Academic Culture and Emancipation: Oral Histories of the Lives of Roma Women in the Spanish Education System

Overcoming social and academic inequalities in public schools continues to be necessary for vulnerable populations, particularly Roma women and adolescents. In this paper, we consider the issue of early dropout rates for Roma girls in secondary education, as well as their vulnerability at this stage. Two Roma women working as mediators in public schools paticipated in a narrative-biographical study. Their oral histories have allowed us to delve into the particularities of their lives and the lives of adolescents in public schools, as well as how they reflect on and construct their own identities from their home and school environments. These oral histories (or personal narratives) bring us closer to their struggle for emancipation from gender roles, in contrast to the vision found in the dominant,static, homogenized and clichéd imaginary about Roma women. The results of the critical analysis of these oral histories suggest the need to shift from a disciplinarian academic culture based on segregation, individual effort, little participation from the community and the absence of recognition, to a community-based academic culture of redistribution, in which schooling becomes relevant in the lives of Roma girls as a necessary tool for emancipation without jeopardizing their acceptance in the Roma community.