Description

A twenty-year multimodal educational intervention is described addressing the Muslim minority children in Thrace --a North-Eastern Greek province. Locked within the wider Greek-Turkish conflict this territorial minority has suffered oppressive policies, has been marginalized and left, up until twenty years ago, virtually uneducated, with very limited knowledge of the Greek language and, consequently, with no voice. The intervention runs mainly, in parallel with formal education comprising teaching of Greek as a second language, development of multiple educational materials, compensatory classes, teacher training and extensive work with the community. It is a complex task, taking place amidst antagonistic political interests with deep historical roots. It has remained committed to the notion that a socially cohesive, democratic community rests on the potential of promoting mutual enrichment and citizenship, as well as the improvement of school performance. Set within the cross-fertilization of practice-invested theory with theoretically oriented practice, practitioners in the field narrate their long experience of working with minority children and their communities: Reading and writing as social acts are supplemented with other modes of communication including oral, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. Teacher supervision aims at empowering teachers in improving instruction of linguistically and culturally diverse students and at the cultivation of reflective practices. Greek classes for women go hand in hand with their emancipation. Everyday trips of the mobile units apply literacy pedagogy to children in isolated settlements. All educational practices ultimately aim at strengthening agency, and at challenging hegemonic representations serving the maintenance of the given social order. Coordinator Thalia Dragonas, Professor of Social Psychology, National nd Kapodistrian University of Athens. Contributors Irini Asimakopoulou, Secondary school teacher, MA in Education and Human Rights, affiliate of the project “Integration and Education of Muslim Children”, Chara Dafermou, Assistant professor in early childhood education and teaching approaches, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Anastasia Demetriou, Primary school teacher, MA in Education and Human Rights, 5th Primary school (Korydallos), affiliate of the project “Integration and Education of Muslim Children” Olga Katsiani, Social worker, affiliate of the project “Integration and Education of Muslim Children” Victoria Lagopoulou, Primary school teacher, MA in Education and Human Rights, 1st Primary school (Alimos), affiliate of the project “Integration and Education of Muslim Children" Maria Zografaki, Secondary school teacher, Ph.D in Sociology of Education, 2nd Secondary school (Nea Moudania), affiliate of the project “Integration and Education of Muslim Children”