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János Géczi, Zsuzsanna Huszár, András Sramó and Julianna Mrázik: Study of student teachers' attitudes towards Romas

The present paper reports the first results of a study of attitudes conducted in the Department of Educational Methodology at the University of Pécs. Some elements of attitudes to Romas were studied on a sample of 316 trainee teachers with the aim of obtaining a relavant diagnosis and of sensitizing students to this controversial issue. We wanted to get a clear picture of the students' level of knowledge about minorities, the sources of their images of Roma, their assessment of their own pedagogical readiness and their linguistic attitudes. From our results we highlight that our students know very little about the ethnic minorities of Hungary, but they estimate the level of their knowledge of Gypsies the highest. Our students consider educating Romas to be problematic. Part of the problem is thought to be the presumed ratio of Romas in classes, their number plays a large part in judging the level of difficulty of the teaching situation. Assuming a growing presence of Romas, students regard the teaching situation as progressively more difficult and themselves as less prepared. Male students think that they are more prepared, whereas females would be more willing to learn the Roma language. It is a general tendency that the more educated the students' parents are, the less willingness there is on the students' part to learn the Roma language. The highest ratio is among those who urge for the use of the Roma language for educational purposes. Although the actual contents of students' opinions of Romas were not studied, the expression of the majority attitude is obvious, as the increasing presence of Romas is solely interpreted as a source of problems in students' responses.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 102. Number 1. 31-61. (2002)

Levelezési cím / Address for correspondence: Géczi János, Huszár Zsuzsanna, Sramó András és Mrázik Julianna, Pécsi Tudományegyetem, Tanárképző Intézet. H­7624 Pécs, Ifjúság u. 6. E-mail: gezci_janos@axelero.hu

 
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Magyar Tudományos Akadémia