The importance of Working in Partnership
Author: Ass. Prof. Emil Buzov - PhD
The presentation of the Good practice emphasizes on the positive influence of the Step by Step Program (SBSP) in Bulgaria approving “-anti - violence initiatives achieving real open society” in the educational system. The preconditions for choosing this topic come out of the philosophy of the Program. As an alternative to the traditional educational system it applies the child-centered approach oriented towards their parents and teachers. The Program is open to the family, various social communities and institutions. Due to this fact it can be expected to have more significant impact and ensure wider dissemination of the positive effect in the changing contemporary society.
As an educational network in Bulgaria, SBSPF is closely worked with government institution and NGOs, faculty teachers and students from Universities, as well as with teachers, directors and parents.
· Does the access to quality education, applied in the Step by Step environment, contribute to successfully overcoming the violence as well as teaching social justice in the schools?
· Will this change be only verbal, in wards, will it be possible to observe it in practice - in the school and in the classroom?
In order to understand the problem we used verbal research techniques /discussions, questionnaires and interviews/ and direct observation of everyday life in the school - not only during the organized pedagogical process but when welcoming and seeing all children as well as at cases of inter-relations of the educational structures with the social communities and public institutions.
PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE SOCIETY WITH FOCUS ON EDUCATION
The census from 2001 shows that the total population of Bulgaria is 7 973 673. According to it the number of the people who identify themselves as Roma is approximately 5 %, according to experts the figure is 8-10 %. The Roma people occupy the lowest level in the social hierarchy. Their status is dramatically lower than the Bulgarian average, marked by high unemployment rates, bad living conditions, bad health, high illiteracy rates, social discrimination.
The Bulgarian Constitution states that “education for all children under the age 16 is compulsory, as is the rights to free elementary and secondary education”. The basic issues concerning the education in Bulgaria are set out in the Public Education Act. It ensures the conditions and guarantees equal rights for all children to receive education and provides possibilities for their further development and accomplishment of a high level of knowledge in the secondary educational level.
Besides the existing legal framework, the statistical date shows different pictures.
The Regular Report on Bulgaria’s Progress towards Accession for 2002 says that: “Participation in education remains poor. Poverty is one of the factors for that, as families cannot provide their children with basic items for school or children have to help with income generation. Out of Roma children who do not enter school, very few go on to secondary education. As reported last year, schools in Roma areas remain in practice segregated and offer low-quality education and poor facilities. Roma make up about 32 % of children in “special” schools and 21 % of children in labor education schools. Efforts need to be made to combat segregation and encourage integration. Whilst some initiatives are underway through donors to address segregation, this is not yet in practice a Government policy.” (2002 Regular Report on Bulgaria’s Progress towards Accession).
According to the existing data (09.02.2001) the proportion of the Roma students is as follows:
The total number of students is 1 007 544. Out of this number 106 171 are Roma, which makes 10,5 % from grades I to XII. The distribution is shown below:
The situation is almost the same in primary schools (1 – 4 class ): The total number of students is 326 148, 64 153 are from Roma origin, which makes 19,7 %. The total number of classes is 47 700, 4 515 (9,47 %) are Roma, which is a significant number. The Roma students are prevailing in 500 schools of which around 300 basic schools (1 – 4 classes) and 200 kindergartens.
At the moment the desegregation of the Roma where they are not more than 30-35 % is possible in 105 schools, of which 68 basic schools and 37 kindergartens in the bigger cities.
“The Framework Program for Equal Integration of the Roma in the Bulgarian Society” is one of the documents of thegovernment policy concerning the Roma people. Emphasizing the overall need to eliminate widespread discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity for social development and the educational component includes among others desegregation of Roma schools.
Unfortunately the transition period in Bulgaria from totalitarian regime to civil society has a negative impact on the educational system. Still most of the schools and especially those in the Roma neighborhoods do not receive enough funding. Therefore the schools are not repaired in the necessary scale and quality, textbooks, didactical materials and technical materials for education are insufficient. This leads to relevantly worse conditions and insufficient quality education.
In the Roma neighborhood schools, where an estimated 70 % of the total Roma population have attended or do attend these schools, they have many problems such as:
- high level of turnovers of teachers;
- low level of motivation of teachers;
- lack of parent interest on behalf of parents and social communities;
- not very good working conditions and lack of additional payments to the regular salaries;
- lack of specific preparation to work with children from minority groups;
- availability of some negative prejudices.
This leads to insufficient academic achievements of the Roma pupils at school and their low level of school attendance, which hardens the process of socialization of Roma children and their inclusion in the cognitive activities.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science there are approximately 30 000 – 40 000 dropouts each year, most of them are Roma. Despite the legal provisions, which provide opportunities for those students who have already dropped out and they can continue this rarely happens with the Roma children.
Preparatory classes attendance is extremely important in order to achieve a positive and more sustainable start to the school process. This is a critical period in which the foundation for the child’s future education is laid. Since last school year attending preparatory classes is obligatory for all children. Until now the traditional teacher training in the country does not provide for adequate and diverse knowledge of methods for working with minority children.
Very often, education does not include practical work with Roma children in the Roma neighborhoods. Because of that, the teachers working in Roma schools do not have sufficient preparation for that. Usually they do not have enough competencies about the Roma history, culture and language. It is very important also that do not have theoretical knowledge and practical skills for overcoming the exciting negative attitudes towards Roma.
In 2002 the Ministry of Education and Science prepared a Strategy to Promote Equal Integration of Children and Students from Ethnic Minorities in the Educational System with leading priority “desegregation of the education of the Roma children and their integration in mixed schools”. There are 5 strategic aims:
1. Promoting equal access to quality education;
2. Saving and developing cultural identity;
3. Creating prerequisites for successful realization;
4. Turning cultural diversity into resource and factor for mutual acquaintance and spiritual development of the grown-ups and creating an atmosphere of mutual respect, tolerance and understanding;
5. Establishing relevant socio-psychic atmosphere to encourage the present strategy.
According to the requirements of the Strategy Advisory Council on Education of the children and students from the minorities was established as a constantly working inter-government state-public body on expert. Its goal is to work in the following directions:
- creating and implementation of a national educational strategy for the integration of the students from minorities;
- suggesting particular measures for the desegregation of the schools in the Roma neighborhoods and their integration in the mainstream schools
- elaborating a particular educational policy to enrich of the curriculum with knowledge about the traditional ethnic communities in the country;
- coordination with the non-government sector;
- creating a pool of information for educational initiatives of national significance.
DESCRIPTION OF THE good practice:
“education for social justice and anti-violence initiatives With a focus on implementation in higher Education and model training school sites”
The term culture includes knowledge, rules, traditions, attitudes, which characterize the behavior of a certain group of people. Each group itself creates specific culture – a way of living and dispersed it among the members. The groups can be differentiated according to their regional, ethnic, religious, racial, gender, socio-cultural and other characteristics. Every person is simultaneously a member of various groups therefore is influenced by multiple cultures and these influences sometimes contradict with each other. Except cultural there are ethnic differences among people. The ethnic origin is a combination of cultural heritage, shared by a group of people with mutual nationality, culture and language.
Successful multicultural education is a complex of different factors.
The first one refers to the context of the process of integration of all children and students in the classroom: using different examples and contents from different cultural contexts to illustrate key concepts, generalizing principles.
The second factor includes knowledge about the process of its construction: active support of the children and students aiming at understanding how inner cultures influence the way in which the knowledge is constructed.
The third factor refers to causeless pedagogic, namely: connecting teaching styles with those of learning in order to improve the academic achievements of the children and students.
The forth factor is directed towards reducing prejudices: identification the profile of student’s attitudes to various ethnic groups and defining how they can be motivated through education.
The fifth factor is directed towards improving the kindergarten and school culture and the social structure. For this purpose it is necessary to conduct surveys of the targeted groups, of the most frequent practices, of the connections between children and students and teachers based on the age, ethnic and social lines.
In compliance with its mission and goals the SBSPF Bulgaria, has always been working in order to achieve and disseminate the ideas for democratic education and providing equal access to quality education for all children and those marginalized by the society. The philosophy of the program is to provide favorable conditions for the children to enjoy their childhood and to be prepared for the challenges of the XXI century. The major elements of the Program – individual approach, providing opportunities for choice, family involvement – are fulfilled through activities that stimulate the social, emotional, intellectual and physical development of the children.
Through the past years the SBSPF established many training model sites in the country – kindergartens, schools and universities. They carry out activities related to the Program popularization and establishment of relations with other preschools and schools, pedagogical faculties and communities. The modules which were developed include: Family Involvement, Creating Positive Classroom Environment, Interactive Teaching Methods, Education for social justice for Primary and Education for social justice for Adults. The aim of the training in Education for social justice for Adults is to make participants to liaison with values, opinions and feelings, connected with injustices, which they have experienced on cognitive and emotional level. The participants observe how oppression/violence has been practiced on them and through them. Then the participants analyze how hey unwillingly encourage behavior of oppression when teaching and how oppression continues to exist in the society. The SBSPF prepared all packages of materials necessary for the implementation of the activities included in the proposed plan for training the pedagogical teams and provided the trainers who conducted the trainings according to the specified topics.
The staff of the SBSPF strongly believes that the cooperation among the key partners is a prerequisite for successful implementation the Philosophy of the Program and its goal – providing the high quality education without violence for our future- the children.
Education for Social Justice is an active approach to challenging prejudices and stereotypes. It is necessary for each individual to actively intervene, challenge, and counter the personal and institutional behaviours that perpetuate oppression. The aim of the module “Education for social justice for Adults” is to make participants realize their own values, opinions and feelings with regard to unfair behaviour that they have experienced at cognitive and emotional level. They increase their knowledge, understanding, and sensitivity of mechanisms which perpetuate and maintain systems of domination, make a commitment to the process of building capacity for personal, professional, and institutional transformation.
Besides researching the results of the students’ academic achievements they have been interviewed and their teachers and parents. The aim of the interviews is to get information about the dominant social attitudes of the interviewees concerning the education and its quality.
The interview form for students includes 41 items. They are divided in three big thematic groups. The first group includes questions to help the students evaluate the educational process from their point of view and experience without violence.
In the second group are the statements regarding the preferred activities at school?
In the third group are the questions, researching the relations among peers and the other participants from the school life. The aim is to identify the dominant social attitudes. Statistical frequent distribution has been done of the initial data. The Bulgarians are taken as a basic group for comparison to the group of the Roma students. Based on the distributions the relative parts are identified on the choices of the target groups on the 3-level evaluation scale and comparison has been made between the Bulgarian and Roma students.
In the course of the research the parents of the students were also interviewed. The questionnaire includes 20 items. They are divided in two groups. By these questions the parents evaluate the organization and the content of the school classes (way of teaching, attendance, after-school activities and academic achievements).
In the second group are the questions where the parents evaluate the relations among their own children and their peers as well as they show the dominant attitudes of the parents towards the educational institution. Concerning the data processing it can be pointed out that frequency distribution have been used and based on the distributions, the relevant parts of the choices of the target group have been taken according to the 3-level scale. There is a high level of coincidence between the answers of the Bulgarian and Roma parents. Their answers are mainly in the third, the highest level of the scale. This reflects their full approval about the significant role the school plays in their children life against violence. The parents want to encourage their children to attend regularly classes and other after-school activities, to study hard to achieve high results, better education and better opportunities for successful life career.
Therefore, all parents that have been interviewed are unanimous about the extremely important role the school plays for their children development and better education. Everybody with no exception promote children to attend classes, to actively participate in school life, to interact with all the students at school. All parents want to see their children successful and well-educated citizens of a democratic society.
Teachers working in mixed classes have also been interviewed. The teachers think that teaching and communication with such types of classes is problematic and challenging for them as professionals. All of them mentioned that there is a need to improve their qualification as well as opportunity to participate actively in different educational programs concerning informal educational. Teachers believe these programs are extremely useful and effective and practically oriented. Using the gained knowledge and skills under the programs make teaching and interaction with the students more attractive, useful, extremely pleasant. This inevitably stimulates the ambition of students towards achieving higher academic results. Children become more self-reliable, motivated, engaged in school activities, they develop their critical and creative thinking. Besides, they obtain skills in team working, they learn to respect and understand each other.
In the interviews, the teachers show that they need additional information concerning the customs, culture and traditions in the Roma community, as this will improve their work with the Roma children and will bring about better understanding and more tolerant attitude towards their behavioral models, social attitudes and specific cultural differences.
DISCUSSING THE RESULTS
In conclusion it is pointed out that the preliminary planning, organization and implementation of the good practice is extremely useful for the educational system in the context of Blagoevgrad. The good practice provides actual feedback about the coming positive changes in the multiethnic classrooms, working under the Step by Step Program and orientates the experts toward the real opportunities for the school improvement process and the accompanying social interactions. The results achieved can be a model in other education environment where people with different ethnic background interact, receive quality education and opportunity for effective intellectual, personal and behavior expression without any prejudices behaviors without violence.
This can be the real basis to educate feeling for social justice, to develop necessary private abilities and skills at the young people regardless of their ethnic and religious believes and socio-economic status.
With respect to the student academic achievements, it is noticed that in the conditions of implementing the Step by Step Program Bulgarian and Roma children and students master successfully with the cognitive directions in the kindergarten and the school subjects.
The access to quality education, teaching and interaction in the multiethnic classroom provide various forms and ways of successful demonstration of the intellectual abilities of all students regardless of their ethnic origin, as well as their aspiration for higher academic achievements and full self presentation during the educational process.
Additionally valuable experience is gathered from the common activities with the children and students from different ethnic origin. Mutual understanding and tolerance is encouraged, the children idea about the social world is enriched the relations among adults from various communities are promoted.
The following tendencies can be outlined regarding the results of the interviews. The positive tendencies shown in the questionnaires with children and students are evidences for overcoming the negative attitude toward the kindergarten and school and learning. All interviewed students without exceptions are willing to learn, to attend classes regularly and achieve better results. They like the school and believe that it is important to be a part of its present and future. All interviewed students think that there are no essential personal or ethnic conflicts at school. All students are willing to play and learn with their peers regardless of their ethnicity. The students wish to continue their education, which is a guarantee for future realization in life.
Without exception Bulgarian and Roma parents show sincere desire their children to receive quality education.As the parent from Roma origin S. M. says: “They will learn how to communicate, to understand others”. Another parent, K. St. from Bulgarian origin adds: “Children get to know each other, learn a lot of things about themselves and the others”. Some of the parent’s share that it is impossible to help their children in preparing the lessons but all parents is unanimous that school life has good effect upon the physical and mental development of their children and provides opportunity for interaction with their peers and teachers regardless of their ethnic origin.
In the interviews with teachers positive results can be found in several directions. First, they give very high evaluation of the role of the different projects for improving their professional qualification, which provide quality education for all children and students. All teachers emphasize the important role of the trainings which gives skills and knowledge about anti-violence initiatives.
All teachers register improved environment and social attitudes in the classroom, as well as real opportunities for developing adequate skills in the students for work in mixed teams. All interviewees express satisfaction from their professional self-confidence and positive self-evaluation. The teachers apply interactive teaching methods in the classroom as well as other effective teaching strategies. They think that the trainings for professional development are highly efficient.
All teachers report about the positive change in their mutual work with the parents after their active involvement in the classroom activities where their children study.
In the end we can say that the knowledge about Education for social justice gives big opportunities for all participants to understand how to overcome different stereotypes, prejudices and violence.
The presentation of the Good practice emphasizes on the positive influence of the Step by Step Program (SBSP) in Bulgaria approving “-anti - violence initiatives achieving real open society” in the educational system. The preconditions for choosing this topic come out of the philosophy of the Program. As an alternative to the traditional educational system it applies the child-centered approach oriented towards their parents and teachers. The Program is open to the family, various social communities and institutions. Due to this fact it can be expected to have more significant impact and ensure wider dissemination of the positive effect in the changing contemporary society.
As an educational network in Bulgaria, SBSPF is closely worked with government institution and NGOs, faculty teachers and students from Universities, as well as with teachers, directors and parents.
· Does the access to quality education, applied in the Step by Step environment, contribute to successfully overcoming the violence as well as teaching social justice in the schools?
· Will this change be only verbal, in wards, will it be possible to observe it in practice - in the school and in the classroom?
In order to understand the problem we used verbal research techniques /discussions, questionnaires and interviews/ and direct observation of everyday life in the school - not only during the organized pedagogical process but when welcoming and seeing all children as well as at cases of inter-relations of the educational structures with the social communities and public institutions.
PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE SOCIETY WITH FOCUS ON EDUCATION
The census from 2001 shows that the total population of Bulgaria is 7 973 673. According to it the number of the people who identify themselves as Roma is approximately 5 %, according to experts the figure is 8-10 %. The Roma people occupy the lowest level in the social hierarchy. Their status is dramatically lower than the Bulgarian average, marked by high unemployment rates, bad living conditions, bad health, high illiteracy rates, social discrimination.
The Bulgarian Constitution states that “education for all children under the age 16 is compulsory, as is the rights to free elementary and secondary education”. The basic issues concerning the education in Bulgaria are set out in the Public Education Act. It ensures the conditions and guarantees equal rights for all children to receive education and provides possibilities for their further development and accomplishment of a high level of knowledge in the secondary educational level.
Besides the existing legal framework, the statistical date shows different pictures.
The Regular Report on Bulgaria’s Progress towards Accession for 2002 says that: “Participation in education remains poor. Poverty is one of the factors for that, as families cannot provide their children with basic items for school or children have to help with income generation. Out of Roma children who do not enter school, very few go on to secondary education. As reported last year, schools in Roma areas remain in practice segregated and offer low-quality education and poor facilities. Roma make up about 32 % of children in “special” schools and 21 % of children in labor education schools. Efforts need to be made to combat segregation and encourage integration. Whilst some initiatives are underway through donors to address segregation, this is not yet in practice a Government policy.” (2002 Regular Report on Bulgaria’s Progress towards Accession).
According to the existing data (09.02.2001) the proportion of the Roma students is as follows:
The total number of students is 1 007 544. Out of this number 106 171 are Roma, which makes 10,5 % from grades I to XII. The distribution is shown below:
The situation is almost the same in primary schools (1 – 4 class ): The total number of students is 326 148, 64 153 are from Roma origin, which makes 19,7 %. The total number of classes is 47 700, 4 515 (9,47 %) are Roma, which is a significant number. The Roma students are prevailing in 500 schools of which around 300 basic schools (1 – 4 classes) and 200 kindergartens.
At the moment the desegregation of the Roma where they are not more than 30-35 % is possible in 105 schools, of which 68 basic schools and 37 kindergartens in the bigger cities.
“The Framework Program for Equal Integration of the Roma in the Bulgarian Society” is one of the documents of thegovernment policy concerning the Roma people. Emphasizing the overall need to eliminate widespread discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity for social development and the educational component includes among others desegregation of Roma schools.
Unfortunately the transition period in Bulgaria from totalitarian regime to civil society has a negative impact on the educational system. Still most of the schools and especially those in the Roma neighborhoods do not receive enough funding. Therefore the schools are not repaired in the necessary scale and quality, textbooks, didactical materials and technical materials for education are insufficient. This leads to relevantly worse conditions and insufficient quality education.
In the Roma neighborhood schools, where an estimated 70 % of the total Roma population have attended or do attend these schools, they have many problems such as:
- high level of turnovers of teachers;
- low level of motivation of teachers;
- lack of parent interest on behalf of parents and social communities;
- not very good working conditions and lack of additional payments to the regular salaries;
- lack of specific preparation to work with children from minority groups;
- availability of some negative prejudices.
This leads to insufficient academic achievements of the Roma pupils at school and their low level of school attendance, which hardens the process of socialization of Roma children and their inclusion in the cognitive activities.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science there are approximately 30 000 – 40 000 dropouts each year, most of them are Roma. Despite the legal provisions, which provide opportunities for those students who have already dropped out and they can continue this rarely happens with the Roma children.
Preparatory classes attendance is extremely important in order to achieve a positive and more sustainable start to the school process. This is a critical period in which the foundation for the child’s future education is laid. Since last school year attending preparatory classes is obligatory for all children. Until now the traditional teacher training in the country does not provide for adequate and diverse knowledge of methods for working with minority children.
Very often, education does not include practical work with Roma children in the Roma neighborhoods. Because of that, the teachers working in Roma schools do not have sufficient preparation for that. Usually they do not have enough competencies about the Roma history, culture and language. It is very important also that do not have theoretical knowledge and practical skills for overcoming the exciting negative attitudes towards Roma.
In 2002 the Ministry of Education and Science prepared a Strategy to Promote Equal Integration of Children and Students from Ethnic Minorities in the Educational System with leading priority “desegregation of the education of the Roma children and their integration in mixed schools”. There are 5 strategic aims:
1. Promoting equal access to quality education;
2. Saving and developing cultural identity;
3. Creating prerequisites for successful realization;
4. Turning cultural diversity into resource and factor for mutual acquaintance and spiritual development of the grown-ups and creating an atmosphere of mutual respect, tolerance and understanding;
5. Establishing relevant socio-psychic atmosphere to encourage the present strategy.
According to the requirements of the Strategy Advisory Council on Education of the children and students from the minorities was established as a constantly working inter-government state-public body on expert. Its goal is to work in the following directions:
- creating and implementation of a national educational strategy for the integration of the students from minorities;
- suggesting particular measures for the desegregation of the schools in the Roma neighborhoods and their integration in the mainstream schools
- elaborating a particular educational policy to enrich of the curriculum with knowledge about the traditional ethnic communities in the country;
- coordination with the non-government sector;
- creating a pool of information for educational initiatives of national significance.
DESCRIPTION OF THE good practice:
“education for social justice and anti-violence initiatives With a focus on implementation in higher Education and model training school sites”
The term culture includes knowledge, rules, traditions, attitudes, which characterize the behavior of a certain group of people. Each group itself creates specific culture – a way of living and dispersed it among the members. The groups can be differentiated according to their regional, ethnic, religious, racial, gender, socio-cultural and other characteristics. Every person is simultaneously a member of various groups therefore is influenced by multiple cultures and these influences sometimes contradict with each other. Except cultural there are ethnic differences among people. The ethnic origin is a combination of cultural heritage, shared by a group of people with mutual nationality, culture and language.
Successful multicultural education is a complex of different factors.
The first one refers to the context of the process of integration of all children and students in the classroom: using different examples and contents from different cultural contexts to illustrate key concepts, generalizing principles.
The second factor includes knowledge about the process of its construction: active support of the children and students aiming at understanding how inner cultures influence the way in which the knowledge is constructed.
The third factor refers to causeless pedagogic, namely: connecting teaching styles with those of learning in order to improve the academic achievements of the children and students.
The forth factor is directed towards reducing prejudices: identification the profile of student’s attitudes to various ethnic groups and defining how they can be motivated through education.
The fifth factor is directed towards improving the kindergarten and school culture and the social structure. For this purpose it is necessary to conduct surveys of the targeted groups, of the most frequent practices, of the connections between children and students and teachers based on the age, ethnic and social lines.
In compliance with its mission and goals the SBSPF Bulgaria, has always been working in order to achieve and disseminate the ideas for democratic education and providing equal access to quality education for all children and those marginalized by the society. The philosophy of the program is to provide favorable conditions for the children to enjoy their childhood and to be prepared for the challenges of the XXI century. The major elements of the Program – individual approach, providing opportunities for choice, family involvement – are fulfilled through activities that stimulate the social, emotional, intellectual and physical development of the children.
Through the past years the SBSPF established many training model sites in the country – kindergartens, schools and universities. They carry out activities related to the Program popularization and establishment of relations with other preschools and schools, pedagogical faculties and communities. The modules which were developed include: Family Involvement, Creating Positive Classroom Environment, Interactive Teaching Methods, Education for social justice for Primary and Education for social justice for Adults. The aim of the training in Education for social justice for Adults is to make participants to liaison with values, opinions and feelings, connected with injustices, which they have experienced on cognitive and emotional level. The participants observe how oppression/violence has been practiced on them and through them. Then the participants analyze how hey unwillingly encourage behavior of oppression when teaching and how oppression continues to exist in the society. The SBSPF prepared all packages of materials necessary for the implementation of the activities included in the proposed plan for training the pedagogical teams and provided the trainers who conducted the trainings according to the specified topics.
The staff of the SBSPF strongly believes that the cooperation among the key partners is a prerequisite for successful implementation the Philosophy of the Program and its goal – providing the high quality education without violence for our future- the children.
Education for Social Justice is an active approach to challenging prejudices and stereotypes. It is necessary for each individual to actively intervene, challenge, and counter the personal and institutional behaviours that perpetuate oppression. The aim of the module “Education for social justice for Adults” is to make participants realize their own values, opinions and feelings with regard to unfair behaviour that they have experienced at cognitive and emotional level. They increase their knowledge, understanding, and sensitivity of mechanisms which perpetuate and maintain systems of domination, make a commitment to the process of building capacity for personal, professional, and institutional transformation.
Besides researching the results of the students’ academic achievements they have been interviewed and their teachers and parents. The aim of the interviews is to get information about the dominant social attitudes of the interviewees concerning the education and its quality.
The interview form for students includes 41 items. They are divided in three big thematic groups. The first group includes questions to help the students evaluate the educational process from their point of view and experience without violence.
In the second group are the statements regarding the preferred activities at school?
In the third group are the questions, researching the relations among peers and the other participants from the school life. The aim is to identify the dominant social attitudes. Statistical frequent distribution has been done of the initial data. The Bulgarians are taken as a basic group for comparison to the group of the Roma students. Based on the distributions the relative parts are identified on the choices of the target groups on the 3-level evaluation scale and comparison has been made between the Bulgarian and Roma students.
In the course of the research the parents of the students were also interviewed. The questionnaire includes 20 items. They are divided in two groups. By these questions the parents evaluate the organization and the content of the school classes (way of teaching, attendance, after-school activities and academic achievements).
In the second group are the questions where the parents evaluate the relations among their own children and their peers as well as they show the dominant attitudes of the parents towards the educational institution. Concerning the data processing it can be pointed out that frequency distribution have been used and based on the distributions, the relevant parts of the choices of the target group have been taken according to the 3-level scale. There is a high level of coincidence between the answers of the Bulgarian and Roma parents. Their answers are mainly in the third, the highest level of the scale. This reflects their full approval about the significant role the school plays in their children life against violence. The parents want to encourage their children to attend regularly classes and other after-school activities, to study hard to achieve high results, better education and better opportunities for successful life career.
Therefore, all parents that have been interviewed are unanimous about the extremely important role the school plays for their children development and better education. Everybody with no exception promote children to attend classes, to actively participate in school life, to interact with all the students at school. All parents want to see their children successful and well-educated citizens of a democratic society.
Teachers working in mixed classes have also been interviewed. The teachers think that teaching and communication with such types of classes is problematic and challenging for them as professionals. All of them mentioned that there is a need to improve their qualification as well as opportunity to participate actively in different educational programs concerning informal educational. Teachers believe these programs are extremely useful and effective and practically oriented. Using the gained knowledge and skills under the programs make teaching and interaction with the students more attractive, useful, extremely pleasant. This inevitably stimulates the ambition of students towards achieving higher academic results. Children become more self-reliable, motivated, engaged in school activities, they develop their critical and creative thinking. Besides, they obtain skills in team working, they learn to respect and understand each other.
In the interviews, the teachers show that they need additional information concerning the customs, culture and traditions in the Roma community, as this will improve their work with the Roma children and will bring about better understanding and more tolerant attitude towards their behavioral models, social attitudes and specific cultural differences.
DISCUSSING THE RESULTS
In conclusion it is pointed out that the preliminary planning, organization and implementation of the good practice is extremely useful for the educational system in the context of Blagoevgrad. The good practice provides actual feedback about the coming positive changes in the multiethnic classrooms, working under the Step by Step Program and orientates the experts toward the real opportunities for the school improvement process and the accompanying social interactions. The results achieved can be a model in other education environment where people with different ethnic background interact, receive quality education and opportunity for effective intellectual, personal and behavior expression without any prejudices behaviors without violence.
This can be the real basis to educate feeling for social justice, to develop necessary private abilities and skills at the young people regardless of their ethnic and religious believes and socio-economic status.
With respect to the student academic achievements, it is noticed that in the conditions of implementing the Step by Step Program Bulgarian and Roma children and students master successfully with the cognitive directions in the kindergarten and the school subjects.
The access to quality education, teaching and interaction in the multiethnic classroom provide various forms and ways of successful demonstration of the intellectual abilities of all students regardless of their ethnic origin, as well as their aspiration for higher academic achievements and full self presentation during the educational process.
Additionally valuable experience is gathered from the common activities with the children and students from different ethnic origin. Mutual understanding and tolerance is encouraged, the children idea about the social world is enriched the relations among adults from various communities are promoted.
The following tendencies can be outlined regarding the results of the interviews. The positive tendencies shown in the questionnaires with children and students are evidences for overcoming the negative attitude toward the kindergarten and school and learning. All interviewed students without exceptions are willing to learn, to attend classes regularly and achieve better results. They like the school and believe that it is important to be a part of its present and future. All interviewed students think that there are no essential personal or ethnic conflicts at school. All students are willing to play and learn with their peers regardless of their ethnicity. The students wish to continue their education, which is a guarantee for future realization in life.
Without exception Bulgarian and Roma parents show sincere desire their children to receive quality education.As the parent from Roma origin S. M. says: “They will learn how to communicate, to understand others”. Another parent, K. St. from Bulgarian origin adds: “Children get to know each other, learn a lot of things about themselves and the others”. Some of the parent’s share that it is impossible to help their children in preparing the lessons but all parents is unanimous that school life has good effect upon the physical and mental development of their children and provides opportunity for interaction with their peers and teachers regardless of their ethnic origin.
In the interviews with teachers positive results can be found in several directions. First, they give very high evaluation of the role of the different projects for improving their professional qualification, which provide quality education for all children and students. All teachers emphasize the important role of the trainings which gives skills and knowledge about anti-violence initiatives.
All teachers register improved environment and social attitudes in the classroom, as well as real opportunities for developing adequate skills in the students for work in mixed teams. All interviewees express satisfaction from their professional self-confidence and positive self-evaluation. The teachers apply interactive teaching methods in the classroom as well as other effective teaching strategies. They think that the trainings for professional development are highly efficient.
All teachers report about the positive change in their mutual work with the parents after their active involvement in the classroom activities where their children study.
In the end we can say that the knowledge about Education for social justice gives big opportunities for all participants to understand how to overcome different stereotypes, prejudices and violence.
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