“It’s different with the country people”: Irish Traveller Women Managing Home and School Environments

Author(s):

Tamsin Cavaliero(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 01 A, Migrant Parents' Perspectives, Engagement and Community Partnership

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-22

13:15-14:45

Room:

K3.21

Chair:

Rocío García Carrión

Contribution

This presentation details the manner in which Irish Traveller women negotiate different spaces, in particular, the home-school interface within the context of a rapidly changing society. Previous writers (Helleiner 2000; Okely 1983) on Gypsy Traveller women recognised that withdrawal from the workforce into the home place has led to a reduction in Traveller women’s participation in the wider society (Okely 1975). Yet increasing engagement by Traveller women within the educational sector has had a significant impact of the way in which Traveller women’s identity is understood and negotiated both within and between communities.

This study, conducted over a six-year period in the North Western region of the Republic of Ireland is qualitative in nature and explores the lives of a small group of women from an ethnographic perspective. My relationships with the people involved in this study began fifteen years ago in 2000 and developed out of my experiences of working with the Travelling Community in Ireland in a variety of posts which took place in the arena of education.

The research is located in Baile Lucht Siúil, a fictional place that roughly translates as The Home-place of the Irish Travellers. Whilst the study focuses on the group known as Irish Travellers it is particularly cognisant of the fact that the majority of the participants in this study move between the U.K and Ireland.

Travellers and Roma experience marginalisation across Europe, in particular spatial marginalisation that impacts on their ability to participate in society through education and employment (European Parliament 2011). In the Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion the European Commission has stated that Roma women are more likely to experience social exclusion than both Roma men and women in the majority community, and are often victims of double discrimination: discrimination on the grounds of gender and ethnic origin. Women, as the primary carers in the family, are more likely to come into contact with service providers and members of the wider settled community through schools, social welfare, doctors etc. and consequently experience significantly more discrimination as a result. Travellers are highlighted as one of Ireland’s most vulnerable groups under the Europe 2020 Strategy. The National Reform Programme for Ireland acknowledges that targeted social inclusion programmes will be aimed at them. In 2006, the Irish Government published its national social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, which sets out a range of priority actions for Travellers in the areas of accommodation, education outcomes, opportunities for employment and communication between Travellers and the settled community. Recent Irish Government reports (Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures 2014, p. 52) identify Young Travellers and Early School Leavers as ‘a priority in terms of policy and provision’.

The way in which this research was conducted was by examining the following six key questions. Firstly, how does the school environment impact on Traveller women’s experience of themselves? Secondly, how has Traveller women’s educational experience changed over time? Thirdly, how has Traveller women’s home experience changed over time? Fourthly, how do Traveller women experience these different spaces? Fifthly, how do different contexts impact the choice of behaviour and/or response? Finally, how is education shifting Traveller identities?

Following Magyari-Vincze (2006, p. 6) this presentation recognises the complex intersections of different social process and locations for Traveller women including, gender, ethnicity and class, family, education, nationhood, peer group, generation / life stage, nomadic practice, and minority / state relations.

Method

The methods utilised for this study were qualitative in nature and explored the lives of a small group of Irish Travellers from an ethnographic perspective. This research was approved via an ethics committee prior to beginning fieldwork. This research evolved through a number of stages. My initial research idea was to examine Travellers’ experiences of education. As I became engaged in the research process, however, I began to reconsider my understanding of the role that education in home and school contexts plays in shaping Travellers’ gendered identities, which, in turn, affects the ways in which they experience the education system. The research, therefore, developed throughout the process, through a number of phases, into an investigation of the manner in which Traveller women negotiate different spaces, in particular, how they negotiate the home-school interface within the context of a rapidly changing society. Twenty eight Travellers were interviewed in total, comprising 25 women (18 - 45 years of age) and 3 men (20 - 54 years of age) who lived in a variety of housing situations including trailers, halting sites, council housing, and private rented accommodation. The majority of the participants had at some point in their lives moved between the UK and Ireland. Whilst 45 years of age may seem relatively young in terms of the sedentary community, the lifespan of Travellers tends to be an average of 11.5 years less for women than that of the sedentary community 15 years less for men (AITHS 2010). I had planned to interview equal numbers of men and women, however, during the interviewing process it became apparent that Travellers’ perceived education as situated in the realm of women’s business, and furthermore, I had better relationships with the Traveller women as we had known each other longer. I, therefore, decided to modify the study in order to reflect this and to gain as much information as possible. Of the men that were interviewed all had spent time in England; this experience seemed to give them a different perspective as they returned to Ireland with more proactive views on education and felt that they were a vital part of their children’s’ education. Moreover, those men interviewed tended to be the ones who had spent longer in the education system, which gave them more confidence when engaging with it.

Expected Outcomes

Changing spatial practices are influenced by external forces, which, in turn, impact on the way in which Travellers experience spaces. Traveller lifestyles are certainly changing, with more engagement in education, but these changes bring with them added tensions and conflict, which are experienced within the home and family environment. Whilst increasing sedentarism is foregrounded in much of Traveller literature, what seems to be apparent from the findings from this research is that concepts such as nomadism are experienced at particular times throughout the life cycle. In addition, outside external forces have altered the way in which nomadism is practised so that whilst Travellers may engage in nomadism, their experience of it is different in that they are increasingly isolated from extended family or trapped in inadequate sites which limit the manner in which they are able to engage with outside society. Therefore, it is misleading to suggest that all Travellers want to remain outside of sedentary spaces, rather there are external state forces, which constrict their movement, lifestyle practices and obligations towards extended family. These forces are experienced in a range of settings (home and school) and influence the manner in which they engage. Traveller responses to these forces are therefore limited to either disengaging or retreating to informal economic activities, which place them further outside the wider society. Gender also operates to limit the manner in which Travellers negotiate certain spaces, however, again outside forces are complicit in forcing Travellers to adopt particular stances such as crossing national borders, removing children from school or refusing council housing. In addition, older Traveller women are complicit in enforcing appropriately gendered morality amongst younger Traveller women through ascribing changes in Traveller value systems to encroaching outside influences from across the Irish Sea.

References

AITHS (2010) All Ireland Traveller Health Study: Our Geels. All Ireland Traveller Health Study Team School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin. DCYA (2014) Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: the national policy framework for children and young people 2014-2020, Dublin: Stationery Office. Department of the Taoiseach (2006) Towards 2016: ten-year framework social partnership agreement 2006–2015, Dublin: Stationery Office. European Commission (2012) Europe 2020 in Ireland. . European Parliament (2011) Measures to Promote the Situation of the Roma EU Citizens in the European Union, Brussels: European Parliament Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Policy Department C – Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, Study No. PE 432.747 and "Country reports" (PE 432 751) written by Bartlett, W., Benini, R. and Gordon, C. Greenfields, M. (2008) “A Good Job for a Traveller?”: Exploring Gypsy and Travellers’ Perceptions of Health and Social Care Careers: Barriers and Solutions to Recruitment, Training and Retention of Social Care Students, Aimhigher South East Health Care Strand, Guildford, Surrey. Helleiner, J. (2000) Irish Travellers: Racism and the Politics of Culture, University of Toronto Press. Levinson, M. and Sparkes, A. (2004) ‘Gypsy identity and orientations to space’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 33(6), 704–734. Levinson, M. and Sparkes, A. (2006) ‘Conflicting value systems: Gypsy females and the home-school interface’, Research Papers in Education 21(1), March, 79-97. Magyari-Vincze, E. (2006) ‘Social Exclusion at the Crossroads of Gender, Ethnicity and Class: A View of Romani Women’s Reproductive Health’ Policy Paper, CEU Centre for Policy Studies, Budapest. Okely, J. (1975) ‘Gypsy women: models in conflict’ Ardener, S. ed., Perceiving Women, London: Malaby Press. Okely, J. (1983) The Traveller-Gypsies, Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Tamsin Cavaliero (presenting / submitting)

IT Sligo, Ireland

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