Different socialization in family and school in multicultural societies and the challenges of interactions between cultures have drawn the social researchers’ attention to the need for more empirical research based on re-conceptualization and operationalization of dual-cultural adaptation (Berry, 1974; Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martínez, 2000; Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013, Safa, Umaña & Taylor, 2021). The earlier assumption of biculturalism leading to marginalization by being trapped between the two cultures has been refuted by numerous studies revealing that dual-cultural orientation (heritage and host) contributes to a greater individual's adjustment  (LaFromboise & Gerton, 1993; Berry, 2005; Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013; Safa, Umaña & Taylor, 2021; Stogianni et al., 2021). Namely, the individual internalized system of values, beliefs, competences and knowledge constructed from the two cultures promote to access, integrate, and switch between cultural frames of reference across multiple domains. Research highlights the significance of enhancing awareness of bicultural competences for psychosocial adjustment and resilience. To change the cognitive-behavioral attitude of belonging to an undervalued minority culture, it is necessary to mobilize community cultural wealth, networking, and navigational capital from the part of the individual (Yosso, 2005, Safa, Umaña & Taylor, 2021). However, that certainly places a significant task on institutions to build a more bicultural learning environment of migrant or minority ethnic learners. A bicultural approach and intervention would be particularly relevant in the education of Roma children and young people, where the rejection of the heritage (or ethnic minority) culture and its replacement by the dominant culture (acculturation or assimilation) seems to be the only strategy proved by the majority. Unlike other nations the Roma, although not homogeneous, are a 'caste-like', 'forced minority' (Ogbu and Simons, 1998; Moldenhawer, 2014) across Europe. Several Roma Strategies implemented at both EU and national levels in recent decades address the structural social inequalities, stigmatizations and discrimination they face with focusing on Roma children's rights and equal access to education, support in academic achievement, and prevention of early school leaving. However, annual surveys by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights find that Member States' efforts result in limited and uneven progress in employment, education, health care and housing for Roma (European Union FRA, 2023). Surveys even confirm that inclusion-oriented education policies resulted an average of 8% more pupils in segregated institutions (European Union FRA, 2023:39). In Hungary, the proportion of Roma pupils successfully completing primary school has increased in recent decades, but one in two Roma young people drop out of secondary school (Kertesi and Kézdi 2016). Although, international research provide a robust evidence for the positive correlation between the existence and awareness of bicultural competences and learning outcomes in case of different dual-cultures, I have not found any literature or research on Roma biculturalism in my preliminary research. Most research focuses on catching-up (assimilation), deprivation, difficulties of integration, Roma culture is rarely given equal value. My research aims to expand the scope of the bicultural approach for the Roma youth by exploring the role of the Gandhi High School in Pécs in positively reinforcing Roma cultural and minority identity and raising awareness of biculturalism. The high school started immediately after the political transition in Hungary in the early 1990s when the recognition of the Roma as an ethnic minority (joining to the other twelve national minorities) in the Minority Act (Act LXXVII/1993)  ensured the cultural right to launch the school as an innovative initiative.  At the level of educational policy, the new Education Act (Act LXXIX/1993), which guaranteed educational pluralism, cultural identity and freedom of education, gave the chance to an inclusive teachers’ community to organize a bicultural learning environment with a completely new approach.

My research questions focus on the fulfillment of the institution's declared bicultural goals, its role in Roma minority education and its practices. On the other hand, the reflections of the graduates between 2000-2003 will provide insight to how they experienced the bicultural learning context, whether they developed a bicultural identity; and whether bicultural competences helped them in adjustment. 1) Institutional and educational policy dimension How did the democratising education and minority policy support the Gandhi Foundation to launch the first Roma national high? 2) Community and personal pedagogical dimension (the teachers and other implementers): How were the stated objectives fulfilled and were they in line with personal activities and motivations? 3) The dimension of the students’ experience: What were the students' understandings of the intentions of the founders and the teachers? What were their motivations for learning? What role did Gandhi High School play in enriching cultural, social and psychological capital? Did the teaching of ethnic-minority culture and language reinforce their Gypsy/Roma identity; and did this identity result in a positive self-image? Methods 1) Document analyses Analyzing the available sources of the documents of the institution and education and minority policy of the period (legislation, founding documents, pedagogical program, curriculum, other school rules and regulations, reports, architectural plans, summaries of the Board of Trustees meetings) evidences are provided about the awareness of bicultural institutional socialisation processes and the recognition of family socialisation; the tools and practices of resilience and capital accumulation; and issues of bicultural identity. 2) Semi-structured narrative interviews - with three founding teachers and 6 selected from the first community of teachers (n=14) by interview focus on the intersection of individual and institutional motivations and goals, and teacher preparation. - The focus of the semi-structured narrative interviews with twenty students (2000-2003) from the 2000-2003 graduating cohort (population: n=102): - For the narrative interviews, I formed two groups of students: the first two cohorts (n=40) representing the start-up period, when there was no exemplary bicultural community in front of them; and the next two cohorts (n=62), who already had an example of bicultural patterns in front of them. The twenty interviewees were selected using a snowball method, using the students' own network of contacts on a voluntary basis. Students' ethnicity was assessed on the basis of students' self-declaration. - I used the ATLAS.ti program for content analysis of the face-to-face and online interviews.

At the present stage of the research the documents of the institution provided evidence for the positive bicultural learning environment. The content analysis finds that the documents between 1992-94 set strategies based on positively recognized Roma/Gypsy cultural values providing numerous affordances and demands for biculturalism to emerge and be adaptive. Explicit phrasing of belonging to dual-cultures, the founding charter of the school, the pedagogical program, the curriculum and the articles contain the school's strong commitment to a conscious balance between majority and minority cultures shaping of bicultural competence and attitudes. Similarly embedded bicultural content refer to the value of endorsing both cultures. Including Boash and Romani languages and Romani culture in the school curriculum had no precedent before and greatly contributed to the extent how the students affectively and cognitively organized their bicultural identities. A new narrative replaces catch-up and deficit terminology with a context of learning achievement, goal attainment, positive psychological capital, networking and community wealth. The analyses of the narrative interviews with graduating students so far have identified several areas (strengthening and extending the analysis networks including both cultural groups, keeping in touch after high school, motivation to learn and perform with clear goal setting, usage of community wealth capital, shaping a positive Roma self-image, navigational capital, being proud, cooperative approach), which confirm that developing bicultural competence and identity achieved its goal. Further in-depth analysis along the lines of the research questions will further clarify our understanding of the processes and outcomes. The narrative interviews with the founder teachers underpin the explicit data from the documentary analysis on the intentional bicultural and inclusive education of Roma pupils. Notably, this awareness was mainly the result of the attitude of acceptance and equity, and as a learning organization, the teachers' community played a mediating role between the two cultures.

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