The cultural responsiveness of teacher candidates towards Roma pupils in Serbia and Slovenia – case studies

Abstract

In many countries, there is a growing need for teacher awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences, what is often called culturally responsive teaching. This is why teacher education institutions are making significant efforts to require student teachers to enrol in courses that focus on understanding, tolerance and acceptance of differences in others. Determining beliefs of student teachers towards the diversity of pupils at the onset of their studies is critical for providing teacher education that more efficiently challenges implicit beliefs and biases. The main objective in this paper is therefore to determine the initial beliefs of student teachers concerning the Roma population, Europe’s largest ethnic minority. Research was conducted at the Faculty of Education at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the Teacher Training Faculty at the University of Belgrade in Serbia. The results of the study suggest that most student teachers are in favour of schooling Roma pupils in regular schools; however, most of them would not like to have them in their classes. Most student teachers are aware of the discrimination against Roma pupils in schools; however, they are not ready to engage in closer interactions with Roma families. The implications of these findings for teacher education programmes are subsequently discussed.