Between ethnocentrism and Europeanism? An exploration of the effects of migration and European integration on curricula and policies in Greece

Abstract

Greek national identity has been challenged by processes of European integration and migration-related cultural diversity. This article begins with a socio-historical analysis of the impact of national, European and multicultural political agendas on education policy in Greece. Drawing on curriculum documents and semi-structured interviews, the article argues that these three agendas were put together in rather different ways, depending on the school material. History remained largely ethnocentric while geography and citizenship curricula veered between ethnocentrism and Europeanism; in doing so they marginalized topics relating to migration, 'otherness' and integration. Some policy makers also struggled to move beyond a mere recognition of the plural character of Greek society while others revealed more progressive views of a synthesis between notions of Europe and diversity. The study is drawn from a larger Greek case study and addresses a number of broader sociological concerns in Europe including how to respond to increasing diversity resulting from migration. It departs from standard two-way comparisons of nationalversus-European or national-versus-multicultural agendas in addressing the complex interface of national, European and migration-related issues.

How ‘intercultural’ is education in Greece? Insights from policymakers and educators

“…The notion of a culturally homogeneous nation-state and identity has been challenged by a series of events including the intertwined processes of European integration, globalization, migration and the foundation of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (Faas 2011a). This despite the fact that Greece, in its past, had not been a culturally homogenous society, given the historical minorities, notably the Muslim minority in western Thrace (on the north-western border with Turkey), which consists of approximately 60,000 Muslims of Turkish origin, 42,000 Pomaks (slavophone Muslims) and 18,000 Muslims of Romany origin (see Antoniou 2005;Markou 1994).…”

Citizenship Education curriculum in Greece - beyond ethnocentric or eurocentric approach

“…Faas developed an analytical framework that linked European and multicultural educational dimensions while exploring the extent to which Europe and multiculturalism had been intertwined in geography, history and citizenship education curricula, on the basis of selected groups, grades and curricula across three European countries: Germany, England and Greece. By looking into the curriculum for students aged between 10 -15 who had been attending five years of compulsory schooling, Faas (2011aFaas ( , 2011b counted the number of units across the five age groups, and analysed the units' content (methodology of content analysis) when referred to Europe, multiculturalism and the nation, across the three abovementioned subject areas. In so doing, he provided unique insights and a reliable framework for examining the final two years of primary school curricula and of the junior high school ones.…”

“…Τurning to Faas's (2011) typology that was adopted across countries, subject curricula are clustered into four categories known as: national, multicultural, monocultural and European (see Figure 1). The 'national' dimension can be referred to the national inclusive curricula (i.e.…”

“…Based on the above categories, Faas's (2011aFaas's ( , 2011b content analysis of the Greek civic and citizenship curricula has indicated that the subject's textbooks place more emphasis on national topics in comparison to European and global ones. This emphasis on national topics is stronger in the subject of history, but it also prevails in the subject of civics and geography.…”

National Identity versus European Identity The Dimensions of Change Developing the Greek teachers’ European identity

“…In these actions the teacher is a critical factor in educational changes, since he/she is considered to have the main part in forming the future setting of the European unification (Hartley & Whitehead, 2006). The study of Greek teachers' European identity in both primary and secondary education is characterized as an important issue (Faas, 2011;Starida, 1995). The teacher is universally considered to be the most determining factor of the educational procedure (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2000).…”