Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Research limitations/implications 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. Practical implications 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. Social implications 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. Originality/value 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.

中文翻译：

---

具有文化意识，但尚未准备好教“其他人”：对罗姆人教育教师培训计划的思考。

目的在本文中，作者着重于塞浦路斯的一项职业发展计划，旨在增强教师的跨文化理解，意识和能力。本文旨在关注培训师和受训者对塞浦路斯罗姆儿童人数最多的小学教师专业发展计划的反思。设计/方法/方法培训由六名培训人员组成的小团队提供。每次培训课程结束后，每位培训师都立即参加了一次访谈，而培训结束后，其中三位培训师也参加了焦点小组访谈。在培训之前或之后，对培训人员的数据进行半结构化访谈，以对培训人员进行补充。所有采访都被抄录，面试问题则构成定性分析的框架。通过内容分析介绍了发现的内容，这些内容构成了新兴主题的基础。结论作者认为，实习教师表现出了文化意识和敏感性，并且对跨文化教育知识渊博。此外，他们似乎采用了不同的教学方法和课程干预措施，以支持罗姆儿童融入当地学校社区。同时，他们似乎对方案的内容和目的采取工具性的方法，寻求明确的指导方针，计划和试探法，以解决罗姆人的融入问题。考虑到学校外部利益相关者对老师的努力的误解以及学校监督员表达的对教育当局的期望，老师拼命主张需要切实的策略来帮助他们应对课堂差异。研究的局限性/含义作者认为，这样的职业发展计划应着眼于，解构和凸显对他人的偏见和歧视，首先要评价教师，他们是反思型个人，其次是具有自己文化背景的专业人士。背景和身份，本文介绍的那种培训计划都可以以此为基础，并以此为基础。实际意义尽管没有专门的魔术方法可以使教师在多元文化环境中的日常专业工作变得容易，可以帮助教师掌握必要的知识，技能和自信心，但作者建议，培训应与课堂实践直接联系起来，并承认压力和压力。在多元文化的学校环境中伴随工作的无助感。社会影响许多教育系统中的融合战略需要变得更加全面，以应对不同文化背景的弱势群体（如罗姆人）所面临的各种社会排斥源。因此，对教师的培训需要应对在多样化和多元文化的环境中，特别是与罗姆儿童一起工作的挑战。鉴于当地社会的多元文化特征，需要在宽容和理解的基础上进行更加批判性的人文教育。原创性/价值罗姆人在学校系统中的有限参与可能与教师对罗姆人文化的（误）观念有关，并且学校常常忽略了罗姆人与学校相关的广泛差异。