Emerging Teacher Leadership: Taking Social Responsibility for Roma Student Inclusion in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Contemporary Context Of Roma Eduction In Europe And Bulgaria

In reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education worldwide, both Nkhoma (2021) and Shah (2021) make it clear that the inequalities magnified by the pandemic are vestiges of long-enduring, highly racialized social systems such as apartheid and colonialism. The case of Roma in Europe is a prime example of racist, anti-Roma sentiments and attitudes that represent crucial factors that hamper the inclusion of Roma across central and eastern Europe in general and Bulgaria in particular. Romani scholar Hristo Kyuchukov (2015) defines anti-Romaism as “the processes/phenomena of discrimination, racism, ignorance, neglect, and marginalization” against the Roma (p. xi). Concurrently, Matache (2017) argues that anti-Roma racism has been maintained through dominant racial superiority that has been reproducing social prejudice against the Roma since their arrival in Europe in the 11^th century AD.

Across central and eastern Europe, Roma students’ education has been marked by widespread exclusion, high dropout rates, and unwillingness of national states to de facto desegregate their education systems (Greenberg, 2010; Miskovic & Curcic, 2016; Lauritzen & Nodeland, 2018). Schvey, Flaherty, and Higgins (2005) state that the roots of Roma poverty are in the “Roma education gap” (p. 1163) created mainly by exclusive education institutions. While the Bulgarian context has not received sufficient attention, several scholars have argued for the termination of school segregation (see Kolev & Zahariev, 2007; Petrova, 2004; Russinov, 2004). Petrova (2004), a critic of inadequate policy, concludes that “school desegregation is the first step, and the stepping-stone for Roma integration” (p. 21).