Experts: Jelena Filipović, Serbia; Barbara Schrammel-Leber, Austria
Local organisers: Samanta Baranja, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Slovenia
Working language: English
Participants: Romani assistants and their mentors in schools; providers of learning support in Romani settlements; educators in preschools and schools working with Romani children; Representatives of Romani NGOs, who are committed to the preservation and dissemination of the Romani language (for example Romani students from Roma Academic Club); representatives of Centre for School and Outdoor Education, Educational Research Institute, The National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of the Interior
Website
Information from the ECML expertsThe training activity was an opportunity for the participants to gain knowledge with respect to the structure of Romani, the QUALIROM project, the Curriculum Framework for Romani and the ELPs for Romani teaching and learning, the QUALIROM teaching materials as well as models of plurilingual education based on collaborative learning and teaching, suited to satisfy the needs of minority communities. Romani teachers and assistants were presented with basic information about the way they can become actively engaged in improving language education policies in their country. Furthermore, throughout the training activity the participants had the opportunity to actively reflect on prevailing language ideologies (on Slovenian as the majority language and on Romani as one of the minority languages in Slovenia) in their respective Romani communities as well as in the Slovenian schools they work at. Workshops on Romani dialectology, language education policy as individual and social engagement, and on possibilities to apply the CFR, the ELPs for Romani and the QUALIROM materials in their local context provided an excellent context for a constructive exchange of ideas, experiences, concerns and examples of good practice. Finally, the event helped the participants to perceive the need to strengthen the community of practice of Romani assistants and Romani teachers in order for the improvements made on a local level to be recognised nationally and applied in formalised educational context.
Information from the local organiser
In the framework of the training workshop “Romani as a European minority language”, the participants gained knowledge of the Romani language as a European minority language (history and structure of language, sociolinguistics, and dialectology), features of the Romani dialects in Slovenia and various ways of implementation of the Romani language in the educational system. Special attention was devoted to the presentation of the objectives and results of the QualiRom project, raising awareness on status and importance of the Romani language and the exchange of experiences and challenges regarding the implementation of the Romani language in the educational process.
The training workshop is especially useful for educational professionals working with Romani children and their parents. At the training workshop, the participants have the opportunity to get acquainted with the use of QualiRom didactic materials, which were developed with the aim of teaching and learning Romani. In the field of implementation of the Romani language in the education, we are facing a lack of well-trained teachers and quality didactic materials. Therefore, this training workshop is an important step forward, this way the Romani language shall be treated as an advantage in education, not as an obstacle.
V okviru usposabljanja »Romski jezik kot evropski manjšinski jezik« so udeleženci pridobili znanje o romskem jeziku kot evropskem manjšinskem jeziku (zgodovina in struktura jezika, sociolingvistika, dialektologija), značilnostih romskih dialektov v Sloveniji in različnih načinih implementacije romskega jezika v vzgojno-izobraževalni sistem. Posebna pozornost je bila posvečena predstavitvi ciljev in rezultatov projekta QualiRom, ozaveščanju o statusu in pomenu romskega jezika ter izmenjavi izkušenj in izzivov na področju vključevanja romskega jezika v vzgojno-izobraževalni proces.
Usposabljanje je še posebej koristno za strokovne delavce v vzgoji in izobraževanju, ki se pri svojem delu srečujejo z romskimi otroki in njihovimi starši. Na usposabljanju imajo udeleženci namreč možnost seznaniti se z uporabo didaktičnih pripomočkov, ki so v sklopu projekta QualiRom bili razviti z namenom poučevanja in učenja romščine. Na področju vključevanja romskega jezika v vzgojno-učni proces se srečujemo s pomanjkanjem dobro usposobljenih učiteljev ter kakovostnih didaktičnih pripomočkov. To usposabljanje zato predstavlja pomemben korak naprej, da se romski jezik v vzgoji in izobraževanju začne obravnavati kot prednost, in ne ovira.