Attitudes of Roma pupils with special needs towards school

The thesis presents the results of research on the attitudes of Roma pupils with special needs towards school and knowledge as a value, and it also presents their opinions about Romani and Slovenian language at school. We were interested in correlations between attitudes towards school, learning achievemant and school attendance. We investigated also how much teachers are aware of the attitudes of their Roma pupils. The survey was carried out in a special education programme with lower educational standards at Dragotin Kette primary school in Novo mesto. The sample consisted of 34 pupils attending classes of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade: 14 Roma pupils (41.2 %) and 20 nonRoma pupils (58.8 %). 16 teachers were also included in the study. The attitudes of Roma pupils towards school are positive. The difference between the attitudes of Roma and those of nonRoma pupils was not detected. Roma pupils feel good at school, they like to go to school and they have fun in school. However, about a third of them don't feel good at school. A tenth of the pupils (Roma and nonRoma) feel fear at school. Roma pupils have good relationships with their classmates, they have friends in school and they like socialising with classmates. They do not have the impression that their classmates illbehave towards them. All pupils have positive attitudes towards knowledge. Roma do not appreciate the importance of knowledge and education for their future much, school grades seem less important to them. The least positive attitudes they express towards teaching process and learning contents. They find learning contents more difficult than nonRoma pupils do. They don't feel that they have problems at following the lectures. A smaller proportion of Roma pupils in a class are not cooperative. The academic achievement of Roma pupils is lower than that of nonRoma, but the difference is not statistically significant. At Roma pupils there is no statistically significant correlation between school performance and their attitudes towards school. Roma pupils are frequently absent from school. Roma who attend school more regularly do not have more positive attitudes toward school than those who skip school more frequently. At Roma pupils we found a positive correlation between school performance and school attendance. In the case of nonRoma there is no correlation. Teachers' opinions about the attitudes of Roma pupils towards school differ from those attitudes that were actually detected. The research showed out that the assessments of teachers in 24 cases (of 25) is lower than the attitudes of Roma pupils. There are big differences in individual arguments. In 72% of claims the difference is statistically significant. In the claims referring to importance of knowledge and education, to school grades and to feeling good in school the attitudes of Roma pupils showed out as much more positive than the assessments of teachers. The biggest difference is seen in the claim: "If I go to school I can get a job." Little less than a half of Roma children would prefer going to school if the classes were conducted in Romani language, a half of them oppose this. Most Roma children would attend extracurricular Romani language lessons, if they were given the opportunity. A half of Roma pupils state that upon entering the school they spoke Slovene well. Almost a third of them learnt Slovenian language at school. Most Roma consider that they speak Slovenian language well. Most of them find Slovenian language easy. The assesments of teachers differ strongly from the reported attitudes, opinions and information of Roma pupils about Romani and Slovenian language