Tackling Negative Representation: The Use of Storytelling As a Critical Pedagogical Tool for Positive Representation of Roma

Abstract

This article focuses on the negative representation of Roma in Greece in the early twenty-first century. It investigates how negative feedback takes the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy that suppresses the self-esteem of young Roma and maintains a distance between Romani identity and education despite several positive yet little known examples of Romani scientists and scholars. The article questions how negative Romani images canbe reversed in order to enhance Roma’s educational success. The importance of innovative educational activities based on Romani literature, critical multiculturalism, and the parameter of Romani bilingualism is highlighted. Particularly, the article focuses on the power and the echo that stories can have (storytelling),where protagonists have a Romani connection or identity and are portrayed as positive models, both within classrooms with Romani students and within a society where the idea of Romani literature is a fantasy.