Learning to speak „Christian“: The value of religious education in Bible school for adult Roma in Czech borderlands.
Abstract
Uneducability and lack of motivation of Romani children and their parents are among the dominant explanations for the marginality of Roma in the Czech Republic. While this notion has been largely contested by activists, and failures of the educational system shown, the focus on individual educational failure prevails.
My research focused on a Bible school for Roma which worked during 2007 – 2011 in Czech-German borderlands as a part of Charismatic Romani mission and local congregation, and which was reporting very good educational attainments of their adult Roma pupils. Ethnographic approach made me rethink my initial question of how the school taught towards asking why were Roma interested in this type of religious education and how it corresponded with other educational experiences they had.
I argue that one of the main learning values for them was learning a new „Christian“ speech/language code which could then be used elsewhere.