One of the remaining challenges identified in the Spanish context is the persistence of social inequalities suffered by the Roma population. For instance, in Spain in 2013, 72.3% of the Roma population lived in social exclusion conditions while 23.5% of the non-Roma population was affected (Foessa, 2014). As in many European countries, the Spanish case illustrates the connection between educational and social exclusion and reflects on howthe trajectories of educational segregation in early childhood turn into several inequalities throughout the life cycle (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2014). If the Roma community has traditionally had to face situations of discrimination and marginalization, the Roma woman has especially suffered from being subject to a triple exclusion: gender, ethnicity and educational (Sordé, Flecha&Alexiu, 2013). Taking this situation into account, this paper focuses on the contributions that Roma and Gypsy women are making in various Learning Communities (LC) in Spain. LC(Flecha&Soler, 2013) is a project based on the implementation of a set of Successful Educational Actions oriented toward the transformation of educational contexts to maximize learning opportunities for all. Specifically, in this paper we focus on the potentiality derived from the participation of Roma and Gypsy women in the modalities of educational participation implemented in the LC. The results presented come from a longitudinal study carried out during the last 10 years (2006-2016) using mixed methods. This research has been carried out through 3 research projects: the project of the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission INCLUD-ED, and two research projects funded by the Spanish National RTD Plan: EXIT-Poverty and EDUFAM. Among the results obtained, we highlight the impact generated by the participation of Roma women in the Interactive Groups –an inclusive organization of the classroom that involves women during the academic activities of the students – and in family education ¬– training coursesmainly addressed to obtain an official certificate and based on the needs expressed by the women themselves¬. These two types of educational participation have been shown to contribute to break the circles of educational exclusion traditionally suffered by these women and their children.
