Europeanising Intercultural Education: Politics and Policy Making in Cyprus

Hajisoteriou, Christina

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.471

Cited by 35 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Educating the culturally diverse child: policy and struggles of/with diversity in Cyprus Although state efforts to promote intercultural education in the Greek-Cypriot state education system have been linked with an increasing adoption of an EU and Europeanised discourse of interculturalism, this infusion appears to have been operating largely at a symbolic level (Hadjisoteriou 2010). There is yet to be devised a comprehensive policy for aiding the educational and social integration of culturally diverse students, despite criticism for the system's monoculturalism and ethnocentrism (Educational Reform Committee 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiencing the same but differently: indigenous minority and immigrant children’s experiences in Cyprus

Theodorou

Symeou

2013

British Journal of Sociology of Education

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This paper examines the experiences of minority students from two different cultural groups, immigrant children of Pontian background and indigenous minority children of Roma descent, in the Greek-Cypriot educational system. Through a joint re-examination of results from two different qualitative studies, this paper delineates similarities and differences of how life at school is experienced through the eyes of children who are not part of the mainstream, in an effort to gain insight into the nuances of being a minority child in the specific educational system. Comparisons across the two groups of children suggest that although both groups shared a minority status, they nonetheless experienced marginalisation across different dimensions that were linked to their dual multilayered position as both insiders and outsiders. Attention to such complexities enables us to gain deeper understandings of children's lives, as too often the category of 'minority child' seems to be treated as a monolithic and homogeneous one.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiencing the same but differently: indigenous minority and immigrant children’s experiences in Cyprus

Theodorou

Symeou

2013

British Journal of Sociology of Education

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“…Nonetheless, the significant change in the demographics of the island due to the mass influx of immigrants in the 1990s necessitated the reinterpretation of the monocultural direction of education. Moreover, in the light of Cyprus's accession to the European Union in 2004, supranational influences mainly coming from European institutions pressurised the MEC to refrain from monoculturalism (Hajisoteriou, 2010). The restriction of monocultural agendas reinforced a general expectation that the MEC would launch an educational reform.…”

Section: The Cypriot Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, there was an absence of systematically thought out initiatives to develop and implement a coherent intercultural policy. As a result, the Ministry reinforced the development and implementation of symbolic interculturalist (or converted multiculturalist) policies seeking the celebration of cultural differences and ultimately the maintenance of Greek-Cypriot identity (a discourse which refers back to monoculturalism) (Hajisoteriou, 2010).…”

Section: The Cypriot Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The growth of the tourist and business industries and the economic boom in the early 1990s has gradually resulted in the mass influx of immigrant workers. Immigration issues first became intertwined in the educational agenda of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) of Cyprus in 2001 (Hajisoteriou, 2010). As the state provides the right to all children to attend their neighbouring school, immigrant children may enrol in public schools, regardless of their parents' legal or illegal status of immigration to the country.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the state provides the right to all children to attend their neighbouring school, immigrant children may enrol in public schools, regardless of their parents' legal or illegal status of immigration to the country. Despite these efforts, literature contends that public schools still remain ethnocentric and culturally monolithic (Hajisoteriou, 2010;Hajisoteriou & Angelides, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The perceptions of high‐level officers in Cyprus about intercultural education and their underlying assumptions

Hajisoteriou

Neophytou

Angelides

2015

The Curriculum Journal

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Since 2004, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus has launched an educational reform. The Ministry highlighted Cyprus' participation in the European context and, by extension, the turninginto-multicultural character of the Cypriot society as the most important reasons, which necessitated such a reform. This paper seeks to examine the perceived curriculum of intercultural education in Cyprus. To this end, we explore how the conceptual and theoretical framework of the 'new' national curriculum influences key stakeholders' understandings of intercultural education. Do they share similar understandings? Do they use the same terminologies? How consistent is their knowledge with the contemporary literature on Intercultural Education? All these questions will help us establish an understanding about the next level of curriculum development À the implementation level À and illuminate their possible tacit assumptions concerning the role of the teachers in carrying out of the declared policy on Intercultural Education. Most importantly, we will discuss the tacit assumptions that come to light through their expressed perceptions, addressing not only to the practises but also the essence of the term intercultural education and its originating interest in terms of human agency.Within this context we will deliberate how a broadly accepted policy, namely intercultural educational policy, becomes a vehicle that can be used to control, interact with or empower people and in particular those delegated with its implementation-in our case the teachers.

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Mapping cultural diversity through children's voices: From confusion to clear understandings

Hajisoteriou

Karousiou

Angelides

2017

British Educational Res J

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This research examines children's conceptualisations of cultural diversity. In particular, this project examines the following two research questions: how do children define and understand the concept of cultural diversity; and what do they perceive as the implications of cultural diversity on their daily lives? To this end, interviews were carried out with 40 (immigrant and native) students, aged 11 to 12, at five primary schools in Cyprus, which presented high concentrations of immigrants. On the basis of our analysis of the data, the participant children appeared to perceive cultural diversity in terms of two contrasting perspectives. On the one hand, they viewed cultural diversity in terms of the cultural-deficiency perspective. Such perceptions stemmed from the model of monoculturalism implying the need to assimilate the culturally 'different' in order to counteract the negative consequences of cultural diversity. On the other hand, the same children also perceived cultural diversity in terms of cultural celebration. To this end, some children drew upon the model of multiculturalism to define cultural diversity as a culture-enriching and culture-celebrating process, pointing to folkloristic activities including traditional music, dance and food. Nonetheless, few of the participant children-both Cypriot and immigrant-defined cultural diversity in terms of the model of interculturalism, pointing to the intercultural exchange that stems from 'real' friendship development between natives and immigrants, equality of rights and inclusion. As the participant children appeared to confuse the meanings and languages of cultural diversity, this paper concludes with suggestions on teacher practices to 'crystallise' children's views.

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Europeanising Intercultural Education: Politics and Policy Making in Cyprus

Cited by 35 publications

References 11 publications

Experiencing the same but differently: indigenous minority and immigrant children’s experiences in Cyprus

Experiencing the same but differently: indigenous minority and immigrant children’s experiences in Cyprus

The perceptions of high‐level officers in Cyprus about intercultural education and their underlying assumptions

Mapping cultural diversity through children's voices: From confusion to clear understandings

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