CONCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS IN TEACHER TRAINING ABOUT THE ROMA CHILDREN
CONCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS IN TEACHER TRAINING ABOUT THE ROMA CHILDREN

Summary/Abstract: This study examines how future teachers and kindergarten teachers relate to Roma children. Do they have prejudices or do they assume that Roma children are worse in any way than members of the majority society? And whether they will be able to help the integration of Roma children in their teaching work or not? In the framework of my research I made 4 semi-structured interviews with the students of the University of Debrecen. There were 11 students in so-called undivided teacher training (this is a past-Bologna system in Hungary, since 2013) and 11 students in kindergarten teacher training, from the Faculty of Child and Adult Education of University of Debrecen. I wanted to explore whether I get different opinions among the students preparing to be teachers or to be kindergarten teachers. The reason is that early childhood education is determinative in the moderation of social inequalities, so the preparation of the future-to-be kindergarten teachers is especially important. My results show that students in teacher training rely on their childhood memories and think that Rroma children are problematic and hard to teach. On the other hand, students in kindergarten teacher training see the Roma with a relatively subtle view; like a non-homogeneous group, and the practical part of the training program contributed to the fact that it helped them also feel competent in a kindergarten group where Roma children attended. This paper highlights the importance of teacher training: typically students afraid of situations where they do not feel competent.

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