This study examined the relationship between flow experience and place identity, based on eudaimonistic identity theory (EIT) which prioritizes self-defining activities as important for an individual’s identification of his/her goals, values, beliefs, and interests corresponding to one’s own identity development or enhancement. This study focuses on place identity, the identity’s features relating to a person’s relation with her/his place. The study is also based on flow theory, according to which some salient features of an activity experience are important for happiness and well-being. Questionnaire surveys on Italian and Greek residents focused on their perceived flow and place identity in relation to their own specific local place experiences. The overall findings revealed that flow experience occurring in one’s own preferred place is widely reported as resulting from a range of self-defining activities, irrespective of gender or age, and it is positively and significantly associated with one’s own place identity. Such findings provide the first quantitative evidence about the link between flow experienced during meaningfully located self-defining activities and identity experienced at the place level, similarly to the corresponding personal and social levels that had been previously already empirically tested. Results are also discussed in terms of their implications for EIT’s understanding and enrichment, especially by its generalization from the traditional, personal identity level up to that of place identity. More generally, this study has implications for maintaining or enhancing one’s own place identity, and therefore people–place relations, by means of facilitating a person’s flow experience within psychologically meaningful places.
The recent dramatic changes in the makeup of the student population in Greek schools pointed to the need for designing and implementing new educational and teacher training programmes that would incorporate the educational needs of newcomers. Such a teacher training programme aiming at developing Greek teachers' cultural awareness and empowerment was designed and implemented as part of a greater research project. The scope of this article is to present the specifics and some of the results from the evaluation of this teacher training programme. The programme consisted of three thematic units, which were based on experiential learning. Five groups of both primary-and secondary-school teachers from three cities of northern Greece participated in it. Teacher training modules were designed to meet the training needs of the programme as well as for future use in other teacher training programmes. Teacher evaluation of the training programme indicated that it was an interesting and pleasant experience for the majority of the participants, which provided them with knowledge and skills necessary to function in a diverse school environment. The implications of this particular training programme for the practice of school psychology are also discussed.
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