While the drop-out rate from compulsory education in Finland is below one per cent, among the population as a whole, (OSF, 2019), it’s estimated, that 20 per cent of the Finnish Roma leave basic schooling without a leaving certificate (Rajala et al., 2011). In a study among early school leavers in Finland (Pikkarainen et al., 2019), it was noted that leaving school, and indeed, participating in school life is a complex process for some of the Finnish Roma minority. The Roma students face obstacles due to a general prejudice within society (Berlin, 2015), which affect them within the school environment, as well as in free time settings. Coping strategies have changed in recent years as the world has changed in many ways, and many Finnish Roma have found successful ways to actively participate in Finnish society (Friman-Korpela, 2014; Stenroos, 2019b). It’s notable though, that the Finnish Roma are not a homogenous group, but also include families with accumulating societal problems (Roman, 2018; Stenroos, 2019a), the children of which may end up at risk of dropping out of education. It’s important to give voice to the people in the margin of the minority and listen to the perspective of lived experiences, in order to find relevant topics and effective solutions that meet the needs of those in vulnerable situations (Caine et al., 2017; Lessard et al., 2018). By the means of a narrative interview (Clandinin, 2013; Lessard et al., 2018) the present study aims to widen our understanding of the multiple levels of obstacles the children and youth of families living in marginalised positions face within the school environment.

In order to capture and identify significant topics in the richness and multiple levels of narrative data, we used a theoretical framework of three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013; Vansteenkiste et al., 2020), defined as a sub theory of Self Determination Theory, SDT, (Deci & Ryan, 1985), to organise and analyse storied experience. SDT claims that the basic psychological needs are fundamental nutriments of human development and wellbeing so that if the needs are thwarted, people perceive frustration related to one or more needs, the healthy development is disturbed and motivation towards activities where the needs are not satisfied, diminishes (Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013; Vansteenkiste et al., 2020). Support for the need for autonomy, and the concept of autonomy as itself, especially in the developmental age of childhood and adolescence, is intertwined with structure, which enhances the development of skills and ability to make choices accordingly (Ratelle & Duchesne, 2014; Ryan & Deci, 2020).

In this paper we are focusing on experiences related to the need for autonomy, taking into account both satisfaction and frustration of the need, as storied in the interviews. Furthermore, we distinguish three levels of generality, as defined by Vallerand and Ratelle (Vallerand & Ratelle, 2002), a general level, a contextual/domain-specific level and a situational level. We aim to investigate how the participants experienced satisfaction and frustration of the need for autonomy, as storied in the narrative interviews.

The participants of the study belong to a group of a larger study, which was conducted among Finnish early school leavers who were, at the time of interviewing, imprisoned. (Pikkarainen et al., 2019). During the recruiting process of the participants, six Finnish Roma, three male and three female prisoners, among other participants coming from cultural majority backgrounds, volunteered to share their experiences of school. The age of the participants was between 20 and 40 years. The research interviews with participants were conducted during 2016 and 2017. Additional interviews were carried out with four specialists, who had a background in the field of student support focusing on Finnish Roma students. Two of the specialists also had a Finnish Roma background. We carried out narrative interviewing processes, meeting with each participant in prison three times, in collaboration with the prison personnel to make practical arrangements for the interviews. In between the meetings we transcribed the interviews and created interim narrative accounts. We had the interim texts with us when talking with the participants again, so as to enhance them, to propose changes if needed, as well as to help search for mutual understanding and meaning of what was told. After the interviewing process, we coded the narrative texts, using ATLAS.ti7, using the three basic psychological needs as main codes, in addition to more practical and specific sub-codes for each need identified in the storied experience. For this paper, we categorised the codes related to the need for autonomy into three levels of generality, in order to identify power structures which have had an impact on the experiences and choices the participants shared.

At a general level we identified a biased power relation between institutionally expressed expectations to school attendance and a cultural need to participate the culturally shaped, shared life of the extended family. The structure of the Finnish Roma culture, and the strong sense of belonging together with the people of the extended family, formulated positive elements, from which the participants found satisfaction for their need for autonomy. While cultural prejudice, as a general level element of need frustration, caused disengagement in school society, the participants found an alternative source for satisfaction of the need for autonomy within their cultural society. Accumulating problems in familial setting, coping with a lack of parental care, poverty, and for some participants the need to avoid members of another Finnish Roma family, restricted options and undermined the participants’ ability to persevere in school. Outspoken prejudices in school and rejection from the peer group, as contextual level elements related to need satisfaction, added obstacles for the participants. Positive remarks about a sense of autonomy were expressed occasionally within the school environment. It was notable that a neutral attitude from the teachers was perceived as a positive element. This indicates that struggling with prejudice was a general level need thwarting element, a life condition, daily present. This invites us to explore, what kind of hidden curricula influence our school societies. We need to consider, who has the right to define, for instance, which is more important; to be present at school for a certain period of time, or to be present in an important meeting of extended family. We need to build mutual respect and negotiate solutions, that are not only based on the mindset of the majority, but also takes into account the perspectives of neglected minorities, such as the Finnish Roma, and other minorities elsewhere.

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