Sunčica Macura and

46 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES 2/2016 Bojana Dimitrijević

Sunčica Macura and Bojana Dimitrijević

Cross-cultural field experience as a 

pre-service teacher preparation
strategy for teaching Roma pupils in
Serbia

Abstract: Discrimination, inadequate teaching quality, reduced expectations from teachers and
passing or failing grades represent some of the barriers against high learning achievement and
full social participation among Roma pupils in Serbia. Research regarding the attitudes of student
teachers and in-service teachers towards Roma pupils indicates that their preparation for working
with Roma pupils should be intensified. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to address a) whether
cross-cultural field experience contributes to student teachers’ awareness of the barriers against Roma
pupils’ learning and social participation in school and b) whether student teachers’ perceptions of
these barriers inspire them to further reflect on the educational challenges that Roma children face.
The sample consisted of 16 student teachers’ reports regarding cross-cultural field experience in the
form of a home visit to a Roma family with a school-aged child. Based on the results of the qualitative
analysis of the reports, the student teachers identified four categories of barriers: poverty, discrimi-
nation in the school context, prejudice from the wider society and a non-inclusive school culture. The
fifth category identified, the attitudes of Roma parents towards education, can be interpreted as the
expression of the student teachers’ prior beliefs and attitudes towards the Roma. Half of the reports
included the student teachers’ further reflections on their field experience. The implications for pre-
-service teacher education and further research are outlined.

Key words: student teachers, Roma pupils, cross-cultural field experience, home visit, Serbia

UDC: 37.035:37.011.3-051

Scientific article

Sunčica Macura, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Educational Sciences,
Ul. Milana Mijalkovića 14, 35000 Jagodina, Srbija; e-mail: suncicamacura@gmail.com

Bojana Dimitrijević, teaching assistant, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Educational Sciences,

Ul. Milana Mijalkovića 14, 35000 Jagodina, Srbija; e-mail: bojana.dim@gmail.com

JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES 2/2016, 46–63

Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 47

Introduction

In Serbia, the Roma represent the second largest national minority at 2.05%
of the total population (Statistical Office of Republic of Serbia 2014), although
some experts estimate that they constitute six percent of the total population. If
the experts’ estimations are correct, the Roma population is approximately half
a million, making them the largest minority in Serbia. According to the Roma
Early Childhood Inclusion Report, in Serbia, as in other countries in the region,
the Roma suffer racial prejudice, social exclusion (through spatial segregation
and high poverty levels) and widespread discrimination in relation to access to
housing, employment, social welfare, health and education. The Roma are by far
the poorest social group in Serbia: 60.5% of the Roma population falls within the
category of “very poor” compared with 6.1% of the total population (Bennett 2012).
High school drop-out rates (Baucal and Stojanović 2011), segregation (Fund for
Open Society 2010) and discrimination (Special Report about Discrimination of
Children 2013) are still among the greatest obstacles keeping Roma pupils from
obtaining a state-of-the-art education.
Roma pupils enrolled in regular schools are reportedly taught an abridged
curriculum and are often automatically passed from grade to grade even if they
have not acquired basic literacy in the early years of primary school. This thus leads
to high primary school drop-out rates. Within a school culture that is ethnocentric
and insensitive to cultural differences, Roma pupils face implicit discriminatory
mechanisms such as lower teacher expectations, lack of support for learning, lack
of individualisation of instruction, multiple repetition of the same grade, rejection
by teachers and classmates and pressures placed on Roma parents (Open Society
Institute 2007).
Given these circumstances, it appears obvious that pre-service teacher edu-
cation in Serbia ought to play a significant role in overcoming negative attitudes
towards the Roma and shifting student teachers’ awareness and understanding of
cultures different from their own. This responsibility of teacher education institu-
tions seems even clearer, especially considering the results of studies suggesting
that student teachers in Serbia enter teacher education with negative attitudes,
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48 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES 2/2016 Bojana Dimitrijević

prejudices and feelings of social distance towards the Roma. For example, although
most student teachers participating in the study were in favour of educating Roma
pupils in regular schools, only half of them would accept them in their own classes
(Peček et Al. 2014), and only one-third would make a home visit to a Roma family
(Macura 2012). A large proportion of student teachers believed that characteristics
attributed to Roma pupils such as laziness, lack of motivation and lower intellec-
tual ability are the result of their exclusion from mainstream education. One in
10 student teachers considered the Roma guilty for their underprivileged social
position (Petrović et al. 2010). More than one-third of the student teachers par-
ticipating in the study were not aware that the Roma are the poorest social group
in Serbia, and neither were they aware of the discrimination against Roma pupils
in education (Macura 2012). In addition, the results of a study on the attitudes of
Serbian and Slovenian student teachers as a contributing factor towards under-
achievement amongst Roma pupils suggest that their attitudes were insufficient
in contributing to drop-out prevention among Roma pupils. The authors conclude
that acceptance of responsibility for the teaching and learning of all pupils was
absent from student teachers’ responses (Macura-Milovanović and Peček 2012).
The results of these abovementioned studies imply the need for efficient
strategies aimed at helping student teachers develop positive attitudes towards
the Roma during their pre-service teacher education as well as approaches that
raise their awareness of poverty and discrimination and their impact on education.
Research evidence suggests that one efficient strategy is practical field experi-
ence. Such experiences provide an opportunity for student teachers to reflect on a
variety of factors that influence learning and social participation among members
of minority groups and ways in which the education system can acknowledge the
needs of these pupils. Considering that student teachers may have had little or
no personal contact with children and parents from cultures different from their
own, Kid, Sanchez and Thorp (2008) state that teacher educators must not only
teach the skills and knowledge necessary for teaching children effectively; they
must also provide experiences that enable student teachers to examine issues
relating to culture, linguistic diversity, poverty and social justice in a critical and
meaningful way.
Academic courses that include practical experience adopt strategies such
as participation in ethnographic research projects, tutoring minority pupils,
experiencing teaching in heterogeneous classes, observing experienced teachers,
reflecting upon autobiographical narratives, organising debates, etc. (Dimitrijević
and Petrović 2014). According to Sleeter (2001), preparing student teachers to work
in multicultural environments may imply the inclusion of a single academic course
that may inter alia incorporate practical/field experience. Marx (2008) maintains
that field experiences can lead to positive growth in students’ appreciation of the
importance of understanding the cultural dimensions of schooling, particularly
the need to learn more about pupils’ cultural background. Well-designed field
experiences can promote greater understanding and cultural learning on the part
of most students. Research results suggest that students who attend academic
courses that include practical experience are more willing to teach minority pu-
Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 49

pils and that they are more aware of the stereotypes regarding different cultural
groups (Burant and Kirby 2002).
Home visits are especially powerful experiences for students. Interactions
with families help student teachers understand how much they can learn from
families, which could help them to better meet the individual needs of the children,
examine their cultural lenses and recognise biases. Home visits enable students to
confront their assumptions and stereotypes (Kidd et al. 2008). Villegas and Lucas
(2002) state that teacher education programmes should provide students with
opportunities to learn about pupils using various strategies, including home visits
and consultations with people who live in the communities that the school serves.
However, there are some reservations regarding the impact of field experiences
as a strategy to influence teachers’ attitudes and beliefs, especially in the long
term. For instance, in a study by Lawrence (1997), the effects of preparing student
teachers to work in multicultural settings varied significantly, depending on their
prior awareness of racial issues. In another study, the results indicated that fol-
lowing the field experience, student teachers felt that they were underprepared for
working in a multicultural context and that they faced the same negative attitudes
as in-service teachers towards diversity in their classes (Sconzert et al. 2000).
Student teachers’ resistance towards changing their attitudes is in direct rela-
tion to their prior experiences with issues of diversity, beliefs about the teachers’
role and diversity, an individualistic worldview and a mono-cultural background
(Cockrel et al. 1999). Following periods of field experience, some student teachers
with negative attitudes are more skilfully able to articulate support for their at-
titudes. Prior beliefs determine what the student teacher will learn during the
field experience (Kagan 1992; Pohan 1996) by influencing the process of informa-
tion selection. For instance, student teachers’ beliefs that individual effort and
persistence can enable a person to overcome any obstacle or that all people have
the same opportunities can lead them to neglect evidence of racial privilege and
social inequality (Causey et al. 2000).
Compared with the wealth of international research investigating the prepa-
ration of student teachers for multicultural settings, little is known about how
students are being prepared to work with Roma pupils in Serbia. At present, only
one study has explored this issue (Macura-Milovanović 2010). The overall inten-
tion of the present study is to examine the potential value of the cross-cultural
field experience for preparing student teachers to work with Roma pupils and
other socio-economically, linguistically and culturally diverse pupils. The study
aims to answer a two-part question: a) whether cross-cultural field experience
contributes to student teachers’ awareness of barriers to Roma pupils’ learning
and social participation in school and b) whether student teachers’ percep-
tions of these barriers inspire them to further reflect on the education of Roma
children.
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The present study

Setting

The cross-cultural field experience was introduced as one of the practical

assignments for third-year undergraduate student teachers1 at the University
of Kragujevac, Faculty of Education, during the 2008/09 academic year. This
assignment is part of student teachers’ pre-exam obligations for the compulsory
course: Inclusion in Education. This course aims to prepare student teachers to
teach pupils with additional support needs for learning and social participation;
this population includes socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged
pupils, such as Roma pupils. Student teachers may choose to complete one of four
practical assignments. Three assignments are to be carried out in primary schools
while one assignment – the cross-cultural field experience – must be completed
outside the school environment during the home visit to a Roma pupil’s family.
Student teachers plan and implement a visit to the family of a Roma pupil
(who, in most cases, is from a different cultural background and socio-economic
status from the student teachers) in cooperation with the teacher educator and/
or teacher mentor. The visit involves an interview with the Roma pupil’s parents/
families regarding barriers that both the pupil and his/her parents face in terms of
education and broader social inclusion and an observation of the pupil’s learning
conditions in the home environment. Upon conducting the interview, student
teachers are required to prepare a written report on their field experience and to
keep the data confidential.

Methodology
Sample

The sample included 16 reports from student teachers who chose to visit
Roma families. All report authors were non-Roma and spoke Serbian as their
native language, four of which were male. Out of 34 reports collected during the
2015/16 school year, 16 were selected for analysis. The selection criteria were
based on the credibility of the reports (such as whether they included complete
transcripts, voice recordings, photographs and/or detailed descriptions of the
settlement and/or premises, etc.).

Data source

The reports contained 1) a description of the context in which the interview

took place, 2) a transcript of the interview, 3) an analysis of the Roma parents’

1
Student teachers preparing to be primary school teachers in Serbia undertake their initial
education at one of five higher education institutions that offer four years of basic studies leading to
a diploma, followed by one year of master’s study based on the framework of the Bologna programmes
(BA 240 ESTC plus MA 60 ESTC).
Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 51

answers regarding the barriers to learning and social participation that the Roma
child faced and 4) recommendations for overcoming the perceived barriers and
improving teachers’ work with Roma pupils and/or parents/families. The student
teachers were asked to state their observations and conclusions and the most
important insights they gained from the home visit.
We used the student teachers’ reports as the basis for a document analyses,
specifically analysing those sections of the reports relating to the particular
Roma student’s barriers to learning and social participation. According to Wolff
(2004, p. 284), documents are considered standardised artefacts insofar as they
typically occur in particular formats, such as notes, case reports, contracts, drafts,
etc. The student teachers’ reports used for this study are primary documents – the
original reports of first-hand observers.

Data analysis

We applied a qualitative methodology – specifically content analysis – to

document the analyses of the student teachers’ reports (Cohen et al. 2007). The
reports were analysed and coded in relation to whether the contents a) demon-
strated the student teachers’ awareness of the barriers to learning and social
participation that Roma pupils faced in school and b) demonstrated the student
teachers’ further reflection about the perceived barriers to the education of Roma
pupils. The analysis was conducted in three steps using the inductive approach:
1) assigning codes to words and sentences for the purpose of attaching meaning
to those units, 2) organising categories, with each category consisting of units
deemed to be similar in content and to represent a unique theme and 3) analysing
and interpreting the meaning of the categories.

Results
Students’ awareness of the barriers to learning and social participation of Roma
pupils

The analyses of the reports revealed that the student teachers recognised
and discussed five categories of barriers to learning and social participation faced
by Roma pupils in school: 1) the poverty of the Roma, 2) Roma parents’ attitudes
towards education and raising children, 3) discrimination against Roma pupils in
school, 4) prejudice towards the Roma in the wider society and 5) the non-inclusive
school culture.

The poverty of the Roma

Sections of the reports classified under “the poverty of the Roma” emerged
from the following codes: “inadequate learning conditions at home”, “poor living
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conditions”, “poor housing conditions”, “children helping their parents with house
work”, “poverty” and “lack of financial assets”. All 16 reports discussed poverty
as one of the causes of Roma pupils’ learning underachievement, poor school at-
tendance and/or high drop-out rates. Especially when describing the context of
the interview, the student teachers furnished considerable details of the housing
conditions in Roma settlements and the living conditions of poor Roma families.
These detailed descriptions arose because the student teachers had not previously
had an opportunity to witness “settlements of misery”.2 For some of the student
teachers, the encounter with extreme poverty was striking, as illustrated in the
following quote: “This visit convinced me that the Roma live in very difficult cir-
cumstances, and I was struck by their living conditions and the sheer poverty”.

Roma parents’ attitudes towards the education of their children

Roma parents’ use of physical punishment of their children, their lower expec-
tations regarding children’s education as well as their negative attitudes towards
education were discussed in three reports. The authors of the reports concluded
that those parents’ behaviours represented barriers to the learning and social
participation of the corresponding Roma children. Therefore, those issues were
classified in the category of “Roma parents’ attitudes towards the education of
their children”. The first of the three reports in this category examined the Roma
mother’s method of discipline, which consisted of physically punishing her son
for not being obedient and not learning enough. The second report analysed the
parents’ expectation that their children would complete no more than a primary
education.
The third report described a family in which the father and grandmother
(who took care of the children) lacked interest in the children’s education. The
author of this report offered the following comment regarding her perception of
the Roma family she visited:
‘My impression is that the father does not seriously understand the need to
monitor his child’s achievements in school. His and the grandmothers’ only worry
is not education and regular class attendance, which would lead to the successful
completion of primary school, but fear of possibly losing welfare benefits. This
family does not have a positive attitude towards education.’
However, there was some discrepancy between the description of the family’s
poverty, including the lack of a space where the child could learn, and the student
teacher’s appraisal that “the child would have had a much better achievement
record if the home atmosphere actually encouraged learning”. Therefore, the cited
statement reflects the student teachers’ strong prejudices and the common ten-
dency to blame the Roma family for the child’s underachievement in school. The
2
The student teachers were not instructed to look for poor Roma families; however, because most
of the Roma in Serbia are poor and live in sub-standard settlements (slums), it was expected that
the Roma families they visited would be poor. Sub-standard Roma settlements exist in 71% of the
municipalities/towns in Serbia. (Živković and Đorđević 2015).
Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 53

same student teacher also failed to recognise that the Roma father who leaves his
home for a few months to earn money – therefore belonging to a group of “hard
to reach parents” – is not to blame for his “poor cooperation with the school and
his irresponsibility”.

Discrimination against Roma pupils in school

The sections of the reports classified under “discrimination against Roma

pupils in school” concerned two cases of discrimination that the Roma parents
relayed to the student teachers. One report described a case of institutional dis-
crimination, and the other described a case of passive discrimination. In the first
case, a Roma boy was transferred from his local school to a school a few kilometres
away from his home because of pressure by non-Roma parents’ on school authori-
ties. The student teacher related her prior knowledge of legislative provisions (the
right of every pupil to be educated at the nearest school), theoretical concepts and
definitions of discrimination involving existing malpractices at the school. In the
second case, the student teacher recognised passive discrimination towards a
Roma pupil who was not participating in school performances or extracurricular
activities because of his teacher’s lack of interest in and engagement with him.

Prejudice towards the Roma in the wider society

The sections of the reports classified under “prejudice towards the Roma in
the wider society” emerged from the following codes: “negative attitudes towards
the Roma”, “prejudice towards the Roma”, “lack of information about the Roma”,
and “lack of awareness about Roma poverty”. Interacting with Roma parents and
families made the student teachers aware of the prejudice against the Roma in the
wider society. It also provided them with an opportunity to examine Roma parents’
attitudes towards education and to challenge the prejudices regarding Roma parents’
supposed lack of interest in their children’s schooling and their undervaluation
of education. Six students concluded that the Roma do value education, and
some attempted to relate to concepts of culture, poverty and education in a new
and meaningful way: “Claims that the Roma do not understand the importance
of education are not true because they want to school their children, which they
have proven by enrolling their son in kindergarten. The problem is poverty and
not Roma culture”. Two students related their perception that the Roma are poor
to their own contradictory beliefs and the prejudice of the mainstream society, as
illustrated in the following quote: “I realised that it is inappropriate to say that
the Roma live better than ‘we’ do and have more privileges then ‘we’ have”. Their
life is very difficult, especially because parents cannot provide a happy childhood
for their children, and every day, they watch their children being bullied and
rejected by others’.
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Some students remarked that they were amazed to discover that their per-
ceptions and beliefs about the Roma changed after they interviewed the Roma
parents:
“Sincerely, my perception of the Roma has changed. I believe that we should
help them as much as we can because our ‘little’ is ‘big’ for them. We should also
appeal to other people not to ridicule and reject the Roma but to make an effort to
try to accept them… I am richer because of one new experience that changed my
worldview.”

The non-inclusive school culture

The sections of the reports classified under “the non-inclusive school culture”
emerged from the following codes: “teachers’ negative attitudes towards Roma
pupils”, “rejection of Roma pupils by non-Roma peers”, “school is not attuned to
all children”, “teachers’ lack of support for the Roma pupil”, “lack of support from
the school staff”, and “lack of cooperation between the school and Roma parents”.
Twelve reports discussed the non-inclusive school culture. In these sections, the
student teachers explained that their interactions with Roma families and children
during the home visit propelled them to think about how teachers’ behaviour and
attitudes influenced Roma pupils’ achievements. They also described their insights
about teachers’ responsibility for Roma pupils’ achievements. For example, one
student compared the attitudes of two teachers towards their Roma pupils in the
following way:
“The teacher’s attitude towards the Roma boy and the classroom teacher’s
attitude towards the Roma girl are reflected in his school failure and her school
success. The Roma girl has her classroom teacher’s support, and she is a good
pupil, while the Roma boy has had a bad experience with his teacher. The boy feels
unhappy in school; he is not motivated to learn, and he does not like his school.”
The student teachers’ awareness and understanding of the barriers to the
educational inclusion of Roma pupils are the first step in accepting personal
responsibility for teaching all pupils in a class, including Roma pupils. When
one becomes aware of the factors relating to school underachievement that are
rooted in the school and wider society, the next step is to ask the question: “What
can I do to make things better?” Such reflections may inspire student teachers
to become agents of change; for instance, they may strive to become teachers
who work to mitigate the external causes of educational inequality (Pantić and
Florian 2015). Some indications of such transcendence could be observed in the
student teachers’ reflections on and insights about the perceived barriers to the
education of Roma children.
Student teachers’ reflections about the perceived barriers to the education of
Roma children
Out of 16 reports, eight included the student teachers’ reflections on and
insights regarding the perceived barriers to the education of Roma children. On
one hand, further reflection expressed a shift in the student teachers’ perceptions,
Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 55

beliefs and understanding regarding the professional integrity of teachers. These

reflections challenged those on the issue of responsibility for Roma children’s under-
achievement in school. The reports displayed the student teachers’ attempt to
apportion responsibility for the educational failures of Roma children. The main
actors identified as responsible parties were teachers and the school as well as
the wider society.
The shift in the student teachers’ perceptions and understanding of teachers’
attitudes and behaviour towards Roma pupils, and their clearer understanding of
the meaning of discrimination in the case of a particular Roma pupil, is illustrated
in the following quote:
“Until now (the home visit), I hadn’t encountered discrimination against
Roma children; I thought that everything was okay and that these children were
not different (there were no Roma pupils in my classes). I thought that all that talk
about discrimination was more theoretical and that discrimination wasn’t so ob-
vious; besides, just a few people talk about it. However, today, during the interview,
regarding the question about extracurricular activities and whether the teacher
pays enough attention to the Roma child, everything indicated that in some form,
discrimination does exist after all, which filled my eyes with tears.”
Applying theoretical knowledge about discrimination towards the Roma
and identifying a relevant example of discrimination in her discussion with
Roma parents enabled this student teacher to change her frame of reference and
gain a deeper insight into the meaning of discrimination. It also allowed her to
reconsider her own tendency to diminish the scope and effects of discrimination
against minority groups.
Another student teacher expressed her feelings towards Roma pupils by
highlighting her desire to teach Roma children in her class:
“Once I am employed as a teacher, I would like to have Roma children in my
class. I am sure, and my colleagues agree, that we will not discriminate against
Roma children because the children suffer, and they are not guilty of anything.
We cannot choose where we are born and who will give birth to us, and it is totally
unjust to be stigmatised because of that.”
This example, along with the previous ones, represent student teachers
embracing the value of non-discrimination.
In most of the reports, the student teachers emphasised the importance of
teachers’ attitude towards particular Roma pupils in the school. The questions
posed to the parents during the interview (such as “How does the teacher behave
towards your children?” “Is your child accepted by the teacher?”) reflect the under-
lying premise that all pupils should be treated with the same level of respect,
regardless of their background. However, it is notable that the students failed to
inquire about and reflect upon some of the important issues relating to teachers’
lack of competencies required for inclusive practice, such as lower expectations
of the Roma and the impact of being taught in a language that is not their native
language. One possible explanation for focusing on teachers’ attitudes towards
Roma pupils but not on the individualisation of instruction is that the informants
were the parents and not the teachers, so the student teachers focused on what
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the parents could realistically divulge. Another explanation may be related to the
student teachers’ lack of knowledge about appropriate instructional strategies
in heterogeneous classes. They had opportunities to observe and participate in
instruction in mainly homogeneous environments, and teacher mentors typically
do not have experience in heterogeneous settings. Lastly, the student teachers may
have focused on teachers’ attitudes towards diverse learners because their own
experience as pupils indicated that teachers’ attitudes towards particular pupils
could influence these pupils’ achievement. The application of individualised ap-
proaches in teaching may have been less visible to them.
Another student teacher discussed the school’s responsibility in the case of
the Roma pupil who was rejected by his teacher. To obtain a more suitable environ-
ment for learning in school, the boy’s father managed to move his son to another
teacher’s class. This move was in the boy’s favour as he no longer experienced
difficulties during his education; he is now attending secondary school, with the
aspiration of obtaining a university degree. The student teacher concluded that
“this case shows that the school as an institution is not adjusted to all children
and does not try to overcome the problems of Roma pupils”. This insight triggered
the student teacher’s further reflection about his own future responsibility as a
teacher. He expressed his commitment to teaching all children:
“As a future teacher, I am very happy because I was enlightened about the
problems (of Roma education) and because I know that I will be the teacher who
will adapt to every child, his abilities, his socio-economic status… and I will be
a trustworthy person who will provide children with safety and therefore a suc-
cessful education.”
These student teachers identified themselves as teachers who can make a
difference in pupils’ lives (Hargreaves 2003), which is crucial to their commitment
to social justice.
According to the student teachers, hearing about Roma children’s expe-
riences made them reflect on the inferior status of Roma pupils on account of their
ethnicity. The following quote illustrates how one student became authentically
engaged with the reality of a Roma pupil whose education differed significantly
from her own. To some degree, this experience allowed her to “transcend the limits
of social positionality and help see dominance in a clearer light” (Howard 2005),
as illustrated by the following quote:
“On my way back, I was thinking about it all. When we were children, we all
loved to go to school because it meant socialising with friends and learning with
them. What is the feeling of going to school and knowing that you don’t have anyone
to socialise with, to share a meal with, to share secrets with? We don’t know. And
why? Because we are not Roma, but Serbs. Where is the difference? In the colour
of the skin? In the language that we speak? No, the difference is in our minds and
hearts.”
This quote also illustrates the student teacher’s separation from her personal
schooling experience and empathy towards the Roma pupil’s difficulties regarding
social participation. Such insight supported by strong emotions can be the basis
Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 57

for retaining a permanent impression about social inequalities, which can in turn
influence the student teachers’ commitment to social justice.

Discussion

Through an examination of the student teachers’ reports, it was evident

that the cross-cultural field experience, namely, the home visits and interviews
with Roma parents, contributed to the student teachers’ socio-cultural awareness
(Villegas and Lucas 2002). The student teachers identified the poverty of the
Roma, the discrimination against Roma pupils in school, the prejudice towards the
Roma in the wider society and the non-inclusive school culture as barriers to high
learning achievement and social participation among Roma pupils. The results
of the study are in line with previous research (Kidd et al. 2008) suggesting that
interactions with children and families, including home visits, had an impact on
student teachers’ views of cultures different from their own. The results are also
compatible with research suggesting that student teachers who have this type of
practical experience are more willing to teach minority pupils and that they are
more aware of the stereotypes regarding different cultural groups (Burant and
Kirby 2002). Furthermore, the perception of barriers inspired further reflections
about teachers’ professional integrity. These reflections transcended those on the
issue of responsibility for Roma children’s underachievement in school.
However, regarding the category “Roma parents’ attitudes towards their
children’s education” it is difficult to determine the extent to which this category
resulted from actually observing the parents’ neglect or abuse of their children
or of the student teachers’ prior beliefs and expectations about Roma parents’
attitudes about the education of their children. One of the limitations of field ex-
periences in general is the risk of overgeneralising a single experience to support
stereotypical beliefs about a cultural group.
In summing up the results of the study, we can state that the cross-cultural
field experience yields two essential benefits in terms of student teachers’ prepa-
ration for diversity: 1) the opportunity to observe the living conditions of Roma
families and 2) an encounter with the authentic views of Roma parents regarding
the educational barriers faced by their children.
It is important that student teachers witness the poverty of the Roma in
situ by observing Roma settlements and housing conditions because extreme
poverty is an abstract concept for those who have not witnessed it. Most student
teachers coming from a society with a middle class majority lack an awareness
of what a life of poverty looks like. Furthermore, student teachers may not have
the opportunity to interact with Roma parents at the primary schools where their
internships take place because those schools may be very distant from the remote
local Roma settlements. Roma parents are key resources of information about
Roma children and the lives of families of a low socio-economic status. As Slee
(2010) has argued, one of the most relevant areas that needs to be developed in
teacher education is student teachers’ understanding of how broader social forces
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influence exclusion and disadvantage. Furthermore, teachers need experience

working with families from a variety of cultures and social contexts to understand
how home environments influence educational outcomes (Flecha and Soler 2013;
Villegas and Lucas 2002).
In addition, it is vital that student teachers hear about experiences of dis-
crimination, views on education and bringing up children in poverty directly from
Roma parents. Their experiences are powerful in their authenticity and present
a real world that is very distant from the theories that student teachers learn in
academic courses. The following quote from a student teacher’s report corroborates
this standpoint: “We need to develop awareness about the hard life of the Roma
because although we all know that the Roma have tremendous burdens, we don’t
actually have the right perception of how difficult their life is”.
Knowledge and understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty
and discrimination against Roma pupils is necessary so that student teachers can
ensure that they do not falsely attribute academic underachievement to parents’
lack of responsibility and failure to care for their children, the pupils’ laziness
or reduced intellectual capacities, etc. According to Davis (1995), most people,
including student teachers, tend to explain academic failure or success on the
basis of individual pupil characteristics rather than institutional discrimination.
Student teachers need to understand that social inequalities are produced and
perpetuated through systemic discrimination and justified through the ideologies
of meritocracy and social mobility (Villegas and Lucas 2002).
The qualitative analysis indicated that half of the student teachers did not
reflect at all on their experiences during their home visit with a Roma family in
their reports. The percentage of reports lacking reflection would presumably be
even higher if the home visit to a Roma family was compulsory for student teachers
rather than optional. The student teachers who elected this particular task were
presumably motivated to meet Roma families in person. They were interested in
observing their way of life and were more likely to reflect on issues relating to social
inequality. The absence of reflections on the field experience could be attributed to
some of the individual characteristics of the student teachers, such as self-awareness
and the tendency to think critically about their own beliefs. According to Garmon
(2004), beliefs are among the dispositional factors that influence the efficacy of
pre-service preparation for working in multicultural settings. The preparation of
student teachers in Serbia does not rely on the model of the teacher as a reflective
practitioner. Therefore, it is possible that the teacher educators did not express
expectations that the student teachers would reflect upon their experiences, and
it is possible that the student teachers did not consider information about their
learning process and insights as important as other information in the report.
Regarding the category “Roma parents’ attitudes towards the education of
their children”, a possible explanation relates to the results of prior research,
which indicate that numerous factors can influence the effects of field experi-
ences. Among them, prior beliefs and experiences are a “filter” for what student
teachers will learn (Kagan 1992; Pohan 1996). The results of this study indicate
that interventions on the programmatic level should be implemented to more
Cross-cultural field experience as a pre-service teacher preparation strategy ... 59

extensively influence student teachers’ attitudes. Furthermore, it is necessary

to guide student teachers through all stages of their field experience, including
preparation, realisation and reporting. It is also advisable to ascertain some degree
of control over which Roma households are selected or to provide opportunities to
interact with several families and compare the experiences.

Conclusion

This study has several limitations. First, the sample was not representative.
It comprised reports by students who were motivated to interact closely with
Roma parents in their own homes, which excluded students who might have had
strong, negative prejudices against the Roma population. Therefore, the findings
regarding an awareness of the barriers to learning and social participation expe-
rienced by Roma pupils and further reflections on that topic must be taken with
caution regarding their generalisability. To clarify persisting questions, it would be
necessary to include a more representative sample by making the task compulsory
for all students. The second limitation of the study concerns the single-method
approach. Future research could include between-methods triangulation that
combines the document analysis of the students’ reports with student interviews
or focus groups. Lastly, it is important to mitigate the differences in interviewing
skills among students by offering more detailed guidelines for conducting semi-
structured interviews with Roma families and intensifying student training, thus
enabling all students to gain rich data during their interviews.
Despite the above-mentioned limitations of the study, we believe that including
cross-cultural field experience and investigative programmes into pre-service
teacher education represents an important step in preparing student teachers
for multicultural classrooms in Serbia for three main reasons:
First, our findings support the need for university courses that incorporate
field experiences for pre-service teachers. Most student teachers are inadequately
prepared to teach in heterogeneous classrooms that include Roma children or
children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This is because of
the narrow understanding of inclusive education in pre-service teacher education
in Serbia, which is limited to including pupils with special needs or “pupils with
developmental difficulties and disabilities” in mainstream education. According
to Pantić, Closs and Ivošević (2010), the restrictive concept of inclusive education
represents the main barrier to progress towards social and educational inclusion
because it does not involve courses relevant to working with all pupils who might
experience barriers to learning and social participation. Therefore, there is a
general tendency in teacher education programmes to overlook or ignore cultural,
linguistic and socio-economic reasons for educational disadvantage and the exclu-
sion of minority children, such as the Roma, in education.
Second, the cross-cultural field experience for student teachers represents
an attempt to connect two settings that, according to Zeichner (2010), are often
constructed as contrasting and disconnected in terms of student teachers’ profes-
 Sunčica Macura and
60 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES 2/2016 Bojana Dimitrijević

sional learning. These are the “real world” setting in which student teachers gain
their field experience and the “world of theory” within the school, which does not
have the necessary connection to real life (Lid 2013). Therefore, student teachers’
experiential learning – for instance, their learning from their own encounters with
the Roma – has the greatest potential to produce an understanding and construc-
tion of the knowledge that future teachers will need in multicultural classrooms
(Macura-Milovanović 2010).
Third, student teachers’ reports provide valuable opportunities for teacher
educators to understand not only how students think but also what they feel
upon encountering families from different cultural, linguistic and socio-economic
backgrounds. For example, in their reports, the student teachers expressed feel-
ings of anger, resentment and sadness provoked by the injustice, discrimination
and poverty they witnessed. They also expressed their joy and contentment upon
encountering Roma families and their broader understanding of the societal fac-
tors that influence the education of Roma pupils. According to Paccione (2000),
students’ personal emotional experiences contribute to their understanding of
cultural difference. However, it is essential that students feel empathy rather than
pity because pity leads to lowered expectations. Knowing how student teachers
understand the issues of poverty and discrimination and their influence on
teaching and learning can assist teacher educators as they devise new approaches
and strategies for preparing future teachers to work in multicultural settings.
Improving the quality of practical assignments should be guided by offering
possibilities for reflection on the experiences and should be closely linked to theo-
retical concepts in courses about inclusive and intercultural education. However,
the preparation of students for diversity through such courses, although useful,
is relatively modest because the necessary holistic, cross-curricular design of
teacher preparation for diversity has yet to be recognised. The absence of such a
design presents a serious challenge to all pre-service teacher education institu-
tions in Serbia.

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