the speaker to tell his or her story. The most common mistakes that students make are to a) pick topics that on the surface sound great but are in reality too difficult, b) not find the right people to interview and c) structure a weak interview. The only real way to avoid making these mistakes is to practice. It is important to practice writing and doing interviews, as well as picking topics and designing projects that have a reasonable comfort level. For example, it would be unwise for students to decide to do an oral history project that requires them to travel great distances, or only interview very famous people. The likely-hood of failure would be high. Interview guides are available and are helpful for the first time oral historian. When it comes to format and structure, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. A good commercial interview guide can save students and teachers time and headaches as it provides useful suggestions and gives a solid structure from which to work. .

The most accessible and fertile ground for oral history projects are in students’ families and communities. Family and community oral history projects are very meaningful to students as they represent a celebration of easily recognizable individual and collective experience. Everyone loves to "know the hero" of the tale and local projects allow that to happen.

A gold mine of information exists in the elderly people in a community. What was life like fifty years ago is a wonderful place to start especially for school age children. Elderly people are usually interested in youngsters and generally enjoy their company. They are also often available for school visits and can become a real asset to any educational program but particularly one that is using oral history as part of a multicultural endeavor. Intergenerational perspectives are powerful and even more so when they include stories from diverse ethnic, racial and social groups.

Writing it up

Once students have collected stories and information the next step is to "write it up". The writing workshop is a perfect way to get lively and interesting pieces written. Important aspects of this process are talk and collaborative work. Students need time to assemble information and talk with one another about what they have and what they might do with it. Besides interviews, students can use photographs, souvenirs, news clippings and other artifacts relevant to the topic that they are researching. The most difficult part of the project comes when students must synthesize the information and "tell the story" in a voice that is true to the experience and to the person.

Finished products are only limited by the imagination and energy of the students. Oral history projects can be made into videos, displays, books for adults, books for children. They can be part of local celebrations as well as the focus for local and regional publications.

Oral History Projects as Part of Multicultural Education

Oral history projects are about visibility. When students embark on a project those pieces of lived experience that have been in the shadows of families and communities come to light. What had once been invisible suddenly takes center stage. In a multicultural program this is particularly important as the experience of marginalized groups gets the same attention as the dominant group. Hero and heroines, problems and solutions emerge in the most unlikely places. As a consequence, students and teachers have opportunities for discussions around such topics as courage, resourcefulness, fairness and opportunity but through the multicultural lens and anchored in the experience of students. This is a prime example of Simms Bishop’s model of windows and mirrors. Oral histories can allow teachers and students to change the content of the curriculum as well as the way students gather information and understand each other.

Oral history projects reduce the distance between the student and the subject matter. It is one thing for students to learn about and discuss events and concepts from a theoretical perspective. It is a whole different matter to discuss the same events and concepts but anchored in the lived experiences of family and community members. From the perspective of Banks model, oral history projects offer teachers and students access to changing the structure of the curriculum by changing, in part, how some of the information is obtained and studied.

Oral history projects require a collaborative and inclusive working style. It is virtually impossible for students to carry out individual projects because there is too much involved; hence students need to work together. Furthermore oral history project are a bridge between the classroom and the community. It is essential that students go out into the community and it is equally essential the community come into the classroom. For students of minorities, this may be one of the first opportunities that their families can participate in a school-based activity as experts in a particular topic.

Oral history projects can illuminate social issues and problems and give students and teachers a forum for discussion, decision making and action. As students study their communities and listen to the stories of family members they see how those experiences highlight a need for action and social change. For example, an oral history project conducted in a small town in Connecticut focused on the plight of Portuguese fisherman, which ultimately resulted in new legislation in the fishing industry.

This is not to say that oral history projects can or should be the centerpiece of a multicultural program. However, these types of projects are a logical and interesting place to begin the discussion. They are not technically difficult to execute nor are they particularly expensive. They are worth doing if for no other reason than oral histories help us to see and to remember those pieces of the ordinary human experience that would be lost as it is in our stories that our lives have meaning.

On the Varieties of Multicultural Publishing Projects

Publishing projects to support multicultural education projects can vary in a number of ways.

The authors of multicultural publications can be the students in a classroom, selected students from a school, a group of young people recruited in the community for this purpose, teachers, or professional adult writers.

The audiences can be the other students in a classroom, a whole school, students from different regions of the country (by means of exchanges), people in the immediate community, or even a national readership, if the works are published professionally.

The forms the materials might take include a wall or hallway-mounted collage of texts, illustrations, and photographs. Or they might be a newsletter, a magazine, a handmade book, or a commercially printed book.

The genres and patterns which organize the publications can take on interesting variety, also.

Patterns and Genres of Multicultural Publications.

Readers expect patterns in the texts they read; but inexperienced writers often have difficulty finding a design and sticking to it. What are some useful patterns for works written for children?

The first set of patterns introduced below might be used by children who are writing their own books, or by adults writing for children. These ideas were collected by Sylvia Vardell (in Temple & Gillet, 1996).

Alphabet books. (Animals, names, or objects presented from A to Z).

Counting books. (Numbers from 0 to 10, 1 to 20; sets of 5 or 10; addition problems; telling time; counting money).

Predictable pattern books. (This is... AI wish.. I like... Someday...)

Rhymes, songs, and poems. (Anthologies, or one book containing a single poem)

Riddles, proverbs, jokes (old favorites, ones collected in the community, new creations)

Retellings of traditional tales or religious stories (including stories that were collected from sources in the community)

Personal narratives. (First person accounts of individual experiences; or first person accounts told to the writer by a community person)

Vocabulary to learn or rules to demonstrate. (A personal dictionary or guidebook for carrying out a procedure)

Biography or history. (Based on interviews or research)

Autobiography of journals. (Me, my family, my feelings)

Nonfiction or informational books (about a favorite topic)

Concept books. (Simple concept with examples given: colors, animals, senses).

How to do books. (Clear instructions on how to build or create or do something).

Cookbooks. (Anthologies or individual creations).

Word less picture books. (In which a story is told entirely through pictures.

Favorite book formula. (Imitate or innovate on the pattern of a favorite book).

Favorite character book. (Make up a new adventure of a favorite character).

Original imaginative stories. (Fictional characters or fantasy characters).

Art books. (Single or mixed media collections of artwork with titles, captions, or stories).

Class anthologies. (A mixture of all literary types).

Movable/pop-up books. (Three dimension; moveable parts)

Shape books. (Books in the physical shape of the topic, like letters, numbers, or shoes).

Bilingual books. (Romanian/Romani, etc.)

Words/sounds. (Featuring idioms, expressions, or initial consonants or vowel sounds, or syllables)

Longer Narrative Patterns

For more extended texts, narrative patterns are often used. There are a range of patterns around which narratives can be arranged some of them quite obvious, but a few of them less so.

1. Sequential patterns. The trappings of a traditional wedding could be highlighted as follows: At the start of the wedding feast, I ate a plum tart. But the bride still had not danced. By two o’clock I had eaten a plum tart and two hot crossed buns. But the bride still had not danced. By half past three I had eaten a plum tart, two hot crossed buns, and _______and so on.

2. Amazing Grace. In Carolyn Bench’s book, Amazing Grace, a young girl growing up in a modern city is having a crisis of confidence over the school play. Her aunt from her native island inspires her with the confidence of her roots, and the girl eventually triumphs. Children in other cultures could use a similar message.

3. The tension between traditional culture and modern culture. In Sharon Bell Mathis’ The 100 Penny Box, a hundred year-old grandmother keeps a penny from every year of her life and tells a story to go with each one to her young great-grandson, with whom she lives in a cramped urban apartment. The boy’s mother has no use for the old woman’s tales; and the boy is caught in between. This pattern bears recycling

4. Plots that stem from characters and their problems. Good stories can be developed by thinking of a character in her setting, wishing what a person would typically wish for in that place. The story is further developed as opposing forces or characters are brought into play.

Standards of Writing for Young People

As the patterns of writing grow more complex, writers must work hard to handle them well. Many professional writers say that good writing is revising. Many published authors seek out the company of writers’ groups so they may share their works and receive suggestions. At many such workshops we have conducted, the suggestions writers offer each other tend to boil down to a fairly small set of recommendations. Suggestions such as the following are useful when writing fiction for children and young people:

1. Write within a genre: If the story is realistic, don’t have trees talking!
2. Make it sound natural, but write in patterns.
3. Create a beginning (in which characters are introduced and a problem is posed), a middle (in which the story is developed, and attempts are made to solve the problem), and an end (in which the problem is resolved and the characters’ new circumstances are presented).
4. Put the Main Dramatic Question close to the beginning.
5. Use words the way poets do: for sound, meaning, and suggestion.
6. Put the child in the driver’s seat: That is, give the child a leading role in solving the problem.
7. Tell the truth: don’t offer unrealistic solutions to real problems.
8. Have the work be about something, but don’t preach. The most satisfying works seem on reflection to make some point. However, stories can teach by themselves without heavy-handed moralizing by the writer.
9. Show, don’t tell (Make the reader see, hear, smell, feel).
10. Trust the reader. Don’t explain everything.
11. Surprise your readers.
12. However realistic or even grim the characters’ circumstances may be, leave a ray of hope in your works.

Writers’ Workshops

There is a widely held belief that only certain gifted individuals can write anything worthwhile. Those who are not inherently gifted only embarrass themselves by attempting to write. Yet when one gazes on the portraits of those gifted individuals, hanging high on the walls of school classrooms, one perceives a curious pattern: They are all well dressed! They are all men! They are all white! (And they are almost all dead!). Perhaps it is not talent for writing that is in limited supply, but the expectation that many people, even young people, might have interesting things to say, in print.

Indeed, the multicultural writers’ workshop movement has found and nurtured many fine writers who would not otherwise have been published. One of the most pleasing realizations that followed this effort in the United States was that these writers really had quite a lot to say: and, once published, they have stayed in print through their own popularity.

Even in schools, writers’ workshop movements have encouraged personal authorship among students, and have had very positive results: (1) They nurture the students’ self-expression and develop their self-esteem, and (2) they open other students’ eyes to the experiences and ideas of their classmates from every neighborhood and from every ethnicity. (The mirror and window phenomenon again). Teachers also like the fact that personal authorship leads students to identify more closely with professional authors, and look more seriously at the author’s craft.

Without denying that some people have more gifts for writing than others, we can say confidently that virtually any student can be helped to unleash what he or she wants to say on paper. What is needed are permission to write about things that matter to the writer, real audiences who will receive the writing for what it says, frequent opportunities to write, and models and demonstrations of the process of writing. The process of writing referred to in the last sentence has come to be understood to be something like the following:

The Writing Process

Is there one process that all writers go through to produce a finished piece? Surely not. But there is one description of the writing process that seems to come the closest to what most writers do when they compose. This is the writing process model put forward by Donald Murray (1985) and Donald Graves (1982). This model has proved useful for organizing writing instruction, too.

The writing process provides a means by which a student begins with an idea, and gradually shapes that idea on the page to the point that it successfully communicates to the readers, and builds connections between the readers and the writer around the theme developed by the author out of the original idea. It is a step-by-step process through which students become credible authors, and writing becomes a vehicle for clarifying and expressing ideas.

According to the model of the writing process we will use here, most thoughtful pieces of writing go through three steps: rehearsing, drafting, and revising. Those that are to be published go through two more: editing and publishing. Does every piece of writing go through these steps, in this order? Again, of course not. It's very likely that young people will move back and forth through these steps, though they will most commonly use that order. In the pages that follow, we will explain each of these steps, and pause to show activities that help young people learn at each one. Again, it should be said that the writing process described here may be used in all subject areas, although special applications to the disciplines will be shared later in this guide.

Rehearsing. Rehearsing is the act of gathering information and collecting our thoughts. We survey the ideas we have available to us on a topic, and begin to plan a way into writing about it.

Drafting. Drafting is the act of setting ideas out on paper. Drafting is tentative, experimental. We write down our ideas so we can see what we have to say about out topic. Once they are there, we can make them clearer, even elegant.

When we are drafting, it is no time to be critical with our ideas, their form, or their spelling and handwriting: the time for all that will come later.

Most young writers (indeed, most writers) don't have the habit of writing more than one version of a paper. Proficient writers do. "Writing is rewriting," they say. We'll need to encourage students to think of writing as drafting.

Revising. After our paper is written in draft form, we can start to make it better. We'll improve the paper in two careful stages. At the revising stage, we want to see what we had to say, and decide how it can be said better. We are concerned that our ideas be clear, and that they be presented in the right form. We are still not worrying about spelling, handwriting, or grammatical correctness at this stage, although of course they are important: These issues will be dealt with in the next stage: the proof-reading or editing stage.

Editing. Once a paper has been drafted and revised, it is ready for editing. Editing is the final polishing a undergoes before it goes public. Editing is held off for last, because paragraphs or even pages may have been cut or added in the revising stage. After the piece is in final form, but before it is widely shared, is the time for editing.

The habit of editing must be taught. The habit consists of three things:

## caring that the paper be correct;

## being aware of errors;

## knowing how to set them straight.

Publishing Publishing is the final stage of the writing process, and in important ways publishing drives the whole enterprise. The prospect of sharing what they have to say with an audience makes many students want to write, and rewrite, and smooth out and refine--especially if they've seen other students' work received with appreciation and delight. Publishing also lets students see what each other is doing. A good idea is contagious; and anything from an interesting topic, to a plot structure, to a way to use dialogue, to the habit of taking risks with spelling may be shared through the process of publishing.

A Demonstration Writing Workshop

Tied to the above description of the writing process, of what effective writers do in order to produce a viable work, is a strategy for teaching the process: The writing workshop. Writing workshops can be done in classroom, even primary grade classrooms; or they may be offered for adult groups. Perhaps the best way to visualize what a writing workshop looks like is to consider this Ascript@ for a very first writing workshop, as it is introduced in the Reading & Writing for Critical Thinking Project. The instructions are written for the person directing the workshop.

PREPARE FIVE TOPICS. You will need to have prepared in advance four or five topics about subjects that are lively and important to you just now. Take care that these are topics from "the human carnival," describing events and feelings that you are likely to have in common with the people in your workshop.

DISPLAY THE TOPICS. Begin by writing those topics on a sheet of newsprint, or overhead transparency. Explain that you (and they) will be writing short papers in this session about things that matter to you. You have thought of these topics as possibilities, and would like their help in choosing one of them to write about.

OTHERS INTERVIEW YOU. Request that they interview you about each topic, asking questions such as, "What interests you most about this topic?' "Tell us more about _______." "Why did you choose this topic?" Answer their questions, and as you do, make it clear why one particular topic stands out to you from the others--perhaps for its freshness, vividness, or poignancy; perhaps for its manageable scope. (Take time to point out that topics that are too abstract, too ambitious, or that you don't have enough information about are better left for another day).

OTHERS LIST TOPICS. Now ask them to do the same: make a list of four or five possible topics that matter to them, that they might like to write a short piece about.

OTHERS INTERVIEW EACH OTHER ABOUT THEIR TOPICS. After everyone has had four or five minutes to make a list, ask people to pair up and share their lists. Partners should then interview each other about their topics, just as they interviewed you, so that each person can be helped to identify the one topic that seems most interesting to other people, and to herself.

MAKE A CLUSTER. Now make a cluster of details about your topic. Write your topic in a circle in the center of the page, then write subtopics as "satellites" around your main topic, and add subtopics to each of those.

OTHERS INTERVIEW YOU ABOUT YOUR CLUSTER. Invite the participants to ask you about the details you listed, and the ways they go together. In short, have them help you "find your story." Mark prominently on your cluster the part you will write about.

OTHERS MAKE CLUSTERS AND INTERVIEW EACH OTHER. Now invite the participants to think through the topics they chose in the previous step, and make a cluster for the ideas they associate with it. After they have had seven or eight minutes to do so, ask them to stop and interview each other about their clusters, in order to "find their stories." They may have listed more details than they can work into a short paper; so after discussing the details with a partner, they should now mark the most interesting and relevant parts of their clusters.

EVERYONE WRITE FOR AN INTERVAL. Explain that you will all be writing drafts that can be changed before they are shared. The important thing is for people to get their ideas out on paper. They should write without stopping or going back for the allotted period of time (allow about 20 minutes for this). Be sure to tell them to write on every other line. You write, too, either on an overhead or on chart paper.

SHOW A PAPER THAT COMMUNICATES, BUT THAT CAN BE IMPROVED IN SOME RESPECT. You may need to prepare this ahead of time, but you should have a paper that conveys real ideas, but that also has something about it that could use revision-- such as flat, colorless language that "tells" rather than "shows." Display the paper (either on newsprint or on an overhead) and ask the participants to say first what they find pleasing about it, and then to help you make it communicate better. Presumably they will call attention to the flat language, and you can then ask volunteers for suggestions for more vivid wording for each dull spot.

Also, make a point about ownership: the idea that the ultimate responsibility for the paper rests with the writer. Others can tell us their reactions, and those are valuable to writers, but the decision of whether to change something change it always rests with the writer.

OTHERS READ PAPERS TO PARTNERS, FOR COMMENTS AND CRITIQUES. They should now take turns sharing their papers, and first comment on the meaning of the paper, and name what they liked about the paper. Later they can see if there are parts that could be made clearer or more vivid--just as they helped you do with your own. Writers should put in any additions or clarifications on their papers in the lines they left for that purpose.

WRITE REFINED DRAFTS OF YOUR PAPERS. Now everyone writes again for fifteen minutes or so, creating a new draft that improves on the previous one--we hope with the benefits of the conferring that just occurred.

READ TO THE WALL. Before the participants take the last step of sharing their papers with the larger group, ask each person to read his or her paper aloud to the wall, and listen for words that can be changed, unclear parts that can be improved, and unnecessary words or phases that can be omitted.

ASK VOLUNTEERS TO READ FROM THE "AUTHOR'S CHAIR." Designate a chair at "center stage" in the room, from which a volunteer will read his or her paper to the whole group. Remind the others ahead of time that after the reading, they will be asked to find one thing that they liked about the paper, and also ask the writer one question. Share four or five papers with the whole group in this way.

IN RETROSPECT, NOTE THESE GENERAL POINTS:

• The teacher served as a model, treating writing as a "studio craft," analogous to the ways he or she might teach a class in pottery making, or painting.

• The topics came from everyone's own interests and experiences, rather than from assignments.

• The thrust of the whole exercise was to communicate to a real audience something that interested the writer

• Peers helped each other communicate their messages more elegantly, instead of teachers receiving the papers for purposes of grading.

THE ESSENTIAL NEEDS OF A WRITING CLASSROOM: TIME, OWNERSHIP, AND DEMONSTRATION.

Time: Writing workshops should be scheduled at regular intervals so that students know when they will have opportunities to write, get help with, and share their ideas.

Ownership: Students should have opportunities to choose their own topics, or at least their own approach to topics. When conferences are conducted to help students improve writing, their "ownership" of the work must still be respected, with freedom left for them to choose which advice to follow.

Demonstration: Teaching writing, as we said, is a "studio craft," with attention to the process of creating well written works. The teacher should demonstrate every phase of the process so students will know how effective writing is done.

The Dynamics of Illustrating Books for Children.

When we have conducted workshops with the intention of producing professionally published materials, we have often given an orientation to potential illustrators of the books, too. Picture books create unique challenges and opportunities to illustrators, since they sustain the same narrative over 16, 32, or 64 pages, and require many illustrations that reflect both the continuity of the text and the changing dramatic contours. The following (taken from Temple et. al., 1998) are some points we often make with illustrators.

Characterization (How does the illustrator makes us know each character by appearance? How are parts of a character used to denote him or her?)

Perspective and positioning (Where is the central character positioned? From what perspective do we view the action? In what direction are things moving? It is said that a character seen on the left hand side of the page may appear to be more in control of things than a character seen on the right. The same is true of a character seen higher on the page, and larger).

Lay-out (Double-page spreads can suggest expansiveness or serenity; whereas single page spreads move the story along more quickly. If the character is seen in several pictures on the same page, this often suggests that things are moving too quickly for him, and he might soon lose control).

Borders (Borders contain the action. When actions spread out across the borders, it appears too large or powerful to contain).

Page turns (There is a drama of the turning page, which creates suspense on the right- hand page before the turn, and resolves it on the left hand page after the turn).

The last page (The last page often serves as a visual commentary, denouement, or punch line.)

The interaction of picture and text (Good artists create a complementarity: What is stated in the text need not be illustrated, and vice versa).

References

Banks, James. An Introduction to Multicultual Education 2nd Edition . Boston Mass, Allyn and Bacon 1999.

Burnett, G. " Varieties of multicultural education" New York: ERIC clearinghouse on Urban Education 1998

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Education Books, 1986

Delpit, Lisa The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children. Harvard Education Review, 58, (3) (1988), 280-298.

Heath, S.B. Ways With Words. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Graves, Donald. Writing: Teachers and Students at Work. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann Educational, 1982.

Ladson-Billings, G. The Dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American Children San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1994.

Margo Okazama-Rey (Eds). Beyond Heroes and Holidays. Washington, D.C.: Network of Educators on the Americas, 1997.

Murray, Donald. A Writer Teaches Writing. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1985.

Nieto, Sonia. Affirmation, Solidarity, and Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Education. In Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Beyond Heroes and Holidays. Washington, D.C.: NECA, 1997.

Sleeter, Christine & Grant, Carl Making choices for Multicultural Education: Five approaches to race, class, and gender (2^nd ed) New York: Merrill. 1994

Sleeter, C., and C. A. Grant, "Education That Is Multicultural and Social Reconstructivist." In Sleeter and Grant, Making Choices for Multicultural Education. New York: MacMillan, 1994.

Temple, Charles, and Jean Gillet. Language and Literacy. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Temple, Charles, Miriam Martinez, Junko Yokota, and Alice Naylor. Children’s Books in Children’s Hands. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.

ORAL HISTORY

Oral History

Introduction:

The general hypothesis that supports the study of folklore is that folklore is universal to the human condition and that by studying it we gain new perspectives on our culture and society. As Elizabeth Simons (1990) suggests, "to know our folklore-the folklore of our country, our ethnicity, our family, our childhood, our age group, our communities is to learn to know ourselves in new ways. Viewing ourselves through our folklore is akin to looking at our lives through another lens, which focuses on aspects of life often overlooked or undervalued. "There is not a single social group that does not have folklore as part of the cultural fabric that governs daily life, beliefs and behaviors. It is central to the human experience, and as such becomes a powerful way to teach young people how to think about themselves and their world. The process of collecting folklore provides intensive practice in basic as well as higher level skills of reading and writing. The process of analyzing folklore provides equally intensive practice in critical thinking.

From an academic standpoint, there are many solid reasons to incorporate the study of folklore into any literacy curriculum. Probably the most important reason is that by allowing students to study their own communities, families and cultures they bring an automatic level of expertise to the educational enterprise that is not possible in other more traditional situations. This is particularly important for students who have not had much academic success or who belong to a marginalized group. One of the central hypotheses that underlies this approach is that in order for students to learn to be fluent readers and writers; they need material that is interesting, and they need a great deal of it. Using the community and the lives of the students themselves as the basis of study provides just such material and in almost limitless amounts.

The study and use of folklore, and by extension doing oral histories, is a positive and supportive way to celebrate and understand similarities and differences across ethnic and social lines as well as among seemingly homogeneous groups. For example, participants in a workshop in Brashov, Romania were surprised to find the wide variations of how individuals within a single group celebrated Easter. The similarities lay in the general celebration of the holiday, and the differences appeared as participants from one geographic area compared notes with participants from other parts of the country. Hence, even a group that looks homogeneous on the surface can be deceptive. Once student start to study folklore and do the work of oral historians, a surprising degree of diversity emerges.

For students who belong to a minority, the study of folklore and oral histories gives visibility to their own cultural group and also the opportunity to share their experiences with others. When this happens some interesting discoveries can be made. For example, in a workshop in Timisoara participants, all of whom were from different ethnic, cultural, and geographic groups, were working on proverbs. Much to everyone’s surprise there was a good deal of similarity in proverbs as well as some exciting differences. Participants enjoyed lively conversations and discussions comparing and swapping sayings and the stories associated with them. The author was equally surprised to find a proverb common to Romanians that is also common to fishermen on the coast of Maine in North America. The message of the proverb is that if you treat someone badly you can expect misfortune to befall you eventually. The proverb from Maine is, "What goes around comes around", and the proverb from the Romania is, "he who digs a hole for others will fall in it himself". This represents a living example of the kinds of cross-cultural educational exchanges that can occur in the study of folklore.

Students studying folklore and carrying our oral history projects can often see connections between their own lives and history, and between the personal and seemingly impersonal world beyond them. For example, in a recent workshop in Sinia, a young talented history teacher designed a project where his students would interview family and community members a bout how they experienced the final year of communism in Romania. One of the goals of the project is to create a "living history" of what is actually studied in the history textbooks. By having students interviewing their grandparents and village elders about how they spent this astonishing year, students suddenly learn first-hand about hardship and heroism. Hence, the dry dates of a political event or the dispassionate material found in textbooks gains a face and a life which brings new meaning to what had been only an abstraction. The student can also be a witness to great acts of suffering, perseverance, courage, and success through listening and recording the stories of his or her elders. Many of these stories would vanish without this kind of careful documentation.

Finally, research supports the idea that literacy acquisition (reading and writing) happens best, at least initially, when it is embedded in the context of the reader’s and writer’s life rather than in contexts outside the person’s experience. For example: it is hard for children and adults to understand a snowstorm without ever having experienced one. A story set in a rural farming village is more easily accessible to children who have grown up in a rural community than in a city. Regardless of the setting, all people have stories, beliefs, traditions, and artifacts that can become the focal point of discussions and the subject of reading and writing material. It is just a question of what these stories are and how to capture this material and turn it into text.

The basic idea behind this approach is to teach students how to do field work, which will allow them to collect material from their own communities that is pertinent to their lives. As teachers, it is important to remember that the students are actually going out and getting information from their communities, friends, and family. That material is then collected and brought back to the classroom where the teacher and students together can analyze it and use it. This is a fundamental shift in responsibility and organization from a more traditional approach, which is textbook-and teacher-centered. As students and teachers become familiar with this process, the classroom extends into the community. Parents, relatives, community leaders, all become part of the educational enterprise. It is a collective endeavor that blurs the edges of school, home, and community.

Definitions:

For the purposes of discussion and later fieldwork, it is helpful to become familiar with the terminology that accompanies Folklore, Oral History, and Ethnography. Although each of these terms has a specific definition, in practice they overlap and are intertwined. The folklorist does oral histories, the oral historian collects folklore, and the ethnographer includes elements of both in his or her research. From the student standpoint of actual practice, i.e. what can be accomplished, the two concepts of Folklore and Oral Histories are probably the most realistic, accessible, and useful.

Ethnography is a term from Anthropology. The word stems from the Greek ethnos, which means people, and graphein, which means to write. Hence ethnography is essentially writing about people. However, in the field of anthropology, ethnography has come to mean the description of a community or group that focuses on social systems and cultural heritage. At one time, ethnographies were reserved for the study of primitive societies. In current practice, the word has developed a much broader base, and ethnographies now include community studies of contemporary places and people. The method of research, however, remains generally the same. The researcher, very often not a member of the group, spends time living in a community doing in-depth interviews, reading and researching primary source material, and observing the lives of the people he or she wishes to study. Eventually the researcher compiles all this information and analysis in a body of work that often takes the form of a book. Ethnographies generally read well and are written in lively and often dramatic style. The purpose of the work is to bring a full picture of whatever group is under study. Part of that picture is not only reporting what people do and say but some analysis that tells us about the social structure and world view of the group. There have been many interesting ethnographies published in recent times about contemporary populations and communities; examples are Bury Me Standing: the gypsies and their journey by Isabel Fonseca, and Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories by Lila Abu-Lughod.

Oral Histories are the recounting or remembering of historical events by a single person. Information is usually gathered through taped interviews and then transcribed. The interviewer then sifts through the interviews and writes the story from them. The oral history represents a compilation and synthesis of the interviews rather than simply a collection of transcriptions. The key to good oral history work is the interview. The focus topic for the interviews can be practically anything. People have been interviewed about their childhood experienced, memories of particular events such as invasions and nature disasters, and also contemporary events. For example, in the United States there are many oral histories about the lives of African Americans during the Civil Rights movement. These histories highlight the particular lives and experiences of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They include not only background about the person’s life, but personal philosophies, what the person did, and who those experiences affected her life.

Folklore is to people as water is to a fish. It is so prevalent and so much a part of our lives that is a virtually invisible. Alan Dundis, a noted scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, describes folklore as "a kind of popular pulse, ever indicating what is on a people’s heart" Roger Abrahams defines folklore as encompassing all the "traditional cultural forms that entertain, instruct, and serve other diverse functions." One of the best ways to describe folklore more exactly is to describe some of the common myths about folklore and then propose some general characteristics common to all genres of folklore.

1. Folklore is neither true nor false by nature. Whether it is in harmony or incongruent with science or history is irrelevant. The significance of folklore is its presence and influence in people’s lives. For example, many people around the world believe that a black cat crossing one’s path is a sign of bad luck, or that breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. It is irrelevant that these beliefs are not based in fact. What is relevant is how much these beliefs govern the everyday lives of people who practice them.

The printed text of a song or a story alone is not folklore. It only represents the record of someone singing the song or telling the story. In other words, folklore is both the behavior and the product, both of which vary according to the population. For example, in Romania and Hungary many people do hand embroidery and crocheting. In this case the behavior is the process of making the tablecloth, or table runner etc. That behavior includes all the social aspects of the work, such as the group getting together, the ideas for patterns, learning how to crochet or embroider. (The list can go on and on.) The product is the handwork itself, which varies with the geographical area and the group.

3. Folklore is not restricted to by-gone traditions or stories, such as soap making or fairy tales; it includes contemporary practices and traditions, such as hanging plastic eggs on an "Easter Tree" or responding to chain letters. Even though the word tradition is associated with the term folklore, it has less to do with the age of the particular practice than with how it is transmitted. Folklore is generally transmitted by speech or word of mouth. For instance, the embroidery techniques of Central Europe are transmitted by one person showing another how to do it, rather than an individual sitting down and reading a book. Another example would be a grandmother explaining and showing a grandchild how to make jam or pickles or preserves. Generally these techniques and family recipes have escaped the printed recipe book and are passed along from family member to family member.

4. Folklore is not time-bound, nor is it confined to a particular geographic setting or restricted to a population. Almost everyone participates in some form of folkloric activity, regardless of class or socio-economic status. Throwing salt over your shoulder, saying "God Bless you" when people sneeze, not stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, spitting into the wind, not walking under ladders, are all examples of common folk beliefs. Making quilts, jams or playing a fine country tune on a fiddle are all examples of common folk practices.

Characteristics of folklore

As has been pointed out, folklore exists all around us every day, no matter where or how we live. Just as the myths about folklore help us to recognize it when we see it, so do some of the characteristics of folklore that are common to all genres.

Folklore is very often anonymous in origin, generally passed along by word or mouth, and changes over time and situation. As an example, there are a series of stories that exist all over the world that include a ghostly hitchhiker. Usually a young man is driving down the road when he spies a young woman all alone by the roadside. He gives her a lift and drops her off at her house. When he returns the next day and talks to her parents, he discovers that the girl had been killed some years before. This story can be found from Edinburgh to Singapore. Its author is unknown but it is retold with variations that reflect the circumstances of the teller.

Folklore is formalistic; by that we mean that it has a definite recognizable structure. It also has an aesthetic or artistic quality that sets it apart from ordinary conversation. For example, we can distinguish a folk tale from a newspaper article by the way the story is constructed. Folk tales often start out with a predictable beginning, such as once-upon-a-time or "did you hear the one about". We also know that someone is telling a joke or a story because there are recognizable patterns in behavior and language. Even proverbs are patterned to transmit maximum information and wisdom using minimum but memorable language. Home remedies, weather sayings, ghost stories, proverbs, as well as quilts, handwork, gardening techniques, lullabies, are representative of the kind of structures and patterns that are found in folklore.

Finally, folklore is endlessly flexible and adapts to the needs, demands, and standards of the particular group rather than the population as a whole. The major reason for this flexibility and variation is that interaction with a group is how the material is transmitted and formed. This face-to-face interaction is a key element in folklore. Hence, a group of fiddlers in one part of Romania may not play the same fiddle tunes in the same way as those in another part of the country. Yet there are similarities in the basic patterns of the music. Unlike a Mozart concerto that is carefully transcribed in sheet music and can be recognized no matter what orchestra plays it; a fiddle tune evolves with the fiddler and changes according to the needs of the group. The same thing can be said about story telling, quilting, jokes, children’s games and rhymes, and even wedding traditions.

Folklore, Popular Culture and Elite Culture:

Another way of looking at folklore is to place it in the context of culture as a whole. This is often important for students, since there is a tendency to get folklore mixed up with popular culture, particularly with the film characters produced by Disney. Barbara Allen (1985) defines popular culture as "the expressions aimed at a broad, general audience, which are promulgated through media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television and film". The key to popular culture is sameness, whereas the key to folk culture is variation. For example, through the popularity of his films, Walt Disney has created an easily recognizable character in Mickey Mouse. Mickey looks the same and says the same things no matter where he is portrayed. Star Wars is another example of popular culture. Popular culture often generates paraphernalia such as T-shirts, dolls and toys that are available commercially. In the case of Disney and Star Wars, these items can be found from Singapore to Moscow and they all look alike. Folk culture, on the other hand, depends on the interaction of a specific group, and as a result has unique characteristics that set it apart from the mainstream.

Elite culture is the original product of an artist or artistic group. It is also the heart of the fine and performing arts. Elite culture can be influenced by folk culture, such as a folk tune forming the basis of a Mozart concerto, but it is not created by group interaction. From student’s perspective, elite culture is most easily recognizable by examples, such as Mozart, Renoir, and Degas.

Collecting Verbal Folklore:

Verbal folklore includes personal stories, jokes, proverbs, riddles games, rhymes, and sayings, as well as legends, place names, rituals, ballads, and songs. The list can go on. Suffice it to say that verbal folklore represents all those genres that deal primarily in text, as opposed to a product such as a quilt or a carving.

As students begin to think about setting up a folklore project, it is best to begin with such verbal genres as proverbs, songs, and stories. It is also easiest to begin with examples that are short and can be found in the general population. Not everyone knows a long story that she can tell readily, but most people know a riddle, joke, or saying. The other reason to begin with short pieces is that, from a reading and writing standpoint, the process is not overwhelming. Students of any age may need to work up to collecting long myths and legends. Collecting short works gives everyone a chance to experience all aspects of the process without any one part becoming burdensome. Regardless of where one starts, any form of collecting becomes an instant opportunity for reading and writing.

Below are some examples. As you read through these, try to think up at least four or five of your own. These examples can be used as a starting point for work with students in almost any age group. The list is by no means definitive and is meant only as a beginning. It would be worthwhile to add some ideas of your own to this list.

Proverbs:

Proverbs are particularly useful because they are very short, can be easily illustrated and can provide an opportunity for discussion. Proverbs generally represent the collective wisdom of a social group and as such provide a window for the reader into the value system of the group. They can be used by all ages, and they provide an excellent opportunity for younger children to gather information from their elders because they are not so long as to be cumbersome.

Examples:

Time and tide wait for no man.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Here is an example of kind of additional writing students can do with proverbs.

Students answered the following three questions: What does the proverb mean? Where does the proverb come from?, Who might use it?

A penny saved is a penny earned (a penny is equal to once cent and is the smallest denomination of coin)

This proverb extols the virtues of saving money and being thrifty. It is a very common proverb in parts of North America. A nice project for students regardless of grade level is to make a book of collected proverbs. Art students can illustrate the book.

Weather sayings

Weather sayings are those pieces of local knowledge that help us predict the weather without the benefit of a commercial weather forecast. These saying were particularly useful when an individual’s occupation and livelihood were weather dependent; this would include farmers, ranchers, sailors and fishermen. Weather sayings are also common and fairly easy for students to collect.

Examples:

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

Ring around the moon, rain is coming soon. (Also, many people believe that if there is a ring around the moon, one can count how many stars are inside the ring and this is how many days the rain is away.)

Cows down before seven rain before eleven.

If potatoes grow deep in the ground, cold weather is coming.

Riddles

Riddles come in all shapes and sizes and are indigenous to all cultures. They appear in places as diverse as the Bible and fairy tales. A riddle, by its very nature, requires the reader or listener to think in order to solve the puzzle. It is a perfect way to teach basic reading and writing skills. Collecting riddles is also an interesting and entertaining project that can involve almost everyone in a family or community. Riddle books are popular with children; hence a book that is "locally" produced is even more interesting.

Examples:

Riddle me! Riddle me! What is that: over your head and under your hat? (your hair)

As round as an apple, as deep as a cup,

And all the king’s horses can’t pull it up (a well)

It should also be noted that riddles most often rhyme and therefore are particularly appropriate to promote reading and writing in younger children.

Good and Bad Luck:

Just as riddles are an integral part of most groups, so are beliefs about good and bad luck. These kinds of beliefs usually appear as short phrases and lend themselves to being put together as lists. Again, they are easy to collect since most people know them. An interesting project for students would be to collect these sayings and also research their origins.

Examples:

Put a horseshoe over your door to keep away bad luck.

If you find a four-leaf clover, you will have good luck.

If you make a wish on a falling star, it will come true.

A black cat crossing your path is bad luck.

Breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck.

Predictions:

Predictions are people’s way of trying to foretell the future. They are common and easy to collect but will vary from culture to culture as well as from family to family.

Examples:

If you drop a fork, company is coming.

If your nose is itching, someone is coming to visit you.

Whatever you start on Friday make sure you finish it that same day, or it will never be finished.

You will have a headache if a bird builds a nest with hair from your head.

Cures:

Almost all groups have "home remedies" for common illnesses. In fact, there was a time in the not-so distant past when home remedies were the most prevalent forms of medicine available to the general population. Interviewing elderly people in the community or family most easily attains this kind of information. One group of elementary students put together a booklet entitled Nana’s Book of Home Remedies.

Examples:

Putting onions on your chest will help cure a cold.

Put tobacco on a bee sting to stop pain and swelling.

Holding your breath and counting to ten will cure the hiccups.

Names:

The names of people and places can serve as sources of stories that are interesting and worthwhile to collect. How family members got their names and what those names mean is a good starting point. Towns, rivers, village squares, to name just few possibilities, all have special names that students could use for research. There are also interesting names in different cultures for natural occurrences. For example, in the Native American culture each phase of the moon has a different name: September is the harvest moon, February is the sap moon, etc.

Ballads and Songs:

Ballads and songs are another almost limitless source of folk material that students can collect. The key to collecting songs and ballads, however, is that they are traditional in nature and not part of the popular or elite culture. We have included an example of a traditional song that is about the universal theme of love and relationships. The possibilities for discussion and presentation using such material are endless.

(I know where I am going)

I know where I’m going,

I know who’s going with me,

I know who I love,

But the dear knows who I’ll marry.

I’ll have stockings of silk,

Shoes of fine green leather,

Combs to buckle my braid,

and a ring for every finger

Feather beds are soft,

Painted rooms are bonney;

But I will leave them all

To go with my love Johnny

Some say he is dark,

I say he is bonny.

He’s the flower of them all,

My handsome coaxing Johnny.

I know where I’m going,

I know who’s going with me,

I know who I love

But the dear knows who I’ll marry.

Rituals:

Rituals are the basis for social order. Almost every culture has weddings, funerals, and baptisms. These rituals involve certain rights of passage that make them unique and special. All of these events are sources of folk material and stories. The best approach with students is to begin the conversation with the question, "How do you celebrate.....(fill in the blank) and then take it from there. It should also be noted that most families have memorable stories relating to these events. These stories, provide yet another opportunity to collect material.

Collecting material folklore: artifacts, products, crafts, and special skills

The second large area of folklore is often referred to as folklife, which has come to mean a collection of the artifacts that are hand-made and part of the daily or cultural life of the group. Material folk culture can represent domestic life, farm life, or artisans. This provides two opportunities for collecting material; one is the artifact itself, and the other is the story of how the artifact is made. This area of folklore can be divided into the person or artisan, the group that artisan belongs, the product and the process.

Examples

Quilters represent the artisan and also the group that quilts. Generally artisans work collectively, or at the very least associate with other artisans who do the same kind of work. Each of these groups has specific and interesting material that students can collect.

The quilt itself represents the product. Generally a product is unique in that it is individually made, but it also has a particular structure or pattern that sets it apart from others that are like it. For example, quilts have special patterns that mean different things, such as the wedding ring pattern, or the log cabin pattern.

Quilting, for instance, is the process of making the quilt that includes the stitches, putting the pieces together, selecting the fabric etc. Almost all parts of the material folk culture have a process which ensures that the product will come out well and that the method of making the product will be passed along from one group to the next. This is true of just about everything, from handwork to wine making to cabinet making.

These same definitions can be made for a large variety of products and artisans, such as cabinetmakers, violin makers, carvers, blacksmiths, embroiders.

A helpful activity for students is to make a list of all the possible folklife products they can think of and then identify who in their community makes those products. This is an excellent way to move to the more complex skill of doing oral histories.

The process used by Folklorists

Before moving on to the next section of the guide, which is oral history, we found it helpful for teachers to spend just a few minutes on the "process" that most folklorists use when doing a field project. We will walk you through the process, and along the way give specific examples of how it can be used.

Regardless of what you or your students choose to do as a project, the process that all folklorists use is the same. This process can be broken down into three basic steps: select the topic, collect the material using interviews and observation techniques, and perform some type of analysis. At each stage of the process, teachers have the opportunity to incorporate various skills from the curriculum.

For the purposes of an example that is accessible to almost everyone, let us say that your class has chose to examine the folklore of names. There are a number of reasons that this is a good topic. Names are always interesting to students because:

a) They are highly personal (everyone has one).

b) There is usually a good story connected with them.

c) They often have meanings beyond the name itself, for example, children who are named after saints.

d) They can be reflective of larger concepts found in cultural organizations.

e) The folklore of names lends itself to some interesting possibilities for analysis.

Step two is collecting information. Collecting the "folklore of names" can be as much fun as it is interesting. I usually start a class by offering my own name up as an example because it is unusual. I write on the board Bushnell Bird Beck Stasz and then ask students to think of questions that would elicit information from me about my name. I usually tell them the story of how I got my name, and that it is representative of a New England tradition whereby the first born is named after a grandparent. In my case, since I was to be an only child, my parents did not want any one side of the family to feel left out so they named me after everyone they could think of. As a consequence, I have a series of last names, all of which represent different branches of the family and are common to specific geographic areas of New England. When I got married, I took my husband’s last name, which is Polish. Finally, I entertain my students with what it is like to go through life with a name like Bird, which is the name that I choose to use most of the time

Students at this point all begin to do what a good folklorist does, which is to design questions and collect information. Students ask questions of each other to learn more about their names. They can go home and ask their parents about the story of their name as well as the story of how their parents or grandparents got their names. How this project unfolds from here is up to you. The goal is to have students collect as much information as they can about names. Keep in mind that family stories can be indicative of larger contexts such as religious affiliation, cultural and ethnic traditions etc.

Once you have collected the material, which in this case is the stories and meanings relating to the names of students in the class and their families, you are ready for step three, which is analysis. Analysis requires students to look for patterns in the information they have collected and also answers the basic question "so what?". By that we mean, what does this information tell us about who we are, where we are from, and what we believe. For example, in a recent workshop in Sinia, Romania, we did a short version of the "folklore of names". Participants discovered that their names can be "sorted" by geography, religious affiliation, family traditions, ethnicity, and nicknames. The stories of how individuals got their names also illuminate the uniqueness of family life. Some of the stories gave us insights into who people felt were important, as in the examples of people named after famous soldiers or politicians. Religious affiliation also played a big part in the folklore of names. For those people named after Saints, it was interesting to analyze the different kinds of Saints, their stories and what they represent in the greater context of society. The names could also be analyzed by trends. For example, there are names that seemed common to a period of history or a particular decade. The possibilities for analysis are endless.

Obviously the depth and breath of analysis that students do depends a great deal on their age and development. High school students and adults will do a much more sophisticated job of analysis than a child of six. The point to remember is that analysis is crucial to this process and that all participants in a project should and can do it. It is in the analysis that the project takes on a depth of sophistication and intellectual value and it is this analysis that forms the basis for writing. Analysis is also the part that can be the most insightful and rewarding for students and teachers.

Section Two: Oral Histories

Introduction

Now that students have had a little practice thinking about folklore and folklife, as well as learning how to collect short bits of information, it is time to move on to the more extensive task of doing oral histories. As we said in section one, oral histories are generally the memories and reminiscences of a single individual. However, it is possible to do multiple oral histories on the same topic. For example, I am doing a series of interviews with very elderly woman between the ages of 75 and 99 about their views on a variety of subjects from child-rearing to community responsibility.

Collecting information for oral histories is most effectively done through observation, photographs, and the taped and transcribed interview. Once the interview is completed and transcribed, the student must "write it up". We will devote a separate section of this booklet to the process of writing up the interviews and turning them into a polished and finished piece of work.

How to get started and decide on a topic

The very first problem to solve is to answer the question, "What kind of oral history do you wish to write?" Generally, if you want to write a full-length biography about a single person, we recommend you that you choose someone old enough to be interesting but not so old that it makes the project impossible. For a very elderly person we suggest that you do an oral history about a particular part of that person’s life as opposed to the whole thing. How you define that part is up to you; however, one way to think about this is from a historical perspective. For example, how the person spent World War II or a particular political event such as the last year of communism in Romania. Natural and man-made disasters are also a good historical source of oral histories. Stories of how individuals survived such events as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes always make for good beginnings of oral histories. As you think about what kind of history you want to write, you will need to do some background research in order to have enough information to come up with pertinent questions.

Below are some suggestions to help students narrow their topics. Again, this is not a definitive list. Rather, it is intended to help people start thinking about projects.

Who do you find interesting and why?

What are you interested in finding out?

Do you know anyone who might tell you his or her story?

What are some significant events of the recent past that can serve as sources of oral histories? For example, How did you spend the war? is the title of an oral history project done by high school students. You can think about wars or conflicts people in your family or community may have participated in. Natural disasters are also a great source of oral history material. For example, in the small community of Hilo, Hawaii, almost everyone over a certain age can tell you about their experiences during the great tidal way of 1962. Along these same lines, "Where were you when the (fill in the blank) occurred?" is always a good way to structure an oral history project. For example, where were you when you heard about the death of Princess Diana? For many Americans who are old enough, where they were when they heard about the assassination of President Kennedy has become the topic of several oral history projects done by high school students.

Is there a project or craft that you are interested in finding out more about? If so, what is it and who does it that you could interview? Some students became very interested in how log cabins were built by hand, so they interviewed the men who built them. Another student became interested in a man who was a beekeeper and produced honey as a source of income. Drawing on your ideas from the folklife list you put together in section one, make a project list that will give you ideas.

Is there a particular profession you find interesting. If so, is there someone you would like to interview? Is there a profession that has almost died out? In our town the very last real cobbler retired at age 85. He came from Italy as a young man and set up a shop where he made and repaired shoes. His story was the topic of an oral history project by local school children.

What stories have you heard from your own family that you would like to know more about? How your parents or grandparents met is a good possibility. A group of students wanted to do life histories of their grandmothers in order to learn how they grew up and how their childhoods were different from those of the students.

Children make good sources for oral histories. Most of us do not think of children as being good subjects for oral history, but they are as full of stories and interesting ideas as anyone else. They can be interviewed on all kinds of subjects, from games to their views of school and how they see the world.

Family Stories:

There is a poignant and idiomatic expression in English that "families travel light". What that means is that families are like travelers embarking on a long journey who can not take along a lot of things. Just as the traveler carries only a small suitcase, the average family remembers only a fraction of all that has happened from generation to generation. As the greater part of our experience as a family slips away, we gather together only a handful of stories, expressions, photographers, and customs out of all that is possible in the memory of a lifetime. Hence, family stories are an excellent place for students to begin doing oral history. The same is true of community stories. A cautionary word to the beginner: oral histories are best when they are about the lives or ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The purpose of a good oral history is to illuminate that part of human experience that is usually left out of the history books.

Gaining Access

Once you have decided on a project, the next problem is to locate the person and have him or her agree to an interview. This is often much easier when the person is a family member or a close family friend. However, since not all oral history projects involve people we know, it is important that we spend a little time on "gaining access".

The easiest way to find an appropriate informant is to use your own network. Ask around among people you know who they think would be good candidates for an interview. It is much easier to encourage a stranger to sit for an interview if you have an acquaintance in common. There are many way to gain an interview of someone you don’t know; however, we have found the following two-step process to be most successful.

The first step is to contact the person by letter. The second is to follow up with a phone call. In your letter, you want to be clear what your project is about and why you want to interview that person. You will also need to tell the person what you plan to do with the interview. Is this for a school project, a book, a newspaper article? You must also be careful to explain that you will be tape recording the interview and to ask permission to take photographs. The letter should also include any additional information, such as when you plan to contact the person by phone and when you might want the interview to take place.

As a word of advice, if an elderly person is the primary subject for the oral history, it is important to give her plenty of time to think about the interview request. It is very disquieting to an elderly person to be contacted by a stranger; hence timely follow-through is very important. Furthermore, it is a nice gesture to bring a little gift to the person when the interview takes place. This is especially true if you or your students will need more than one interview.

Below is an example of a letter that I used to contact Mrs. Peabody. Mrs. Peabody is in her middle 90’s and has been very active in volunteer work.

July 17, 1997

Mrs. Frances Peabody

4 Walker Street

Portland, Maine 04102-3313

Dear Mrs. Peabody:

I am writing to you as a result of my own research on volunteerism in New England. Your work in the area of AIDS awareness and prevention is virtually legendary in the State of Maine. I am hopeful that you would agree to an interview as part of a research project that has a working title of "Women of Service". This is an ethnographic/oral history project that focuses on women in your generation in the North East that have devoted a large part of their lives to community service. The project is a joint effort between Peter Hocking, director of the Howard Swearer Center at Brown University, and myself. I currently teach at Wells College; however I am an old New Englander myself and know the State of Maine well. I treasure my time there and have owned a small cottage in South Bristol for thirty years. We also have a mutual friend in Corinne Greene.

The purpose of the project is to build a portrait of community service from a regional and generational perspective. In that regard, we have interviewed women from all walks of life and interests. The "stories" are proving to be rich and profound. The interview itself only lasts about an hour. The topics are general and include such things as a bit about background, educational interests, community projects and the interviewee’s perspectives and philosophy on service and civic responsibility. With your permission, I would like to tape-record the interview.

I am on my way to Maine at the end of next week for a short stay and am hopeful that you will be interested in participating in this project and that we can schedule a time for an interview sometime in the last week of July. I will call you by the end of next week to see if these arrangements are possible.

Again, thank you for your time and I am looking forward to talking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Bird Beck Stasz

Equipment

To prepare a good oral history you will need a tape recorder, a good small camera (the disposable ones are fine) and a note pad. Recorders come in all shapes and sizes. We have succeeded best using a small cassette recorder that takes a standard size tape and has a small built-in microphone. The micro-cassettes, although smaller and lighter, are not as reliable, and the tapes are hard to transcribe since they need a special expensive transcriber. Regardless of the recorder, make sure whoever is doing the interview knows how to run it before going out in the field. Practice using the equipment, making sure the recorder has new batteries and that the microphone works properly. There is nothing worse than starting an interview and realizing that the tape recorder does not work correctly. The process of interviewing, especially a stranger, is unsettling enough without making it more so because of faulty equipment.

We are very aware that tape recorders are not always a possibility for you and your students. Since the price and availability of tape recorders varies worldwide, they are often a luxury and difficult to obtain. If that is the case in your school, then we recommend you use the most traditional method of all, which is note taking. If you choose note-taking, then we highly recommend you send students out in teams of two. One person asks the questions and carries out the interview, and the other person takes the notes on what is said. The team approach is essential especially if students are unfamiliar with the interviewing process. It is very difficult, at least initially, to ask questions carefully, listen well enough to ask good follow-up questions, and take notes all at the same time. The likelihood of mistakes and misrepresentation is large if just one person is trying to do the whole process. Having two people listing to the same interview reduces the numbers of mistakes that can be made and provides a built-in check and balance system. We also recommend that you give students time immediately after the interview to talk to each other and work on their notes. A complete set of notes is essential since much information will be forgotten as time passes. This collaborative time for the team will also give them a chance to fill in the places where information may be missing as well as the chance to correct mistakes.

Observing and Interviewing

Oral histories rely on two specific skills, observation and interviewing. The technique of observation has been best described as "making the familiar strange". Observation is the ability of the researcher to pay close attention to the details of another person’s life. This includes the surroundings as well as the physical appearance of the individual. For an oral history to be rich, we need to know more than just what he or she says. We need to understand the context of his or her life. Details that make that context real are gathered through observation and subsequent note taking. The best way to learn how to do this is simply to do it. We encourage students to find an outdoor cafe or market and spend time "people watching" and taking notes. Becoming a good observer is similar to becoming a good detective. We can take some advice from the great Sherlock Holmes when he said; "it is all in the details, my dear Watson, all in the details". Observation is about exactly that, the details.

The key to a good observation is not taking anything for granted. As you take notes about a person or place, try to include as much of the detail as you can. Be as complete and specific as possible. For example, if the person is elderly, how elderly? If the person is funny, what makes them so? Where exactly does the person live? If you are in a studio or workshop, what does it look like? Is it tidy? If so, what makes it tidy? Questions such as these force us to pay attention to the details, and that in turn enables us to round out the portrait of the person and the event. Below is an edited version of the introduction to a set of notes I wrote about an interview with the elderly woman, Mrs. Peabody, whom I had written to. Note the specific details.

Getting to Know Franny

The day of the interview came as one of those breathlessly beautiful Maine mornings where the sky is crystal clear and the air smells faintly of salt and sea lavender. I arrived exactly on time and discovered that Franny’s front door was open. When I rang the bell a tiny tiny woman barely five feet tall literally sped out to greet me. Frances Peabody in person is even more impressive than Frances Peabody in print. She was wearing a yellow floral skirt, a crisp red and white blouse and blazer and a pair of matching red shoes. She had a red ribbon pinned to her lapel in support of the AIDS project that she founded. Franny greeted me warmly and asked that I wait just a minute while she finished up making phone calls. She has a visiting "secretary" who looks in on her two or three times a week and helps her with phone, etc. Franny is 95 years old although you would never know it. She is slightly bent over but dashes around her house with the energy of a much younger woman. Her only outward concession to her age is a hearing aid, which she immediately called attention to. "I am just a little deaf dear so we need to sit together." Franny has white hair that sticks out all around her head like a halo. Her face is lined and full of creases most of which appear to come from smiling and laughing. She has blue eyes that are a little watery but crinkle and sparkle and are full of life. Franny’s voice is strong and her handshake is firm. There is nothing tentative about this woman. She is sure of herself, comfortable in her house, and eager to show it off. I find it hard to believe that she was born in 1903!

Observation exercises

1. The process of doing good observations is actually more difficult than it looks and therefore we are including some exercises to help students practice. Part of the reason that observations are so hard to do is that we are so immersed in our own cultures that standing outside of them is difficult. For example, put a list such as the one below on the chalkboard and ask students what the phrases mean specifically.

She is a beautiful woman.

He is a handsome man.

The town was quaint.

The performer was good.

What generally happens in this exercise is that everyone in the room has a different definition of beautiful, handsome, quaint and so on. These words are all culture-bound and are relative. To be good observers, students need to learn how to abandon this kind of language and focus on how the person actually looks or how the room is organized.

Ask students to find a partner and pick a place to spend about ten minutes observing and taking notes. They may not talk to each other while they are observing and they may not talk to anyone else. We recommend that you let students go outside to a cafe or a park. It is best to choose a place where there are people and activity. At the end of ten minutes have the students return; then without discussing what they have seen with their partners, write down as much of a description as they are able in twenty minutes. Then they should compare the descriptions. As you discuss what students have written, look for words that are culture-bound such as beautiful, handsome, etc. As the partners compare their observations, they should be searching for similarities and differences. Once the pairs have had the chance to talk to each other and in small groups, bring the class together as a whole.

This is a perfect opportunity to discuss how our own biases and interests influence what we see and what we don’t. For example, if one student is an avid football fan and the other is interested in flowers, an observation of the same park experience may focus on entirely different things. One person may notice in great detail the group of children playing a soccer game while the other focuses on the landscaping. It is also an opportunity to have students discuss how the observation process felt and what they thought about it. It has been our experience in our workshops that students often find the observations process tiring, since paying attention at that level of detail and language use is something quite new for them.

3. A third exercise in observation can be done with photographs. In our workshops we have sets of photos of people, children in fact, doing all kinds of different activities. We also have a series of postcards, which work as well as the photos. The content of the pictures is important. You want to make sure that it is ordinary people doing fairly ordinary things rather than famous people and spectacular scenery. The object of this exercise is to let students practice observing for very short periods of time. Pass out the photos or postcards face down. Again make sure everyone has a partner and that the no talking rule is in place. At the count of three everyone turns over their picture and looks at it for two minutes. At this point that photos are turned face down once again and students write what they saw in as much detail as possible, paying close attention to language. We usually let students write for about three to four minutes. At the end of the writing period have students turn the photos over again but this time for only 40 seconds. Once again, students should quickly write down anything that they might have missed. When they are finished, ask students to turn the pictures over for the last time and compare what they wrote. They need to look again at the pictures and see if they missed any details and reconsider how they described what they saw. We have found that this exercise can lead to a lively discussion of language, attention to detail, and how our biases affect what we see.

As students practice observation techniques and writing skills, they will be building an excellent foundation for the final stage of oral history work, which is analysis and writing it up. Once students have a sense of the observation process, they can move on to the interview.

Conducting an Interview

Conducting an interview is the next crucial part of doing an oral history. Interviews are about asking good questions and listening carefully. Your goal is to construct a situation that encourages the person to tell his or her story in as much detail as possible. Open-ended questions are the most conducive to drawing out personal stories. For instance, "What were the times like when you were a child?," "How did your family live?", "What types of things did you do as a child?", "Tell me about your family growing up", all give the person room to tell you the story. As you listen, ask follow-up questions that elicit more details. Responses such as "Can you give me an example?", "Can you tell me more about that?", "Can you describe how you felt?", encourage the person you are interviewing to fill in more details. Try to stay away from yes or no questions unless the one word answer is what you want. Background questions pertaining to age, place of birth, marital status can be asked specifically.

A final note on question preparation. It is important that your questions make sense to the listener and that they indicate you have done your "homework". Doing research before you go out into the field will contribute to your success in the field. Background research will help you ask the right questions and follow-up questions. This research can take many forms and can include such things as newspaper articles, old photographs, and asking around the neighborhood. If you are interviewing someone about a particular historical event, then you will need to do background research on the times and the event itself so you will be knowledgeable when you get to the interview.

Listening carefully is exhausting work. You will need to pay close attention to the speaker and encourage her or him to keep telling you the story. We recommend that you do not exceed an hour for an interview. An hour of tape recording will be plenty of information for you to transcribe and work with at one time. By the same token, a full hour of notes taken without a tape recorder combined with another hour of rewriting to fill in missing details will give enough information.

Below is a short excerpt from an interview so that you can see how it proceeds. B is the interviewer. R is the woman being interviewed. She is 85 and has been very active in the conservation and environmental movement in the United States. The first questions are about her family and her background. As you can see, the interviewer is trying to ask questions that will encourage the speaker to tell as much of her story as possible.

B: How many children do you have?

R: I had two, and my daughter died of cystic fibrosis when she was only 40 years old. She had a marvelous life. She was a singer in New York City, in nightclubs. She was wonderful. She had a great career. And then she met this man who didn’t like New York. He liked wind surfing. So they started wind surfing from Antiqua for four years which was marvelous. We used to go down there and see her. It finally did get to her, but she was only really ill the last month of her life. She had a wonderful marvelous life. There’s her picture. (Anne points to a photo of a beautiful young woman)

B: Oh, she’s beautiful!

R: Yes, she is a lovely looking girl. We really miss her, but we were so fortunate to have her. She had the type of cystic fibrosis that didn’t really make her really violently ill all the time. She’d never missed school. She was probably better than half the people she knew, physically. But she had things she had to do, medication she had to take, procedures she had to go through. My husband liked to fish. We had lots of friends. A nice house. Good children.

B: Your husband is no longer living?

R: No, he died of cancer about 15 years ago. But we had a marvelous life together. A good marriage. How many people can say that today?

B: Actually, Ann, very few.

R: So I was lucky. Well, so anyway, there I was with a business and then somehow somebody got me into a garden club, and that was the biggest mistake I ever made. I joined this garden club because I got into conservation and got very interested in that. And I’ve given a tremendous amount of time to preserving open space.

B: Tell me about your conservation interests.

R: Well, you know, we even go down to Washington and lobby our representatives and all those people. Go down for four days and go visit them in their offices, you know. And talk with them. It’s a great thing. It really is . Ant then we have them come, all kinds of speakers in Washington, and talk to us and tell us what’s going on.

B: Tell me more about this. You’re my very first conservation person! Please tell me more about the organization that you were involved in-the garden club.

R: Well, this is the Garden Club of America-GCA. And I happen to think that they do a very good job as far as conservation goes. They get us to get into our town and influence people. If there’s something going in along one of our roads that shouldn’t be, they get us to do something about it. Influence our legislators and town officials and all that kind of thing. Mostly I brought speakers in to the community. I brought Jim Fowler, he’s the animal man. We had him come and do sort of an endangered species evening, and he showed all kinds of birds, etc. that have been brought back from extinction and that kind of thing. He was fun. You know I think if you can give people ideas in sort of a sugar-coated pill it’s good. Because I think to some people the word "conservationist" has gotten to be sort of a bad word. Don’t you think so-a little bit? And I think the reason is that the whole movement came in too belligerently. You’ve got to consider both sides. You can’t just step over people and their interests. You’ve got to give both sides a chance to speak and come to an agreement that is a compromise. And I think that’s the sort of thing the GCA is dedicated to-bringing people together and getting them to realize that we do have to maintain our environment or else we’re all going to be going down the drain. One of the most important things that you can do these days is work for a safe, better environment.

Photographs

Oral histories of all kinds lend themselves to the use of photographs. There are basically three ways photos can be used. The first is using the photos belonging to the person you are interviewing as a kind of interviewing guide. Looking through photo albums can help him or her tell the story and are a wonderful way to encourage the person to talk. It also gives you places to naturally ask more questions.

The second use of photos is when you take them to use as illustrations with whatever you are writing. It is important that the photos enhance the story you are writing and are fairly self-explanatory. For instance, a portrait of the person you are interviewing would enhance your written article.

The third use of photographs is part of the background research process. By studying old photos of a particular event, place, or family we can gain a better understanding of some of the subtleties of the situation. Photos by their very nature help us to understand what people take for granted and what they think is important. This is especially true if you are working on something that occurred in the past. Information about such things as clothing, houses, transportation, life style and people who have passed on, are often best captured in a photograph. In all probability, this kind of information would not emerge in an interview, and by studying old photos you are better able to ask appropriate questions.

Transcribing

Once you have your interviews on tape there are several things that you can do with them. The option you choose should be based on your decision as to what kind of writing project you want to do. Most people doing oral histories transcribe the taped interview. This is the most time-consuming and can be the most tedious, but it does give you the maximum amount of flexibility in using the information you have collected. As a general rule, one hour of tape equals about 10 typed pages of text. It is important that when you transcribe the tape you stay true to what the person is actually saying. Even if the person uses poor grammar or makes mistakes you need to transcribe it exactly without editing. This method is most appropriate when you are working on large projects or planning to write long and fairly complicated articles or a booklet. You will need to be able to study the interviews to do a good analysis, and the transcriptions will allow you do that.

Another option is to listen to the tapes several times and select the "gems". On the surface this seems to be an easier process than transcribing the whole tape. The big disadvantage is that you often miss important subtleties that could be useful to your project. This method is particularly appropriate, however, when you are writing short articles and are in need only of direct quotes to illustrate a particular point, situation, or event.

Once you have the transcripts finished, regardless of which method you choose, you will need to organize and edit them. Your goals at this stage are to find a focus that emerges from the material; to make the material easier to work with; and to capture those bits of information that will be most useful to you. There are many ways to do this. For instance, you can organize the material by topic, chronologically, or by event. Many people like to look for themes or recurring phrases and highlight them with a pen or marker. As you read and re-read your transcripts, keep looking for a particular focus that appeals to you. This is a very messy and organic process because there is not one perfect way to do it. The best way to think about this stage of the process is "playing with the material". This process is crucial, since it sets the stage for the writing phase. The more you "play" with the material, the easier the writing phase will be.

Data checklist

Before we move on to the third section "Writing it up," it is helpful to have a checklist of the possible kinds of material you could have for a project.

• taped interviews, either completely transcribed or mined for "gems"
• observations and notes
• background research
• photos

Section Three: Writing It Up

To practice the writing workshop

Introduction: deciding what to write

In many ways, the writing phase of any project can simultaneously be the most fun and the most painful. There is almost nothing more daunting in the world than piles of notes, photos, transcripts, artifacts and a blank sheet of paper. There are some very simple steps you can follow, however, that will make this task less intimidating and more enjoyable.

The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of article you want to write. Cynthia Stokes Brown in her book Like it was, suggests several types of short articles. They are as follows: (Again, this is not meant as a definitive list but just as a way for you to start thinking about the kinds of articles that you or your students might like to write.)

A how-to-article is often the easiest to write. How-to-articles explain how to do something, such as build a boat, make preserves, or raise a garden. In section one we talked a lot about material artifacts from folklore. How those artifacts are created would be good sources for how-to articles.

A personality story features a single person or a small group of people such as a single family. In these kinds of articles you need to let the person or people you are writing about tell their own story. As a result, your article will be filled with actual quotes from the interviews.

A how-it-used-to-be is an article that focuses on past events. It uses the descriptive pieces of the interviews to convey how life used to be, and it can best be described as a reminiscence or memoir.

Feature article is about any particular event, activity, or festivity that currently goes on or used to go on in the community. The story can be organized chronologically or around the traditions involved.

There are many other kinds of writing that you can do using your interviews and materials as a base. Essays, short booklets, ethnographies, children’s texts are just some of the many opportunities that are available to you. The point to remember is rather than forcing the material into a specific format let it "tell" you what to write.

Audience and voice

Once you have a sense of the kind of article or work that you want to create, the next step is to decide on audience and voice. In this case audience answers the question "who is this for?" Try to imagine who is going to read your article and write accordingly. The next decision is to decide on voice. Who is telling the story? If it is a biographical piece, you will want the subject to speak as much as possible. If you are writing about a person or an event, then you can act as a kind of third-person invisible narrator. Another option is to take an approach more like that of a novelist or creative writer. By mixing description and analysis with quotes and first-hand material from your transcripts, you can weave together an appealing and readable story. Regardless of what you choose to do; the process of writing and rewriting will help you produce a polished and finished piece of work that you can be proud of.

Drafts

The good news is that there is no such thing as a good first draft. In our writing workshops we have found that the best way to get started is simply to write. Peter Elbow calls this process "free writing". Free writing occurs when the writer sits down and begins to write about whatever comes to mind on the topic. In free writing, grammar, spelling and syntax are not important. What is important are ideas, descriptive pieces, phrases that you like, and snippets of language that sound particularly good. Free writing will help you warm up and give you and your material a chance to see what will emerge. Once you have had an opportunity to simply write, the next step is to work on a first draft.

As you read back over your free writing, take note of the parts of it that you like. You may have a wonderful descriptive phrase, or you may see the focus of your writing more clearly. The first draft should be an attempt to get down on paper in an organized fashion what you want to say about the material you have collected.

No matter what you are writing, there are some basic rules to keep in mind as you construct your first draft. You must first assume that your reader knows nothing; therefore spend time introducing her to your material. Who and what are you writing about?, Where is this taking place? What are we about to experience? By answering most of these questions in the beginning, you will have a nice introduction that will help the reader ease into the rest of the material. As you continue to let the story unfold, be particularly careful to keep the reader informed. Don’t be afraid to use dialogue, description and lively language to hold the reader’s attention. Finally, as you conclude your work, think about how you want it to end. Do you want the narrator to have the last word? Would it be more effective to describe how you felt on "that hot and dusty day in mid-May as you drove out of town?" Endings are important, so spend some time thinking and working on them.

Once you have a first draft that you are reasonably pleased with, you can begin the process of editing and revising. We like to do the revision process in a workshop setting. What follows is an example of editing workshop for a story written in a Romanian oral history workshop. This story is from an interview that was done in a small rural village.

TEXT FROM ORAL HISTORY WORKSHOP, ROMANIA

Difficult life journey of Stamescu Coriolana

The village where Stamescu lives is tiny and simple, with Roma people living there, the village has some special hue.

You can feel nostalgia for the free life in the past and the tough contemporary life and fight for living.

Stamescu is a small sinewy man with hard callous hands revealing hard work.

Though he has been living for 63 years, his memory returns back to the period of the second world war.

He was 10 at that time and he lived in a family with his three brothers.

He remembers those difficult times of war, when his family ran out of food and lived with no almost no heating.

This time seems to be strange for people to imagine how the whole family had to share one corn cake.

"Our mother in order to give us something to eat had to sweep the roads every day and we-the children-had to beg," say Stamescu and continues his nostalgic memories.

His elder brothers helped a lot to overcome the difficult obstacles of life and they were often forced to work for mean peasants, just to get a piece of bread. "At that time we were happy just to get some shabby cloth and we had to fight with cold and fear every day. My destiny was even more tough because I had not seen my three brothers since I was 15 and God knows what happened with them"

"Even though I have 3 children, I am alone now" says Stamescu.

"My children were blown abroad to find a better life there and my wife is sick in a hospital.

Well the feeling that my children live under better conditions makes me happy, but still the loneliness hurts me and I know that I am not able to change it, but I would love all of them to be with me.

Anyway, it is good here, we people get along well and there is no one to persecute us.

My life was hard and the line of destiny not straight, but I am happy that I am still alive. I enjoy good health, my children and my wife, even thought I was really examined in my life for several times.

Now I live quite a peaceful life," add at end Stamescu.

Stamescu in his simplicity embodies the destiny on one generation, able to survive and symbolize an inconspicuous tree in the lap of beautiful nature.

Workshopping A Text

Teachers of creative writing often prefer to teach what they call a "workshop", where members of a writing group discuss and make comments about each other’s work. All members of the group try to be helpful and constructive by being careful and honest; they treat the writing they are reading or listening to seriously and respectfully, the way the want their own writing treated. In a successful workshop, everyone has something to contribute; that is, the person whose work is being discussed can learn from all the different things that other members of the workshop say about it.

One Basic Rule

Teachers of creative writing usually begin workshops by stressing one basic rule: "Show, don’t tell." What this means is that writers should try to present their material through specific, concrete details so that what they are writing about can be experienced directly by the reader. Through the use of vivid, precise details and images, writers appeal to the reader’s senses: they make the reader see what a place or person looks like, hear what a character actually sounds like, sometimes they can almost make the reader touch, taste, and smell what is being described.

Difficult life journey of Stamescu Coriolana

The village where Stamescu lives is tiny and simple, Roma people living there, the village has some special hue.

You can feel nostalgia for the free life in the past and the tough contemporary life and fight for living.

Stanescu is a small sinewy man with hard callous hands revealing hard work. Though he has been living for 63 years, his memory returns back to the period of the Second World War.

He was 10 at the time and he lived in a family with his three brothers. He remembers those difficult times of war, when their family ran out of food and lived with almost none heating. This time seems to be strange for people to imagine how the whole family had to share one corn cake.

Many of the details in the remaining part of the story are very effective: the mother sweeping the roads, the elder brothers forced to work just to get a piece of bread from mean peasants. Stamescu speaks movingly about his loneliness. It is clear how much he misses his children, even though he knows they are better off elsewhere, and how troubled he is by his wife’s sickness, though he is determined to make the most of his lot and be as positive as he can about it.

We get a strong sense of what his life has been like because we hear him talking about it directly through dialogue. The more accurately and precisely and writer can present a real person like Stamescu, the more believable that person becomes, and the more we as readers understand and care about him and what he is telling us. That is what is meant by writers-showing-rather than merely-telling-and explaining. The person and the person’s life are handed over to us, as if we were right there with him ourselves.

This is just one small example of what a writer’s workshop can look like. We recommend that you workshop pieces of writing more than once. As the process unfolds on multiple occasions, each writer will have the opportunity to get comments and suggestions that not only will help polish that specific work, but improve his or her writing skills generally. From the standpoint of a teacher, the writing workshop is an opportunity to teach writing anchored in the work of the students rather than in the abstract.

This process fits particularly well with the kind of writing that naturally comes out of doing oral histories and folklore projects. This kind of writing represents a borderland between the formality in-school writing and the informality of the popular press. Hence students can learn some of the techniques familiar to creative writers and story-tellers as well as the analytical and formal techniques used by academics.

This next piece of writing comes also from an oral history project in Timisoara, Romania. We are including it along with some of our workshop suggestions as another opportunity for you to practice and model the process. Notice the use of voice and audience. We are also including a second draft of the first lines of the first paragraph so that you can see what can result from the workshop process.

Wedding In Romania Text

One lovely May evening-May which means love, we took part in a wedding in Timisoria.

In front of the house of the bridegroom, we were welcomed by many Roma people and their typical music.

We were offered bread and salt and delicious drink.

At the head of the wedding was a young man holding a stick, full of colored scarves.

All this parade went to the bride’s house-various Roma customs were held there.

The bride’s good-bye to her parents, asking for the bride and other Roma customs.

After that all the parade went back to the bridegroom’s house, where the wedding continued with other Roma customs as the dance for the bride, the old women’s dance, the plate dance with money collection as a gift for the bride, and bonneting the bride.

At the wedding we were served traditional Roma means that were regarded as very delicious by the wedding guests.

We were mostly captured by the symbol of connecting the couple. This custom is very old and typical for Roma people living in Romania and it means that the couple is regarded to be legally married. The hand of the bride and the bridegroom are connected with a decorated towel. The towel has magic power which symbolizes the stability of the cord of marriage and will protect the couple against the vicissitudes of life.

One lovely May evening-May which means love, we took part in a wedding Timisoara.

In front of the house of the bridegroom we were welcomed by many Roma people and their typical music. We were offered bread and salt and delicious drink.

At the head of the wedding there was a young man holding a decorated stick full of colored scarves.

[The writer is giving us the beginning of some wonderful "pictures" but we need more details to bring the setting alive for those who are not already familiar with it.]

---------------

Now that you see how the process works, what follows is a second draft of these same first few lines. Notice the difference that occurs when you add just a few of the details. Feel free to work on the rest of the text as a way of practicing the process.

One lovely May evening we took part in a Roma wedding in Timisoara, Romania. The weather was perfect. It was warm and the setting sun washed the streets with gold light of early evening. It is said by those who live here, that May is the month for love and this evening and this wedding were a perfect example of what they mean. The air was filled with the laughter of children and the sounds of the musicians playing lively music.

Final thoughts on "writing it up"

One of the hardest questions we have to answer in our workshops is "How do I know when I am finished?" or When is this good enough?. The revision process can go on and on as we tinker with words and phrases trying to make each line just a little better and the whole more clear or poetic or exciting to read. Eventually though, even the best and most meticulous of writers decides that this is "as good as it gets". Where and when that occurs is an individual matter, as well as perhaps a matter of available time.

In folklore three is a magic number and so it seems to be in writing. In our workshops we encourage students to do at least three revisions on a single piece of work. After three revisions most students have focused their writing, paid attention to details, worked out the rough spots and are frankly ready to move on to something new.

As your students finish up their projects there are all kinds of things that you can do with them. We have put together booklets, displays, anthologies, and magazines. Some of our students have turned these projects into reading and writing materials for young children. Also, they have used photos or drawing to "illustrate" the text. Some have used their work as part of community newsletters or as a way to chronicle the lives of family members. Whatever you choose to do, we hope that you will find the process exciting and enjoyable as you "tell stories and write lives".

A Final Thought

Writing things down in an accurate way is a means of preserving them, both for ourselves and for those who come after us. Not only can we get satisfaction and pleasure from this experience; we can gain knowledge and even wisdom. Learning to observe carefully and then to record what we observe enables us not simply to see, but to remember.

Notetaker's Notes

Multicultural Educatioin 9:20 session

Questions and answers session after and during the presentation

Why do you think we should do multicultural education? Why is it a good idea to do it?

To take advantage of the reach diversity

To cultivate respect to other countries

It helps to integrate ethnic groups into society

To motivate children from minority groups to receive education

To promote equity in education/equal opportunities

To preserve diversity and richness of the world

Diversity enriches our background

To reduce oppression and provide opportunities for the disadvantage

How can multicultural education fit in our schools?

It depends on the school structure and whether the school was already engaged in any multicultural activities. See the chart in the materials. Level 1 is for school where nothing is happening in the field of education. Then you can move further up.

Think where this model fit in your school and what you can do introducing this model into a school (level 1 of the chart)?

In Albania, for example, cultural events are organized to share minority cultures.

Experience of the educators from Ireland who tried to setup integrated schools for catholic and Protestant students showed through evaluation of these schools that students considered their time to be wasted as they were taught the same way and the same things and were not given an opportunity to work together , discuss various issues together and explore differences through other methods other than just preaching multicultural education .

The book AMAZING GRACE was presented at the conference as an example of a book which encourages children and shows that ones possibilities are limited only to the limit one wants to impose on oneself.

Susan Rona: It often happens in this region that when you see minority depiction in books they are portrayed in the fairy tales and traditional costumes from the old times. This happens because there are no writers which could write the books of the new generation which.

Hristo: it would be important to have a group of writers with the way of thinking who will publish modern books and not portray minorities in the fairy tales and traditional costumes which is history and not the present to which it would be easier to relate.

Romanian presentation on oral history project.

Simona presented.

Twelve schools were selected for this project from urban and rural communities. In urban areas Roma communities do not have strong traditional orientation but in rural they do. Such subjects as oral history and culture are part of school curriculum.

Katie is a principal of one of such rural schools who talked about community involvement in school operation. Minority representation of this school involve: Ukrainians, Hungarians, Roma, etc. In the village Roma representation reaches 80% and Romanians 20%. In the schools Roma 60% and 40% Romanians. There is no children who do not come to the school. It was achieved through improved teaching methodology, and various community activities, etc. Local council of the school was developed to oversee equal opportunities of the children. Activities like support for getting the children into school and early interventions were introduced in school operation. Teachers are trained how to involve parents, community and local municipalities in school activities/operation. For example, local municipalities gave land to the community of our school for cultivation and harvesting

The school curriculum of this school has the following subjects:

Oral history projects;

Metal work with parent supervisors

Tradition of costumes’ design with family involvement

Natural die of herbs (Children interview locals who knows a lot of interesting secrets which have to be preserved. Then children prepare various dies).

First book project: this is used when children learn to read. They are asked to produce their own books with parental support.

Mentoring and tutoring project of the same school:

Training for this project was done by the Charles center.

Each child has a mentor to help in studies. Every child has a portfolio of assignments which he/she completed. Parents are interested in being involved in school only when the most important question is addressed trusting relationship with them is established. We have contact parents who are constantly involved in the school life. Parents assist with repairs and participate in many school events. One of the serious problems we encountered is a high drop out rate amongst girls as they get married at the age of 10. Sometimes they do come to school together with their husbands. The school has also a Sunday school for illiterate parents.

Questions session: What programs does Foundations run to support the communities?

Simona: We organize trainings on community partnerships, shared mission, multicultural education, classroom management, oral history projects, teaching Roma history and culture. In each of these 12 schools we have teachers who participated in these trainings.

Conclusion :

The school example which was presented by the principal was a transformation example of step 3 from the chart.

• Oral history projects can be used in
• Family literacy projects,
• Reading for beginners
• Teaching how to do research
• Teaching how to interview people

ISSUES OF MINORITIES AND EDUCATION IN THE REGION

Issues of Minorities and Education in the Region

Stephen Heyneman

in the Europe and Central Asia Region

Florence, Italy

Email: sh@imd-net.com

Introduction

In the last six years, 27 countries have emerged anew in Europe and Central Asia. Though far from uniform, the trend is to move away from having a single political party manage the state and its economic apparatus. Many countries have written new constitutions guaranteeing individual freedoms and liberties, encouraged private economic and social organizations, declared private ownership of property to be legal, encouraged entrepreneurial private enterprise, and fostered new political and trade relationships with international organizations and with foreign countries. After many years of religious prohibition, worship is permitted, and in some instances, encouraged. Citizens are free to travel domestically and abroad, free to participate in debate over public policy, and free to vote for public leaders.

However, the transition from party/state to open, multi-ethnic democracy has not been easy. Untested by experience, open democracy has proved to be an imperfect tool for effectively establishing domestic policy. Historical tensions have emerged among ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. New tensions have resulted from the inconsistency of legislative and legal institutions and the spontaneous growth of inequality in income, property and economic power. Adjudicating institutions, courts of law, and the laws themselves, have failed to keep pace withthe evolving needs of the environment in which they operated. Additionally, the media and local elected officials have sometimes proven to be uncertain of their new functions, weak, unstable and open to corruption. The result has been a growth in social tension.

There have been many international efforts to advise and assist the new ECA countries on questions of fiscal stabilization and privatization of property. Social problems have garnered less attention and more resistance to addressing them. Nevertheless, social tension may be the principal determining factor governing the future relationships among the new countries with each other, with international investors, and with the world community generally.

Can educational mechanisms lower social tension and help achieve social cohesion? If so, how are these mechanisms defined and measured? What is the experience to date with the social utility of education mechanisms?

This paper will try to answer these questions. First it will briefly review some concepts of institutional and organizational economics so that the economic implications of education’s social cohesion functions can be more clear. Second it will review the origins of public schooling so that the reader may place the educational challenges in the ECA region in historical context. Last, the paper will review the experience to date in the ECA region in meeting the challenges of social cohesion and hence the economic development of the 27 nations in the region.

Economics of Social Cohesion.

According to Douglas North, there are three reasons why ‘history matters’: (i) we can learn from it, (ii) our future depends on the continuity of current institutions, and (iii) our choices are shaped by our experience. (North, 1990, p vii). One of the principal lessons of history is a fact which is so obvious that it is sometimes ignored. Economic development is made possible through human cooperation. Cooperation offers the possibility of individuals and nations to accumulate or maximize economic gains which have resulted from creative enterprise and the trade which that enterprise engenders. Because of the complexities of measurement, this branch of economics, institutional economics, is not the most well known. Basically it concerns the study of these mechanisms for ‘human cooperation’ and how they work (Eggertsson, 1990; Olson, 1965, 1982; North, 1990).

There seem to be two elements which make cooperation possible. First are the institutional rules which guide all types of organizations. Second are the stabilizing traditions within the organizations themselves. Institutional rules include codes for public conduct, norms for private behavior, manifest statutes, common law and contracts among individuals and organizations. An organization consists of groups of individuals bound together for a common purpose. Stabilizing traditions within each organization differ from one another. There are many types of organizations, but, in general, they can be reduced to four basic categories: (i) political bodies, such as legislatures, etc.; (ii) economic bodies, such as firms; (iii) social bodies, such as churches; and (iv) educational bodies, such as schools and universities.

Each type of organization makes its own contribution to social cohesion. Political bodies organize the debate and establish the means for public policy. Economic bodies organize entrepreneurial endeavors and generate income. Social bodies bind people to moral norms. What about schools? What functions do schools have and why do nations invest in schools?

Social Functions of Education

Some economists suggest that the inability of societies to develop low cost and effective self-regulating mechanisms for enforcement of social contracts, prevents economic development (Bates, 1989). The concept of a social contract is broader than a legal contract. A social contract includes for instance, a willingness to pay taxes and fulfill other public obligations; it may include the willingness to participate in public affairs, maintain cleanliness of one’s property, act responsibly, be a good citizen. In instances where a society’s general philosophy, such as racial tolerance for one’s fellow citizens, conflicts with one’s private opinion, the social contract of racial tolerance is expected to take precedence, particularly in public fora. Countries which lack economic development are often associated with an environment in which contracts are not enforceable by any mechanism, and most certainly are not self-regulating.

People are more likely to adhere to social contracts under certain conditions. They are more likely to adhere to contracts when they do not consider each other as cultural ‘strangers’; that is, when they have more understanding of each other as people, as citizens of the same country or as citizens of a ‘similar’ country where it is believed that the same norms and expectations govern social contracts. People are more likely to adhere to social contracts when they have a greater understanding of the reasons for those contracts, and are more knowledgeable about the sanctions which may be expected in the event of noncompliance. The most common mechanism for achieving compliance is through the state, particularly through state’s authority to sanction, but states can become tyrannical. In a tyranny, those who run the state may force compliance in their own interest at the expense of the rest of society. The challenge then is to achieve compliance without tyranny.

The most effective check against tyranny is a public consensus on the definition of tyranny; on the rights of those who believe they are the objects of tyranny; and on the obligations and responsibilities of those who use coercive power. Such a consensus makes it more difficult for tyranny to occur because it can be more easily identified and controlled. How can this public consensus come about, and more importantly, how can it be passed to the young?

Each of the four types of organizations -- political, economic, social, and educational, helps contribute to the public consensus. Education contributes in three ways. First, it helps provide public knowledge about social contracts themselves, what they mean, and why they are important, etc. Second, education helps provide the behavior expected under social contracts, in part through the socially heterogeneous experiences students have in the schools themselves. Third, education helps provide an understanding of the expected consequences for breaking social contracts. These three reasons, comprise the social rationales for public education, hence the social rationales for investments in public education.

When there is a consensus on behavior, unregulated by state sanction, that consensus is called ‘social capital’ (Coleman, 1988). Social capital refers to certain norms that make government, the economy, and the national community work better (Ruffin, McCarter, Upjohn, 1996). It involves the development of shared understandings that increase the level of trust and willingness to act in ways that will benefit a community even when the benefit to the individual self is not immediately obvious.

Countries differ significantly in the degree of social capital with which they are endowed. As a quantity, it is tangible. It is productive. Social capital makes possible the achievement of certain ends which would not have been possible without social capital. It comes about through changes in the relations among persons that facilitate action (Coleman, 1986; 1987). Investments may be made in social capital wisely, or not. There is a tendency, however, to not invest wisely. Unlike physical and most human capital, the benefits of social capital are not easily captured by the individual. The incentive to invest in social capital is therefore less. For instance, the social norms which govern good citizenship may not primarily benefit the individual actor whose effort is necessary to bring good behavior about. Instead the benefits accrue to others who are part of the society. Many structures, such as family, church and community organizations, are necessary to bring about good citizenship behavior in the face of such imbalanced benefits. One of the most important in this regard are the schools, hence the importance of schools as public investments particularly in those societies where citizenship behavior is new and untested. This, in essence, is the mechanism by which education contributes to political development in new nations.

The sustainability of Social Capital. Social Capital can be created through effective schooling, but how can it be sustained? What changes interaction from being a single experience to becoming a habit? The answer has to do with the nature of tradition. It requires three generations to create a tradition. Traditions may begin as a compendium of single experiences, but they become codified over time until they represent a ‘massive presentness’ in which the past ‘lives in the present’ and serves as a guide for action (Shils, 1981, p.34). Public schooling attempts very consciously to generate traditions in the manner by which citizens treat each other. Putnam (1993) has described how weak social capital, rooted in tradition, affects community development in Southern Italy. Samuelson (1998), describes the manner by which social capital works from a ‘critical boiling point’ in which the sum of a multiple number of similar yet small events occur, and turn the market in a new direction. Creating the direction of the ‘market’ in social interaction among citizens is the traditional reason for public education.

The History of Public Education.

Mechanisms to impart organized wisdom have been developed in each culture. The concept of public education, however, is a different matter. Public rationales for sending children to school were first articulated in the time of Martin Luther, about 400 years ago and, at first, centered on the need to improve public morality.

I am of the opinion that the government is obligated to compel its citizenry to send their children to school. If a government can compel its citizens to bear spear and gun, to run about on the city wall and to assume other duties when it desires to carry on war, how much more can and should the government compel its citizens to keep their children at school. Luther, 1530, cited in Helmreich, 1959, p. 15.

The Prince of Wurtternberg, in 1559, is acknowledged to be the first of a series of German political leaders to sponsor state schools, but it wasn’t until 1717 that Frederick William I made urban education compulsory and helped provide finance for the education of children from homes which could otherwise not afford it. It was his son, Frederick the Great, however, who is credited as being the ‘father’ of public education. It was Frederick the Great who deviated from having a single public religious morality as the principal rationale for public schooling. Because Prussia had recently acquired lands in which there were Catholics as well as Protestants, in his Generallandschulreglement in 1763, and later in the Allgemeine Landrecht of 1794, he established the principle of compulsory education (for both urban and rural areas), the state’s supervisory role with respect to private (usually church) providers, and most importantly, the principle of tolerance toward confessional activities in lieu of a common Prussian loyalty .

There are few lands in which all citizens have the same religion, and the question arises: is such unity to be forced or can one permit every one to think according to his own views? To this the answer must be that it is impossible to establish such unity... general tolerance alone guarantees the happiness of the state... Frederick the Great, 1763, cited in Helmreich, 1959, p. 29.

The philosophic foundation for public education as it is known today, however, was established in the 19th Century in France by Francois Guizot (1787 - 1874), in New England by Horace Mann (1796 - 1859), and in the Netherlands by Petras Hofstede de Groot (1802 - 1886). With each, the effort to enlighten a nation through a system of popular education was concerned more with attitudes and values than with the skills of literacy and numeracy. As Glenn observes, "popular education was not simply, or even primarily, to teach literacy or other skills but to develop the common attitudes and values considered essential to a society in which broader and broader circles of the population were entering public life" (Glenn, 1988, p. 45). As Charles Brooks remarked, "... education could no longer be left to private initiative or allowed to take as many different forms as there were sponsoring organizations; too much was at stake..."(Brooks, 1837, cited in Glenn, 1988, p. 46).

What was ‘at stake’ was the forging of a nation based not on principles of tyrannical control but for the first time, one based on the informed consent of the governed, across the full gamut of religions, classes, languages and ethnicities from which the modern heterogeneous state was contrived. As Stiep Stuurman put it,

Through education and propagation of (common) culture among all classes, the circle of citizens could be broadened, as would the basis of the state... a homogeneous Dutch nation would come into being. This is the political core of the common school policies, the school as a nation-forming institution must not be divided among sectarian schools or left in the hands of an exclusive political or church party. (Stuurman, 1983, pp. 116 -117) .

To some extent the success of the modern Netherlands, with the merging of Catholic and Protestant sub-populations can be attributed to the success of the public school and the over-riding ethos of tolerance which was enforced through the state in both Catholic and Protestant educational curricula. In New England, however the sub-populations were more numerous, hence the challenge more complex. The solution in New England seemed to rest on a common school managed by the state and independent from all sectarian control. As W.S. Datton explained in 1848,

The children of this country, of whatever parentage, should not wholly but to a certain extent be educated together -- be educated not as Baptists, or Methodists, or Episcopalians, or Presbyterians; not as Roman Catholics or Protestants, still less as foreigners in language or spirit, but as Americans, as made of one blood and citizens of the same free country, -- educated to be one harmonious people. The common school system, if wisely and liberally conducted, is well fitted in part at least to accomplish this. While it does not profess to give a complete education and allows ample opportunity for instruction and training in denominational peculiarities elsewhere, it yet brings the children of all sects together, gives them, to a limited extent a common like education, and, by such education and by the commingling, acquaintance and fellowship which it involves in the early unprejudiced and impressionable periods of life, assimilates and unites them. (Datton, 1848, p. 166).

What would be the social cost for not having a system of public education? As Horace Bushnell argues, not having such a system would weaken the security of the nation and endanger the liberties on which it had been founded.

This great institution, the common school, is not only a part of the state, but it is imperiously wanted as such, for the common training of so many classes and conditions of people. There needs to be some place where in early childhood, they may be brought together and made acquainted with each other... without common schools the disadvantage that accrues to the state, in the loss of so much character, and so many cross ties of mutual respect and general appreciation, the embittering so fatally of all outward distinctions, and the propagation of so many misunderstandings.... weakens immensely, the security of the state, and even its liberties. ( Bushnell, 1847).

Much thought has been given to how schools might teach values, but none summarize the process better than the comment cited by Hyman and Wright, "Children learn to think about what it is like to be another person. They cultivate their systematic imaginations" (Hyman and Wright, 1979, p. 67). As Stephen Bailey points out,

... if education for political development means anything it means the assertion of these value universals and the delineation of man’s attempts over the centuries to fashion and to perfect instruments of law, administration and the politics to create -- not the Great Leviathan -- but the good society. This does not mean that (new) countries must slavishly copy (western) laws and constitutions. It does mean that whatever laws and constitutions they fashion for themselves must place restrictions upon the character and exercise of political power.. In essence, man’s long political odyssey has some universal lessons. Like its Homeric analogue, man’s political odyssey has had its Cyclops and its Circes, its Scyllas and Charybdices. Wise leaders throughout history have lashed themselves and their crews to the masts of law to escape the siren call of demagogic tyranny... Surely (new) nations need not recapitulate all the sorry political errors of history, any more than they need revert to a labored progression beginning with stone implements to prepare themselves for the wonders of modern technology. To pretend that education has something useful to say about the conquest of disease, poverty and technological backwardness, but nothing to say about political backwardness, seems to me fantastic... if education in (new) countries cannot or will not affirm these things it will have missed its imperative mission. (Bailey, 1963, p. 57 - 59).

Have schools been successful at fostering social cohesion? The evidence is ambiguous because the influence of education on non-monetary benefits is particularly difficult to isolate from other influences. But there has been some progress in spite of the difficulties (Olsen and Zeckhauser, 1974; Olson, 1977; Duncan, 1976; Comer, 1988; Haveman and Wolfe, 1984, 1994; Wolfe and Zunekas, 1997; Michael, 1982; Wachtel, 1975). Research has included the following: schools’ roles in broadening outlook and increasing tolerance and desire to participate in the political process (Lipset, 1959); the association between more and better education and a nation’s democratic stability (Almond and Verba, 1963; Puryear, 1994); the connection between educational structures and democratic stability (Meyer, 1970; Kamens, 1998); the degree to which more education is associated with greater voluntary political participation (Verba et. al., 1978; Campbell et. al., 1976; Gintis, 1971; Nie, Junn and Stehlik, 1996); the connection between education and an individual’s orientation toward legel behaviour and good citizenship (Hahn, 1977; Ehrilch, 1975; Inkeles and Smith, 1974; Torney-Purta, 1995, 1996, 1997; Niemi and Hepburn, 1995); and the association between classroom climate and civic behavior (Torney-Purta and Schwille, 1986; Becker, 1963; Butts, 1980).

There has been comparatively little research on the influence of specific curricula such as social studies or civics on values or behaviour (Torney-Purta, Oppenheim, Farner, 1975; Torney-Purta, 1996). On the other hand, as Lawrence Cremin points out, when placed in context the influence of schools is surprisingly robust. "It is not that schooling lacks potency," he says, "it is that the potency of schooling must be seen in relation to the potency of other experiences." (Cremin, 1976, p. 36). In general, however, education can make a contribution to social cohesion through four separate mechanisms: (i) by providing an equality of educational opportunity for all citizens; (ii) by achieving a public consensus on what to teach the young about citizenship and history; (iii) by providing an ethnically-tolerant climate in the classroom environment; and (iv) by establishing democratic institutions (such as school boards) to adjudicate when there are differences of opinion about whether the first three mechanisms have been achieved.

Summary

The essence of public schools and their principal rationale for socializing the population does not conform to the typical economic rationales for investment in education. The dissemination of literacy, numeracy and many other skills constitute economic benefits which accrue to the individuals who experience schooling. But the principal rationale, and the reasons nations invest in public education, has traditionally been the social purpose of schooling. This social purpose originated from the time when first multi ethnic nations were being constructed (Maynew, 1985; Mc Monnell, 1963). The principle task of public schooling, properly organized and delivered, has traditionally been to create harmony within a nation of divergent peoples.

Public schooling is an investment in the ‘social contract’, whose benefits are believed to accrue not only to the individual who experiences schooling but also, and perhaps more importantly, to the wider society. The current challenge of education in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is similar to the challenge faced by education in the early 19th and 20th Centuries in Europe and North America. That challenge is to forge new nations, at peace within themselves, while at the same time, tolerant of their often very divergent neighbors. As David McClelland reminds us, " The world’s biggest problem is how to keep the peace. The world’s second largest problem is how to achieve prosperity" (McClelland, 1963). The first is essential for the second.

The Challenge of Over-coming the Inheritance. One common impression is that education under the party/state was both effective and excellent. As evidence it was common to point to technical achievements -- nuclear weapons, space travel, advanced computer systems and the like. Olympiads in mathematics and science were widely interpreted as signs that the education system was of high quality. This association between technical achievement and the quality of education, however, involves a set of shaky assumptions. As Anderson observes about the United States,

We produced the atomic bomb at a time when critics were lamenting the supposed deterioration of our schools. The bomb was created by a few scientists with unlimited resources, though the craftsmen who produced the delicate instruments were no less essential. The quality of our schools may have been irrelevant to this feat. Similarly, Sputnik proves little about the general quality of Soviet schools (Anderson, 1959, p. 27).

However questionable the evidence of academic quality, still it is evident that the education system under the Party/State was effectively delivered. Access to schooling was universal, even in rural areas. Literacy among adults was nearly universal. Female representation in higher education was near parity. Since the structures were already in place at the beginning of the transition, couldn’t these achievements continue?

For several reasons, the characteristics which made the education system effective under the Party/State could not continue once the assumptions of the economy and the polity had changed. The previous system was designed structurally to respond to the demand of central planning; these structures have had to be completely reformed. Such structural reforms have been described in some detail in other contexts. (Heyneman, 1994, 1995(a); 1997 (a), 1997 (b), 1997 (c) 1997 (d), 1998 (forthcoming); Glenn, 1995; World Bank, 1995).

More complex than changes in structure has been the necessity to change the philosophy. The entire system of education under the party/state was predicated upon an assumption of a fixed logic of behavior, a logic carefully developed in the ideological branch of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in Moscow and supposedly enforced with vigor within every school, in every subject and at every grade level. It was the logic of the ‘true believer’ (Hoffer, 1958), that is, it was developed by those who had been carefully vetted so that doubt and uncertainty could be eliminated.

Marxist/Leninist curricula theories were infused into each subject, including the sciences, so that emphasis could be laid on character formation consistent with the needs of the state. Described by Bronfenbrenner (1968), the methods of character formation differed significantly from those in the west. Under the Party/State, heavy use was made of the power of peer pressure to enforce conformity. The means to achieve this conformity were carefully laid out with the content of four basic courses in Marxist/ Leninist thought which every student in higher education was required to take. They included the History of the Communist Party of the USSR, Dialectical Materialism, Introduction to Marxism and Leninism, and Historical Materialism. In 1963 a fifth was added: Sound Fundamentals of Basic Atheism.

The courses inculcated a fixed philosophy for the purpose of explaining why the communist system was superior; why the communist party was the ultimate authority for questions on personal behavior; and why individuals were fortunate to be a part of the overall soviet system and Soviet society (De Witt, 1968). Outside the Soviet Union these courses differed in tone and emphasis. Nevertheless, in one form or another they were present in every school system in Eastern and Central Europe. The logic was fixed and complete in the sense that it was designed to answer all possible questions and guide all possible inquiries toward a fixed network of authority.

It was common for intelligent students (and the intelligencia in general) to privately hold this ideology in disdain. Nevertheless, all students were compelled to publicly demonstrate concurrence and adherence to its logic. This ‘public show’ of fealty within schools, lowered the status of the education system in general, as well as the teaching profession. This disdain for the politicized elements in the curriculum profoundly biased demand for particular courses of study and for particular professions. Since the content of the social sciences and humanities were heavily influenced by the political party, demand for study in these areas was low. Demand was higher for courses sheltered from political interference. Science, technology, theoretical mathematics, solid state physics, and nuclear engineering for instance were better protected from political interference and less subject to ideological distortion in the criteria for academic excellence. Hence, these areas were considered higher in prestige.

The social sciences were considered risky by political authorities because they included inquiry about what motivates human nature and what people truely believe. Posing these as empirical questions to be investigated was profoundly threatening to party authorities for it could imply that those authorities did not in fact already have the answers. Social sciences and humanities were therefore subject to significantly more political control.

Similar controls and differences in prestige were associated with different types of educational institutions. Because they had often been established prior to the Party/State and held to universal traditions of academic freedom and the ‘pursuit of truth’, universities raised concerns among political authorities. There were worries that university faculty might question official interpretations of history, the effectiveness of public policies, or the certainty of what was held to be popular opinion. For this reason, universities were often unfavored by comparison to technical and engineering institutions. Fields of engineering and polytechnics expanded rapidly and were offered prime choices of property, laboratory equipment, and faculty salaries. As Eisemon et. al. observe with respect to Romania,

Policies strongly encouraged national scientific and technological autarchy. The allocation of resources reflected the priority given in national economic planning...In the 1980’s more than 80 percent of the funded research projects were directed to the heavy machinery, manufacturing and construction industries... Most of the rest of the R & D investment was expended on other kinds of applied research. Little funding was provided for fundamental research and almost none at all for social science and academic research that was not production oriented and carried out under the direction of either government scientific institutions or enterprises... gross distortions in the mission of higher education and research institutions are an important legacy of the socialist period (Eisemon et. al., 1995).

The Educational Challenge of an Open Society. Creating an effective and excellent education system in an open society and multi-party democracy, is significantly different and profoundly more complex than it was under the Party/State. There is little experience in the ECA region in meeting the new demands. As Wilson, Williams and Sugarman remind us,

There is an important sense in which a liberal society has a harder job than an authoritarian one. In politics, there is a simplicity about a dictatorship which is lacking to a democracy. If you go in for a master-slave system, you need only a few orders and a whip: if you go in for freedom, you need all sorts of complicated mechanisms and contexts of communication -- availability of information, voting, debates, rules of procedure and so forth. In the same way, moral education requires more attention in liberal societies. Indeed ... the concepts of morality and education themselves imply some kind of liberal theory, which is to be contrasted with the mere conditioning of behavior; and any genuine form of moral education will therefore require more thought and planning than a comparatively simple program of brain-washing or indoctrination. (Wilson, Williams and Sugarman, 1967; p. 16).

Curriculum challenges in open societies in transition generally fall into three categories. First there is the challenge of pedagogy. The emphasis must shift to the complexities of student learning as distinct from the content of teaching. Next there is the challenge of introducing new subject matter which often have no precedent in the region -- western economics, accounting methods, civil rights law, business administration and the like. Last, and by far the most complex, are the changes necessary in the teaching of civics education, social studies, and history. A few words, in turn, about each.

Student Learning. Under the party state, students were treated as receptacles for information. In spite of the existence of a long liberal local tradition in pedagogical philosophy (Ushinski, Vygotsky, Tolstoy), Soviets reduced the accepted expertice in education to a few simple principles, none of which included differences in student interest, motivation, or orientation. The Great Soviet encyclopedia of 1955, for instance, mentions only five names of those who have made a contribution to Soviet education -- Marx, Engles, Lenin, Stalin, and Makarenko (W.W. B., 1957, p. 13). The first four were not educators at all, but rather political philosophers and/or dictators, thus illustrating the irrelevance of the student in the teaching/learning equation. The latter (Makarenko) established his reputation largely on the successful ‘training’ of delinquents and orphans on the basis of a rigorous program, selective subject matter, and a clear, definitive routine.

Many articulate local educators were dissatisfied with the ignorance of the education philosophy under the Party/State, so much so that it is fair to suggest that the reforms in education pre-dated changes in either the economy or in government (Prucha, 1992; Mitter, 1996; Eklof and Dneprov, 1993; Kerr, 1990, 1994). The range of current pedagogies and specializations now mirror those available in western Europe. They include specializations based upon classical traditions (gymnasia, lyceums, foreign languages, dance), religious beliefs ( Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Islam), pedagogical philosophies ( Steiner, Montessori, Dewey, Schiller), and economic demand (banking, economics, business orientations and the like). Radical by most standards of reform, these choices were put into place in the Europe and Central Asia Region with an initial speed and enthusiasm similar to that of private property and the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Freeing education from the ‘dead hand’ of centrally-enforced uniformity was seen as a requirement to prevent such control from being reinstated: break it quickly and break it thoroughly so that it cannot be put back together. Given the universal resentment which grew out of the history of treating children as ideological conduits, the speed and certainty of these reforms is understandable.

As a task it is simplier to articulate the changes in teaching philosophy than it is to demonstrate changes in the classroom. To be sure there is a long way to go before the philosophic changes represent a normal experience for students. Nevertheless the problems of implementation in the transition may not be significantly more complicated than in other education systems around the world. Successes, achieved thus far, should not be minimized. The wide acceptance of the need to shift away from fixed formula teaching toward treating students differently based on learning style and interest is one of the greater success stories of the transition. It is fair to speculate however, that this success has occurred because the demand for pedagogical change was local in origin and the mechanisms to achieve it, domestic in design. The same cannot be said of the other two categories of curriculum challenge.

New Subject Matter. Administering an economy by planning it, and managing a political system by enforcing debateless policy, implies a set of intellectual underpinnings very different from those required by a free-market, open democracy. Under the Party/State, studying ‘economics’ was analogous to how westerners might classify a training course for public administration. Emphasis was placed on how to plan. The content paid little attention to prices and costs, included little or no concept of profit or net yield. Additionally, there were no courses of study which included business practice, or legal specializations which might cover copyright, civil rights, education, agriculture, transport or environment law. On the other hand, under the Party/State there was a prolific range of engineering courses of study because technology was considered politically ‘safe’ and useful for state production. The engineering curriculum in market economies, however, can be very different from the curriculum under the Party/State. In the latter, emphasis was placed on incorporating the principles of mechanics in the basic sciences -- heat transfer, energy, durability. The major concern was will it work? In market economies, engineering curriculum is more complex. Not only must it incorporate the principles of mechanics, but it also has to ask whether it ‘will work’ if there is a change in prices, environmental standards, copyright law, marketability, consumer demand, cost, productions efficiency and required profit margin.

Today there are examples in the ECA region of new curricular content in many of these areas of study. However, the new curricula sometimes result from direct, and often imperfect, translations of western precedents and can be presented in the classroom with the same stultifying didactic style which had characterized the Party/State. Thus, a curriculum change does not necessarily represent the solution to the problem.

On the other hand, there are ample examples of good precedent where new curricula are designed specifically for the ECA region’s students, and in a pedagogically modern manner which underpins new principles of student learning. One illustration is the economics curriculum designed in collaboration between the SLO (the Dutch national curriculum organization) and Moscow State Pedagogical University. This curriculum explains the nature of economics, that various aspects of economics differ depending upon one’s own role and function. There are chapters which require the student to see economics from different roles: from that of a public citizen, a property owner, a producer, a consumer, a participant in a financial market, an insurer, and finally, as a head of a family with a tight budget (Levitsky and van den Broek, 1995).

Another illustration of an excellent new text is that of "The Adventures of a Little Man" (Usachev, 1994) in which a little green man defends the principles of the environment against decisions of powerful figures and institutions by using the court system. The institutions challenged by the ‘little man’ include political and military

leaders, a story which only a decade ago could have been interpreted as sedition and may

well have led the texbook author to prison (Annex 3). That this textbook, and many others like it, are approved by the Russian Federal Ministry of Education for use in public schools is a tangible sign of education progress.

Civics, Social Studies, and History. Far and away the greatest educational challenge in the ECA region, and the problem with the widest implications outside the region, is the problem of teaching civics, social studies and history. Three important reasons are necessary to mention by way of background. First, of the 27 nations in the ECA region, none are monolingual, mono-ethnic or mono-religious (see annex 1). The religious population of Albania consists of 70 percent Muslims, 20 percent Orthodox, and 10 percent Roman Catholics. The ethnic population of Estonia is 62 percent Estonian, 30 percent Russian, and 8 percent consisting of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Finns. The ethnic population of Kyrgystan is 53 percent Kirghiz; 21 percent Russian, 13 percent Uzbek; 2.5 percent Ukrainian, 2.5 percent German, and 8 percent others. The populations of Hungary, Georgia, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan and each of the others represent similar complexities.

Second, while organization of the school system is hardly uniform throughout the region, the authority to design curriculum is now in many instances a local responsibility. No longer is there a single political party to enforce discipline and standardize content. Even where there is a national curriculum, such as in the Russian Federation, the application of the curriculum, by design, is not standard. Classroom teachers have more professional latitude to interpret, to target pedagogy and content differently, and place emphasis based on local needs as seen by local authorities. How can a country raise national standards but at the same time encourage local curricular control? One successful method is that of Hungary (see below, Box 1).

Box 1: National Curriculum Standards in A Decentralized Education System:

Modern education systems have two opposite objectives. One is the demand for higher national standards. The other is the demand for local control and professional management at the school level. Both have compelling reasons, but can both be achieved simultaneously ? The answer is yes, but it requires a radical shift away from traditional notion of ‘curriculum’.

In the past, curriculum has sometimes been confused with ‘syllabi’ -- numbers of courses, class schedules, hours of instruction. A modern performance curriculum includes none of these elements. Instead it concentrates on "performance standards", that is, the actual behavior a student is expected to exhibit or perform as a result of having completing education. Decisions over syllabi are left entirely to local authorities. One such example is the National Core Curriculum of Hungary (Ministry of Culture and Education, 1996)

The Hungarian performance standards are ‘inspired by democratic values’. They are designed to give equal weight to the interests of the individual and to that of the wider community. They are designed to balance the national standards containing the fundamental ‘domains’ which all citizens need with a wide latitude of curricular and pedagogical choice which support professional and institutional autonomy. The national performance standards are designed to utilize less than two thirds of the school time, hence leaving one third open for complete local preference on objectives and content. They organize performance objectives, not by subject matter, but by comprehensive domains. This enables schools to choose, establish and group the material in a manner they believe to be most effective. National performance standards do not determine the objectives by grade level, but lay out stages of objectives to be met at years 6 and 10. The national performance standards require that school teachers understand and choose from a multitude of educational materials produced by the private manufactures. This requires a significantly higher standard of educational professionalism on the part of teachers than when all materials were centrally designed and supplied.

Detailed objectives (see Annex 4 ) are outlined in terms of knowledge, skills and minimum performance competencies. The origins for these standards may lie in different sources. In the case of Hungary they have their origins in the need for integration within the homeland, integration with the European Union, world-wide integration, principles of the environment, requirements for career orientation etc. Control over possible extremist curriculum is maintained through the national tests for successful education completion (exit tests), and the examinations required for entrance into universities. On these profoundly important tests, emphasis underscores the national principles and those local principles wholly in tune with an integrated peaceful society.

Third, ethnic, linguistic, racial, national, and religious differences take on a different characteristic in the ECA region by comparison to other parts of the world. In the first place there is a lack of linguistic clarity between what is meant by ‘nationality’ and what is meant by ‘ethnicity’. Until 1997 for instance, Russian citizens carried an identity card (an internal passport) which listed their ‘nationality’ -- Buriat, Jew, German, Kazak, Russian. All were ‘Russian citizens’, but with different ‘nationalities’.

In addition, many ethnic and religious histories are inflammatory due to the particularly harsh political tradition in the region. There are grievances in the former Party/States which, for the most part, are unparalleled in the West resulting in unique educational complications (Broxup and Bennigsen, 1983; Broxup, 1992, 1994 ; Grant, 1991; Anweiler, 1992; Rywkin, 1990; Kirkwood, 1991; Karavetz, 1978; Shadrikov, 1993; Wheeler, 1962; Shorish, 1991, 1984; Gilberg, 1974). With the exception of Africans in the 18th Century or American Indians sent against their will to reservations, minorities in the west tended to settle in certain regions for reasons of personal preference. The Japanese who migrated to Hawaii, the Jamaicans who left for London; the Moroccans who work in Paris, the Swedes living in Minnesota, the Irish making their homes in Boston did so, by and large, to seek a better life.

In the former Party/States however, minorities in many instances were moved forcibly for political reasons. German-speakers were relocated to Siberia away from the war front. Korean-speakers were moved to Central Asia. Jews, Cossacks, Tatars, Buriats, Poles, Georgians, and many others were relocated to distant and unfamiliar territory. Until today, these displaced peoples have had no genuine political voice or authority over matters of what they wish to teach the young. Now they often have both voice and authority. More importantly, there are few institutional traditions of democratic procedures, such as local school boards, to act as constraints. Using curriculum to rectify ‘old wrongs’ is one of the first demands of local ethnic authorities. Some may attribute responsibility for their predicament to particular individuals, Stalin for instance. Others may direct the blame at particular groups, e.g. Russians, Romanians, and Poles.

As an illustration, approximately one half of the 89 regions in the Russian Federation have minority populations of sufficient size to generate debate over which language should be used as the language of instruction. The number of languages used in Russian public schools doubled between 1991 and 1995. Four different languages (other than Russian) used to be permitted (Georgian, Tatar, Bashkir and Armenian). Today, nine languages are permitted as languages of instruction (the first five, plus Buriat, Urdmurt, Chuvash, and Iakut), and a total of 87 languages are used in other parts of the curriculum. In some instances, non-Russian languages are used for instruction in schools where Russian speakers are in the minority. This adds a different dimension to the question of protecting ‘minority rights’. The question remains as to how basic tenets of a society, such as loyalty and citizenship, can be guaranteed if curriculum authority over humanities, languages, and history is devolved to local communities and schools as the Russian education legislation of 1992 guarantees.

Ethnic groups in the ECA region have long been used as political instruments in a geopolitical chess game; pawns to be moved around, rewarded, punished, banished or elevated as political winds shift. Nowhere else in the world has the ethnic game been quite so draconian. Given this history of persecution on so many sides and from so many different sources, it is not surprising that the first temptation among ethnic authorities is to redress past wrongs through the curriculum in public schools. This raises new problems.

Since there are no traditions of consultation on curricular issues and there is a long-standing tradition of authoritarian curriculum enforcement, it is natural that new, locally-designed curricula may exacerbate rather than ameliorate tension. One illustration is that of Bosnia and Herzegovina where curriculum was designed (within the same country) by different ethnic authorities without any enforcement of a consensus (see Box 2).

Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord in December 1995, the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been using different curricula and textbooks in the municipalities and regions where they are a majority. Bosnian-Serbs use Serbian textbooks in the RS Entity, Bosnian-Croats use textbooks produced in Zahgreb, and in the Bosniac territory of the Federation several donors, such as UNICEF, the Islamic Development Fund, and Soros, have financed the printing of new textbooks.

The content of these textbooks, distributed in 1994, raised concerns about whether they would increase ethnic divisions, exacerbate differences, and prevent social cohesion. For example, a Serb produced textbook was shipped to Bosniac areas for use by school children, however, a derogatory ethnic symbol against Muslims was printed on the inside cover of this text knowing that this symbol would be hurtful to many Bosnian Muslim children.

Additionally, ethnic bias and hatred is apparent in the accounts of history recorded in textbooks. A section of a Bosniak text entitled "Genocide and ethnic cleansing" reads:

Horrible crimes committed against the non-Serb population of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Serb-Montenegrin aggressors and domestic chetniks were aimed at creating an ethnically cleansed area where exclusively the Serb people would live. In order to carry out this monstrous idea of theirs, they planned to kill or expel hundreds of thousands of Bosniaks and Croats. They had at their disposal the entire technical equipment and weaponry of the former JNA....The criminals began to carry out their plans in the most ferocious way. Horror swept through villages and cities. Looting, raping and slaughters...screams and outcries of the people being exposed to such horrendous plights as the Bosniak people experienced...Europe and the rest of the world did nothing to prevent the criminals from ravaging and slaughtering innocent people.

The section continues to condemn not only the Serbs, but also the Bosniak-Muslim population fleeing before the war-crimes.

...those who ran out of fear and who were not prepared to join those who were defending their country. They are now living carefree in a foreign country, waiting for someone else to liberate the country for them...Such an attitude deserves every condemnation, since not to help the homeland which is bleeding is a treason and a crime of the worst category.

To question whether this extremist text is appropriate is not a question of whether the events described occurred. The two issues must be separated. The public school experience is intended to mold desired behavior of future citizens. Therefore, citizens from all different ethnic groups must feel comfortable about the content of the public school curriculum. If one or more groups is uncomfortable, then the school system has abrogated its public functions. This Bosnia illustration is an example where abrogation of public function occurred. Bosnia needs a textbook policy which has criteria for approving the textbooks to be used in all schools and which would not exacerbate the problems in the relationships with its neighbors.

The central education dilemma. In the ECA region, there are two alternative principles, equally legitimate, which conflict with one another. One principle is the demand for national identity on the part of the 27 nations. The other principle concerns the rights of local minorities within each nation. Kazakhstan provides a good illustration.

For many sound nation-building reasons, Kazahkstan has felt the need to develop a broad understanding of its historical and linguistic origins. In essence, Kazakhstan had to create its national heritage largely from scratch, because it had been physically and culturally decimated during the period of the USSR (Olcott, 1987; De Young and Balzhan, forthcoming; Valyayeva and DeYoung, forthcoming). Authorities renamed the national pedagogical university after Abai Kunabaev, a national poet. Walls of the public schools are peppered with pictures of Kazak intellectuals who had been purged or killed by Stalin in the 1930s. Descriptions of the deeds of ethnic heroes from previous centuries are found in the curriculum today as are the contributions of pre-Soviet Kazak statesmen and nationalist parties of the early 20th Century (De Young and Nadirbekyzy, 1996, p. 75). Kazak has been reinstated as a national language in spite of the fact that it is spoken by few of the urban intellectuals, fewer than one percent of the local ‘Russian’ population (which constitutes 37 percent of the overall Kazak population), and that there are altogether more than 100 different ethnic groups in Kazakstan.

The problem is where to draw the line between the need for a national culture and the rights of local minorities. Will ethnic minority interests be better protected in an independent Kazakstan than they were when Kazakstan was a part of the USSR? This question is not unique to Kazakstan, but rather is a universal issue to varying degrees throughout the ECA region. One illustration of a well managed strategy with respect to this dilemma is the effort put forth by the Ministers of Education representing Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Turkey who meet annually to discuss these types of questions in regard to education. (see Box 3.)

Box 3. Cooperation in Central Asia

Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenstan, and Tajikstan had little experience with democratic principles prior to their incorporation into the former Soviet Union in the 1920s. Nevertheless, it was obvious at their independence in 1991, that regional economic prospects depended upon a mutual understanding about treatment of minorities in each other’s countries. Each country contains a large mix of ethnic groups from neighboring countries. About a quarter of the population of Turkmenistan is non-Turkmen and approximately one fourth of the population of Tajikistan is Uzbek. In Kyrgyzstan slightly more than half the population is Kyrgyz and in Kazakstan less than half the population is Kazak. In every country there are schools for Kazak, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek children. Mistreatment of a minority in one country, even the perception of mistreatment, could destabilize the region as a whole.

In 1992 it was agreed that textbooks would be shared across national boundaries, a precedent established under the USSR. This has made it possible for Uzbeks living in Kazakstan to use national textbooks from Uzbekistan; and for Kazaks living in Uzbekistan to use national textbooks from Kazakstan. The permanence of multiple ethnic minorities in each country is taken for granted. There is also a general understanding that extremism in one country’s version of history or civics curriculum could exacerbate regional tensions. Today each Central Asian country wants students to use textbooks which follow the national curriculum rather than the curriculum of a neighboring country, which is natural. What is unique to the Central Asia experience however, is that the precedent for curriculum tolerance and the mechanism for discussion of curriculum tension has been established at senior levels of administration and these appear to have successfully steered Central Asia around many social cohesion problems.

One way to illustrate the importance of positive social interactions among ethnic groups is to draw from an example outside the region in which textbook content has been identified as contributing to civil conflict. The example is that of Sri Lanka.

The population of Sri Lanka is divided into many groups, but the two largest are the Sinhalese (74 percent) and the Tamils (18 percent). They speak different languages and practice different religions (Buddhist and Hindu). In the 1950s national identity in Sri Lanka was an important issue as it is today for the new countries in the ECA region. Based on an interpretation of ‘minority rights’ prevalent 40 years ago, Sri Lankan school populations were segregated ethnically, as were all textbook materials and supplies. The content and tone for the country’s history was decided by the central ministry of education.

In a review years later, however, pedagogical materials were discovered to be far from equal, and not based upon an inter-ethnic consensus either on content or on tone. The dominant historical image presented in the early textbooks was that of a "glorious but embattled Sinhalese nation repeatedly having to defend itself and its Buddhist traditions from the ravages of Tamil invaders" (Nissan, 1996, p. 34). Sinhalese textbooks were scattered with damaging messages conveying images of Tamils as the historical enemies of the Sinhalese. National heroes were chosen whose reputations included having vanquished Tamils in ethnic wars. On the other hand, Tamil text materials emphasized historical figures whose reputations included accommodation with the Sinhalese. In neither of the texts were there positive illustrations drawn from the other ethnic group. There was no attempt to teach about the contribution of Tamil kings to Buddhist tradition, or the links between Sinhalese kingdoms and Buddhist centers in India. Language texts were largely mono-cultural in content, with few references to each other’s ethnic groups (Nissan, 1996, p. 36).

Because the texts were culturally inflammatory, and because there was no effort to balance the prejudices stemming from outside of the classroom with more positive experiences and illustrations within the classroom, the Sri Lankan schools can be said to have achieved the opposite of the intention of all good public school systems. Instead of laying a foundation for national cooperation and harmony, which is the basic rationale for public schooling, it laid the intellectual foundations for social conflict and civil war.

The lessons for the ECA region could hardly be more clear. Considerable attention has focused on the minority groups in the region (Schopflin and Poulton, 1978; Sheehy and Nahaylo, 1980; Banton et. al., 1985; Hlebowish and Hamot, 1997; Black, 1997; Packer, 1996; Skutnabb - Kangas, 1990; Vakhtin, 1992; MRG and TWEEC (eds), 1993; Krag and Funch, 1994; Greece, Pettifer and Poulton, 1994; Beyani et. al., 1994; Liegeois and Gheorghe, 1995). Many organizations have taken an interest in the problems of social studies and civics education, not only because they are concerned as professional educators, but rather because they are concerned about the possible implications of inter-ethnic and national tension. These organizations include UNDP, UNESCO, the European Union, the Council of Europe, UNICEF, the Soros Foundations, the American Federation of Teachers, USIA and many others (see annex 2 for illustrations of their programs).

So sensitive have the inter-ethnic problems become that NATO has developed a concern about education on the premise that inter-ethnic tensions expressed through education could well constitute a risk to peace in the region. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (the OSCE) established a High Commissioner on National Minorities, based in the Hague (Foundation on Inter-Ethnic Relations, 1997). The High Commissioner has already issued recommendations pertaining to the education of the Greek minority population in Albania, the Albanian population in Macedonia; the Slovak population in Hungary, the Hungarian population in Slovakia and the Hungarian population in Romania (Siemienski and Packer, 1997, p. 190). In 1996, the High Commissioner requested assistance from the Foundation on Inter-Ethnic Relations to work on a possible set of guidelines governing the education rights of national minorities. After a considerable amount of discussion and consultation, these guidelines, known as the Hague Recommendations, were published in 1997 (Packer and Siemienski, 1997, pp. 187 - 198), and can be added to the many other international conventions and regulations which attempt to identify and to protect the educational rights of children and various sub-populations.

In general these covenants and conventions pertain to the problems of populations which may be subjected to discrimination and prejudice. They concern the right to be educated in one’s mother tongue, the right of fair access to more selective training in higher and vocational education, freedom from discrimination, cultural bias and the like. While these issues are indeed important, effectively they address only one half of the problem.

The other half of the problem pertains to the rights of the majority or the rights of the national community. Their educational interests are no less compelling: the Kazaks in Kazakstan; the Latvians in Latvia; the Romanians in Romania, etc. What is to protect the national community from extremist versions of history as portrayed by curricula designed by minority populations? What are the rights of the national community for having a sense of compromise and historical dignity ascribed to their national culture by minority populations in their own country? What protection does the national community have against the possibility that a minority community within the same country may encourage loyalty to another nation where their ethnic group is more numerous? The problem of civics education has multiple sources, and therefore must involve multiple solutions. Not all solutions can be incorporated under the auspices of the ‘rights of minorities’. None of these conventions address this other side of the equation.

On the other hand, recently there have been some efforts on the part of the professional education community to establish a set of international standards for civics education. These standards go to the heart of the necessity for compromise. Instead of attempting to establish the rights and privileges of minority populations, they attempt to delineate the obligations and responsibilities for all populations, majority as well as minority.

The proposed international professional guidelines include standards of many kinds. They include standards for curriculum content, for example, presenting different views of history and different opinions as to its contemporary relevance. They include a set of terms to identify different levels of critical thinking -- being able to identify a concept; describe it; explain it; evaluate a position about it; take and/or defend a position concerning it. They include a set of standards for "participation" in civics, being able to manage a conflict, build a consensus, influence others by moderating someone else’s view, etc. Lastly there are standards proposed for terminologies used in civics -- civil society, constitutional rights, private opinion, citizenship obligations and the like. The sum result of these components constitute a international precedent because it establishes for the first time, an international standard for curriculum excellence in civics.

The purpose of establishing an international professional standard is to actively establish a set of principles against which each country and each local curriculum authority may measure its own civics curriculum (Center for Civics Education, 1994; CIVITAS, 1995; Center for Civics Education, 1997; Heyneman, 1995 (b), 1995 (March). If this effort proves successful, then national authorities around the region will have a professional benchmark by which they can hold local curriculum authorities responsible. The opposite also pertains, local and minority curriculum authorities will now have an international benchmark by which they can judge the degree to which national curricular authorities are fair and balanced in their views of history and civil rights and responsibilities.

Section one of this paper briefly summarized concepts in economics which pertain to institutions and organizations. It was suggested that economic development of nations is determined in part by the degree to which social contracts can be enforced without coercion, the degree to which a society is able to control itself first by establishing, and then by living up to its individual obligations and responsibilities. The quantity of this ability is known as ‘social capital’. It was suggested that social capital could be manufactured, or at least influenced, through the use of four categories of organizations -- political (legislative), social (churches), economic (firms), and educational (schools and universities).

Section two of this paper briefly reviewed the origins of public education. It was pointed out that the original purpose of public education was not to provide skills of literacy and numeracy, but rather for the purpose of establishing mutual identity and peaceful cooperation across differing ethnic and religious sub-populations. The economic purpose of public schooling has been to build social capital.

Section three of this paper briefly reviewed recent circumstances in the Europe and Central Asia Region, where many of the 27 countries have been newly established and all are experiencing degrees of transition from Party/State to open democracy. In this section it was noted that the educational task in the ECA region is not unlike the educational task in all new nations. It was mentioned, however, that the educational task in societies emerging from the Party/State experience is more complex than in other new nations; and in spite of the effectiveness of education in the past, that the education task in a open society and multiparty democracy is considerably more complex than under a totalitarian regime. The unique ethnic and religious history of the ECA region was noted as a complicating factor. Many interventions were reviewed, several case examples of both laudable and reprehensible practice were described. Establishing an international standard of civics education was mentioned as being a unique precedent.

Establishing an excellent record of civics education and enlightened history is no guarantee of peace or social cohesion. The opposite is also true. If civics curriculum is inflammatory and the content of the history curriculum makes neighbors uncomfortable, then the absence of peace is guaranteed.

One last point. The economics of education has adapted quickly to new demands placed on the discipline by incorporating into the equations new types of skills, new educational technologies, new curricular complexities, new objectives for teaching and learning. The concept of social cohesion constitutes a new challenge for the economics of education. The basic purpose of public schooling from the beginning, has been to establish a cohesive, peaceful and, hence, profitable society. The contribution of education to this social capital has yet to be well quantified. The next task in the economics of education to estimate the costs and the benefits from this important investment.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic Planning

Introduction to Multicultural Component to Education Strategy

How to work with existing education strategies and move forward to operationalize a Multicultural Education Component?

Components of an Effective Strategy Document

1. Background
2. Needs Assessment
3. Activities of other donors in education
4. Foundation mission in education, priority areas addressed by the strategy
5. Strategic Approach
6. Program Areas
7. Program Governance
8. Evaluation

I. Background – "Comprehensive"

• Ethnic composition of your country

• Historic issues, conflicts that may affect the current situation
• Geographic areas where minorities live
• Particularities about minorities (i.e. Roma are particularly disadvantaged and may need extra support).
• Government efforts to support the education of minorities
• Work your foundation has already done to support this area

II. Needs Assessment – "Select and Prioritize"

• Related to Background
• Problems: what is lacking in your system of education
• Implies issues that may be addressed by strategy and programs
• Sub-headings such as educational policy/legislation, quality of teaching, teaching materials, etc. should discuss the situation of minorities and/or intergroup relations as it relates to each one.

III. Activities of other donors

• IF other donors are working in the field of supporting minorities, introducing concepts of multiculturalism, etc. just list briefly.

Foundation Mission in Education, Priority areas addressed by the Strategy

• If issues of minorities and multiculturalism emerge in the Background and Needs section and are identified as priorities in your country, then it should be directly linked to your foundation’s mission.
• A related sentence should be included in your mission statement.

Background

Needs

Mission

EXAMPLE

The OSF Romania mission in education is to promote decentralization and greater local autonomy and democracy, equal opportunity in education, learner centered education, greater involvement of community in the school life, and development of models that are replicable.

In the EDP, the OSF Romania would like to concentrate on the following main issues, which have been identified, discussed and agreed with the National Education Board of OSF Romania:

• Ways to increase equity in access to quality education, especially for Roma

IV. Foundation Mission in Education, Priority areas addressed by the Strategy (cont’d.)

• If it is not included in your foundation’s mission, you may need to work with your Executive Director and Board(s) about your priorities as a Foundation and/or find a way to raise a discussion with them.

• You may have to revisit your Needs Assessment

Background

Needs Assessment

Not in Mission

Strategic Approach

• What are the main goals of the strategy?
• How will the identified priorities be addressed?
• What areas of the education system will be the main focus of the strategy (administration, teacher training, school-based curriculum?)
• What are the main target and partner institutions? How will they be involved?
• Geographic approach? If including the support of minorities and multiculturalism, strategically, which areas of the country are best to target for this?

EXAMPLE

The Ministry of Education doesn’t understand the needs of X minority in Y region. Those teachers of this group are not being paid. It wouldn’t make sense for the foundation to pay teachers itself, or to tell the MOE to pay. This would be too sensitive. Strategically, it would be better to form a joint teacher’s forum to form a group, which could lobby government to pay them. This approach supports:

• Civil society development
• Unites teachers
• Creates a policy lobbying force on government

VI. Program Areas

• Of the program areas that are developed based on the Needs Assessment and Mission, ask yourself the questions:

• Is there a multicultural issue here?
• Can this program address the needs of minorities, target minorities and promote multiculturalism somehow?
• If yes, how?
• Describe this is your program description.

• If there are needs areas that are specifically related to minorities and/or multiculturalism and that are not met by the existing programs, how can you meet these needs with another program?

7. Program Governance