eprintid: 10019959
rev_number: 12
eprint_status: archive
userid: 587
dir: disk0/00/01/99/59
datestamp: 2014-10-29 10:56:07
lastmod: 2017-12-07 21:35:49
status_changed: 2014-10-29 10:56:07
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Papamichael, Elena
title: Exploring intercultural education discourses and everyday practices in a Greek-Cypriot primary school
ispublished: unpub
divisions: B14
note: Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education, 2011.
abstract: This thesis is an ethnographic study of intercultural education discourses and everyday
practices in an urban Greek-Cypriot primary school. The pupil population is comprised of
Greek-Cypriots, Eastern European economic migrants and increasing numbers of newlyarrived
Iraqi-Palestinian asylum-seekers. Despite the introduction of intercultural
education policy in 2001, the education system prescribes a monoculturalist and
nationalist ethos. At the same time, the limited opportunities for intercultural education
training leave teachers uncertain as to how to respond to the increasing diversity.
Informed by ethnographic, discursive and intersectional approaches, this study analyses
data from fieldwork conducted in this school for a total of three months over a period of
three years.
The analysis identifies the discursive resources from which teachers draw to talk about
diversity in Greek-Cypriot society and construct the Other, mainly in essentialist and
negative ways. It also identifies teachers' constructions of racism on a societal and
educational level, including racism denials, minimizations and justifications. The thesis
argues that teachers' constructions of racism inhibit them from recognizing and
challenging institutional racism and racialized incidents they observe among their pupils.
The study also demonstrates how minoritized children become differentially racialized
as groups and individuals through institutional, teachers' and children's discourses and
practices, regardless of intentionality. As a result, many minoritized children experience
school in an environment of harassment. The study discusses the experiences of an
Iraqi-Palestinian boy as an example of how intercultural education is implemented.
Some teachers' resistance to the dominant discourses of colourblindness and racism
denial, and minoritized children's negotiation of their racialized positionings create the
spaces of ambivalence that are necessary for change.
The findings bear implications for policy and practice in terms of teacher training,
development of antiracist policies and supportive networks for teachers, changes in the
curriculum, and, structural transformations, so that educational opportunities are
equally provided to all children.
date: 2011
date_type: completed
official_url: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.534799
oa_status: green
thesis_class: doctoral_open
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
full_text_status: restricted
pages: 320
institution: Institute of Education, University of London
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        Papamichael, Elena;      (2011)    Exploring intercultural education discourses and everyday practices in a Greek-Cypriot primary school.                   Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10019959/2/PAPAMICHAEL%2C%20E_Redacted.pdf
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10019959/1/PAPAMICHAEL%2C%20E.pdf