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.     

A coping-oriented group intervention for students waiting to undergo secondary school transition: Effects on coping strategies,self-esteem,and social anxiety symptoms

To facilitate students’ transition into secondary school, a coping-oriented group program was designed. Pre- and posttest data from three intervention groups conducted over the course of 5 weeks were combined for a total of 56 sixth-grade students waiting to undergo school transition. There was also a test–retest control group (n = 26). Results indicate that completion of the intervention led to a significant decrease on scales measuring self-reported social anxiety symptoms. There was also a significant increase in intervention participants’ self-reported self-esteem, likeability, adherence to social rules, and frequency of active coping strategies, compared with the control group. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that change in the self-reported use of active coping strategies predicted change in social anxiety symptoms for the intervention group. However, no significant change in self-reported use of passive-avoidant coping was observed. We conclude that facilitating effective coping with stress may provide a highly beneficial perspective toward designing transition groups, that may also lead to a significant reduction in social anxiety symptoms in adolescents waiting to undergo secondary school transition.