Partnerships depend on power-sharing: an exploration of the relationships between Fairground and Gypsy Traveller parents and their childrenʹs teachers in England

In England opportunities for Traveller children to gain access to mainstream schools have increased substantially over the past thirty years. Parents have been increasingly willing to put their children into schools, while education outreach services have developed in parallel to facilitate regular attendance. Local authority based Traveller Education Support Service (TESS) projects have been the strategy most frequently used for this outreach work, the success of which depends largely on the quality of the parent/teacher relationships. Is it possible for conditions to exist that will enable real partnerships between parents and teachers to develop? As the coordinator of one of the oldest TESSs, the author answers this crucial question by drawing on participant observation, formal interviews and policy documents, as well as comparative projects with other partners in the European Federation for the Education of the Children of the Occupational Travellers (EFECOT).