Education and Gypsies/Travellers: ‘contradictions and significant silences’¹

Abstract

For centuries there have been strong tensions between Gypsy/Traveller communities and their nation states. Today, discrimination against Gypsies/Travellers in the UK is still so widespread that it has been described as the last ‘respectable’ form of racism. The paper argues that the experiences of Gypsies/Travellers, as they come into contact with the structures of education, reveal a continuing discrimination against one of the most disadvantaged minority ethnic groups in the UK; a discrimination that, at the same time, points to continuing ‘contradictions and significant silences’ within the UK government, and Scottish Executive, policy drive to reduce social exclusion.