- Email: [email protected]
The exclusionary comprehensive school system: the experience of Showground families in Scotland
International Journal of Educational Research 33 (2000) 253}263
Chapter 4
The exclusionary comprehensive school system: the experience of Showground families in Scotland Elizabeth Jordan Moray House Institute of Education, Department of Equity Studies and Special Education, Scottish Traveller Education Programme, The University of Edinburgh, Charteris Land, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ, UK
Abstract Since the introduction of a national free school system in Scotland in 1872, there has been a continuing increase in the academic achievement of the student population. Contributing factors have been the availability of free education for all (in the 1940s) and the full comprehensivization of the state schools (in the 1970s). Yet, despite these moves, there are still signi"cant di!erences in the achievement of some groups within Scottish society; one such group is the travelling Showground community. Their situation o!ers a paradigm for many other groups of interrupted learners. The speci"c actions developed and targeted to redress their underachievement call into question the ability of the present comprehensive school system to include and meet the educational needs of a signi"cant number of pupils. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Travellers; Interrupted learners; Exclusion; Discontinuity; Institutional discrimination
Since the introduction of a national system of free state schools in 1872, Scottish education has remained separate and distinctive within the UK. It has retained separate legislation and maintained a central system of curriculum guidance to local authorities who have a duty to provide `e$cient and e!ective provisiona for all the children within their boundaries. Unlike the centrally-prescribed National Curriculum, which has come to dominate practice throughout the rest of the UK, the Scottish guidelines allow scope for a degree of autonomy at local authority and individual school level in order to best suit local conditions. Despite this, and the recently increased devolution of funds from local authorities to individual schools, the cohesiveness in provision across the 32 local authorities in Scotland is remarkable. No doubt the in#uence of Her Majesty's Inspectors, through their rolling program of school inspections, broadly based working parties, and think-tanks, which underpin o$cial publications, have played a part in this. In addition, however, the tendency 0883-0355/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 8 8 3 - 0 3 5 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 1 3 - 6
254
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
for most Scots to attend the four ancient Scottish universities and to undertake their post-graduate teacher training at one of the three main Scottish teacher training centres has helped to develop an education community known to each other. At some time in their promotion moves most of the `movers and shakersa have met and interacted with each other. The tenor of national conferences is one where the cut and thrust of debates is marked by friendly rivalry and camaraderie rather than by serious di!erence. The recently published tome, Scottish Education (Bryce & Humes, 1999), bears witness to this, but also signals perhaps a degree of complacency with the status quo. Further, it is symptomatic that this book is already named as a key text for the current teacher training courses in Scotland. This reproductive model o!ers little hope of any radical change in the foreseeable future. Although the old belief that the Scottish village school supported the bright but poor (the lad o+ pairts in Scottish literature) into the world of academia has been exploded (Humes, 1986), there still remains a conviction that our fully comprehensive schools should meet the needs of all pupils in their area. (It is di$cult to uphold the term `comprehensivea given that, in Edinburgh alone, 23% of secondary pupils are attending highly selective fee-paying schools outside the state sector.) Since the publication of the HMI Progress Report (Scottish Education Department, 1978), it has been accepted that the formal curriculum and its modes of delivery create barriers in learning for many pupils. This text, together with the Warnock Report (Department of Education and Science, 1978), has been in#uential in pushing forward the integration agenda (in Scotland, the term `integrationa did not merely re#ect locus but also signi"ed the notion of inclusion). Consequently, today most pupils do attend their local school, at least for the initial stages of primary schools. Their integration is supported by a range of teaching resources and support sta! who are targeted to help schools provide an appropriate education for the full continuum of pupils (Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department, 1994). Such sta! are generally school-based, with even the smallest primary school having a regular visit, and each secondary school a discrete department of support for learning sta! who work within a national "ve roles model: consultancy, cooperative teaching, direct teaching, special services, and sta! development. Their specialist post-graduate training is prescribed and largely funded by the Scottish Executive. They are among the most highly quali"ed teachers in Scottish education and many go on to regional advisory and head teacher positions. Other specialist sta! who visit schools (e.g., teachers for visual impairment and the deaf, English as an additional language teachers, behaviour support sta!, speech and physiotherapists) contribute to the ability of schools to meet their pupils' diverse individual needs. Despite this range of teaching support, the school experience still alienates and diminishes a substantial proportion of pupils so that, whereas Scotland produces more graduate level pupils than other parts of the UK, the gap between those experiencing success and failure is wide. The latest o$cial "gures reveal about 10% leaving schools without any quali"cations in 1998 and the numbers of truants and absentees are high in some schools and areas.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
255
1. Travellers and discontinuity in learning For many centuries in Scotland there has been a distinct group of nomadic Travellers who have lived in and o! the settled communities, earning a living by exploiting niche-market opportunities for self-employed, casual work, labouring, buying and selling, and entertaining. Today the main group is identi"ed as Gypsy/Travellers (Resolution No 89C 153/02), where membership of the group is based solely on self-de"nition, through birth and descent. You never ever stop being a Traveller, whether you are in a house or o! the road for 10 or 20 years before you go on the road again. You are born a Traveller. It's not something you choose(d), it's a thing we were born into. (Gypsy Traveller, male, adult) They have been subjected to extensive racial repression and discrimination over many centuries throughout the UK and, as a modern minority ethnic group, continue to experience both overt and institutional racism in their daily lives. In the late 1880s some of the traditional Travellers within the UK broke away and set up as a discrete group of travelling show and fairground entertainers, now known as Occupational Travellers within the European directives and resolutions (Resolution No 89C 153/01). In Scotland today these families typically spend the winter in one city, where their children attend schools between the travelling seasons. Their situation is unique in Europe and raises a range of equity issues about education delivery, discontinuity in learning, and the rights of interrupted learners. This community of at least 400 families retains many of the features associated with an ethnic group, yet they prefer to signal themselves as a business community. As such they are known to respect laws and regulations as they carry out their working lives. Each winter, as they take time to socialize, they raise signi"cant funds for local and national charities, thus gaining positive recognition in the press. Despite this, their mobility is still viewed as a problem for the education authorities. Many of the towns they visit during the travelling season make clear in their local press the antipathy their visits arouse, especially from newcomers to those towns who have chosen houses near the traditional fair sites. This woman wanted us o!, closed down, and she wrote to the press and got up a petition. But I thought to myself, `I'll just go and visit her and explain who we are.a2 After that she agreed that we had as much right as her to be there, but she still wanted us moved to another place2 and we had to stop the music at 11 o'clock. (Show woman) Travellers have been identi"ed as the most marginalized, illiterate group that underachieves in European state schools (Knaepkens, 1987, 1988; LieH geois, 1987a, b). They are today the subjects of some of the most overt racism and discrimination and, where mobility is a factor, they su!er the added disadvantage of discontinuity in attendance and curriculum experience. The European Commission in 1989 spelled out the range of approaches and actions necessary to redress this situation. The two
256
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
main solutions advocated were distance learning for Travellers and teacher training to ensure increased awareness of the Traveller communities. Yet, distance learning is generally a sophisticated teaching approach for already motivated, highly literate, and independent learners. Raising awareness is a popular response to dealing with inequality and discrimination but it is usually evidenced as essentializing the focus group; it often goes hand in hand with claiming and apportioning victimhood. The Scottish Show people do not claim victimhood although they express feelings of disempowerment within the education system. The research reported here is based on several years of observation and interviewing of participants. It includes "ve years of doctoral research and attempts to o!er some explanation for the situation of Travellers.
2. Research methods The readily available body of literature in the early 1990s, apart from the three seminal UK volumes (Plowden Committee, 1967; Reiss, 1975; Department of Education and Science, 1985), was restricted to a few volumes produced by and for the European Commission (Knaepkens, 1987, 1988; LieH geois, 1985, 1987a, b) and studies conducted by a few gypsiologists (Acton, 1974, 1985; Kenrick & Bakewell, 1995), none of whom had had any direct experience with research in education. Within Scotland there was only the Third Term Report (Scottish O$ce, 1982). As a result, it became necessary to seek out literature sources as an integral part of the research process. Eventually, approximately 1000 books and articles of direct relevance to the education of Travellers were located. The obvious di$culties in researching so-called out-groups are well documented (Mac an Ghaill, 1988), but as Travellers' views were thought essential to substantiate and test out "ndings from other sources, it became necessary to use gatekeepers within the Traveller communities, with the intention of allowing `snow-balling,a wherever possible. However, given the tightly-knit family and allegiance structures within the Traveller communities, that approach, too, can be termed a form of gatekeeping. A spread of ages, both genders, and Traveller types was achieved in almost one hundred interviewees. Since there were no statistics on Show Travellers it was decided to count Travellers actually reported to be in schools. Every school was sent an annual questionnaire in June (1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995) for completion at the end of each academic year when all pupils' school attendances are traditionally totalled and registers are closed for the session. The questionnaire asked for details on: E the number of Traveller families and children enrolled that session; E the number of days each was enrolled; E the type of Traveller, based on forms of accommodation, i.e., housed, roadside, o$cial Gypsy Traveller site and Showgrounds; and E the range of support provided in the schools.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
257
A further questionnaire was completed by each Director of Education on policy and provision. A letter was also sent to each Director of Administration for details of Traveller sites in their area and the zoned schools. Based on the data obtained from the schools' questionnaire, the primary and secondary schools with the highest numbers of Traveller enrolments were selected as a focus for further research. The four secondary schools with the highest return of Showground Travellers were also chosen, in order to identify movements in and between schools and to detect any early drop-outs. Finally, "ve schools were selected as case studies of di!erent settings, to highlight practices and attitudes that helped include a regular Traveller presence. Evidence was drawn together from all these various sources, as in a jigsaw but without the picture, and the "ndings were related to the literature and evidence gathered through interaction with many colleagues throughout the European Union (EU) states. The results provide a unique collection of data that support signi"cant conclusions to challenge the accepted view of the Travellers' situation in state school systems.
3. Education provision and Travellers' presence The evidence pointed to an inadequate comprehensive system and continued institutional exclusion despite anti-bullying and anti-racist policies, which together contributed to self-exclusion by Travellers as the dominant response to underachievement and reduced self-esteem. Scottish schools generally serve a local community but there is choice for parents in selecting a school other than the nearest. In reality relatively few parents exercise this choice (Willms & Echols, 1992) and those who do tend to be academically ambitious for their children or make the choice for family reasons, such as being nearer to grandparents when the parents are both working (Munn, 1993). Traveller parents are atypical in that they exercise this right often without any recourse to the formal processes, but instead deal directly with schools of their choice. They only attend schools which accord them a warm welcome and where they feel their children are supported and well taught. Receptive schools, in return, warm to their reliance on the school to `sort things outa on their behalf, e.g., the paperwork. In this fashion Travellers have built up a positive support network of schools, particularly at the primary stage. When it gets to be that time of year again you start to think `Where are they, who will we have this year? Will Edna May be here?a She was born a woman! She can organize an army. Her interpersonal skills are incredible. (Primary school headteacher) However, not all schools respond encouragingly to Travellers. When this happens Travellers feel justi"ed in `voting with their feet.a Self-exclusion from schools as a form of positive resistance is a major factor in Traveller absenteeism. We know which schools will look out for our kids. We don't just put them in anywhere. Some schools make it bloody di$cult even although they say they will
258
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
have them. Others are really helpful and educate our kids along with the settled [ones]. They try to do a good job, but it's di$cult when they have so many di!erent ways of doing things. And I can't help; I never had much education myself. (Show father) Absence levels are high over the year, but the Scottish Executive allows the application of `authorized absencea when Travellers are absent for work purposes (Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department, 1995). Schools, of course, deny any form of exclusive behaviour, yet the low statistics on Traveller attendance at schools zoned for o$cial Gypsy Traveller sites and summer Showgrounds readily reveal that many do not promote inclusive practices. They used to come here but they haven't been for a few years. I expect they have changed their patterns [of travel]. They don't get in touch with us, you know. (Headteacher) A form of mutual exclusion can then be said to operate, one which Show Travellers readily admit as a cause for changing schools, but which Gypsy Travellers say is a reason for not attending any school, particularly at the secondary level.
4. The interrupted learner The longitudinal research reported here (Jordan & Carroll, 1994) studied four secondary schools with regular enrolments of Occupational Traveller pupils and found that most Traveller pupils, owing to the long periods out of school each year (March to October) with little or no support for independent learning, annually fell progressively behind their peers, with very many pupils dropping out of school altogether around age fourteen, i.e., the third year. In "rst and second year it was okay... but I fell behind because the folios are quite hard. 2When I got into third year it got more complicated.2So I fell behind in them because I was sitting not doing anything most of the time. (Show girl, age 17) Interviews with sta!, pupils and families revealed that the annually increasing underachievement led to lowered self-esteem and little expectation of success in gaining national quali"cations. They do work hard, but they fall behind every year and it is hard. Some of them get very discouraged and they give up, generally about third or fourth year. It depends on their friends. (Secondary teacher) In fact, the introduction of continuous assessment arrangements associated with the new Standard Grade exams in the 1980s, which were, ironically, instituted to provide better opportunities for the less academic, actually mitigated against the mobile Travellers who found it impossible to complete their portfolios of individual work while travelling. The comprehensive Standard Grade assessment system proved an excluding experience for mobile Travellers.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
259
The Traveller situation reveals the extent to which the comprehensive system is manifestly not able to cater for all learners' needs and supports the view that Travellers fail to achieve because of the inability of the present construct of schools to support their learning out of school. Yet there are many pupils other than Travellers who do not attend one school on a regular basis throughout the session and thus miss out on much of their schooling. The range of such pupils, the chronically sick (Closs & Norris, 1997), the homeless families (Power, Whitty & Youdell, 1999), the children in care who regularly are moved on (Triseliotis, Borland, Hill & Lambert, 1995), the minority ethnic groups who visit `homea countries to maintain family and cultural links, the truants and excludees (Lloyd & Munn, 1999), those who care for dependent adults (Liddiard, Tatum & Tucker, 1997), all slip out of regular school provision and, depending on area of residence or family willingness and ability to do battle with the authorities, may or may not receive any teaching support. All experience serious discontinuity in their learning and can be classed as interrupted learners (Jordan, 1996). That such discontinuity does a!ect achievement has been both supported and challenged by a range of research reports on varying categories of pupils' mobility in many di!erent countries. In settled pupils many factors contribute to pupil success or failure at school. The research evidence, built up over many years, signals that complexity * school ethos, pupil/teacher interactions, family culture and intelligence, parental aspirations, peer group pressure, socioeconomic status and individual personality type. There is no reason to believe that this critical constellation of factors has any less signi"cance for mobile pupils' achievements. Thus, simplistic measuring of attendance levels and examination results will reveal little to point up the underlying problems. Mass use of o!-the-shelf distance learning materials will have to be tempered with #exible responses to individual pupil and family needs as they change and develop. Needs are never static, but re#ect the #uid dynamics of human interactions in a social context as all the players learn to accommodate in the process of enhancing the pupil's experience.
5. The European dimension No EU State, as yet, actively supports a free national system for supporting out-of-school learning, although France does provide some at low cost. So it can be claimed that Europe, as a whole, operates exclusionary national school systems where mobile families and other interrupted learners are regularly marginalized and underachieve. The EU SOCRATES program has, since the mid-1990s, supported actions for Traveller education (Comenius Action 2) and also for higher education research and teacher training purposes (Comenius Action 3). An international collaborative project focused on discontinuity in learning (Disco-ed) was funded, with partners in Scotland, Portugal, and the Netherlands undertaking research in each country into the situation of various groups of pupils who experienced discontinuity and exclusion within state schooling. The resulting case studies formed the basis of a sta! development pack
260
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
for teacher training institutes (Jordan, Botke, Moura & Pinto, 1997). The following year further funding supported the delivery of an international course, based on the pack. An analysis of the course evaluation forms provided ample evidence of the relevance the research has for a range of education sta! in every European state. Such courses have been instrumental in forging new partnerships for joint research, the development of policy, and the production of a range of teaching and curriculum responses. The internationally collaborative approaches adopted by EFECOT (the European Federation for the Education of the Children of the Occupational Travellers), a Brussels-based organization of professionals and parents active in pursuing appropriate education for the Occupational Traveller communities), provide educators in Scotland with an opportunity to became a partner in several projects. These projects include the innovative TOPILOT and FLEX projects to develop materials and modern technologies to support learning-at-a-distance for Showground pupils. The Scottish experience of TOPILOT resulted in a high level of commitment and enthusiasm in all participants, with the project school allocating a member of sta! as a liaison person to monitor pupils' electronically returned work, mark it, and provide the next stages (Dalziel & Pettigrew, 1998). The families welcomed the initiative, saw its potential, and valued the use of modern technologies to link them to the school. The pupils readily mastered the technical skills and found the focus of the project motivating. There were, however, some problems. These included inappropriate levels of curriculum content, lack of a su$cient range of subjects, di$culties caused by Scotland's mountainous terrain to support adequate quality in communication with the base school, and the amount of time demanded of parents to support their children's learning during the busy travelling work season. The way it is just now we start o! an hour a day but as time goes on and we're further away it tends to get pushed aside and then it's a mad rush before it's time to go back to school. (Show mother) Parents and pupils had raised expectations and were, perhaps rightly, disappointed at the lack of transferability to other schools in the city. Overall, the community felt it was a valuable contribution to raising their pro"le within the local authority, so that more are now active contributors to meetings with council o$cials and at education conferences to progress a national response to their needs. The experience has been empowering for the group as they have acquired increased cultural capital. The Education Liaison O$cers (ELOs) of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain have gained direct access to the Director of Education in their city and have recently secured the support of other educationists in making available short, winter, tailored vocational courses for the over 16s.
6. Conclusions `Making some progress, but could do bettera is all that the Scottish comprehensive school system merits in this end of century report. There are several issues emerging
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
261
from this research, as well as the European projects and initiatives, that demand pedagogical and theoretical responses to ensure equity for Traveller learners. The emerging agenda of social inclusion and social justice (Scottish Executive, 1999; Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department, 1999) following the inception of the new Scottish parliament o!ers hope for positive change. However, the concept of educational disadvantage remains very much equated with poverty and lower class status. The focus is still on the local school, with the main thrust being a call for increased attendance levels at schools; the explicit message that attendance equates with achievement further marginalizes the interrupted learner. The New Community Schools initiative (Scottish O$ce Education Industry Department, 1998) o!ers hope of more open and #exible education delivery, yet even they are focusing on traditional views of disadvantage, with such indicators as free school meals being used to identify pupil need. A more #exible conceptualization of `schoola is needed in order to accommodate mobile families with any equity. Prominent educators such as Ted Wragg and Tim Brighouse are already promoting the need for radical change in educational provision in order to meet the challenge of increased globalization in the 21st century. In his stimulating and thought provoking, Learning beyond the classroom: Education for a changing world, Tom Bentley (1999) raises the specter of de-schooling. He o!ers a severe challenge to the cherished mores of Scottish education in the new millennium, one where the needs of mobile groups would be met within a generic system of #exible provision. Assumptions have been made within Europe, and apparently accepted without challenge at a national and individual school or service level, that the application of methodologies and practices that are suited to a largely academic and independent learner will be appropriate and enabling for a di!erent client group. These assumptions must be challenged in the light of the French experience of producing speci"c, cultural, distance learning texts for Gypsy Travellers and the Australian (Danaher, 1998) experience of delivering education to mobile Show families. Further research is required to determine appropriate forms of open learning for young learners, particularly those from a non-literate or unschooled family, and to determine inclusive models of educational support. The current claims that the concept of the school will change radically within the 21st century, that there will be home learning and other out-of-school possibilities that will `normalizea the speci"c needs of Travellers and o!er them a quality educational experience, remain to be enacted. But already research reveals the inequalities in access to new technologies within di!erent socioeconomic and class groups (Conlon, 1999). What is sure is that how Travellers will fare will depend as much on the development of empowering and supportive partnerships between the providers and the Traveller client groups as on any speci"c resources or policies. References Acton, T. A. (1974). Gypsy politics and social change: The development of ethnic ideology and pressure politics among British Gypsies from Victorian reformism to Romani nationalism. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
262
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
Acton, T. A. (1985). Gypsy education at the crossroads. British Journal of Special Education, 12(1), 6}8. Bentley, T. (1999). Learning beyond the classroom: Education for a changing world. London, UK: Routledge. Bryce, T. G. K., & Humes, W. M. (1999). Scottish education. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. Closs, A., & Norris, C. (1997). Outlook uncertain: Enabling the education of children with chronic and/or deteriorating conditions. Edinburgh, UK: Moray House Institute of Education. Conlon, T. (1999). Critical thinking required or seven deadly sins of information technology. Scottish Awairs, 28, 117}146. Dalziel, J., & Pettigrew, A. (1998). The Eastbank Academy/TOPILOT response to educational needs of show children. In E. Jordan (Ed.), Ensuring equity in education for interrupted learners (pp. 8}18). Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Traveller Education Programme, The University of Edinburgh. Danaher, P. A. (Ed.) (1988). Beyond the ferris wheel: Educating Queensland show children (Studies in open and distance learning number 1). Rockhampton, Qld: Central Queensland University Press. Department of Education and Science (1978). Special educational needs: Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People. London, UK: Department of Education and Science. Department of Education and Science (1985). Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups: Education for All. London, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery O$ce. Humes, W. M. (1986). The leadership class in Scottish education. Edinburgh, UK: John Donald. Jordan, E. (1996). Education for Travellers. In E. Befring (Ed.), Teacher education for equality: Association for Teacher Education in Europe - ATEE 20th annual conference, Oslo 1995 (pp. 110}122). Oslo, Norway: Oslo University. Jordan, E., Botke, J., Moura, A., & Pinto, J. (1997). Disco-ed: Case studies in discontinuity in education. Edinburgh, UK: Moray House Institute of Education. Jordan, E., & Carroll, L. (1994). Patterns in attendance of Show children in 4 Glasgow secondary schools, 1988}93. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Traveller Education Programme, Moray House Institute of Education. Kenrick, D., & Bakewell, S. (1995). On the verge: The Gypsies of England. Hat"eld, UK: University of Hertfordshire Press. Knaepkens, L. (1987). The education of the children of the itinerant population in the twelve member states of the European Community: Fairground children. A Report on an Investigation for the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, unpublished. Knaepkens, L. (1988). The education of the children of the itinerant population in the twelve member states of the European Community: Rivercraft and circus children. A report on an investigation for the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, unpublished. Liddiard, P., Tatum, C., & Tucker, S. (1997). Young carers research project: Study of the common experiences of young carers in two diwerent communities. Milton Keynes, UK: School of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University. LieH geois, J.-P. (1985). Roma-Gypsies: A European minority. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. LieH geois, J.-P. (1987a). School provision for Gypsy and Traveller Children: A synthesis report. Luxembourg: O$ce for O$cial Publications of the European Communities. LieH geois, J.-P. (Ed.) (1987b). Schooling for Gypsies+ and Travellers+ children: Evaluating innovation. Report of 35th European teachers+ seminar. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. Lloyd, G., & Munn, P. (1999). Education services for children with social, emotional or behavioural di$culties. In M. Hill (Ed.), Ewective ways of working with children and their families (pp. 163}178). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1988). Young, gifted and black: Student-teacher relations in the schooling of black youth. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press. Munn, P. (Ed.) (1993). Parents and schools: Customers, managers or partners? London, UK: Routledge. Plowden Committee (1967). Children and their primary schools: A report. London, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery O$ce. Power, S., Whitty, G., & Youdell, D. (1999). Doubly disadvantaged: education and the homeless child. In V. Vostanis, & S. Cumella (Eds.), Homeless children (pp. 130}141). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
263
Reiss, C. (1975). Education of travelling children: Report of the Schools Council Project on the Education of ¹ravelling Children. London, UK: Macmillan. Scottish Education Department (1978). The education of pupils with learning dizculties in primary and secondary schools in Scotland: A progress report. Edinburgh, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery O$ce. Scottish Executive (1999). Social justice: A Scotland where everyone matters. Milestone sources and dexnitions. Edinburgh, UK: Tactical Solutions (on behalf of the Scottish Executive). Scottish O$ce (1982). Third term report of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Scotland's Travelling People. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department (1994). The education of pupils with special educational needs. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department (1995). Circular 1/95: Information for parents. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department (1998). New Community Schools. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department. (1999). Social inclusion strategy. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Triseliotis, J., Borland, M., Hill, M., & Lambert, L. (1995). Fostering good relations: A study of foster care and foster carers in Scotland. Report to the Scottish Ozce. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Willms, J. D., & Echols, F. (1992). Alert and inert clients: The Scottish experience of parental choice of schools. Economics of Education Review, 11(4), 339}350.
Betty Jordan, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, is Director of STEP, the Scottish national center of excellence in appropriate education for Travellers. She has been involved in several trans-European projects to develop policy and practice in Traveller education. Her forthcoming book, based on her "eld research, highlights the various forms of exclusion and inclusion which Travellers, and other interrupted learners, experience in their interactions with the state education system. E-mail address: [email protected]
Chapter 4
The exclusionary comprehensive school system: the experience of Showground families in Scotland Elizabeth Jordan Moray House Institute of Education, Department of Equity Studies and Special Education, Scottish Traveller Education Programme, The University of Edinburgh, Charteris Land, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ, UK
Abstract Since the introduction of a national free school system in Scotland in 1872, there has been a continuing increase in the academic achievement of the student population. Contributing factors have been the availability of free education for all (in the 1940s) and the full comprehensivization of the state schools (in the 1970s). Yet, despite these moves, there are still signi"cant di!erences in the achievement of some groups within Scottish society; one such group is the travelling Showground community. Their situation o!ers a paradigm for many other groups of interrupted learners. The speci"c actions developed and targeted to redress their underachievement call into question the ability of the present comprehensive school system to include and meet the educational needs of a signi"cant number of pupils. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Travellers; Interrupted learners; Exclusion; Discontinuity; Institutional discrimination
Since the introduction of a national system of free state schools in 1872, Scottish education has remained separate and distinctive within the UK. It has retained separate legislation and maintained a central system of curriculum guidance to local authorities who have a duty to provide `e$cient and e!ective provisiona for all the children within their boundaries. Unlike the centrally-prescribed National Curriculum, which has come to dominate practice throughout the rest of the UK, the Scottish guidelines allow scope for a degree of autonomy at local authority and individual school level in order to best suit local conditions. Despite this, and the recently increased devolution of funds from local authorities to individual schools, the cohesiveness in provision across the 32 local authorities in Scotland is remarkable. No doubt the in#uence of Her Majesty's Inspectors, through their rolling program of school inspections, broadly based working parties, and think-tanks, which underpin o$cial publications, have played a part in this. In addition, however, the tendency 0883-0355/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 8 8 3 - 0 3 5 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 1 3 - 6
254
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
for most Scots to attend the four ancient Scottish universities and to undertake their post-graduate teacher training at one of the three main Scottish teacher training centres has helped to develop an education community known to each other. At some time in their promotion moves most of the `movers and shakersa have met and interacted with each other. The tenor of national conferences is one where the cut and thrust of debates is marked by friendly rivalry and camaraderie rather than by serious di!erence. The recently published tome, Scottish Education (Bryce & Humes, 1999), bears witness to this, but also signals perhaps a degree of complacency with the status quo. Further, it is symptomatic that this book is already named as a key text for the current teacher training courses in Scotland. This reproductive model o!ers little hope of any radical change in the foreseeable future. Although the old belief that the Scottish village school supported the bright but poor (the lad o+ pairts in Scottish literature) into the world of academia has been exploded (Humes, 1986), there still remains a conviction that our fully comprehensive schools should meet the needs of all pupils in their area. (It is di$cult to uphold the term `comprehensivea given that, in Edinburgh alone, 23% of secondary pupils are attending highly selective fee-paying schools outside the state sector.) Since the publication of the HMI Progress Report (Scottish Education Department, 1978), it has been accepted that the formal curriculum and its modes of delivery create barriers in learning for many pupils. This text, together with the Warnock Report (Department of Education and Science, 1978), has been in#uential in pushing forward the integration agenda (in Scotland, the term `integrationa did not merely re#ect locus but also signi"ed the notion of inclusion). Consequently, today most pupils do attend their local school, at least for the initial stages of primary schools. Their integration is supported by a range of teaching resources and support sta! who are targeted to help schools provide an appropriate education for the full continuum of pupils (Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department, 1994). Such sta! are generally school-based, with even the smallest primary school having a regular visit, and each secondary school a discrete department of support for learning sta! who work within a national "ve roles model: consultancy, cooperative teaching, direct teaching, special services, and sta! development. Their specialist post-graduate training is prescribed and largely funded by the Scottish Executive. They are among the most highly quali"ed teachers in Scottish education and many go on to regional advisory and head teacher positions. Other specialist sta! who visit schools (e.g., teachers for visual impairment and the deaf, English as an additional language teachers, behaviour support sta!, speech and physiotherapists) contribute to the ability of schools to meet their pupils' diverse individual needs. Despite this range of teaching support, the school experience still alienates and diminishes a substantial proportion of pupils so that, whereas Scotland produces more graduate level pupils than other parts of the UK, the gap between those experiencing success and failure is wide. The latest o$cial "gures reveal about 10% leaving schools without any quali"cations in 1998 and the numbers of truants and absentees are high in some schools and areas.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
255
1. Travellers and discontinuity in learning For many centuries in Scotland there has been a distinct group of nomadic Travellers who have lived in and o! the settled communities, earning a living by exploiting niche-market opportunities for self-employed, casual work, labouring, buying and selling, and entertaining. Today the main group is identi"ed as Gypsy/Travellers (Resolution No 89C 153/02), where membership of the group is based solely on self-de"nition, through birth and descent. You never ever stop being a Traveller, whether you are in a house or o! the road for 10 or 20 years before you go on the road again. You are born a Traveller. It's not something you choose(d), it's a thing we were born into. (Gypsy Traveller, male, adult) They have been subjected to extensive racial repression and discrimination over many centuries throughout the UK and, as a modern minority ethnic group, continue to experience both overt and institutional racism in their daily lives. In the late 1880s some of the traditional Travellers within the UK broke away and set up as a discrete group of travelling show and fairground entertainers, now known as Occupational Travellers within the European directives and resolutions (Resolution No 89C 153/01). In Scotland today these families typically spend the winter in one city, where their children attend schools between the travelling seasons. Their situation is unique in Europe and raises a range of equity issues about education delivery, discontinuity in learning, and the rights of interrupted learners. This community of at least 400 families retains many of the features associated with an ethnic group, yet they prefer to signal themselves as a business community. As such they are known to respect laws and regulations as they carry out their working lives. Each winter, as they take time to socialize, they raise signi"cant funds for local and national charities, thus gaining positive recognition in the press. Despite this, their mobility is still viewed as a problem for the education authorities. Many of the towns they visit during the travelling season make clear in their local press the antipathy their visits arouse, especially from newcomers to those towns who have chosen houses near the traditional fair sites. This woman wanted us o!, closed down, and she wrote to the press and got up a petition. But I thought to myself, `I'll just go and visit her and explain who we are.a2 After that she agreed that we had as much right as her to be there, but she still wanted us moved to another place2 and we had to stop the music at 11 o'clock. (Show woman) Travellers have been identi"ed as the most marginalized, illiterate group that underachieves in European state schools (Knaepkens, 1987, 1988; LieH geois, 1987a, b). They are today the subjects of some of the most overt racism and discrimination and, where mobility is a factor, they su!er the added disadvantage of discontinuity in attendance and curriculum experience. The European Commission in 1989 spelled out the range of approaches and actions necessary to redress this situation. The two
256
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
main solutions advocated were distance learning for Travellers and teacher training to ensure increased awareness of the Traveller communities. Yet, distance learning is generally a sophisticated teaching approach for already motivated, highly literate, and independent learners. Raising awareness is a popular response to dealing with inequality and discrimination but it is usually evidenced as essentializing the focus group; it often goes hand in hand with claiming and apportioning victimhood. The Scottish Show people do not claim victimhood although they express feelings of disempowerment within the education system. The research reported here is based on several years of observation and interviewing of participants. It includes "ve years of doctoral research and attempts to o!er some explanation for the situation of Travellers.
2. Research methods The readily available body of literature in the early 1990s, apart from the three seminal UK volumes (Plowden Committee, 1967; Reiss, 1975; Department of Education and Science, 1985), was restricted to a few volumes produced by and for the European Commission (Knaepkens, 1987, 1988; LieH geois, 1985, 1987a, b) and studies conducted by a few gypsiologists (Acton, 1974, 1985; Kenrick & Bakewell, 1995), none of whom had had any direct experience with research in education. Within Scotland there was only the Third Term Report (Scottish O$ce, 1982). As a result, it became necessary to seek out literature sources as an integral part of the research process. Eventually, approximately 1000 books and articles of direct relevance to the education of Travellers were located. The obvious di$culties in researching so-called out-groups are well documented (Mac an Ghaill, 1988), but as Travellers' views were thought essential to substantiate and test out "ndings from other sources, it became necessary to use gatekeepers within the Traveller communities, with the intention of allowing `snow-balling,a wherever possible. However, given the tightly-knit family and allegiance structures within the Traveller communities, that approach, too, can be termed a form of gatekeeping. A spread of ages, both genders, and Traveller types was achieved in almost one hundred interviewees. Since there were no statistics on Show Travellers it was decided to count Travellers actually reported to be in schools. Every school was sent an annual questionnaire in June (1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995) for completion at the end of each academic year when all pupils' school attendances are traditionally totalled and registers are closed for the session. The questionnaire asked for details on: E the number of Traveller families and children enrolled that session; E the number of days each was enrolled; E the type of Traveller, based on forms of accommodation, i.e., housed, roadside, o$cial Gypsy Traveller site and Showgrounds; and E the range of support provided in the schools.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
257
A further questionnaire was completed by each Director of Education on policy and provision. A letter was also sent to each Director of Administration for details of Traveller sites in their area and the zoned schools. Based on the data obtained from the schools' questionnaire, the primary and secondary schools with the highest numbers of Traveller enrolments were selected as a focus for further research. The four secondary schools with the highest return of Showground Travellers were also chosen, in order to identify movements in and between schools and to detect any early drop-outs. Finally, "ve schools were selected as case studies of di!erent settings, to highlight practices and attitudes that helped include a regular Traveller presence. Evidence was drawn together from all these various sources, as in a jigsaw but without the picture, and the "ndings were related to the literature and evidence gathered through interaction with many colleagues throughout the European Union (EU) states. The results provide a unique collection of data that support signi"cant conclusions to challenge the accepted view of the Travellers' situation in state school systems.
3. Education provision and Travellers' presence The evidence pointed to an inadequate comprehensive system and continued institutional exclusion despite anti-bullying and anti-racist policies, which together contributed to self-exclusion by Travellers as the dominant response to underachievement and reduced self-esteem. Scottish schools generally serve a local community but there is choice for parents in selecting a school other than the nearest. In reality relatively few parents exercise this choice (Willms & Echols, 1992) and those who do tend to be academically ambitious for their children or make the choice for family reasons, such as being nearer to grandparents when the parents are both working (Munn, 1993). Traveller parents are atypical in that they exercise this right often without any recourse to the formal processes, but instead deal directly with schools of their choice. They only attend schools which accord them a warm welcome and where they feel their children are supported and well taught. Receptive schools, in return, warm to their reliance on the school to `sort things outa on their behalf, e.g., the paperwork. In this fashion Travellers have built up a positive support network of schools, particularly at the primary stage. When it gets to be that time of year again you start to think `Where are they, who will we have this year? Will Edna May be here?a She was born a woman! She can organize an army. Her interpersonal skills are incredible. (Primary school headteacher) However, not all schools respond encouragingly to Travellers. When this happens Travellers feel justi"ed in `voting with their feet.a Self-exclusion from schools as a form of positive resistance is a major factor in Traveller absenteeism. We know which schools will look out for our kids. We don't just put them in anywhere. Some schools make it bloody di$cult even although they say they will
258
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
have them. Others are really helpful and educate our kids along with the settled [ones]. They try to do a good job, but it's di$cult when they have so many di!erent ways of doing things. And I can't help; I never had much education myself. (Show father) Absence levels are high over the year, but the Scottish Executive allows the application of `authorized absencea when Travellers are absent for work purposes (Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department, 1995). Schools, of course, deny any form of exclusive behaviour, yet the low statistics on Traveller attendance at schools zoned for o$cial Gypsy Traveller sites and summer Showgrounds readily reveal that many do not promote inclusive practices. They used to come here but they haven't been for a few years. I expect they have changed their patterns [of travel]. They don't get in touch with us, you know. (Headteacher) A form of mutual exclusion can then be said to operate, one which Show Travellers readily admit as a cause for changing schools, but which Gypsy Travellers say is a reason for not attending any school, particularly at the secondary level.
4. The interrupted learner The longitudinal research reported here (Jordan & Carroll, 1994) studied four secondary schools with regular enrolments of Occupational Traveller pupils and found that most Traveller pupils, owing to the long periods out of school each year (March to October) with little or no support for independent learning, annually fell progressively behind their peers, with very many pupils dropping out of school altogether around age fourteen, i.e., the third year. In "rst and second year it was okay... but I fell behind because the folios are quite hard. 2When I got into third year it got more complicated.2So I fell behind in them because I was sitting not doing anything most of the time. (Show girl, age 17) Interviews with sta!, pupils and families revealed that the annually increasing underachievement led to lowered self-esteem and little expectation of success in gaining national quali"cations. They do work hard, but they fall behind every year and it is hard. Some of them get very discouraged and they give up, generally about third or fourth year. It depends on their friends. (Secondary teacher) In fact, the introduction of continuous assessment arrangements associated with the new Standard Grade exams in the 1980s, which were, ironically, instituted to provide better opportunities for the less academic, actually mitigated against the mobile Travellers who found it impossible to complete their portfolios of individual work while travelling. The comprehensive Standard Grade assessment system proved an excluding experience for mobile Travellers.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
259
The Traveller situation reveals the extent to which the comprehensive system is manifestly not able to cater for all learners' needs and supports the view that Travellers fail to achieve because of the inability of the present construct of schools to support their learning out of school. Yet there are many pupils other than Travellers who do not attend one school on a regular basis throughout the session and thus miss out on much of their schooling. The range of such pupils, the chronically sick (Closs & Norris, 1997), the homeless families (Power, Whitty & Youdell, 1999), the children in care who regularly are moved on (Triseliotis, Borland, Hill & Lambert, 1995), the minority ethnic groups who visit `homea countries to maintain family and cultural links, the truants and excludees (Lloyd & Munn, 1999), those who care for dependent adults (Liddiard, Tatum & Tucker, 1997), all slip out of regular school provision and, depending on area of residence or family willingness and ability to do battle with the authorities, may or may not receive any teaching support. All experience serious discontinuity in their learning and can be classed as interrupted learners (Jordan, 1996). That such discontinuity does a!ect achievement has been both supported and challenged by a range of research reports on varying categories of pupils' mobility in many di!erent countries. In settled pupils many factors contribute to pupil success or failure at school. The research evidence, built up over many years, signals that complexity * school ethos, pupil/teacher interactions, family culture and intelligence, parental aspirations, peer group pressure, socioeconomic status and individual personality type. There is no reason to believe that this critical constellation of factors has any less signi"cance for mobile pupils' achievements. Thus, simplistic measuring of attendance levels and examination results will reveal little to point up the underlying problems. Mass use of o!-the-shelf distance learning materials will have to be tempered with #exible responses to individual pupil and family needs as they change and develop. Needs are never static, but re#ect the #uid dynamics of human interactions in a social context as all the players learn to accommodate in the process of enhancing the pupil's experience.
5. The European dimension No EU State, as yet, actively supports a free national system for supporting out-of-school learning, although France does provide some at low cost. So it can be claimed that Europe, as a whole, operates exclusionary national school systems where mobile families and other interrupted learners are regularly marginalized and underachieve. The EU SOCRATES program has, since the mid-1990s, supported actions for Traveller education (Comenius Action 2) and also for higher education research and teacher training purposes (Comenius Action 3). An international collaborative project focused on discontinuity in learning (Disco-ed) was funded, with partners in Scotland, Portugal, and the Netherlands undertaking research in each country into the situation of various groups of pupils who experienced discontinuity and exclusion within state schooling. The resulting case studies formed the basis of a sta! development pack
260
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
for teacher training institutes (Jordan, Botke, Moura & Pinto, 1997). The following year further funding supported the delivery of an international course, based on the pack. An analysis of the course evaluation forms provided ample evidence of the relevance the research has for a range of education sta! in every European state. Such courses have been instrumental in forging new partnerships for joint research, the development of policy, and the production of a range of teaching and curriculum responses. The internationally collaborative approaches adopted by EFECOT (the European Federation for the Education of the Children of the Occupational Travellers), a Brussels-based organization of professionals and parents active in pursuing appropriate education for the Occupational Traveller communities), provide educators in Scotland with an opportunity to became a partner in several projects. These projects include the innovative TOPILOT and FLEX projects to develop materials and modern technologies to support learning-at-a-distance for Showground pupils. The Scottish experience of TOPILOT resulted in a high level of commitment and enthusiasm in all participants, with the project school allocating a member of sta! as a liaison person to monitor pupils' electronically returned work, mark it, and provide the next stages (Dalziel & Pettigrew, 1998). The families welcomed the initiative, saw its potential, and valued the use of modern technologies to link them to the school. The pupils readily mastered the technical skills and found the focus of the project motivating. There were, however, some problems. These included inappropriate levels of curriculum content, lack of a su$cient range of subjects, di$culties caused by Scotland's mountainous terrain to support adequate quality in communication with the base school, and the amount of time demanded of parents to support their children's learning during the busy travelling work season. The way it is just now we start o! an hour a day but as time goes on and we're further away it tends to get pushed aside and then it's a mad rush before it's time to go back to school. (Show mother) Parents and pupils had raised expectations and were, perhaps rightly, disappointed at the lack of transferability to other schools in the city. Overall, the community felt it was a valuable contribution to raising their pro"le within the local authority, so that more are now active contributors to meetings with council o$cials and at education conferences to progress a national response to their needs. The experience has been empowering for the group as they have acquired increased cultural capital. The Education Liaison O$cers (ELOs) of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain have gained direct access to the Director of Education in their city and have recently secured the support of other educationists in making available short, winter, tailored vocational courses for the over 16s.
6. Conclusions `Making some progress, but could do bettera is all that the Scottish comprehensive school system merits in this end of century report. There are several issues emerging
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
261
from this research, as well as the European projects and initiatives, that demand pedagogical and theoretical responses to ensure equity for Traveller learners. The emerging agenda of social inclusion and social justice (Scottish Executive, 1999; Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department, 1999) following the inception of the new Scottish parliament o!ers hope for positive change. However, the concept of educational disadvantage remains very much equated with poverty and lower class status. The focus is still on the local school, with the main thrust being a call for increased attendance levels at schools; the explicit message that attendance equates with achievement further marginalizes the interrupted learner. The New Community Schools initiative (Scottish O$ce Education Industry Department, 1998) o!ers hope of more open and #exible education delivery, yet even they are focusing on traditional views of disadvantage, with such indicators as free school meals being used to identify pupil need. A more #exible conceptualization of `schoola is needed in order to accommodate mobile families with any equity. Prominent educators such as Ted Wragg and Tim Brighouse are already promoting the need for radical change in educational provision in order to meet the challenge of increased globalization in the 21st century. In his stimulating and thought provoking, Learning beyond the classroom: Education for a changing world, Tom Bentley (1999) raises the specter of de-schooling. He o!ers a severe challenge to the cherished mores of Scottish education in the new millennium, one where the needs of mobile groups would be met within a generic system of #exible provision. Assumptions have been made within Europe, and apparently accepted without challenge at a national and individual school or service level, that the application of methodologies and practices that are suited to a largely academic and independent learner will be appropriate and enabling for a di!erent client group. These assumptions must be challenged in the light of the French experience of producing speci"c, cultural, distance learning texts for Gypsy Travellers and the Australian (Danaher, 1998) experience of delivering education to mobile Show families. Further research is required to determine appropriate forms of open learning for young learners, particularly those from a non-literate or unschooled family, and to determine inclusive models of educational support. The current claims that the concept of the school will change radically within the 21st century, that there will be home learning and other out-of-school possibilities that will `normalizea the speci"c needs of Travellers and o!er them a quality educational experience, remain to be enacted. But already research reveals the inequalities in access to new technologies within di!erent socioeconomic and class groups (Conlon, 1999). What is sure is that how Travellers will fare will depend as much on the development of empowering and supportive partnerships between the providers and the Traveller client groups as on any speci"c resources or policies. References Acton, T. A. (1974). Gypsy politics and social change: The development of ethnic ideology and pressure politics among British Gypsies from Victorian reformism to Romani nationalism. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
262
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
Acton, T. A. (1985). Gypsy education at the crossroads. British Journal of Special Education, 12(1), 6}8. Bentley, T. (1999). Learning beyond the classroom: Education for a changing world. London, UK: Routledge. Bryce, T. G. K., & Humes, W. M. (1999). Scottish education. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. Closs, A., & Norris, C. (1997). Outlook uncertain: Enabling the education of children with chronic and/or deteriorating conditions. Edinburgh, UK: Moray House Institute of Education. Conlon, T. (1999). Critical thinking required or seven deadly sins of information technology. Scottish Awairs, 28, 117}146. Dalziel, J., & Pettigrew, A. (1998). The Eastbank Academy/TOPILOT response to educational needs of show children. In E. Jordan (Ed.), Ensuring equity in education for interrupted learners (pp. 8}18). Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Traveller Education Programme, The University of Edinburgh. Danaher, P. A. (Ed.) (1988). Beyond the ferris wheel: Educating Queensland show children (Studies in open and distance learning number 1). Rockhampton, Qld: Central Queensland University Press. Department of Education and Science (1978). Special educational needs: Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People. London, UK: Department of Education and Science. Department of Education and Science (1985). Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups: Education for All. London, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery O$ce. Humes, W. M. (1986). The leadership class in Scottish education. Edinburgh, UK: John Donald. Jordan, E. (1996). Education for Travellers. In E. Befring (Ed.), Teacher education for equality: Association for Teacher Education in Europe - ATEE 20th annual conference, Oslo 1995 (pp. 110}122). Oslo, Norway: Oslo University. Jordan, E., Botke, J., Moura, A., & Pinto, J. (1997). Disco-ed: Case studies in discontinuity in education. Edinburgh, UK: Moray House Institute of Education. Jordan, E., & Carroll, L. (1994). Patterns in attendance of Show children in 4 Glasgow secondary schools, 1988}93. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Traveller Education Programme, Moray House Institute of Education. Kenrick, D., & Bakewell, S. (1995). On the verge: The Gypsies of England. Hat"eld, UK: University of Hertfordshire Press. Knaepkens, L. (1987). The education of the children of the itinerant population in the twelve member states of the European Community: Fairground children. A Report on an Investigation for the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, unpublished. Knaepkens, L. (1988). The education of the children of the itinerant population in the twelve member states of the European Community: Rivercraft and circus children. A report on an investigation for the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, unpublished. Liddiard, P., Tatum, C., & Tucker, S. (1997). Young carers research project: Study of the common experiences of young carers in two diwerent communities. Milton Keynes, UK: School of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University. LieH geois, J.-P. (1985). Roma-Gypsies: A European minority. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. LieH geois, J.-P. (1987a). School provision for Gypsy and Traveller Children: A synthesis report. Luxembourg: O$ce for O$cial Publications of the European Communities. LieH geois, J.-P. (Ed.) (1987b). Schooling for Gypsies+ and Travellers+ children: Evaluating innovation. Report of 35th European teachers+ seminar. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. Lloyd, G., & Munn, P. (1999). Education services for children with social, emotional or behavioural di$culties. In M. Hill (Ed.), Ewective ways of working with children and their families (pp. 163}178). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1988). Young, gifted and black: Student-teacher relations in the schooling of black youth. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press. Munn, P. (Ed.) (1993). Parents and schools: Customers, managers or partners? London, UK: Routledge. Plowden Committee (1967). Children and their primary schools: A report. London, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery O$ce. Power, S., Whitty, G., & Youdell, D. (1999). Doubly disadvantaged: education and the homeless child. In V. Vostanis, & S. Cumella (Eds.), Homeless children (pp. 130}141). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
E. Jordan / Int. J. Educ. Res. 33 (2000) 253}263
263
Reiss, C. (1975). Education of travelling children: Report of the Schools Council Project on the Education of ¹ravelling Children. London, UK: Macmillan. Scottish Education Department (1978). The education of pupils with learning dizculties in primary and secondary schools in Scotland: A progress report. Edinburgh, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery O$ce. Scottish Executive (1999). Social justice: A Scotland where everyone matters. Milestone sources and dexnitions. Edinburgh, UK: Tactical Solutions (on behalf of the Scottish Executive). Scottish O$ce (1982). Third term report of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Scotland's Travelling People. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department (1994). The education of pupils with special educational needs. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department (1995). Circular 1/95: Information for parents. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department (1998). New Community Schools. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Scottish O$ce Education and Industry Department. (1999). Social inclusion strategy. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Triseliotis, J., Borland, M., Hill, M., & Lambert, L. (1995). Fostering good relations: A study of foster care and foster carers in Scotland. Report to the Scottish Ozce. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish O$ce. Willms, J. D., & Echols, F. (1992). Alert and inert clients: The Scottish experience of parental choice of schools. Economics of Education Review, 11(4), 339}350.
Betty Jordan, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, is Director of STEP, the Scottish national center of excellence in appropriate education for Travellers. She has been involved in several trans-European projects to develop policy and practice in Traveller education. Her forthcoming book, based on her "eld research, highlights the various forms of exclusion and inclusion which Travellers, and other interrupted learners, experience in their interactions with the state education system. E-mail address: [email protected]