Language education of adult immigrants in Greece: current trends and future developments

The increasing number of immigrants living and working in Greece has proven to be a challenge for the social as well as educational policy of this country. In order to help adult immigrants to integrate into society and facilitate their access to the job market, the Greek state has introduced special language education programmes. This paper discusses the current trends in Greece regarding immigrant language education and presents findings of a survey which aimed at exploring immigrants’ language needs and preferences. The results of this survey indicate a high interest by immigrants in learning Greek but a very low level of enrolment on and attendance of language courses. As a knowledge of Greek is necessary to improve immigrants’ socio‐economic and professional status, it is suggested that cooperation between immigrant associations and educational policy‐makers is necessary for the design of successful language programmes and the promotion of Greece’s policy of integration.     

The ignorant environmental education teacher: students get empowered and teach philosophy of nature inspired by ancient Greek philosophy

This paper presents an attempt to apply Jacques Rancière’s emancipatory pedagogy of ‘the ignorant schoolmaster’ to environmental education, which emphasises environmental ethics. The paper tells the story of a philosophy of nature project in the framework of an environmental adult education course at a Second Chance School in Greece, where adult students researched ancient Greek philosophy of nature, discovered and adopted environmental values and taught their schoolmates. The paper presents the findings of this pedagogical experiment and evaluates the benefits and the skills that students can acquire through emancipatory pedagogy and through peer teaching and learning. Α cross-disciplinary combination of emancipatory pedagogy, environmental education, philosophy of nature and environmental ethics that can empower students and strengthen their environmental conscience with emphasis in ecocentric and ecojustice values is proposed. Τhe role of the teacher as a student, who continues to investigate and learn, trusting the intelligence and the abilities of his/her students is also examined. Furthermore, it is argued that there is a need to focus on the role of philosophy of nature and environmental ethics in environmental education and, because of its wealth and subtlety, ancient Greek philosophy can contribute to this emancipatory, environmental education paradigm.     

Environmental Knowledge of Elementary School Students in Greece

Abstract

The education system in Greece has responded promptly to the need for environmental education (EE). However, the existing lack of relevant research may limit the functionality of EE programs in Greece. In this study the goal was to develop a baseline database that would allow effective planning of EE. Specifically, the study was conducted to provide information on the environmental knowledge of 5th and 6th graders in a Greek city. A total of 686 students were surveyed. The results indicated that children's knowledge about the environment is influenced by their immediate experience as well as by the content of their textbooks.     

Comparative education in Greece,as a European ‘semi-periphery’

ABSTRACT

Comparative education was established in Greek universities in the 1980s, with the creation of pedagogical departments and two laboratories, and the publication of a journal. There was an early emphasis on education policy analysis, in terms of assumptions about the ‘semi-peripherality’ of Greece within Europe. Later, the emphasis shifted to what was also called ‘modernisation’ – framed by entry to the European Economic Community. There was an emphasis on education policies in other European countries, and the educational policy of Europe, in contrast with Greece which had not yet absorbed what was becoming ‘a European discourse’. There was a continuing motif – reflections on methodology – but the changing concepts of modernisation, the more or less permanent anxiety about reforming Greek education, and the theme of education within the European Union dominated academic work in comparative education in Greece – even after 2010 and the major new economic crisis. An optimistic view is that comparative education will continue to develop in the Greek university through teaching and research. There is, however, a question to be asked about the silences within Greek comparative education.     

Sigrun Gudmundsdottir’s contributions as a signpost to narrative research: a review of www.svt.ntnu.no/ped/sigrun/

Although action-research is a well-known research methodology in the field of education, in the case of Greece there are few actions-researches carried out by early childhood teachers. The absence of action-research in early childhood education settings is related to the way many early childhood teachers shape their professional role as well as the curriculum of their initial education and in-service training. This paper describes the case study of three Greek early childhood teachers who do action-research for the first time. According to the three teachers, fear of educational research, the children’s age, time pressure, parents’ demands, and colleagues’ reactions are among the main obstacles in doing action-research in early childhood education.     

Gendered pedagogic identities and academic professionalism in Greek medical schools

Feminist scholarship has considered how pedagogical identities and emotions are implicated in the gender politics of belonging and othering in higher education. This paper examines how gendered and embodied pedagogy is mobilised in Greek medical schools to construct notions of the ideal academic and assert women’s position women in Academic Medicine. I employ thematic analysis to illustrate that formations of pedagogy and academic professionalism are bound up with emotions and embodied practices of relating, connecting, creating learning communities and promoting virtuous academic citizenship. Women’s gendered accounts of pedagogy and their boundary practices of identification demonstrate agency, intentionality and operate as highly political actions of legitimacy and resistance within the patriarchal realm of Greek higher education. I argue that gendered discourses of pedagogy in Greek medical schools become resources for resisting neo-liberal notions of academic work, individualism and women’s exclusion in the highly prestigious discipline of academic medicine in Greece.     

Promoting Social Justice and Enhancing Educational Success: Suggestions from Twenty Educationally Successful Roma in Greece

In Greece, Roma pupils often experience segregation through educational settings, high dropout rates, low performance outcomes, and higher levels of non-completion when compared to their Greek (non-Roma) peers. However, a small minority do stay in school and proceed to higher education. This paper draws on a set of in-depth interviews with twenty Greek Roma who entered higher education ‘despite the odds’ and examines what these participants advocate, in order to support the educational progression of the Roma in Greece. The participants outline a series of interventions that they believe can challenge some of the economic, cultural, and associational injustices experienced by the Roma. They call for a need to improve educational provision for the Roma in Greece, in order to enhance their educational success.     

Culture and the school: The degree of educational integration of Roma and Gypsies in the Peloponnese region of Greece

This article examines the degree of integration of Roma and Gypsy children in formal education in the Peloponnese region of Greece. It is based on field research conducted by the University of Patras during the school year 2006/07 within the framework of the Greek Ministry of Education’s “Integration of Roma children in school” programme, funded by the European Union. Despite governmental incentives for poor families to enrol their school-aged children, school attendance of Roma and Gypsy children was found to decline from primary year one to primary year six, with hardly any of them entering secondary school at all. Besides looking at school attendance figures and Roma and Gypsy children’s proficiency in reading, writing and numeracy, this paper also considers gender, family composition, living conditions and economic situation, as well as culturally constructed perceptions of childhood and a person’s life cycle. The aim of this article is to highlight the contradictions and ambiguities involved in the process of incorporating Roma and Gypsy children in formal education, and to evaluate their school performance and assess their academic choices.     

国际化教育对大学生主动环境行为的影响研究

在国际化教育成为主流的背景下,高校对学生主动环境行为培养具有重要的作用。随着社会对国际化人才需求的日益提升,我国高校人才培养体系中尚缺乏环境意识与环境行为的相关教学环节,因此,本文旨在探索高等教育加入国际化因素后对大学生环境行为更深层次的影响。以能源类高校学生为样本,通过对环境行为理论的分析,确定大学生清洁能源意识及环境可持续发展意识、环境行为等相关因素,收集数据并建立相关模型,利用Spearman相关分析,检验模型的准确程度。基于此模型得出,国际化教育能够通过影响学生的清洁能源使用意识对其环境行为产生影响,进而提出通过提升国际化教育水平的方式,促进高校学生主动性环境行为的建议。     

International Influences on Educational Policy--With Special Reference to the Technological Sector of Higher Education--in Greece as a European Semi-periphery

This article argues that in the 1960s-1970s, two international organisations, namely OECD and the World Bank, influenced educational policy in Greece: higher technical education was expected to contribute to economic development and modernisation. This process took place within the framework of the 'semi-peripherality' of Greece during that period: the so-called 'internationalisation' process, which included foreign investment and technological transfer. By the end of the 1970s, there was a dramatic expansion of the education system. Nevertheless, particular emphasis was attached to higher technical education to promote economic development and modernisation, in view of Greece's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC). In the 1980s-1990s, the major actor influencing higher technological education policy in Greece was the EEC. Within the context of an expansion of the higher education system, higher technological education was upgraded also to promote modernisation and a 'self-reliant' economic development, for the full adaptation of Greece to the EEC. However, the respective reforms were incompatible with the state of the Greek economy and the nature of the Greek State, which was one of the main reasons for Greece's difficulty in adapting to the EU on equal terms.     

论我国中小学环境教育内容

中小学环境教育是我国环境基础教育的一个重要组成部分。中小学环境教育的课程内容包括三个方面：环境知识技能、环境意识、环境规范，并且中学和小学环境教育内容应该各有侧重，形成系统性和层次性。     

Greek teachers' perspectives on behaviour problems: implications for policy-makers and practitioners

In the course of the 1990s, many education systems in the developed world reported an increase in the number of pupils presenting emotional and behavioural problems. For countries such as Greece on the point of economic development, it is interesting to examine whether as they seek to ‘reform’ their education systems in line with those of more ‘developed’ countries, they are experiencing a similar phenomenon. An analysis of the findings of a survey is presented on the views of over 600 Greek primary school teachers in Athens on the nature and incidence of emotional and behavioural problems. The findings confirm that Greek teachers are facing a deteriorating situation in which they are reporting a greater incidence of behavioural problems compared to the past. Although many of the patterns of behaviour are similar to those reported in other European countries, a number of interesting differences emerge over the levels of reporting of emotional problems. In the course of the analysis of these similarities and differences, a number of implications are identified which, it is suggested, can inform the development of national policy leading to a greater level of support for schools and teachers.     

The new educational policy for the reform of the curriculum and the change of school knowledge in the case of Greek compulsory education

This article looks critically at Greek educational reform to the curriculum of compulsory education—reform that took place so that Greece could put into practice the decisions of the European Union of Lisbon (2000) for the contribution of education to the adaptation of the new data of the ‘knowledge society’. Bernstein's theory about pedagogic discourse is utilized. Also, with the use of qualitative content analysis in specific resources (parliamentary debates, new curriculum and textbooks) we tried to answer the following questions: Which are the dominant social principles that led the Greek state to change the curriculum? Through which process and with the contribution of which factors did the reform of the curriculum come about? And which are the characteristics of the new school knowledge and of the pedagogic practices that are selected for their reproduction at the level of the classroom?     

Raising Autism Awareness among Greek Teachers

A recent special education legislation reform in Greece puts emphasis on the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs into mainstream schools. The purpose of the present study was to investigate knowledge of ASD among 67 mainstream nursery and primary classroom teachers, and evaluate the effectiveness of a half-day ASD awareness seminar in increasing their knowledge of the disorder. A self-report ASD Knowledge Questionnaire (ASD-KQ), developed for the purpose of this study, was used before and after the ASD awareness seminar. The results indicated a significant shift from low to moderate/high level of ASD knowledge among teachers with no previous training in special education and/or autism (58.7%), whereas this shift did not reach significance level in the teacher’s group with previous training (16.7%) after the seminar. The present findings have important implications for the development of training programmes of practising teachers.     

生态教育背景下幼儿园环境创设探研

生态教育是提高生态意识、塑造生态文明的基本途径。从幼儿阶段开始实施生态教育有着重要的意义,能促进幼儿对生态环境的保护、对自然资源的珍惜。幼儿园环境创设结合生态教育背景,能提高幼儿环保意识,提升幼儿环保能力。文章对生态教育背景下幼儿园环境创设进行探究。     

Le mouvement de réforme de la formation des enseignants en Grèce

The article undertakes a close analysis of the perceived weaknesses of Secondary teacher training in Greece. The analysis is based upon the criticisms of other observers and of the Greek Federation of Secondary Teachers, and especially upon an enquiry conducted of 233 Secondary teachers in May 1983 (approximately 2% of the cadre). The teachers concerned were invited to report upon their own perceptions of the training which they had undergone, and of its relevance to their later professional careers. The overall picture is one of considerable dissatisfaction with a training which is labelled, at one point, ‘anachronistic'; the view is expressed that the education given does not even attain its declared aim of instilling an understanding of scientific methodology.

There exists a strong demand for a greater emphasis upon pedagogy, with the approach through psycho‐pedagogics being much favoured; the author enters the reservation that the scepticism which begins to be shown in some European countries is not yet evident in Greece. There is also a demand for greater emphasis on practical training, though there exists a debate over the question of consecutive versus concurrent training, with the majority favouring the former.

Explanations for the present ‘disastrous’ situation in Greek teacher training are varied, ranging from the view that forces of political conservatism are at work to the view that Greek educational thinking is over‐dependent upon ideas brought in from other European countries. Certainly the author sees the Greek system as imposing a high level of conformity upon the beginning teacher, who is ill equipped to offer challenging ideas to existing practice. The climate, however, is one of change, and the author is finally optimistic about the growing contribution of educational sciences to Greek teacher training.     

Governance and knowledge transformations in educational administration: Greek responses to global policies

This article explores the localisation of the global and European discourse of educational governance in the Greek education system through the changes that have been introduced in the field of education administration since 2009 by the then socialist government. Our research aims to contribute to the critical policy literature on the spreading marketisation and privatisation in the governing of education around the world and in Europe – through the adoption of New Public Management and Educational Leadership models. In developing our theoretical perspective, we use the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and discourse, and in order to conceptualise power and control relations in the organisation, transmission, acquisition, and evaluation of pedagogical knowledge, we draw on Bernstein's theory of symbolic control. Our study has examined how the field of education administration is governed through power and knowledge transformations. We trace these transformations by analysing systematically the pedagogic discourse through which the global governance discourse is relayed and becomes a ‘regime of truth’ within public policy and practice in Greece. We argue that such changes have significant implications for everyday educational practice and for the kinds of knowledge that are considered legitimate, and they may affect educational professionals' subjectivities in fundamental ways.     

The literacy profile of Greek precocious readers: a follow‐up study

The aim of this follow‐up study was to examine the progress made by 13 Greek‐speaking precocious readers in phonological awareness, reading and spelling from the fourth to sixth grades of primary education, and to compare their progress with that of 11 nonprecocious reader classmates. It was hypothesised that because of the linguistic characteristics of Greek orthography, precocious readers would not have an advantage in phonological awareness, spelling and reading comprehension tasks, but would have an advantage in reading speed. The data analyses showed that by the end of primary education, precocious readers had significantly better performance than their nonprecocious reader classmates in phonological awareness and reading speed tasks, but there was no significant difference between the groups in spelling and reading comprehension tasks. However, phonological awareness differences between the groups did not maintain when spelling achievement was taken into account.     

How One State Tackles Environmental Education

Abstract

In December of 1997, an international conference was held in Thessaloniki, Greece, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tbilisi Doctrine and to reorient education for sustainability in the 21st century. The culmination of this event was the Thessaloniki Declaration—a charter for the future of education for sustainability. In only 2 of the 29 statements made in the Declaration was the term environmental education mentioned. One of those references suggested that environmental education be referred to as education for environment and sustainability. The author believes that this scant use of the term environmental education indicates that the term is finding decreasing support in the international community. The author reviews reasons why environmental education's position is in peril and offers a status report on the current criticisms and weaknesses of environmental education. The author outlines several important strategies that must be implemented to preserve the name and the concept of environmental education for decades to come.     

论沈从文湘西乌托邦想象与古典希腊理想化

沈从文湘西乌托邦想象与近现代西方古典希腊理想化的思潮相契合,两者在寻求构建理想健全的人性和发展现代艺术上的思路与途径具有某种相似性与一致性,在这个意义上,沈从文湘西乌托邦想象是近现代西方古典希腊理想化思潮在中国的现代回声。从时间与空间两个方面深入分析论述沈从文构筑的湘西乌托邦世界所表达的人文追求-9艺术追求,可以为我们重新审视沈从文构建的湘西乌托邦世界提供一个新的向度。