A Focus on Greece
Exploring Childrens' Hybrid Identities in Culturally Diverse Settings
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Gindidis, Jane Elizabeth Southcott
Increasingly education researchers are collecting drawings and analyzing images as it is often easier for children to reveal their thoughts and ideas through drawings that are traditionally not subject to the same levels of correction as writing and speaking. With the support of classroom teachers, three Year 3 classes (aged 8-9 years) and two Year 4 classes (aged 9-10 years) produced a drawing entitled “I am Greek” in an empty frame and described their picture to teachers and classmates. This cohort of students was selected because they had already experienced Greek school for 4-5 years and have been involved in a range of cultural and linguistic activities associated with Greek culture. Data (n=120) were analyzed and offer revealing insights into students’ understandings of their hybrid cultural identity. An awareness of what elements construct Greek-ness as understood by children can inform educators both in classroom practices and curriculum design.
Narrating Nation and Gender in the Greek History Schoolbooks: A Discursive Socio-Psychological Perspective for Studying the Overt and the Hidden Curriculum
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Efthalia Konstantinidou
The national past both as historical knowledge as well as patriotic orientation is the main explicit concern of the Greek history curriculum and schoolbooks while explicit concern about gender is almost absent. In this paper a discursive socio-psychological analytic framework is offered by means of which the intersection of explicit national orientation and implicit gender orientation can be studied in the narrative parts of the history schoolbooks. Theoretically the discourse analytic framework draws on discursive social psychology in terms of understanding the historical narrative as the site where nation and gender are constructed. In addition it draws on feminist intersectional analysis by means of which the multiplicity and simultaneity of those identities can be revealed. Methodologically the discourse analytic framework extends from the micro-, to meso- to macro-level, from text practice, to genre practice to discourse practice analysis, respectively. Apart from curriculum research and critique the socio-psychological discourse analytic framework presented here can be used as a tool both for reflective practice by history teachers as well as by curriculum designers for history curriculum and schoolbook reform.
The Value of Education of the Beginning Academic Workers from Their Professional Self-Concept Perspective
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Iva Koribská
The article deals with the value of education of the beginning academic workers from the perspective of their professional self-concept. Our research sample consists of respondents from the selected Czech universities. We look at how students of various doctoral programs and graduates within the three years of their graduation perceive themselves as teachers and researchers, and which values are reflected in this concept. The main aim is to analyze how the respondent evaluates himself as a teacher and a researcher. The partial aim is to find out how the current professional self-concept reflects the ideal vision of the respondent about his / her profession and how the respondent perceives his / her professional self in relation to the other co-workers in the academic context. The contribution is grounded in the theoretical part, where we define the key concepts needed for this research. The research part deals with the characteristics of the respondents and the factors that influence the formation of the professional self-concept. We chose a semi-structured interview and a questionnaire for the research tool. Respondents' responses are subjected to open, axial and selective coding.
Designing a Modern Greek Online Course
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anastasia-Olga (Olnancy) Tzirides, Mary Kalantzis
This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities involved in designing and teaching an innovative Modern Greek course in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The task was to take a traditional, structured textbook course for Modern Greek as a Second Language and transform its didactic curriculum into a more learner-centered online course. The transformation was based on deploying the seven affordances of e-learning established by Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope (New Learning 2012) as well as current trends of online language learning. Our goal was to provide through the design, more agency and engagement for learners. In this paper, we describe the process of designing the online course, using Moodle as the learning platform, creating videos to introduce the material, and facilitating collaboration, peer interaction and feedback. We will present the way that this course was implemented, as well as the results of the feedback we received from students' evaluations about the course. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the benefits of this online course comparing it to the face-to-face format.
