Prelims

Half Title Page

Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in the Western Balkans

Title Page

Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in the Western Balkans

Edited by

Andrea Óhidy

University of Education Freiburg, Germany

And

Katalin R. Forray

University of Pécs, Hungary

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2023

Editorial matter and selection © 2023 Andrea Óhidy and Katalin R. Forray.

Individual chapters © 2023 The authors.

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ISBN: 978-1-80382-522-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-521-2 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-523-6 (Epub)

List of Figures and Tables

About the Contributors

Dritero Arifi, Dr (Kosovo) is Assistant Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science/Public Policy and Management at the University for Business and Technology (UBT)/Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo. His research interest includes Political Parties, Democratization, Security issues and European foreign policy.

Ngadhnjim Brovina (Kosovo) is Assistant Professor at Faculty of Political Science at University for Business and Technology (UBT)/Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo. His research interest includes foreign policy, public diplomacy, public policy, international relations and international Law.

Tinde Kovacs Cerovic (Serbia) PhD is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Policy and researcher at Belgrade University. Her research studies and publications primarily address the excluded and vulnerable, such as education of Roma, migrants, refugees and children living in poverty or under unusual circumstances, including the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, she served as Assistant Minister and State Secretary of Education, as Education Advisory Board member for Open Society Foundations, as senior advisor to the Roma Education Fund and was education consultant for several international organizations. She is currently living in Austria.

Katalin R. Forray, Prof Dr (Hungary) is emeritus Professor at the University of Pécs. She is founder of the Doctoral School of Education and Society. In 2000, she established the Department of Romani Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Professor Forray is member of several Hungarian and international Romani organizations. Her research interests include: integration of minorities (e.g. Roma); multiculturalism; social, economic and regional dimensions of institutional learning; and women in education.

Evgeny Ivanov (Bulgaria) is a senior education sector specialist with over 20 years of experience in supporting public institutions/educational agencies in the analysis, development and implementation of policies, strategies and programmes in EU Programme beneficiary countries aimed at improving the management and quality of pre-primary, primary and secondary general education, training, skills development, VET, lifelong learning, labour market and employment services. In addition to his strong track record in supporting the educational and labour market institutions in strengthening their governance, quality assurance and policy frameworks for sound functioning of the education and labour market systems, he brings strong EU project management and team management experience as Team Leader of a number of projects in his country of origin, Bulgaria, as well as in the Western Balkans and Central Asia.

Jadranka Ivkovic (Serbia) MA of Pedagogy, graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at Belgrade University is Director of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture Serbia and programme coordinator at the Open Society Foundation Serbia. Her research and policy studies are focused on social inclusion of Roma primarily targeting social justice and equity in education. During the COVID-19 pandemic she developed an emergency educational programme for Roma children followed by impact analysis covering primary schools all over the Serbia. She was also engaged in expert committees of several international organizations, as well as facilitated government's working groups in area of Roma inclusion. She is living in Serbia.

Mónika Kapás (Serbia) completed her doctorate at the University of Pécs Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. His research topic was: Romani Communities in Vojvodina. Examination, and comparison through analysis of education and employment of Romani population in two Vojvodinian communities. She has published at several conferences, mainly related to the social situation of disadvantaged Roma. She is living in Serbia.

Anita Lukenda (Bosnia and Herzegovina) obtained her PhD from the University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is Assistant Professor of General Pedagogy and Andragogy at the Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Science and Education, University of Mostar. From 2018 until 2021 she was Head of Department of Pedagogy and from 2014 to 2018 Acting Head of Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Science and Education, University of Mostar. From 2019 to 2022 she was a Member of Governing Board of the Student and Teacher Mobility Fund of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her research interests are in lifelong learning, adult education, education policy, intercultural education and international education. She has published works on lifelong learning, on education systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on intercultural education in Bosnia and Herzegovina and on education of the Roma minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Merita H. Meçe (Albania) is an Albanian PhD holder in International Family and Community Studies at Clemson University South Carolina; researcher and consultant specialized in the fields of family studies, poverty reduction, human rights and international community studies. Her research interest has extended to minority rights with a particular focus on Roma minority, in general, and Roma children, in particular. She has published several articles about the disadvantaged position of this minority group in Albania.

Andrea Óhidy, Prof Dr (Germany) is Professor at the Institute of Education Sciences and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair Freiburg for European Education at the University of Education Freiburg. Her research interests include educational policy in the European Union, lifelong learning, teacher training and pedagogic professionalism. She has published in these areas in German, Hungarian and English. Her recent publications examine the educational participation of Roma.

Marc Reinbold (Germany) is a student at the University of Education Freiburg, currently enroled in teacher training (elementary level). His subjects of interest are Political Sciences and German. He finished his BA last term and currently aims at finishing his master's degree (MEd). His scholarly interests include political processes, especially regarding EU processes of the Western Balkans.

Srdjan Vukadinovic (Montenegro) is Director of the Centre for Social Research in Podgorica (Montenegro) and a full Professor of sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Montenegro; Doctor of sociological sciences. His research interest is general sociology, social structure, sociology of interethnic relations and sociology of vulnerable and marginalized groups. He has published about 30 papers on Roma in Montenegro and in the Western Balkans and also participated in projects concerning the position of national minorities.

Acknowledgement

We want to thank all contributors, especially the authors of the country studies. They are experts who often not only describe and analyze the (education) situation of the Roma minority in their countries but also take part in policymaking, program-developing and practical realization to improve it in the sense of the Roma inclusion policies.

Special thanks to Alina Boutiuc-Kaiser, Fatima Chahin-Dörflinger, Tibor Cserti-Csapó, Matthias Eickhoff, Roland Hegedűs, Tamás Kozma, Tim Löffler, Janka Vogel, Ulrike Wolff-Jontofsohn for their kind help.

Last but not least, we want to thank the very helpful team of Emerald Publishing.

All chapters of this book underwent two blind peer review processes and a language proof.