‘Nothing about us without us’: the role of inclusive community development in school desegregation for Roma communities

This article was presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, September 2012 Cadiz, Spain. The article argues that community dialogue and participation is a vital dynamic in desegregation and explores the centrality of forms of empowerment which can be described as ‘inclusive community development’ (ICD). The segregation of Roma children is taking place despite the growing body of legal statutes and policy directives aimed at creating integrated education which has been formally reaffirmed in a number of cases at the European Court of Human Rights. It is posited that ICD is essential to make a reality of legal and policy directives which support desegregation. It is argued that such a dialogic exercise can overcome institutional opposition to inclusion but has transformative potential by promoting inclusive education, interculturalism and setting communities along a path leading to wider structural change. The article draws upon a large pan-European project which involved the authors.