Involving Others: Assessing efforts to improve the schooling experience of Hungarian Roma children through focused teacher training and afternoon schooling programs

Rather than examining the complex phenomenon of the school failure of Roma children, this paper focuses on two elements of the education system. The first is teacher training and the second is the opportunity to attend after-school catch-up training. Both programs have aimed to involve a wider circle of professionals and volunteers in efforts to improve the schooling experience of Hungarian Roma children. This study was prepared in the larger framework of the project 'Solidarity in European societies: empowerment, social justice and citizenship – SOLIDUS.' The project explores conceptually and empirically current and future expressions of European solidarity from an inter-disciplinary approach. The two investigated cases in this paper share commitment to social solidarity as the basis of equity in education and the belief that social differences can be reduced in education through the transformation of the pedagogical culture. Thus, while the paper in itself cannot make claims to advance theory due to the small scale of the research, it aims to contribute to broader European explorations of the link between social solidarity belief systems and policy outcomes.