Education in social excluded localities
Pupils with social disadvantages in the conditions of the Czech education system are defined in Section 16 (education of children, pupils and students with special educational needs) of Act No.561/2004 Coll. on pre-school, secondary, higher vocational and other education, as amended, and Decree No. Furthermore, children with social disadvantages are dealt with in the 2007 RVP ZV document, which on page 102 defines pupils as pupils coming from an environment that is socially or culturally and linguistically different from the environment in which pupils from the majority population grow up:, from various minorities living in our country or pupils coming to us as part of migration.
The issue of educating pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds (SEN) has so far only been captured in research investigations represented by academic institutions. There is no (real) example of successful education in the Czech Republic itself, for which the Czech Republic is also criticized internationally, especially after the Strasbourg human rights judgment that ruled against the Czech Republic in the DH case, which was sued for discrimination against Roma children in schools.
The educational success of children from SVL is not only a matter for the local school institution. According to Radičová, Vašečka (2002) and also Kozubík (2013), a wide range of problems or barriers represent as double or multiple marginalisation, where people live in a closed homogenised system in which there is one pattern of social functioning and life strategy, which is shaped primarily by the (excluded) environment, very low to no parental education, the absence of positive role models or subaltern environment, and above all feelings of hopelessness, shame, insecurity and feelings of personal and collective failure (Kaleja 2011). Oscar Lewis 1968 came to a similar result in his research investigation, finding that children by the age of six or seven adopt all the stereotypes of behaviour, action and thinking that become an almost insurmountable obstacle on the road out of poverty.
According to the Analysis of Soc. of excluded localities in the Czech Republic (p. 11), social exclusion occurs when a person faces a complex of problems such as unemployment, discrimination, low qualifications, low income, poor quality of housing, poor health or family breakdown. The interrelated and interdependent combination of these problems then creates a vicious circle from which it is difficult or impossible for people in conditions of social exclusion to escape. Other authors see it in the context of reproducing educational inequality or spatial segregation as fundamental elements of social exclusion.
A concomitant phenomenon of a socially excluded locality tends to be crime or criminal activity. The latter is more likely to occur outside the SVL. The most frequent problems dealt with by the police in excluded localities are disturbance of the night, civil coexistence, and pollution of the public environment. The list of 'traditional problems' in the Agency's report relating to children and young people includes the use of alcohol and non-alcohol drugs, truancy, petty crime, particularly theft.
A very common negative (pathological) phenomenon accompanying life in socially excluded localities is substance abuse and gambling. Both addictions can be conceived as exit strategies from a hopeless situation. At the same time, they are also triggers for other criminal acts. The analysis of the Agency for Socially Excluded Localities adds that a common phenomenon in socially excluded environments is multi-generational substance use in families, where addictive substances are passed through parents and through them to children. The beginnings of experimentation with smoking, alcohol and marijuana start with children in the first stage of primary education between the ages of 9 and 13. The report adds that the most common addictive substances are alcohol, nicotine, methamphetamine and, in rare cases, toluene.
On 6 April 2016, TV Polar issued a report on the results of a drug test on ninth-grade pupils at an elementary school. 25% of the children present were found to be under the influence of drugs (the most common drug was methamphetamine, followed by marijuana). The results of the test would likely have been far more critical, as 10% of parents did not agree to have their children tested, and another significant factor was the absence of children who thus avoided the test.
The real picture of the life of a child living in an excluded locality is full of socially pathological phenomena, they are in plain sight every day, they are a daily reality for them. The child is present in conversations in which difficult life situations are "solved" when there is nothing to eat. It is present when a family member buys food with money obtained from illegal activities, it is present when a family member has been publicly humiliated by discrimination.
Another image of the difficult life of families and a relatively common phenomenon is migration within the city or within the country. Children often experience when they have to pack up in a hurry and leave the dwelling they have been occupying for some time. School textbooks are often left out of the packed belongings. It is hard to imagine that a child in such tense and challenging situations has room for their homework or that parents who are dealing with where they will sleep tomorrow are dealing with their children's homework.
Explaining to teachers the constant moves and their causes is humiliating for the children, as in most cases it is about unpaid rent, switched off electricity, etc.
Children from socially excluded localities are not motivated by anyone or in any way. All they see around them is high unemployment, people with few or no qualifications and only a very narrow range of professions. They do not meet classmates from better-off or more educated families.
The analyses of the research are interpreted very similarly in their final part, despite being based on different disciplines or different theoretical perspectives. However, there is a common emphasis on the age of 6-7 as crucial for a complete, comprehensive preparation and conception of the world and also of the self. It must be added that education cannot be "taken out and dealt with" as a specific, partial unit without reflecting on the possibilities and risks, independent of the way of life of the family and the influence of the socially excluded locality in the context of socially pathological phenomena. Kaleja emphasizes that the construct of education is bound by the social, socio-economic and other peculiarities that accompany Roma family upbringing in relation to the promotion of education and neglect the educational trajectory of both parents and children (2013, p. 44)
Sociologist O. Lewis emphasizes that a child at the age of 6-7 has fully adopted all stereotypes of behaviour, actions, thinking from his parents. These "competencies" are already so complex and experienced that they are the cause of the "inability" to abandon attitudinal constructs that make it almost impossible to break out of poverty (poverty in the context of the absence of social and cultural capital). These attitudinal constructs modify the relationship with the majority and, consequently, with school, schooling and education.
Another important finding is the associative verbal links that are already formulated in speakers at a younger school age, so that the potential realization of interculturalism in adulthood is thus strongly determined Intercultural Psychology, (Čeněk et al, Intercultural Psychology 2016). Kaleja mentions other authors such as M. Rabušicová, L. Kamanová and K. Pevná (2011) emphasize intergenerational learning in their publication. They urge that the actors of learning in a family̌ are all its members. In the family we learn how to approach ourselves, how to behave in order to live well. The phenomenon of social exclusion clearly̌ determines the life development and fate of all those who grow up in social exclusion. Social learning is transformed by this phenomenon. In the family, the individual acquires a kind of "instructions" or "procedures" for the existence of his own life. H. CH. Y Cherri (2008) found that parents mainly transmit their life experiences to their children, teaching them values, principles and morals that are close to their own. It is therefore primarily about social learning in the family environment. D. Caloňová and M. Kravárová (in Mátel, A. - Janechová, L. - Roman, L. (eds.) 2011) state that each family has its specific value system and its preferences influence behaviour in interactions with the social environment. The value orientation is changing quite rapidly in families and in society in general, which has negative consequences for the increasing growth of socially pathological phenomena.1 In SVL, acts of a socially pathological nature are a recurrent phenomenon in almost all members of the close and extended family.
To summarize briefly, the child at the age of 6-7 years already sets himself in opposition to "that world" beyond the boundaries of the excluded locality and has his reservations towards it adopted from his peers or parents (accompanied by stigmas, negation, hostility) parents.
In connection with the results of the scientific findings, we declare that the process of enculturation (the formation of a positive relationship to the majority culture by Romani children) and integration is at risk at this early stage, thus affecting the entire educational trajectory of the child in non-segregated, mainstream schools. All other therapeutic approaches to attempts at re-enculturation or re-integration already mitigate the effects of exclusion (e.g. pseudo-oligophrenia) - but do not ensure the internalization of the values, attitudes and relationships that condition the child's educational success and education as a parent themselves. Already at that early age, there is a division of worlds into "theirs" and "ours" and, in the context of this project, the formation of attitudes towards education and learning. This fact also translates into attitudes and attitudes towards education and the perception of the self in the context of career.
The scientific background is further complemented by current (not yet included in the research) problems of life from SVL. Poverty and social pathologies are the most common and greatest risks in the educational process manifested not only by the inability to integrate into the collective of children. This fact is the most common reason why parents and children choose the safer option of education in segregated schools. We know from our own experience that parents often succumb to the fear that the child will cease to be the target group of the organization and that they themselves will not be able to provide the necessary care for the child (communication with the school, tutoring, material needs, problem solving or even bullying).
The lack of reflection on these essential factors significantly jeopardizes the success of the project and the entire educational process of the child and the participating parent.
Leisure time is an important aspect of children's lives in SVL, which significantly negatively influences and stimulates children's behaviour and thinking, and thus shapes priorities. Current trends of children's games such as: smoking at the age of 6, 7, 8, or breaking glasses and watching cars drive over them, banging on doors and windows, competitions for the biggest brawler, throwing stones at each other, challenging young girls and women to sexual activities, are a common reality of everyday life for such young children. Increasingly, we are seeing cases of theft by pre-school children who are able to travel off-site to try and steal using public transport.
Even 100% effective activities carried out in pre-school are being devalued by children's poor/addictive leisure time. On the contrary, quality leisure time encourages changes in values and priorities and fundamentally shapes children's character, their world view, education, interpersonal relationships, teaches them to communicate and, according to the selected activities, is remedial in nature.
Leisure has not yet been explored in the context of pre-school or school education, but it must be obvious to every educator that if we teach children to speak politely and respect authority in school (5/6 lessons per day = 30 hours in the case of, if the teachers are respected by the children) and outside in their free time the children speak vulgarly, mock adults, are rude to them and make fun of them (in their free time outside 8/9 a day = 69, during holidays only the influence of the street) we cannot expect from these children a conforming behaviour with a loving relationship to education. Kaleja (2011, p: 45) argues: Leisure time is thus in the hands of the "street", where the chilď seeks the fulfillment of time space, and often encounters circumstances that shape his personality adversely.e his text...
Children from socially excluded localities in the context of education and upbringing
The results of current practice point to a myriad of problems or barriers that significantly reduce the educational success of children and pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds or socially excluded localities. The results of the author's survey on the follow-up studies of graduates of Ostrava primary schools, which are attended by 80-100% of children from socially excluded localities, showed that 50-70% do not apply for follow-up studies or apprenticeships (or pupils write out an application form without any intention to start studies). The rest of the pupils start a two-year follow-up study which they do not complete. The author of this article has encountered the case of a school of 20 pupils where only one pupil completed the two-year apprenticeship, and this was still with the very strong support of the religious institution in which the family was involved.
In the Analysis of SVL in the Czech Republic, which was prepared by the Agency for Social Inclusion, we can find the findings of the CSI from 2014, which states that the Czech education system does not provide equal educational opportunities for all, and the results of pupils are largely influenced by the social status of their parents.2
A significant characteristic of a socially disadvantaged pupil is his/her expression, way of thinking, priorities, values, goals and conception of society. He acquires these basic attributes from his early years, both from his nuclear family and through the significant influence of his wider environment, i.e. the community. It must be remembered that while in the majority society upbringing is a matter exclusively of the nuclear family, for the Roma it is a matter of the family in a broader sense. A child is brought up from his or her early years not only by the commands of their parents, but also by siblings, aunts and uncles, as well as older cousins and neighbours.
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