Abstract

In Greece, the emphasis on national historical accounts at school is typical, as it comprises the fundamental aspect of the Greek national identity, which has been based on the continuity of the Greek nation since the antiquity, and is fostered through history, geography and language teaching. On this premise, the national myths of origin are produced by selectively incorporating or suppressing real facts, and, thus, history as a science is transformed into a genealogy of the chosen people. The present paper aims at reporting pupils’ perceptions about the history of Greece by examining data collected from a group of 23 graded statements, to which the research subjects were asked to show their attitude. The analysis of results was based on a scale of ranking points (research instrument), which enables both the discovery of the presence or absence of a particular phenomenon and the quantitative assessment of results. In addition, the ranking scale was employed as a research instrument because it is widely used in education research and is one of the most popular methods for the collection of quantitative data.