ABSTRACT
This article explores the experiences of ‘Sinti and Roma’ women in Germany with regard to their educational biographies. It draws on first results of an ongoing research project (in the context of a PhD) that brings into focus that ‘Sinti and Roma’ women in particular experience various levels of discrimination. The project tries to understand and to reconstruct how biographies of ‘Sinti and Roma’ women are shaped, taking formal and especially informal learning settings into consideration. The study will also offer some first ideas on how support for these women can be effectively organized and discrimination can be reduced. First results show that ‘Sinti and Roma’ women are facing not only specific forms of discrimination by the majority of society but are also dealing with expectations from their own families which are hard to fulfil. Nevertheless, women are often developing strategies to handle discrimination and stigmatization [Goffman, E. (1975). Stigma. Über Techniken der Bewältigung beschädigter Identität. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp] and find creative ways of combining their own vision of life with life scripts imposed on them. While there is empirical evidence of processes of social exclusion, especially in the field of education, the analysis also shows the women's manifold strategies of resistance and self-realization. Especially, self-organized groups of civic engagement offer encouraging and strengthening experiences.
