Jekatyerina Dunajeva

After Lithuania re-gained its independence, linguistic and cultural minority groups residing in the country had the right to be educated in non-Lithuanian-medium schools. Yet, the education of linguistic minority children has been a contentious topic in Lithuania for many years, and there is no conclusive evidence on how minority-language-medium sc...

With educational inequalities intensively studied through empirical and academic research over the last few decades, there is now a growing recognition that an intersectionality perspective is necessary for a better understanding of vulnerabilities. This paper underlines the importance of intersectionality for policy analysis and policy making by u...

Over 30 years after restoring independence and a transition to democratic systems with market economy, post-socialist countries emphasised Western values of freedom and equality, which extended to all policy areas, including education. However, research suggests that transformation of the former socialist bloc have had distinct effects on equity in...

The study demonstrates that the definition and meaning of education, and by extension of educational inequality, are embedded in countries’ historical, political and social environments, while also responding to exogenous changes and international trends. We comparatively discuss the experience of 4 countries (Norway, Finland, Lithuania and Hungary...

To improve the chances of Roma students succeeding in higher education, several initiatives have been established in recent decades, such as the Roma szakkollégium network (Roma Special Colleges), which joins various institutions around Hungary with the goal of helping Roma youth in higher education. This study inquiries into Roma university studen...

The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly affected Hungarian higher education (HEI). As campuses around the globe were forced to shut down, online distance learning became an everyday reality for all students. At the same time, faculty were rushed to adjust their teaching content and methods, as well as forms of assessment, to online teaching. As a r...

Is there a need for more research on the effects of COVID-19 on education? While there is research suggesting that the impacts and “the troubling effects of the pandemic on research and higher education… might be felt for years to come” (The Lancet Editorial, 2020), there is also discernible pandemic fatigue, not only among the population, but rese...

This article analyses the concept of diversity in education in the context of Eastern Europe and how its meaning might differ from that used in Western-focused literature. The study explores how faculty interpret diversity based on their experience of teaching contexts as being homogenous, situational, or internationalized, for which interviews hav...

This book presents research into inclusive education in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), written by scholars based in CEE. Inclusive education has become a framework for understanding and embracing diversity but most of the research in this area has been carried out in intercultural or culturally diverse settings within a relatively inclusive and...

The leading research question in this chapter is how formal and informal educational practices affect Roma identity formation and, in turn, may influence Roma youth empowerment and positive development. The goal is to provide an interdisciplinary examination of marginalized youth development based on the example of Roma in Hungary. This chapter dis...

This chapter embeds Roma identity formation in the politics of early Soviet Union, by examining the role schools played in delineating boundaries of belonging and the sense of nationhood. I analyze education policies and politics towards minorities in the 1920s and ‘1930s through textbooks in Romani language from the time. I show that textbooks, of...

Disproportionate exposure to adverse environmental conditions is part of the complex cycle of dispossession and racial discrimination faced by marginalized minorities in Europe—primarily the Roma. The concept of environmental justice or the analysis of environmental risk along racial dimensions are largely absent from policy debates. This is a crit...

Jekatyerina Dunajeva explores how two dominant stereotypes—“bad Gypsies” and “good Roma”—took hold in formal and informal educational institutions in Russia and Hungary. She shows that over centuries “Gypsies” came to be associated with criminality, lack of education, and backwardness. The second notion, of proud, empowered, and educated “Roma,” is...

This study advances the argument that contemporary Russian illiberalism can be characterised through immense societal polarisation, generating a language of ‘othering’ and equating groups with critical political attitudes as ‘agents of the West’ or ‘foreigners.’ In the name of eradicating ‘amoral Western influence’ and shielding Russia from ‘foreig...

Scholars have long been interested in researching Roma; a form of “top-down research,” where the researcher analyzes, gathers data, and interviews the “objects” of the research, is still dominant in the field, although an increasing number of critics have been proposing ways of including Roma in knowledge production to shape the discourse about the...

The Introduction presents the origins of the new journal "Critical Romani Studies". It discusses why the editors found a new journal. Finally, the paper presents the main features of the new journal.

Nation-building narratives under communism in Eastern Europe created certain conditions of belonging and national identity; this process was reversed after regime change, and with changing values, a “new” nation and a “new” society was shaped. By analyzing the situation of Roma in Hungary, this study reveals that post-communist Hungary, similar to...

Historically, schools have been homogenizing institutions that often disadvantaged people of color and ethnic and religious minorities. In this article I examine Roma education in Hungary, focusing on (re)production of racial identities and the negotiation of ethnic labels. I distinguish two models of education as they relate to ideas of integratio...

Why is the integration of Roma (Gypsy) minorities an on-going and unsuccessful struggle for most governments in Europe? The failure of such assimilation policies has culminated in the recent deportations and sterilization practices, as well as changes in immigration policies. This paper will analyze the situation of minority groups by focusing on t...