Confronting histories of inequality in exploring multilingual pedagogies for Rromani speakers

Multilingual pedagogies are a complex enterprise to train teachers for when languages with a history of inequality, discrimination and persecution are involved. Resorting to the example of two classroom interactions with Rromani-speaking immigrant students in Germany, and based on the perspective of Dominant Language Constellations, we present data from a project where teachers explore approaches to multilingual pedagogies. The findings point to instances where the discriminatory history of Rromani is actualised in the classroom. However, the teachers’ lack of knowledge causes substantial uncertainties and hinders them from recognising and handling the discriminatory history in class. The resulting recommendations include addressing inequality within protected spaces. First of all, however, teacher professionalisation has to provide knowledge about the students’ sociolinguistic histories and tools for pedagogues to confront long-standing inequalities, discrimination and persecution.