Publisher's Synopsis
Travellers are the largest indigenous minority ethnic group in Irish society; they have survived despite centuries of racist exclusion by the majority and its institutions. Since 1960 this exclusion has been a matter of official concern. Policy makers promoted schooling as the passport to acceptance and 'progress' for Travellers. - - Travellers? responses to school provision have been complex and often problematic. To some providers it seems that they resist the very thing they say they seek. This book offers a detailed study of this resistance in one second-level school, and links it to Travellers? historic patterns of resistance. Some practices are shown to be regressive, but some are moments of cultural celebration. Travellers and their teachers must explore such celebratory moments and build ethnic pride and recognition. This will 'change the subject': Travellers, no longer defined as victims, will claim respect as equal but different, in a multicultural anti-racist society.
