The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER ONE CONTEXT

Introduction

This chapter provides a brief overview of the context and purpose of research carried out between January and July 2005, with the aim of helping policy and professional audiences to better understand the reasons why Gypsy and Traveller pupils' formal education is frequently experienced in places other than at a local school.

ICT - its place in learning

Many class teachers have enthusiastically embraced the potential of interactive communications technology (ICT) in supporting learning and teaching. However, a colleague's cautionary 'over lunch' comment, "There has always been an 'e' in learning", reflects a wariness among educationalists of claims for ICT as beneficial to everyday learning in classrooms. Formal learning continues to be generally associated with pupils' attendance (time) at a school (place), where they are grouped together to learn (pace) about themselves, and about the world around them. Although all children and young people (from 5 to 16) in Scotland have an entitlement to a school education, which more recently includes a working knowledge and understanding of lCT, some are unable or unwilling to learn at school.

The impact of ICT upon schools and schooling is clearly an evolving process, where "Attitudes to ICT, were in the main positive although a significant proportion of teachers thought that the benefits to the classroom had been greatly exaggerated." (Condie, Simpson et al. 2002) ( www.ltscotland.org.uk/ngflscotland/). These authors consider that the implementation of ICT initiatives in schools raises two concerns:

a) "the debate regarding whether ICT is a subject in its own right or as a means of learning within other
subjects and contexts …

b) the extent to which those pupils who do not have access to computers at home may be disadvantaged in
comparison to those who do."

The research informing this report was carried out with an awareness of educators' legitimate concerns regarding use of ICT to support learning, and raised an additional set of concerns about the less than effective implementation of ICT initiatives for supporting Gypsy and Traveller pupils' access to a relevant and progressive curriculum (Padfield and Jordan 2003).

Online, e-learning and blended learning

The report distinguishes between three key terms to be found in the literature relating to developments in ICT supported learning: 'online learning', 'e-learning' and 'blended learning'. Online is distinguished from e-learning. Online simply means that a learner or teacher is connected to the Internet, whereas

"e-learning is fundamentally about learning and not about technology… how, when and where to implement e-learning in conjunction with established practice has still not been fully explored…" (Joint Information Systems Committee, 2004: 7-9)."

The third term, 'blended learning', has emerged from early explorations of e-learning and can be used in a number of senses:

a) in relation to using a combination of face-to-face, telephone and email communications to support a
pupil's learning and teaching, and

b) in relation to ICT's capacity to facilitate 'synchronous' and 'asynchronous' learning, a feature of
e-learning that frames the learning in terms of 'how can we make the best use of resources?' rather
than 'how do we get online learning to work with everything else?'

In practice, 'blended learning' should be delivered through paper-based learning materials and some face-to-face support provided by a 'base' school, and computer-based learning materials, supported by access to the Internet and email contact with a 'base' school teacher and ICT technical support staff.

Gypsies and Travellers - Educational Policy and Practice

Across the United Kingdom, a consistent theme in policy and professional discourses has focused on education authorities' ineffective delivery of educational services for, and a poor uptake of compulsory state schooling by school-aged children and young people from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds (OFSTED 1996; Jordan 2000; Jordan 2000; OFSTED 2003). However, the phenomenal development in Scottish education of ICT's capacity to transcend the challenges of time, place and pace of learning usually associated with attending and learning at school, offers exciting possibilities for serious development in ICT supported learning that will augment existing inclusive educational approaches for Gypsy and Traveller pupils (SEED 2003), but particularly for those whose travelling has resulted in significant interruptions to their learning.

Gypsies and Travellers

The terms 'Gypsies' and 'Travellers' require clarification. They refer to culturally distinctive social communities, whose differences have significance for policy makers and practitioners and the conduct of research in this area, for example "… the term Traveller suggests a homogenous group of people and immediately misinforms us" (O'Hanlan and Holmes 2004). Gypsies may refer to themselves as Gypsies, as Travellers or more simply as Travelling folk (Fraser 1992). In Scotland, the term Gypsy is distinctive from the term Roma, which is more commonly used in England and Wales and other European countries. Characterised by their heterogeneity, the cultural distinctions within and between Gypsy and Traveller groupings are highly contested among Travellers themselves.

The Scottish Executive carries out a yearly school census that gathers data about all pupils, including those from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds. The census forms distinguish between three categories of Gypsies and Travellers; Gypsies/Travellers, Occupational Travellers and New Travellers. People from the first category tend to draw upon long historical roots to a social and cultural presence within the UK, more recently defined in terms of minority ethnic status. Occupational Travellers [1] largely define themselves in relation to their business activities and are commonly further differentiated in Scotland as Showground (as Fairground in England and Wales), Circus and Bargee Travellers. Jordan has noted that due to intermarriage, the social and cultural boundaries between these groupings are never clear-cut (EOC 2001). A third category, New Travellers, refers to communities that have appeared relatively recently on the social landscape, largely as a way of living that rejects the bureaucratic pressures of modernity.

In Scotland, Gypsy/Traveller people variously refer to themselves as a Traveller, or as a Gypsy/Traveller (singular), or as a Scottish Traveller. A slash included between the terms Gypsy and Traveller, i.e. Gypsies/Travellers [2] (plural) reflects official attempts to be sensitive to these different forms of naming and to signal to official, professional and public bodies that people self identifying as from these communities should be treated as if they were members of a minority ethnic group. The Scottish Parliament's 'Inquiry into Gypsy Travellers and Public Sector Policies' stated that 'All legislation and policies should be framed on the understanding that Gypsy Travellers are an ethnic group, until such time as a court decision is made on their recognition as a racial group under the Race Relations Act 1976' (2001: 2), a view endorsed by the Scottish Executive in its Response to the Equal Opportunities Committee Report (2001: recommendation 2).

The Scottish Executive's Five National Priorities govern provision of education for Scottish pupils. In recognising schools' need to ensure equality of opportunity for all pupils, the HMIe publication, 'Taking a closer look at: Inclusion and Equality - meeting the needs of Gypsies and Travellers', provides schools with a 'how good is your school' format specifically tailored to help schools evaluate their working towards the educational inclusion of Gypsy and Traveller pupils. The publication directs schools towards National Priority Three as having particular relevance for the educational inclusion of Gypsy and Traveller pupils. It notes that education authorities need to raise standards among Gypsy and Traveller and other pupils known to experience interrupted learning, that schools need to consider the appropriateness of teaching and learning environments and that in order to provide effective support, consider how issues of equality and fairness in accessing an appropriate curriculum impact on Gypsy and Traveller pupils and their capacity to achieve their full potential as citizens in a changing and multicultural society (HMIe 2005: 3; HMI 2002; HMIe 2002; HMIe 2004; HMIe 2005; HMIe 2005).

The vital importance of ICT supported learning at a distance for Gypsy and Traveller pupils

Common to people from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds is the notion of travelling as a way of life, and, partly due to their 'mobility', a general experience of marginalisation and discriminatory treatment by many 'settled' citizens across the UK (Jordan and Padfield 2003). Children from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds live in a range of locations. Some Gypsy/Traveller children, for example are 'housed', some are based on council sites, some may travel from one site to another, some may be 'housed' for part of the year or indeed spend some time camped by the roadside. Occupational Traveller children may live with a relative while their family is travelling, or may live in the family's trailer moving from one fairground or circus site to another. It is precisely the complexity of the range of their living arrangements, all of which may be experienced during the course of a year, that challenges local authorities' capacity to provide equality of educational opportunity for many Gypsy and Traveller pupils.

Interrupted learning

As in the rest of the UK, Gypsy and Traveller pupils in Scotland regularly attend primary school. Gypsy/Traveller pupils' relatively poorer levels of educational achievements are frequently explained in terms of the irregularity of their attendance at school, and because some choose not to go to school to avoid racist treatment, on the way to, while at and on the way home from school. Many choose school-based education, but go to great lengths to keep their identity as a Gypsy/Traveller private. Gypsy/Traveller families strike a balance between their responsibilities for ensuring that their children receive formal education and their understandable desires to keep their children safe. Many Gypsy/Traveller pupils do not attend secondary school. Little is actually known about how many Gypsy/Traveller pupils attend school or how well they achieve in formal terms as frequently families hide their minority ethnic status.

By contrast, secondary-aged Showground Traveller pupils are much more likely to attend school. Showground Traveller families traditionally spend the winter period in Glasgow where their children attend primary and secondary school, and it is to these 'base' schools that children and young people return at the end of each travelling season.

As a result of their families' mobility, many pupils from these different cultural backgrounds experience significant periods of interruptions to their formal learning (Dobson and Henthorne 1999). Such interrupted learning has generally been associated with marked underachievement and a subsequent reduction in life chances (Dobson, Henthorne et al. 2000). Gypsy and Traveller pupils' participation in state education frequently ends before their legal leaving date and with no formal qualifications. [3]

Responses to interrupted learning

Scottish Executive funded research into educational services for Gypsy and Traveller families has found that, with significant exceptions, the learning needs of these diverse pupil groupings are generally not clearly understood by policy makers, at national and local authority levels (Padfield and Jordan 2004). Despite a laptop's portability and multimedia capabilities for working in out of school settings, provision of laptop computers with connectivity and peripheral technologies has been limited to a few designated support for learning staff, colloquially known as Traveller teachers, mostly with basic NGfL training and poor on-going support (Padfield and Jordan, 2003). Other Scottish research has found little development of paper-based distance learning for Gypsy/Traveller pupils, travelling between Scottish local authorities (Padfield 2004; Padfield and Jordan 2004) and that the development of inclusive educational approaches to the curriculum for Gypsy/Traveller pupilsattending schools is generally 'patchy' and ad hoc. Some school and designated staff have made good use of ICT within the boundaries of their particular local authority. Despite its capacity to transcend local authority boundaries and the interrelated challenges of time, place and pace of learning at school, local authorities' use of ICT to support learning at a distance (from school) for 'mobile' Gypsy/Traveller pupils is yet to be nationally developed in Scotland.

ICT supported learning initiatives

ICT support for Occupational Traveller children has demonstrated its potential for travelling children. During the 1990s, projects such as TOPILOT, FLEX and TRAPEZE used ICT to develop open and distance education, provided by a 'base' school during travelling periods, for young people from Occupational Traveller backgrounds (Marks 2003). Supported by the European Federation for the Education of the Children of Occupational Travellers (EFECOT 1994), which no longer exists, [4] SCET and Glasgow City Council were participants in these projects (Jordan 2000).

Drawing upon European approaches to supporting mobile children, a series of English based E-Learning and Mobility Projects, (E-LAMP), have demonstrated how pupils from highly mobile Circus families, have kept in contact with their 'base schools' and with the local authority's Traveller Education services (Marks 2004). Pupils have accessed resources through ICT, which effectively helped overcome the de-motivation usually accompanying paper-based learning on the road. In addition, pupils' good contact with their 'base' schools reduced their poor self-esteem and boosted their confidence to enrol at schools as they travelled. Further funding of these projects as a national system is not likely. However, the Traveller Education Services in 10 to 12 English education authorities are now operating ICT supported distance learning for a number of mobile pupils from different Traveller backgrounds.

Other projects, such as Notschool.net (Heppell 2000) - initiated through the NGfL programme and managed by Becta [5]- and SchoolsOutGlasgow.net (supported by the Scottish Executive, Glasgow City Council and Learning and Teaching Scotland) trail blazed use of ICT to support a range of non-Traveller children with unmet learning needs resulting from their irregular or non-attendance at school. The salient features of SchoolsOutGlasgow.net's academically structured approach (www.schoolsoutglasgow.net), which reflect Glasgow's commitment to equality of opportunity, are its delivery of an ICT-based curriculum, its development of a learning centred community (loosely echoing the model of the mainstream school community), its support by a dedicated tutor/teacher staff working closely with individuals and groups through face-to-face and email contact and its promotion of interactive learning and mutual support (Jordan and Padfield 2004).

Before commencing the research underpinning this report a number of ICT supported learning initiatives, collaboratively developed between the New Educational Development Department, Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTScotland) and a few local authorities, already existed in Scotland. In addition to Notschool.net's Scottish development, SchoolsOutGlasgow.net, other Scottish ICT initiatives, for example the Virtual Schoolbag project, similarly made innovative and successful use of ICT to support a range of pupils with significant 'interrupted learning'. Significantly, many Scottish participant learners in these initiatives were able to overcome their poor self-esteem as learners, were motivated to re-engage with formal learning and successfully achieved positive educational experiences and outcomes (Passey and Rogers, et al. 2004: 77), (www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/sogrs.pdf). Importantly, the 'street cred' of ICT made a significant contribution towards the success of these out of schoolinitiatives in developing non-stigmatising access to ICT supported learning.

The Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) ( www.ssdn.org.uk) also holds significant promise for improving access to the curriculum for Scottish pupils. The SSDN is currently engaged in developing an Intranet service for educators and learners in Scotland, which will offer a web-based solution to accessing communications and learning materials. Access will be available for authorised users, such as pupils, teachers and school support and administration staff, with a computer equipped with a web browser that can access the Internet. Piloting of this initiative will begin later in 2006.

While conducting this research presented in this report, Glasgow City Council's Interrupted Learners Support Services responded positively to requests made by the Education Liaison Officers of the Showmen's Guild (Scottish Section) that Glasgow City Council deliver a laptop supported educational service for Scottish Showground Traveller pupils. Based on the E-LAMP model, a pilot project was delivered for a small number of Showground Traveller pupils during the 2005 travelling period. A report on this most recent ICT supported learning project, 'Laptops for Travellers' (ivan@mtonline) outlines the key issues facing Occupational Traveller families and schools in providing school-aged children with access to a progressive curriculum when travelling.

The project's main aim was to ensure the delivery of the kind of education that will allow today's Traveller pupils to make choices in a changing world, which is summarised by an Occupational Traveller's comment that "education is about giving our children a choice" (Mykytyn 2005). The young people were provided with a laptop computer, an O2 data modem card, with a monthly download limit of 50Mb, a printer and a 128Mb USB memory stick. The laptop operating system included Microsoft Windows XP Service and appropriate drivers, which could be remotely accessed by supporting teachers and technicians.

Impact of ICT supported learning initiatives

The evaluations of ICT supported learning initiatives for out of schoollearners have revealed key points for guiding future uses of ICT supported learning:

· quality communications between learners and school and support staff are crucial to engaging or re-engaging
learners with formal learning

· dialogue between teachers, parents and a young person about his/her learning needs is a necessary start to
the process of providing an appropriate curriculum

· computer-based working combined with paper-based working motivates learners to engage with and
complete learning tasks

· a blend of face-to-face, telephone and email communication helps to ensure progress in learning

· families and their children expressed aspirations for qualifications to help their children access employment

· ICT supported learning is effective in helping learners develop a proactive attitude towards life long learning.

Subsequent chapters highlight the relevance of these points for Gypsy and Traveller families. Meanwhile this chapter highlights three emergent key points:

· many Gypsy and Traveller pupils experience interrupted learning,

· such difficulties inevitably give rise to additional support needs, and

· the vital importance of using ICT supported learning to help schools and designated staff support Gypsy
and Traveller pupils access, based on a pupil's particular learning needs, to an appropriate, progressive and
relevant curriculum when travelling or if educated in out of school settings.

CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY

Introduction

The chapter describes and discusses the methodological approaches used to research Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller children and young people's views and aspirations for ICT supported education.

Aims and objectives

The main aims of the qualitative research informing this report were to:

· gather the views and aspirations of Gypsy and Traveller school-aged children and young people, and their
families, on ICT supported learning at a distance from school

· raise awareness at national and local authority level of the particular conditions that shape Gypsy and
Traveller children and young people's access to the curriculum

· ensure that the research findings inform effective policy and developments in ICT supported learning for
these particularly 'hard to reach' pupil populations.

Ethical researching and access to children and young people

This research with Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller children and young people conformed to established ethical guidance and practice (Alderson 1995). The sensitivity and respect to be accorded any research participants and their rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 was reflected in my having obtained Disclosure Scotland approval for researching with children and young people. The Moray House Ethics Committee also approved a copy of the research proposal and its procedures.

As a researcher known for working with Gypsies and Travellers, contacts within these communities largely drew on existing relationships with a range of relevant gatekeepers, known and trusted by Gypsy and Traveller families. Each family and young person received a clear verbal and written description of:

· the purpose of the research

· how it was to be conducted

· the kinds of questions that were going to be explored.

The gatekeepers facilitated initial contacts with the children, young people and in many cases their mothers. The contacts were always face-to-face, and took place in a range of different settings; schools, community centres, on sites in families' trailers and in site managers' offices.

A researcher's responsibility to prevent harmful outcomes for research participants, including the researcher and the gatekeepers involved in facilitating introductions with other participants, was highly salient in this research since many Gypsies and Travellers have good reasons for being wary of official involvement in their everyday lives (Hawes and Perez 1996). In this research gaining participants' 'informed consent' required sensitivity and tact, particularly as it involved working with their children; any person presenting with a set of questions and a tape recorder was highly likely to have been viewed by them as 'an official' person.

On-going negotiations of 'informed consent' with the young people and their families involved taking time to establish rapport and assure that each young person understood:

· that what he/she said was private (in the sense that I would not discuss what they had said with their teachers
or others)

· that he/she could withdraw from the research at any point

· the meaning of 'confidentiality'

· that the writing up and dissemination of the research findings would be organised under general headings with
relevant quotes and places duly anonymised.

As an indicator of 'good research practice', each participant was offered a consent form for signing.

Research design

The logistics involved in gathering reliable evidence from this research were grounded in an awareness of the complexity of Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller families' everyday lives. The research limited its focus to children and young people from Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller backgrounds to ensure that, within the constraints of the research funding, access could be achieved with pupils from these complex backgrounds. [6]

The gatekeepers arranged initial contacts with participants, selected through a process of 'purposive' or 'snowball' sampling (Robson 2002: 265 - 260). Selection of pupils was justified mainly in terms of each pupil having experienced significant interrupted learning. A breadth of possible views and experience was achieved by selecting a balance of families from Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller backgrounds, by primary and secondary ages, and by gender. Importantly, the majority of the children and young people had had a wide experience of schools; across Scotland, England, and Ireland.

Thus, aware of a need to be flexible in the research design, initial contacts were made with 'gatekeepers' based in three Scottish local authorities. The latter were chosen on the grounds of geography and as being places where both Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller families were known to visit over the course of a travelling season. However, the process of making contact with Gypsy/Traveller families and their children in one local authority proved to be highly complicated. As suggested in the proposal, on the day arranged for interviews in one of the three local authorities all the Gypsy/Traveller families had 'moved on'. Subsequently, additional sets of contacts with Gypsy/Traveller families were set up in a fourth local authority.

Ultimately, a total sample of 45 persons made significant contributions to the research. These comprised of:

· 21 pupils - 14 boys and 7 girls (2 girls did not turn up for interview and one other girl approached me informally at a school) with the result that 19 pupils (8 secondary and 11 primary pupils) were interviewed in 4 one-to-one interviews and the rest in small groups of two or three

· 24 adults - 11 Gypsy/Traveller adults; 3 Showground Traveller adults; 7 teaching staff (2 secondary, 4 primary and an educational support staff); and 3 site managers (2 local authority and 1 private site manager).

The small numbers of persons involved in this research inevitably raised ethical questions in relation to the presentation of evidence; how their stories are told could seriously jeopardise attempts to preserve their anonymity. Therefore, all descriptive references to names of people and places are strictly limited in order to preserve anonymity. The research has ensured that each child and young person's voice is represented in this report.

Methods

The main methods involved in gathering qualitative data involved using two sets of discussant prompts [7][8] (described below) prepared to help the children and young people reflect on and compare their experience of learning in schools and in out of school settings, a laptop computer and an interview guide [9]. Qualitative semi-structured taped interviews with pupils, which varied in their composition from one-to-one with the researcher, pairs and small groups of four children, were conducted in settings appropriate to the feelings of the pupils whose ages ranged from eight to fourteen years of age.

The development of the prompts drew upon the findings of the ICT initiatives described in Chapter One. These all aimed to enhance the effectiveness of inclusive educational approaches to formal learning by delivering ICT supported learning to learners being educated in a range of out of school settings. These have shown that educators' uses of ICT have allowed for a more flexible (overcoming the limitations of age and stage approaches), interactive and collaborative (overcoming the de-motivating effects on learners of significant gaps in time between submitting work and receiving feedback) learning experience. Certainly, these features have helped motivate and re-motivate learners, who, for a range of reasons, are highly unlikely to benefit from school-based learning, and particularly those whose 'learning time' does not correspond with 'school time', to engage with formal learning and its potential for life long learning.

a) The first set of prompts was specifically prepared for the secondary-age pupils and comprised of concepts
that summarise the challenges and benefits of ICT supported learning. These were: connectivity,
motivation, interactive, collaborative, synchronicity, and flexibility.

During the interview process secondary pupils suggested adding two more words: sociability (benefits of different kinds of sociability), and costs (challenge to parents and local authorities).

b) The second set of prompts comprised a set of images that were thought to be more suitable for younger children. Downloaded from the Internet, the images represented: a caravan set in a field, a laptop, coloured pencils and paperclips and children using a mobile telephone. These images enabled the primary children to explore the issues embedded in the summary concepts.

c) As a way of making the interview a meaningful hands-on experience for the children and young people, the summary concepts and images were accessed through a laptop computer, a process that provided the children and young people with an opportunity to demonstrate their ICT knowledge and skills. This process also allowed the researcher to gauge the veracity of their claims in relation to their knowledge and use of ICT.

d) The interview guide was used to ensure the production of a robust set of accounts that systematically explored pupils':

· feelings about traditional paper-based learning

· experience of paper-based learning when travelling

· knowledge, skills and experience of ICT

· views and aspirations as to how ICT supported learning might improve on the quality and coherence of their
current access to the curriculum.

Other relevant issues, such as the security of using on-line services and families' preferences as to where they would like to access such provision (e.g. schools, community centres, libraries etc.) were addressed. Finally, the interview discussions focused on children's views and concerns about how an e-learning community for teachers and their Gypsy and Traveller pupils might work in practice, particularly for pupils that travel or are educated in out of school settings.

Analysis

The research analysis identified the content of Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller children's and young peoples' responses to the common questions; noted the particular issues of concern each participant raised; and compared these responses and points across the interview transcripts. The analysis also drew upon research fieldnotes made during the research and a range of other kinds of data, for example relevant educational reports and academic literature.

The research findings are organised and presented under general themes and emergent issues relating to delivery of ICT supported learning, rather than by Traveller grouping. Where appropriate the distinctions between the groupings are noted.

CHAPTER THREE TRAVELLER PUPILS' PERCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION

Introduction

This chapter begins the report's presentation of data gathered from January to July 2005 with children and young people from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds, about their experiences of schools, schooling and ICT supported learning. The chapter briefly describes the children and young people, the significance of 'family' in their day-to-day lives, its impact upon their perceptions of learning, and their experience of schools and schooling. The chapter introduces pupils' perceptions of flexibility in relation to ICT supported learning and concludes that Gypsy and Traveller pupils would welcome and benefit from ICT supported learning as a way of overcoming the gaps in their learning resulting from travelling and learning in out of school settings.

Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller pupils

The Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller young people had lived in a range of accommodation; houses, trailers and chalets. All had experience travelling for a combination of family, cultural and occupational reasons, which had entailed their families taking their 'home' with them, that is a number of trailers sufficient to accommodate a family's needs. Some of the Gypsy/Traveller children reported that their families had decided to live in a house because of the expense of travelling and the difficulties experienced in finding suitable stopping places.

'Gypsy identity' - its impact on access to education

Analysis revealed an overarching theme of 'Gypsy identity' as having an impact on both Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller pupils' access to education while travelling, or while attending a school for a short period of time. The pupils generally referred to themselves as 'Travellers', but drew careful attention to the cultural distinctions between Showground Travellers and Gypsy/Travellers. Gypsy/Traveller pupils frequently referred to themselves as 'Gypsies'. Significantly, all non-Traveller adult participants' referred to the pupils and their families as 'Travellers', and most appeared to have only a blurred understanding of their different cultures and lifestyles.

Racism and class

All adult facilitators and most of the pupils spontaneously described instances of non-Travellers negative discriminatory treatment of Travellers i.e., from both communities. A basic explanation suggested that many non-Travellers hold negative stereotype perceptions of 'Gypsies' and are unaware of the social and cultural distinctions between the different Traveller communities. Subsequently, these perceptions were thought to shape non-Travellers' interactions with persons from any Traveller group. For example, Showground Traveller and Gypsy/Traveller pupils all described instances of being called 'a dirty Gypo'.

While non-Travellers' negative treatment of Gypsy/Traveller pupils was mainly described in terms of racism, a Showground Traveller introduced a class explanation for the negative treatment of Showground Traveller pupils.

Showground Traveller boy: We're not poor class, like a lot of people tend to think that we're poor people and we can't afford things. But we do and we're middle class and we're no different from anybody else.

Gypsy/Traveller children explained non-Travellers' negative treatment of them in terms of racism. Many offered this view as a general explanation for why Gypsy/Traveller pupils irregularly attend school, and in some cases, not at all.

Travelling patterns

Showground Traveller families' patterns of movement are relatively more predictable than those of Gypsy/Traveller families. Showground Traveller pupils have an added bonus that they return to a 'base' school at the end of each travelling season. While some of the Gypsy/Traveller pupils in this research did talk about their 'real' school, by contrast, some of the Gypsy/Traveller children reported incidents that, for reasons of safety, had led their families to quickly 'move on' from a local authority site. In these cases, the school or the designated learning support teacher is highly unlikely to know the family's next destination and is thus unable to send an updated record of a pupil's learning to the next school he/she attends.

Gypsy/Traveller pupils frequently experience delays in accessing the curriculum due to the time it takes for class teachers to assess his/her learning needs before he/she can be located within appropriate class groupings or receive learning support, should it be needed.

Professionals' attempts to develop and use hand-held records have been relatively successful with Showground Traveller families, but unsuccessful with Gypsy/Traveller families. Although families frequently 'move on' without notice to the schools, other families are reported by designated support staff to keep good contact with them or the school that their child usually attends (Padfield and Jordan, 2004).

This evidence gathered with the Gypsy and Traveller children and young people in 2005, therefore is not new. However its reportage highlights the key challenges facing educational policy makers and professionals seeking to provide equality of access to the curriculum for Traveller pupils,

· the persistence of racist and discriminatory treatment

· differing patterns of travelling, and

· lack of quick access to up-to-date pupil records.

Families, lifestyles and schooling

All the children and young people made frequent references to their families. In addition to having a strong personal attachment to their families, pupils' comments revealed the social and cultural significance of each family as located within a highly networked system of extended family groupings and associated friendships.

This point is important in that news of ICT supported learning would travel very quickly from one family to another and thus that delivery of such a service must be carried out according to clearly defined criteria that are seen to be fair to the families concerned.

Children and young people's views about their families emerged in discussions about a range of issues relating to school attendance, and their perceptions of fairness and punishment at school and its impact on their families. The following quote from a group discussion between a group of Gypsy/Traveller pupils illustrates this point.

Primary boy 1: Yeah I know, I think they expect too much of the children in the school because like they don't…

Secondary boy: Right, like say when someone does something really bad to the teacher, the whole class would get the punishment exercise and then they will say you have to have about fifty lines done in the next ten minutes. Shush, [to brother] say you were gonna have like something like you were going to have your gym and someone do it very bad [unclear] what our teachers does, he writes on top of the board and [both talking] and you've got to do it, the whole class…

Primary boy 1: And its not very fair for the other children, because…

Secondary boy: Because … and probably they were in a lot of trouble getting their things, you know having a rush, getting to gym, … putting it in their washing machine [both talking] and they take long to wash on it sometimes.

Primary boy 2: And iron it! … iron [interrupted]

Secondary boy: … and then not to do gym … for someone else's behaviour!

The above dialogue clearly demonstrated both boys' considerable thoughtfulness in linking the work done at home as integral to the gym class, and their perceptions of how 'unfair treatment' in class has considerable knock on social effects; from one child, to the rest of the class, and by extension, out of the classroom and into their homes.

Analysis of this and other discourses revealed a strongly gendered division of labour within Gypsy/Traveller families. All of the girls wanted to be "normal like my mam", which included having a family of their own. However, an acceptance of their mothers' views about the role of paid work in their future lives also emerged.

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: If me mam says you've got to have a good job like I'll get a job and I'll get a good job.

Showground Traveller young people became very animated when talking about the Showground life and all described examples of their active engagement in supporting their family's particular ride or stall in the showground. The Showground Traveller pupils appeared to derive a strong sense of pride from belonging to a highly skilled business community, which they considered delivers a service particularly to the smaller towns and communities they visit each year. Learning about the 'shows' and how Showmen 'do business' was also described as a source of self-esteem, and how they bonded with other family members.

These and many other examples indicated that development of an ICT supported curriculum should be sensitive to the cultural mores within each group; one size will not 'fit all'.

Access to the curriculum and interrupted learning

The evaluation of the SchoolsOutGlasgow.net approach found that as a guide to practice, a 'needs led' approach to ICT supported learning was a significant factor in successfully helping learners with interrupted learning to engage positively with the curriculum.

Due to travelling or as a result of choosing not to go to school, all the children and young people had experienced interrupted learning, had additional support for learning needs, and a few had particular 'learning difficulties'.

Of the 21 pupils, 9 were positive about attending school, 3 were very ambivalent about attending school and 9 were flexible about where they attended for learning and teaching, for example some described friends' experience of an alternative centre in very positive terms. One secondary Gypsy/Traveller boy, while not being prepared to go to school due to his experience of racist bullying, clearly felt that the best place to be educated was at school. Generally pupils were positive about their experience of primary schools and more critical of their secondary school experience.

Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller pupils reported having access to a range of support for learning including additional support for learning, flexible and part-time curricular arrangements in schools and access to support in out of school settings. However, in one particular setting, the experience of secondary-aged Gypsy/Traveller pupils was negatively described by an education support worker as, "Not getting the full spectrum of the subjects, but what they're getting is better than what they've got [without it] which is nothing."

While no Gypsy/Traveller pupil reported having a paper-based pack prepared for him or her prior to their leaving, none of the young people reported having received any systematic attention to their support for learning needs when travelling. One Showground Traveller pupil reported that,

Showground Traveller boy: Yes they give you materials like a jotter and stuff and work to take with you to write on and the work so you don't miss out so much.

Researcher: Mhm, and what do you do with it when you've written on it? Do you send it back?

Showground Traveller boy: No, you wait until you've both come back to the school and you hand it in and they'll check it over.

Many of the children were clearly knowledgeable about their own learning, information they had gleaned from their pupil reports. For example, the following quote emerged during the interview with two primary Gypsy/Traveller girls.

Gypsy/Traveller girl 1: … They write a for good and b for like okay. And things like e's not all, e's like low, b, c, and you'll get higher at your grades. And if you're failing like they say on the letter to your mam that you are failing. So we've got to keep more practising and everything.

Researcher: Yes. And so your mums wouldn't want that to be the case?

Gypsy/Traveller girl 1: No

Researcher: They want you to practise?

Gypsy/Traveller girl 2: Yeah they want us to keep going through it.

Many of the young people commented that regular school attendance was necessary for them to make progress in their learning.

Pupils' descriptions of schoolteachers' preparation of materials in anticipation of a known period of travelling appeared to be ad hoc. Carried out in primary and secondary schools, earlier research found that 'mobile' Traveller pupils receive relatively poorer support for learning than their peers at school (Jordan 2001).

School (place) and learning (process)

All the children and young people drew a distinction between school as a place where bad things sometimes happened, and learning as a process that could be achieved without necessarily going to school, and as available in a range of other places While teachers were acknowledged to be important for formal learning skills, family members and other contacts known to their families were also described as making significant and relevant contributions to their learning.

Gypsy/Traveller and Showground pupils differed in their views about secondary education.

Gypsy/Traveller boys, once they had reached S2 or S3, generally reported that they did not want or feel that they needed to attend secondary school. All the boys reported that their fathers and uncles acted as their 'teachers' in helping them learn the skills needed for employment.

Showground Traveller pupils also linked learning at school with the learning acquired through working on the family show or stalls. One pupil thought that school, "helps me learn… When you're a Showman you have tae have an education… Cause you wouldn't know how to work the ride if you never had education. There's lots of things to do with school and in your ride… mathematics and boxwork, joinery, all these things, all DIY things… English and science and this stuff."

Researcher: 'Cause you wouldn't be able to be a Showman without it?

Showground Traveller boy 3: Well you wouldn't be a very good [emphasis on word] Showman without it.

Showground secondary boys, for example particularly looked to their fathers and uncles for teaching them significant skills while travelling with the Shows.

These findings are not new, but in policy terms they are newly significant in the light of recent policy perspectives on the impact of parental involvement, particularly the significance of fathers' interest in supporting children's education.

Limits of flexibility

Showground Traveller pupils recognised both the links between irregular attendance and poor academic achievement, and the difficulties schools faced in supporting pupils when travelling. Some had a clear understanding that the secondary curriculum was far less flexible in accommodating the 'drop in' approach that had worked well for children during their primary education.

A Showground Traveller boy, for example described his secondary school as his "'base' school" and then volunteered the following comment.

Showground Traveller boy: See when you are in primary you can join other schools. Unlike secondary schools you can't join just like that. And that's why…

Researcher: Mhm, why can't you join just like that do you think?

Showground Traveller boy: It's cause of the system and the way it works. It wouldn't, like you have to go into the systems and that like for computers or they wouldn't know who you are on the register. So and it [dropping into a secondary school] would be a bit of a complication.

The concept of flexibility had little meaning for most pupils although pupils from Showground Traveller backgrounds described examples of alternative curricular that their families had organised for their children during the summer months.

Showground Traveller Boy: Ma da's got me into welding and that spray paint and I was doing that when I was away, I was like doing the odd jobs and that.

Researcher: So does your dad teach you or do you go on a course or something?

Showground Traveller Boy: No, like my dad showed me the basic stuff and that and how to use a spray paint gun and that but … like we get a paper it's called the World's Fair [The Showmen's Guild's official newspaper] so there was a course in that down at Brighton or something, down like down the country in England and it's for fourteen years and upwards, and it was spray paint, … And that's a twelve weeks course and you are down there and it shows you how to spray paint pictures and all that.

As already described in earlier chapters, Gypsy/Traveller pupils' examples of alternative learning opportunities were gendered in their orientation, with boys referring to learning a trade with their dads and uncles and girls referring to and strongly identifying with their mothers and care of the family. Importantly, this did not exclude 'having a good paid job'.

In this research, some Showground pupils reported staying with grandparents or aunts while their families travelled, as a way of preventing them from falling behind their peers at school through interruptions to their schooling.

Showground Traveller boy: I am staying to have to get a better education… to keep, keep myself at school and keep myself learned. I'm … S1 but I should be in S2. I was kept back a year.

Researcher: Ah, why were you kept back?

Showground Traveller boy: Because I was not like at school a lot, as much as other pupils cause I was travelling a lot more than what I do now… It wasn't because I wasn't brainy or that.

The positive impact of the now defunct EFECOT initiative in supporting Showground pupils was evident in the academic achievements of some Showground Traveller pupils. At one school, some Showground Traveller girls had been the 'dux' of the school and gone on to higher education. Secondary schools were also reported to provide additional support for learning for Showground Traveller pupils when at school.

Different schools - different rules

The Gypsy/Traveller children in one group had all travelled in different directions; south to England and west as far as Ireland. The children raised two key issues; first that schools don't place them in classes according to their age/stage; and second, they find themselves breaking school's organisational rules, for example around mealtimes.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy 1: [All talking] ... I feel I don't make progress because I am getting put down a class and…

Gypsy/Traveller Boy 2: The place that I was at, [name], every time we had to go to school we had to go from quarter to nine to three o'clock so it was longer plus I was going down a class and I didn't like it.

In all three cases the children reported how the schools they attended while travelling had placed them in a lower class than the one that they had come from, that they were taught the same topic many times over, and that schools approached the same topic from different perspectives, which was confusing.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy 1: In [Scottish place name] I was in Heinemann five and when I came back here I am on Heinemann four again.

Researcher: Right so if you move from school to school it all gets interrupted?

Gypsy/Traveller Boy 1: I went to a school once and then … and I went to another school and … it was a totally different thing altogether, maths was totally different and I didn't get it because I had finished you know things in this school. So if you had set this whole work…

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: You know how I am in primary six here well if I went away to England to [name of] school they would put me in primary five

Gypsy/Traveller Boy 2: Same with me that's what they do.

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: And I don't like going to down classes.

It emerged in discussion that one particular school always placed both boys in a lower class, which suggested that this was a common practice in relation to visiting Gypsy/Traveller pupils.

Social conditions of school learning & teaching

The Gypsy/Traveller children gave examples of racist name-calling, which suggested that in such situations the atmosphere at school was not conducive to learning. For example, in one group interview, an older boy's tone of voice suggested his deep weariness in relation to attending school, a point picked up by another boy in the same group.

Boy 1: No it's waking up in the morning, that's the feeling … my stomach thinking 'we've got a whole day of school'… It's just, just being surrounded [said with emphasis] by people. It's just…

Boy 2: We don't like being surrounded by all the school.

Boy 1: … people.

Boy 2 Yeah cause they've got friends… They've got more [pause] they've got someone tae pick on. If I … [laughs], if me and ma cousins and like all the Travelling boys were at school, we would really [unclear words].

Boy 1: We're the odd ones out.

Boy 2: Yes that's what we are. That's one thing that [unclear words], trying to think what's in their heads, thinking what they're thinking. And if sad unpredictable people thinking what they are away to do.

Researcher: So it's very nerve wracking?

Boy 3: Yes [pause] they throw stuff at ye, and I try tae think, like 'are you going tae throw something at me?' And looking at like … 44 people in your class.

Cross referencing these children's accounts with the reflections of local authority staff responsible for their support showed that these pupils had clearly experienced a four month period of significant interrupted learning.

A critical mass - makes a difference?

By contrast, one interview group, who attended a school with a significant population of Gypsy/Traveller pupils, did not raise the issue of racism. However, when the researcher raised the question of their relationships with non-Gypsy children, a Gypsy/Traveller boy pointed out that that was not the purpose of the discussion.

Researcher: … you haven't talked about problems with children who are not Gypsies… you seem to have been quite happy…

Boy 1: No! I didn't know you were on about Gypsy racism?

Researcher: No I am not on about Gypsy racism but it came out in other interviews.

Boy 2: They do call us Gypsy b's and I should say because… Gypsy bastards.

[All talking - offering specific examples].

Researcher: What about the other way, do you call names back?

Boy 3: We do but …

While each child gave an account of his/her experience of racist name-calling, their apparently stronger capacity to cope with racist comments appeared to be derived from their sense of belonging and being supported by sufficient numbers of siblings, cousins and friends from their shared cultural background.

None of the above children set themselves up as victims. They clearly had a capacity to be self-critical, and critical of some Gypsy/Traveller people. They discussed a recent TV programme about Robert Kilroy Silk's week spent with a Traveller family, which involved his staying in a trailer on their land. The children remarked upon the untidy state of the Traveller's land. They went on to describe Travellers' concerns about those Travellers who don't keep their possessions or campsites tidy, "we call them scruffs. And I am not being horrible but that's what we call them. But if they are untidy …".

[1]As an illustration of the complexities around 'Traveller' identities, some groups of Travellers not associated with shows and fairgrounds, also refer to themselves as 'occupational Travellers'.

[2]As a further example of the complexities around minority ethnic 'Traveller' identities 'Gypsies/Travellers' would include people self-identifying as Roma or as Irish Travellers.

[3]Although not within the remit of this research, similar statements apply to children from New Traveller families who may be home educated and may attend schools.

[4]More recently, some of the original participants in the EFECOT project have renewed European efforts to support Gypsy and Traveller education, which is reflected in the formation in 2005 of the European Network for Traveller Education (ENTE).

[5]British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.

[6]At the time of writing, a research report by STEP (2006), currently not publicly available, includes research with New Traveller families. The research report outlines the impact of the National Guidance, 'Inclusive Educational Approaches for Gypsies and Travellers within the context of interrupted learning'. Edinburgh, STEP/LTScotland (2003).

[7]See Appendix 1 Young People's Prompts.

[8]See Appendix 2 Younger Children's Images.

[9]See Appendix 3 Interview Guide.

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