Despite an increasing interest in the geographies of childhood, geographical research has given little attention to issues concerning young people from traditionally semi-nomadic groups, such as Gypsies and other Travellers. In this paper I explore the discursive construction of Traveller childhood within contemporary Britain, with an emphasis on the ways in which state educational discourse constructs young Travellers as needing greater involvement with the ‘mainstream’ education system. I draw on a range of sources, including documents, participant observation, and interviews with practitioners in Traveller education conducted between 1998 and 2001. I argue that contemporary discourse often continues to reflect long-standing notions of cultural disadvantage and deficit which have often been applied to Travellers, although more subtly expressed than in the past. I also argue that children's rights discourses are often employed to construct Traveller parents as obstacles to their children's development and well-being, and that these discourses can be used to legitimise various exertions of power (such as legal measures to prosecute parents). The evidence of the research highlights the need for more nuanced, empirically informed theorisations of the interface between Traveller children and state institutions than has generally been the case to date.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ActonT, 1974Gypsy Politics and Social ChangeRoutledge and Kegan Paul, London)
2.
AdamsD W, 1995Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875–1928University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, KS)
3.
AitkenS, 2001Geographies of Young PeopleRoutledge, New York)
4.
AlexiadouN, 2002, “Social exclusion and social inclusion in England: tensions in education policy”Journal of Education Policy1771–86
5.
AndersonG, 1998, “Traveller education: the way forward”, speech on behalf of the Department for Education and Employment, Newham, October
6.
BermanE H, 1984, “State hegemony and the schooling process”Journal of Education166239–253
7.
BernsteinB, 1997 [1975], “Class and pedagogies: visible and invisible”, in Education: Culture, Economy, and Society Eds HalseyA HLauderHBrownPWellA S (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 59–79
8.
BhopalKGundaraJJonesCOwenC, 2000Working Towards Inclusive Education: Aspects of Good Practice for Gypsy Traveller ChildrenThe Stationery Office, London)
9.
BinnsD, 1990, “History and growth of Traveller education”British Journal of Educational Studies38251–258
10.
BlairT, 1998The Third Way: New Politics for a New CenturyFabian Society, London)
11.
BlomleyN, 1994Law, Space, and the Geographies of PowerGuilford Press, New York)
12.
BourdieuPPasseronJ-C, 1977Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture translated by NiceRichard (Sage, London); originally published in 1970
13.
BourdieuPPasseronJ-C, 1979The Inheritors: French Students and their Relations to CultureUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL); originally published in 1964
14.
CarterH, 2002, “Race, romanticism and perspectives on Gypsy education in early twentieth century Britain”University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History5http://www.sussex.ac.uk/history/1-4-1.html
15.
CemlynS, 1995, “Traveller children and the state: welfare or neglect?”Child Abuse Review4278–290
16.
CemlynS, 2000, “Assimilation, control, mediation or advocacy? Social work dilemmas in providing anti-oppressive services for Traveller children and families”Child and Family Social Work5327–341
17.
Central Advisory Council for Education, 1967Children and Their Primary SchoolsThe Plowden Report) (HMSO, London)
18.
ClarkC, 1997, “‘Educational space’ in the European Union: social exclusion or assimilation of Gypsy/Traveller children?”Social Work in Europe427–33
19.
ClarkC, 1998, “A step change in Traveller education”, Department for Education and Employment, speech to the Biennial Conference of the National Association of Teachers of Travellers, Leicester, November, available from Department for Education and Skills, London
20.
ClarkC, 2002, “‘Not just lucky white heather and clothes pegs’: putting European Gypsy and Traveller niches in context”, in Ethnicity and Economy Eds FentonSBradleyH (Palgrave, Basingstoke, Hants) pp 183–198
21.
ClayG S, 1997, “Opening our eyes: some observations on the attendance of primary aged Traveller pupils registered at schools in a county area of South Wales”, in Romani Culture and Gypsy Identity Eds ActonTMundyG (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield) pp 129–151
Department for Education and Skills, 2002Is Your Child Missing Out? School Attendance: Information for ParentsThe Stationery Office, London)
28.
DerringtonCKendallS, 2004Gypsy Traveller Students in Secondary SchoolsTrentnam Books, Stoke on Trent)
29.
EnnewJ, 2000, “The history of children's rights: whose story?”Cultural Survival Quarterly2444–48
30.
GillbornD, 1999, “Fifty years of failure: ‘race’ and education policy in Britain”, in Tackling Disaffection and Social Exclusion: Education Perspectives and Policies Ed. HaytonA (Kogan Page, London) pp 135–155
31.
GirouxH A, 1985, “Critical pedagogy, cultural politics and the discourse of experience”Journal of Education16722–41
32.
HalfacreeK, 1996, “Out of place in the country: Travellers and the ‘rural idyll’”Antipode2842–72
33.
HelleinerJ, 1998a, “Contested childhood: the discourse and politics of Traveller childhood in Ireland”Childhood5303–324
34.
HelleinerJ, 1998b, “‘For the protection of the children’: the politics of minority childhood in Ireland”Anthropological Quarterly7151–62
35.
HelleinerJ, 2001Irish Travellers: Racism and the Politics of CultureUniversity of Toronto Press, Toronto)
36.
HendrickH, 1997Children, Childhood and English Society, 1880–1990Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
37.
HodderE, 1896George Smith (of Coalville): The Story of an EnthusiastJames Nisbet and Co, Limited, London)
38.
HollowayS L, 1998, “Local childcare cultures: moral geographies of mothering and the social organisation of pre-school education”Gender, Place and Culture129–53
39.
HollowayS L, 2003, “Outsiders in rural society? Constructions of rurality and nature–society relations in the racialisation of English Gypsy-Travellers, 1869–1934”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space21695–715
40.
HollowayS LValentineG, 2000, “Children's geographies and the new social studies of childhood”, in Children's Geographies: Playing, Living, Learning Eds HollowaySValentineG (Routledge, London) pp 1–28
41.
HopkinsE, 1994Childhood Transformed: Working Class Children in Nineteenth Century EnglandUniversity of Manchester Press, Manchester)
42.
HoylandJ, 1816A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits and Present State of the Gypsies, Designed … to Promote the Amelioration of their Conditions (York); available at the Scott Macfie Gypsy Collection, University of Liverpool, Liverpool
43.
IvattsA, 1999, “Achievements and progression of Traveller pupils and students: building the landing strip”, keynote speech to the Traveller Link Conference, West Kent College, Kent, October
44.
JordanE, 1998Travellers and Scottish Schools unpublished PhD thesis, Moray House Institute of Education, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
45.
JunaidM I, 1987Education and Cultural Integrity: An Ethnographic Study of the Problems of Formal Education and Pastoral Fulani in Sokoto State, Nigeria unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Education, University of York, York
46.
KendallS, 1997Contested Boundaries and Identities: The Social, Cultural and Spatial Characteristics of Traveller Lifestyles unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leeds, Leeds
47.
KenrickDClarkC, 1999Moving On: The Gypsies and Travellers of BritainUniversity of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield)
48.
KiddleC, 1999Traveller Children: A Voice for ThemselvesJessica Kingsley, London)
49.
LeeK WWarrenW G, 1991, “Alternative education: lessons from Gypsy thought and practice”British Journal of Educational Studies39311–324
50.
LevitasR, 1998The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New LabourMacmillan, New York)
51.
LiégeoisJ-P, 1987School Provision for Gypsies and Travelling ChildrenOffice for Official Publications of the European Community, Luxembourg)
52.
LundB, 1999, “‘Ask not what your community can do for you’: obligations, New Labour and welfare reform”Critical Social Policy19447–462
53.
MacDonaldR, 1997, “Dangerous youth and the dangerous class”, in Youth, the ‘Underclass’ and Social Exclusion Ed. MacDonaldR (Routledge, London) pp 1–25
54.
McKendrickJ H, 2000, “The geography of children: an annotated bibliography”Childhood7359–387
55.
McVeighR, 1997, “Theorising sedentarism: the roots of anti-nomadism”, in Gypsy Politics and Traveller Identity Ed. ActonT (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield) pp 7–25
56.
MasseyD, 1993, “Power-geometry and a progressive sense of place”, in Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change Eds BirdJCurtisBPutnamTRobertsonGTicknerL (Routledge, London) pp 59–69
57.
MayallD, 1988Gypsy–Travellers in Nineteenth Century SocietyCambridge University Press, Cambridge)
58.
MayallD, 1992, “The making of British Gypsy identities, c. 1500–1980”Immigrants and Minorities1121–41
59.
MayallD, 1995English Gypsies and State PoliciesUniversity of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield)
60.
MayallD, 1997, “Egyptians and vagabonds: representations of the Gypsy in early modern official and rogue literature”Immigrants and Minorities16(3) 55–82
61.
MorrisE, 1997, “Beyond reading and writing: access to secondary education for Travellers”, speech to ACERT (Advisory Council for the Education of Romanies and Travellers), 11 September; available from Department of Education and Skills, London
62.
MurdochA, 1999The Impact of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 on Britain's Travellers unpublished PhD thesis, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol
63.
ní ShuinéarS, 1997, “Why do Gaujos hate Gypsies so much, anyway? A case study”, in Gypsy Politics and Traveller Identity Ed. ActonT (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield) pp 26–53
64.
Ofsted, 1996The Education of Travelling Children: A Survey of Educational Provision for Travelling ChildrenThe Stationery Office, London)
65.
Ofsted, 1999Raising the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils: School and LEA ResponsesThe Stationery Office, London)
66.
Ofsted, 2003Provision and Support for Traveller PupilsThe Stationery Office, London)
67.
OkelyJ, 1983The Traveller–GypsiesCambridge University Press, Cambridge)
68.
OkelyJ, 1997, “Non-territorial culture as the rationale for the assimilation of Gypsy children”Childhood463–80
69.
OrrD, 2000, “When humans behave like animals”The Independent 25 August
70.
PartonN, 1999, “Reconfiguring child welfare practices: risk, advanced liberalism, and the government of freedom”, in Reading Foucault for Social Work Eds ChambonA SIrvingAEpsteinL (Columbia University Press, New York) pp 101–130
71.
PopkewitzT S, 1988, “Culture, pedagogy, and power: issues in the production of values and colonization”Journal of Education17077–90
72.
PuxonG, 2000, “The Romani movement: rebirth and the First World Romani Congress in retrospect”, in Scholarship and the Gypsy Struggle: Commitment in Romani Studies Ed. ActonT (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield) pp 94–113
73.
RuddickS M, 1996Young and Homeless in Hollywood: Mapping Social IdentitiesRoutledge, London)
74.
Save the Children, 2001, “The United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales”, in Denied a Future? The Right to Education of Roma/Gypsy Traveller Children in Europe. Volume 2: Western and Central Europe (Save the Children, London) pp 206–301
75.
ScottJ C, 1998Seeing Like a StateYale University Press, New Haven, CT)
76.
SibleyD, 1981Outsiders in Urban SocietiesBlackwell, Oxford)
77.
SibleyD, 1986, “Persistence or change? Conflicting interpretations of peripheral minorities”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space457–70
78.
SibleyD, 1995Geographies of ExclusionRoutledge, London)
79.
SibleyD, 1998, “Problematizing exclusion: reflections on space, difference and knowledge”International Planning Studies393–100
80.
SibleyD, 2001, “The control of space: Travellers, youth, and drug cultures”, in British Cultural Studies: Geography, Nationality, and Identity Eds MorleyDRobinsK (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 417–430
81.
SmithD, 2000, “Moral progress in human geography: transcending the place of good fortune”Progress in Human Geography241–18
82.
SmithT, 1997, “Recognising difference: the Romani ‘Gypsy’ child socialisation and education process”British Journal of Sociology of Education18243–256
SommervilleJ, 1982The Rise and Fall of ChildhoodSage, Thousand Oaks, CA)
85.
StephensS (Ed.), 1995Children and the Politics of CulturePrinceton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
86.
StewartM, 1997The Time of the GypsiesWestview Press, Oxford)
87.
StickleyE W, 2002, Letter to the editor Lyme Regis and Bridport News 23 August
88.
ValentineG, 1996, “Angels and devils: moral landscapes of childhood”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space14581–599
89.
ValentineG, 1997, “‘My son's a bit dizzy’. ‘My wife's a bit soft’: gender, children and cultures of parenting”Gender, Place and Culture437–62
90.
VanderbeckR M, 2003, “Youth, racism, and place in the Tony Martin Affair”Antipode35363–384
91.
Van DijkT, 1993Elite Discourse and RacismSage, London)
92.
WatersonM, 1997, “‘I want more than green leaves for my children’. Some developments in Gypsy/Traveller education, 1970–1996”, in Romani Culture and Gypsy Identity Eds ActonTMundyG (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield) pp 129–151
93.
WillisP, 1977Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class JobsSaxon House, Farnborough, Hants)
94.
WinchesterH P M, 1991, “The geography of children”Area23357–360
