Challenges of Teaching Roma Minority Children How to Read: What Do We Know and What Can We Do About It?

Abstract

The development of literacy skills of children from disadvantaged backgrounds has always been a relevant topic in education as it represents a means of reducing poverty and of improving living conditions. This paper focuses on the Roma minority, a historically disadvantaged minority and the largest ethnic group in Europe that has been reported to have a low literacy rate compared with their non-Roma counterparts. This study intends to identify the main challenges that Roma children face when they learn how to read and point out potential educational practices that can alleviate the condition of Roma children by helping them to improve their literacy development rate.