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Diversity is the wealth of Montenegro. It is a comparative advantage that provides an exceptional opportunity for understanding and tolerance. It encourages citizens to dialogue, get to know each other and get closer and not to misunderstand, confront and divide society. Any attempt to explore and consider the position of the minority national and ethnic groups in a given social reality is a very specific problem. The best indicator of democracy and tolerance achieved by the social system in a country is the attitude towards its minorities. It is reflected in the majority population's ability to exist under the conditions of tolerating and respecting minorities and their rights. In that sense, the question of the actual (not only constitutional) position of the minorities is an issue of the majority community just as it is a specific mirror of its achieved level of tolerance, emancipation and culture of living. It is especially interesting to explore those national and ethnic minorities with no ‘mother country’, that is, ‘no one to stand up for them’. The Roma population is one of these. It should be kept in mind that its position, regardless of the state in question, is complex and faces various problems.

In order to significantly improve the overall position of the Roma population in Montenegro, it is necessary to improve the socio-economic status of this group. The best way to do such a thing is through the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, as well as the promotion of Roma's identity and cultural heritage. The poor socio-economic status of Roma in Montenegro is a consequence of their inability to be employed. They are not employed because they are not formally educated or do not have a significant level of institutional education. So it is a vicious circle in which the Roma are spinning unsuccessfully to resolve, at least somewhat decently, their socio-economic position. The educational situation of the Roma population in Montenegro is significantly better at the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, but still not nearly satisfactory in the way how that members of this population successfully participate in finding and getting a job. Therefore, through mutual communication between Roma and other social actors in Montenegro, it is necessary to raise awareness and strengthen the capacity of Roma about the importance of education and the connection of this segment of society with their employment. This leads to the improvement of the overall position of the Roma population in Montenegrin society, as well as the building of an inclusive and open society, a society of equality and justice and equal opportunities for all residents to access educational institutions at various levels and other legal and social structures.

Roma in Croatia are spatially, economically and politically marginalised. There is a social gap between Roma minority and the majority of population. Prejudice and stereotypes against the Roma community are deeply rooted in the mind of the local community due to their insufficient knowledge of the Roma culture. The women of the Roma ethnicity are doubly marginalised, because of their Roma ethnicity and their gender. Roma women, more than Roma men, lack the basic elements necessary for self-realisation: education, healthcare, cultural and political participation. Roma generally have poor access to healthcare, and most of them do not have medical records. The Roma in Croatia most often speak Boyash (bajaški) or Romani chib. They speak both their mother tongue (Romani) and the language of the country they live in – standard Croatian. Students can study the Romani language and culture in higher education, at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Teacher Education at the University of Zagreb. Kali Sara, the Roma Association for the promotion of the education of Roma in the Republic of Croatia, organises courses for Roma children and young people on the Romani language, culture and life in general. As for the educational attainment of Roma, data show that Roma children are still rarely included in the preschool education system. A large number of Roma children do not complete compulsory education. They rarely attend secondary school. Very small number of Roma students graduate at the Faculty level.

In this paper, the authors focus on a professional development programme in Cyprus aiming to enhance teachers’ intercultural understanding, awareness and competencies. This paper aims to focus on trainers’ and teacher trainees’ reflections upon a teacher professional development programme in the primary school in Cyprus with the largest number of Roma children.

The training was provided by a small team of six trainers. Immediately after each training session, each trainer participated in an interview, while three of the trainers participated also in a focus-group interview at the end of the training. The trainers’ data were complemented by semi-structured interviews with a number of trainees either before or after the training. All interviews were transcribed, while interview questions comprised the framework for the qualitative analysis. The findings are presented by means of content analysis which formed the basis for emerging themes.

The authors claim that trainee teachers appeared culturally aware and sensitive, as well as knowledgeable about intercultural education; furthermore, they seemed to implement different teaching methodologies and curriculum interventions to support Roma children’s inclusion in the local school community. At the same time, they seemed to adopt instrumental approaches towards the content and purpose of the programme, seeking explicit instructional guidelines, plans and heuristics to deal with Roma inclusion. Considering the mis-recognition of teachers’ efforts by stakeholders outside the school and the expectations of the educational authorities – voiced via their school inspectors – teachers desperately asserted the need for tangible strategies to help them cope with difference in their classrooms.

The authors argue that such professional development programmes should aim at facing, deconstructing and bringing to the fore prejudices and discrimination against the Other/s by valuing teachers, first, as reflective individuals and, second, as professionals with their own cultural backgrounds and identities, on which any training programme, of the kind presented in this paper, could start from and build on.

Even though there is no tailored magic recipe to make teachers’ daily professional enterprise in multicultural settings easy, to help teachers master the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence, the authors suggest that training should be directly linked to classroom practice and acknowledge stress and helplessness that accompany work in multicultural school settings.

The inclusion strategy in many educational systems needs to become more comprehensive to cope with varying sources of social exclusion, faced by vulnerable groups of a different cultural background, such as Roma. Teacher training thus needs to meet the challenges of working in a diverse and multicultural environment in general and with Roma children in particular. In view of the multicultural character of local societies, a more critically oriented humanistic education is needed based on tolerance and understanding.

The limited participation of Roma in the school system could be related to teachers’ (mis)conceptions about the Roma culture and that the widely different ways in which Roma relate to schooling are often disregarded by the school.

In this chapter the author outlines the educational situation for Roma in Norway, where there are two main groups of Romani-speaking people, referred to as Roma and Romani people, who have lived in Norway for centuries. Both have a status of national minorities. After describing the social situation of the Norwegian Roma minority, the author shows their culture and language. Then the author outlines the characteristics of the Norwegian education system and the educational attainment of Roma. After presenting the most important policies and support programmes for Roma Education, the author presents findings from her project ‘Educational Situation for Roma Pupils in Norway: Silenced Narratives on Schooling and Future’.

The given chapter of the monograph presents the distribution and diversity of the Romani community in Poland, their current social situation in reference to the period of socioeconomic changes in Poland as well as the results of research conducted by the authors regarding the education of young Romani in Poland.

The authors analysed a number of determinants (especially economic, social and cultural ones) that are important in the process of an effective dealing with a social exclusion, supporting integration and even an implementation of the education of Romani children. Bad financial situation and a cultural diversity cause integrative problems of the Romani in Polish society, as evidenced by the results of the authors’ research.

A sociometric study in Polish–Roma classes showed that Romani students are not accepted by their Polish classmates. However, despite both the educational and integrative difficulties, Romani students are more and more actively involved in a school life.

The chapter likewise incorporates an evaluation of the governmental programme aiming at equalisation of knowledge levels and opportunities between Poles and Romani in areas such as education, employment, health, hygiene, housing conditions and the ability to function in a civil society. The education thus became a priority area of the programme and the most important activity that was implemented under the given programme was creation of positions of a Romani assistant and a supporting teacher.

Progress, which has been achieved in Poland over the last dozen or so years as far as organisation of the Romani education is concerned, is indeed enormous. An implementation of the compulsory education by Romani students has become widespread and their attendance at classes is satisfactory. Although the attitude of the majority of Romani parents and their children towards the institution of school has changed, the contact between parents and the school is still limited. Both difficulties in the education and a low level of education of parents stimulate a reduction in educational aspirations on the part of Romani students.

The current condition of the organisation of the Romani education indicates that despite these positive initiatives, the Romani education is now in the early stage of its development and it requires further support and monitoring.

In this chapter, Markéta Levínská, Dana Bittnerová and David Doubek show the situation of the Roma Minority in the Czech Republic. According to qualified estimates by regional coordinators for Roma minority affairs, a total of 245,800 Roma lived in Czechia in 2016, which represents 2.3% of the overall population in the Czech Republic. The Roma in the Czech Republic cannot be considered a homogeneous group, neither economically, nor regarding their social status. The authors describe the legal, social and cultural status of the Roma minority then analyse their attainment on different levels of the education system. After listing the most important policies and support programmes in the area of Roma education, they show current research results relating to the state of Roma education.

In this chapter, the author characterises the situation of Roma in the educational system of Sweden, focusing on achievements after year 2000 and on challenges for the future. A brief historical background is initially presented to frame the discussion, including the processes of getting access to the formal educational system, followed by an overview of the socioeconomic situation of Roma and a presentation of the recognition of Roma as a national minority in 2000 and the Strategy for Roma Inclusion 2012–2032. The second part of the chapter is focusing on the educational situation of Roma, more specifically on the years from 2000 until the present, also presenting a Roma example and findings from a study concerning higher education and the first course for Roma mediators working in schools. The conclusion discusses some of the achievements reached during recent years as well as challenges and priorities for the future of the Roma minority.

In this chapter, Andrea Óhidy provides an overview of some central issues of the book. First, she shows the similarities in the challenges to increase the participation and success of Roma people in education and lifelong learning in the selected European countries; then, she discusses their policies and support programmes, which, on the one hand, try to improve the social situation of the Roma while promoting minority language and culture, on the other hand. She finds the reason for their similarities regarding the wording, defining and communicating and also concerning the main ideas and concrete projects for possible solutions, in the Roma inclusion policy of the European Union in the frame of the Open Method of Coordination, which has been introduced within the Lisbon Strategy, linked to the idea of lifelong learning. She considers the realisation of these policy measures at national, regional and local levels to have shown only unsatisfactory results until now.

Today's structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina was established in 1995 following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in Paris. According to its Constitution, the Annex 4 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a decentralized state consisting of two entities (the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the Brčko District, three constituent peoples Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs and the Others as well as all other citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The term ‘Others’ refers mainly to the national minorities and in total, there are 17 different national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Federation comprises 10 cantons, all of which have legislative, executive and judiciary powers.

Relevant governmental and non-governmental agencies and bodies, as well as different international organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, agree that Roma, as the largest national minority, has been living in the worst socio-economic situation compared to all other national minorities. This is especially the case in housing, employment, health care and, in particular, education.

Bosnia and Herzegovina signed relevant international documents to protect the rights of national minorities and adopted relevant laws on the protection of national minorities. Furthermore, since the state has ambitions to become a member of the European Union, it accepted the Declaration of the Western Balkans Partners on Roma integration within the EU enlargement process and plans and activities have been initiated to improve the overall situation of Roma, particularly in the area of education.