Education in Indigenous, Nomadic and Travelling Communities provides a thorough examination of up-to-date case studies of educational provision to travelling communities and indigenous people in their homelands or in host countries. Education is usually under-utilised during phases of transition. In many instances, indigenous groups and travelling people, including nomads, do not have educational opportunities equal to that of their settled counterpart-citizens. For such groups, this results in early school leaving, high school drop-out rates, low school attendance and low success rates. Indeed, indigenous, traveling and nomadic groups often begin their working life at an early age and often experience difficulties penetrating the formal employment arena. In this volume international researchers analyse the internal and external factors affecting educational provision to travelling, nomadic and indigenous groups. A comparative examination of the issues is enabled through the global case studies including the Roma people in Europe; indigenous groups in Malaysia; the Gypsies of England; the Travellers of Ireland; the Sami nomadic people of Scandinavia and Russia as well as the Amazonian Indians of Latin America.

Education in Indigenous, Nomadic and Travelling Communities provides a thorough examination of up-to-date case studies of educational provision to travelling communities and indigenous people in their homelands or in host countries. Education is usually under-utilised during phases of transition. In many instances, indigenous groups and travelling people, including nomads, do not have educational opportunities equal to that of their settled counterpart-citizens. For such groups, this results in early school leaving, high school drop-out rates, low school attendance and low success rates. Indeed, indigenous, traveling and nomadic groups often begin their working life at an early age and often experience difficulties penetrating the formal employment arena. In this volume international researchers analyse the internal and external factors affecting educational provision to travelling, nomadic and indigenous groups. A comparative examination of the issues is enabled through the global case studies including the Roma people in Europe; indigenous groups in Malaysia; the Gypsies of England; the Travellers of Ireland; the Sami nomadic people of Scandinavia and Russia as well as the Amazonian Indians of Latin America.

Traveller, Nomadic and Migrant Education presents international accounts of approaches to educating mobile communities such as circus and fairground people, herders, hunters, Roma and Travellers. The chapters focus on three key dimensions of educational change: the client group moving from school to school; those schools having their demographics changed and seeking to change the mobile learners; and these learners contributing to fundamental change to the nature of schooling. The book brings together decades of research into the challenges and opportunities presented by mobile learners interacting with educational systems predicated on fixed residence. It identifies several obstacles to those learners receiving an equitable education, including negative stereotypes and centuries-old prejudice. Yet the book also explores a number of educational innovations that bring mobility and schooling together, ranging from specialised literacy programs and distance and online education to mobile schools and specially trained teachers. These innovations allow us to think differently about how education can and should be, for mobile and non-mobile learners alike.

This book calls for a re-thinking of educational provision for Gypsy / Traveller communities. Despite having been recognised by the government and educational providers for over fifty years, underachievement of children from Gypsy / Traveller communities persists. Rather than focusing specifically on access, attendance and attainment, the author provides a structural analysis of the cultural tensions that often exist between Nomadic communities and current school provision based on the interests and values of Sedentarism. The author uses spatial theory as a base upon which to build knowledge and understanding of the educational exclusion of children from Gypsy / Traveller communities, highlighting the social role that space plays within schools. This innovative book will be of interest and value for students and scholars interested in not only education and Gypsy / Traveller communities, but education for minority communities more widely.

This book explores the Irish Traveller community through an ethnographic and folk linguistic lens. It sheds new light on Irish Traveller language, commonly referred to as Gammon or Cant, an integral part of the community’s cultural heritage that has long been viewed as a form of secret code. The author addresses Travellers’ metalinguistic and ideological reflections on their language use, providing deep insights into the culture and values of community members, and into their perceived social reality in wider society. In doing so, she demonstrates that its interrelationship with other cultural elements means that the language is in a constant flux, and by analysing speakers’ experiences of language in action, provides a dynamic view of language use. The book takes the reader on a journey through oral history, language naming practices, ideologies of languageness and structure, descriptions of language use and contexts, negotiations of the ‘authentic’ Cant, and Cant as ‘identity’. Based on a two-year ethnographic fieldwork project in a Traveller Training Centre in the West of Ireland, this book will appeal to students and scholars of sociolinguistics, language in society, language ideology, folk linguistics, minority communities and languages, and cultural and linguistic anthropology.

This volume recognises how many researchers across the social sciences, and in comparative and international education in particular, see themselves as insiders or outsiders or, more pertinently, shifting combinations of both, in the research process. The book revisits and problematises these concepts in an era where the global mobility of researchers and ideas has increased dramatically, and when advances in comparative, qualitative research methodologies seek to be more inclusive, collaborative, participatory, reflexive and nuanced. Collectively, the chapters argue that, in the context of such change, it has become more difficult to categorise and label groups and individuals as being ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ systems, professional communities, or research environments. In doing so, it is recognised that individual and group identities can be multiple, flexible and changing such that the boundary between the inside and the outside is permeable, less stable and less easy to draw. The book draws upon an exciting collection of original research carried out in a diversity of educational systems from British, European, Latin American, Indian Ocean, South Asian, African and Chinese contexts and cultures. This develops a deep and innovative reconsideration of key issues that must be faced by all researchers involved in the planning and conduct of in-depth field research. This is a challenging and stimulating methodological contribution, designed to advance critical and reflective thinking while providing practical and accessible guidance, insights and support for new and experienced researchers within and beyond the field of comparative and international education.

This handbook provides a concise overview of special education services in countries across the world, using the Article on Education in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as the analytical frame. The Praeger International Handbook of Special Education presents a concise and clear overview of special education services in more than 70 countries across the world using the Article on Education in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities as the analytical frame. Each chapter offers information about the country in general, followed by sections on the public education system, the private education system, the special education system, teacher training requirements, and barriers to and promising trends in inclusive and special education. The volumes and chapters are organized by the United Nations Geoscheme, with Volume 1 including an overview of the volumes and chapters on countries in the Americas, Volume 2 addressing countries from Europe and Africa, and Volume 3 focusing on countries in Asia and Oceania. This is the most complete exploration of the delivery of supports and services to children and youth with disabilities across the globe available. The volumes do not compare among or between countries, but rather provide a baseline for understanding current special education practices and their relationship with general education and inclusive practices across the globe. Readers will come away with an in-depth understanding of what is happening with regard to the implementation of special education services and Article 24 of the Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities. This valuable reference set serves researchers, graduate students, and policymakers in special and general education as well as professionals focused on issues of education worldwide and scholars focused on international special education. As such, this handbook will be an important reference source for university libraries, professional associations, and policy entities.