Seminars with Roma Folklore teachers |
Two seminars with Roma Folklore teachers from Veliko Turnovo, Targovishte, Razgrad, and Shoumen districts were carried out in Razgrad and Veliko Turnovo on 20-21 and 22-23 February by Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance "Amalipe." The seminars were organized with the financial support of Open Society Institute - Sofia. The aim of the seminars was to analyze the achievements in the educational process of the subject "Folklore of the ethnoi in Bulgaria - Roma folklore" during the first term. Furthermore, the activities for the second term had to be planned. The initiatives were attended by Mrs. Svetlana Vassileva (member of the Board of Directors of Open Society Institute - Sofia), experts from the local branches of Ministry of Education and Science and so on. Both seminars were managed by Gloria Kostova (Director of the Center for educational services and qualification at the Ministry of Education and Science - branch Razgrad) and Mariana Georgieva (Director of the Center for educational services and qualification of Ministry of Education and Science - branch V.Turnovo).
Several conclusions were made during the seminars. The subject "Folklore of the ethnoi in Bulgaria - Roma folklore" has been steadily established so far in almost all schools included in the project. The teachers agreed on the importance of the subject for the children together with Mathematics, Bulgarian language and so on. Three major factors indicate this fact. First: the high degree of lesson attendance by students - much higher than the attendance of any other subject. Second: the student active participation during the lessons. Third: the fact that most of the extra-class activities in the included schools (such as feasts, concerts, broadcastings, and so on) are carried out by Roma folklore students.
Most of the teachers pointed as major reasons for this success the interesting and exciting material (Roma tales, festive customs, and songs) and the quality of the textbooks used: "Stories from the Fireplace" and "Roads retold" (by Deyan Kolev, Teodora Krumova, and Antonia Krasteva). An additional plus were the interactive pedagogical methods used in the educational process. In connection with this, Gloria Kostova and Mariana Georgieva familiarized the teachers with several new interactive techniques.
The main conclusions from the seminars were generalized y Mrs. Diana Dimitrova - Roma folklore teacher in the village of Vodolay: "We started the subject Roma folklore in order to familiarize Roma kids with their lost traditions and to help non-Roma kids to overcome their prejudices against Roma. Doing successfully this, we discovered a third goal: using the Roma folklore lessons to modernize the educational process in all subjects entering some new interactive techniques. It is a right time the subject Roma folklore to be converted into an Obligatory Free-Elected Subject!"
