General Description: At a European level, numerous policies have targeted Roma’s inclusion, however, significant changes in Roma lives have not been reported (Miskovic, 2013). Roma remain discriminated against in all EU countries (D’Arcy, 2014). Education is one of the key axes of the Member States’ integration measures (EC, 2016). Children from Roma communities remain among the persistently lowest academic achievers in many European countries (Symeou, Luciak & Gobbo, 2009) and the same is true in Greece (Kostouli & Mitakidou, 2009; Dragonas, 2012) despite the national programmes which have targeted Roma’s schooling for the last two decades. Recently, the Greek government has started to design policies regarding not only Roma’s compulsory schooling but also participation in secondary and higher education. This paper focuses on the accounts of twenty Greek Roma who have entered higher education regarding the role that some community factors played in their educational pathways. The paper argues that some community factors disrupted patterns of underachievement and supported educational success for the participants.

Background: In Greece, the Roma are Greek citizens who are not officially recognised as a national/ethnic or linguistic minority (Kostadinova, 2011). Roma’s legal status results in there being little available data about the Roma community in Greece (Dragonas, 2012). Approximately, the Roma population in Greece is estimated to be at least 150,000, while some reports raise the number to 265,000 (Parthenis & Fragoulis, 2016). It should be noted that some aspects described in this paper do not characterise all the Roma to the same degree, because the Roma in Greece are not a homogeneous group (Markou, 2008). Without denying the specificities of some Roma groups, it could be said that most Roma in Greece speak Romani, their community language, are settled residents and are traders (Nikolaou, 2009). Moreover, they are frequently reviled and they experience forms of social exclusion (Dragonas, 2012). The discrimination of the Roma at a social level is also reflected in the educational settings. Considerable attempts have been made to encourage the educational inclusion of Roma students, largely through programmes aimed at encouraging Roma’s school attendance during compulsory education. However, significant problems are still reported (Parthenis & Fragoulis, 2016). In contrast to the usual emphasis on Roma’s educational disadvantage, this paper focuses on twenty Greek Roma who entered higher education. In particular, this paper examines the contribution of community factors on the participants’ educational progression. With the term community, I refer to the informants’ networks of relationships with (non-Roma) Greek and Roma groups. Although, school could be considered a part of community, I discuss the role of school factors in Roma’s educational progression separately elsewhere.

Research Focus: This paper examines the contribution of community factors towards the Roma participants’ educationally successful pathways. Accessing higher education is used as a proxy for educational success in this study, although what counts as educational success is contestable. Entrance to higher education is taken as a marker of educational success because in Greek society, higher education holds high symbolic value and is considered to be a lever for social mobility (Sianou‐Kyrgiou & Tsiplakides, 2011; Themelis, 2013).

Conceptual framework: Factors of class, culture and familiarity with the system all play a part in students’ progression. These attributes have been discussed as forms of capital by Pierre Bourdieu. In this paper, I draw on Bourdieusian concepts of habitus and capital in order to analyse how some community factors served as sources of cultural and social capital for the participants (Bourdieu, 2004) enhancing their educational progression. This paper analyses the role of these community “factors” in the participants’ secondary socialisation and in reshaping their habitus and social practices.

Roma with successful educational paths in Greece are a ‘hard to access’ group (Trevor and Newburn, 2001), in part because no official data for Roma students are held by any Greek higher institutions. Access to potential participants was facilitated by gatekeepers, such as Professors at Greek Universities, Services at the Greek Ministry of Education and NGOs. Ιn many cases, some participants had been involved in specialist and targeted Roma programmes and thus, their background was known to the gatekeepers. Eventually, these twenty participants who have entered higher education were accessed through snowballing techniques, ‘from one case to the next’ (Flick 2009: 110), as in many cases, some participants I accessed through some gatekeepers knew other Roma friends or relatives who have also entered university and suggested them as potential interviewees. In-depth interviews were conducted with these twenty participants who self-identified as Roma to investigate their accounts of success and the factors involved in their progression. The interviews have been transcribed into text (in Greek) and have been coded through a process of open coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 102). This article analyses the influence of ‘community factors’ on the participants’ uptake of higher education.

All twenty participants recognised the influence of community aspects on their progression. In most cases, it had been key persons in the local community, individual adults, organised groups and institutions –such as the church, religious groups and volunteer organisations- who made a significant contribution to the participants’ educational pathways. In particular, the participants described the influence of community factors on their progression as follows: a) Ten participants emphasised that their social connections with non-Roma peers have contributed to their accumulation of social capital which was useful in the field of education. b) ‘Significant others’ helped some participants. In most cases, non-Roma persons in the locality helped some participants either through offering advice or through offering practical help (e.g. tutors who offered free lessons). In some cases, older educated and high-profile Roma inspired and supported twelve of the participants serving as Role Models. c) Religious support was identified as having influenced six participants’ pathways. Attending the Sunday school, reading religious books, getting inspired by priests and theologists to aim at non-material goals influenced these participants. The impact of religion on educational success, especially through the students’ accumulation of social and cultural capital, echoes Byfield’s (2008) study where the term ‘Divine capital’ described the spiritual connection Black boys in the US and UK who entered elite universities had with God. d) The influence of volunteers and organisations emerged as a key variable for two participants who had received practical help with homework and extra-curricular incentives by an NGO. By focusing on how community factors influenced the uptake of higher education for some Greek Roma, this paper informs domestic and European stakeholders who need to cooperate and exchange information about best practice and positive interventions in order to promote the educational and social inclusion of the Roma more widely (Farkas, 2014).

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