GREEK MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME

GREEK MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME
NIKOLAOS GOUSGOUNIS

In Greece, a mono-cultural and mono-linguistic educational policy is still the dominant model in most of the cases concerning returning Greeks as well as migrants of foreign origin. The aim of the Greek State is to confront and deal with increasing problems caused by foreigners who are living and working legally or illegally, and who tend to bring their families once their financial condition allows it. The general inclination is to provide immigrants with an education that respects their social, religious, and cultural particularities in combination with an essential Greek language competence. This effort started in Greece not because of increased number of foreigners since 1990, but mainly because of the large number of Greeks returning from abroad after extended periods of residence. Most of them have practically lost their competence in the Greek language.

All the Greek teacher trainees expressed their contribution to the multicultural policy of the country in both rounds of interviews. Cultural diversity was mostly considered as a moral but also social challenge. Hence, students emphasised the positive effects of cultural diversity on the Greek population, such as an increased multicultural sensibilisation in education and society and opportunities for learning from one another in the everyday co-existence. They insisted on the possibility of the Greek society to "catch the train " of the new era through the fruitful cooperation of native Greeks with the "interesting Others". Currently, however, the public opinion in Greece manipulated greatly by mass media is not optimistic and considers the massive presence of foreign pupils in the Greek schools as a priori threat for Greek society.
The meaning of the term ‘multicultural education’ was known only by few students (3) who chose the relative lesson among the items taught in the pedagogical and pre-elementary school faculties at the University of Athens. The rest of the 17 students had no chance to select this lesson with the exception of three more undergraduates of pre-elementary education (2) and pedagogics (1) who could choose it in the coming years of their studies. As pupils, these students had attended schools that had not minoritarian or immigrant pupils. Consequently they had no experience or knowledge to discuss items such as how the language and the culture of the immigrants could be taught. For this reason the aim of the students in the OE programme was not the acquirement of qualifications relative to the problem since most of them ignored its very existence, but their information for topics of education related to the general racist phenomena that increases in the Greek society as is described mainly by the media. Also, a second important aim was to communicate with foreign students interested in the analogue topics and to exchange opinions and to understand better their motives as a reflexion of their cultures.

The research results show that Greek trainees know foreign cultures quite well. They knew what is the major foreign ethnic group in Greece fairly good ( 93 %) but they did not know that well the percentage of population precising themselves as non-Greeks ( 47%), and even less familiar they were with the amount of Greek population after the 1991 census (42%). Male student teachers were better informed than females in general, and the OE students were better informed on the questions concerning minorities and foreigners. Paradoxically, however, the OE trainees knew less than the control group the exact population of Greece. That indicates that sensibilisation towards cultural diversity, as it happened to the 20 OE trainees, gave positive results concerning knowledge on national minorities.

Concerning the questions related labour abroad and co-labour or games with foreigners, data show that the students have been socialised with foreigners more in Greece than abroad. Male respondents were in a better stand than females in general, and the OE students were better in all three relative questions. That proves that knowledge acquired from everyday life, work or studying abroad was better among the OE trainees than in the case of other students, and maybe this could help them in further sensibilisation after their return in matters concerning the "vision of the others".

According to the research results, the self-confidence of Greek students increased during the OE course. This result implies that communication is an important qualitative and not only the quantity of acquired information.

During the OE course, the students learned how to evaluate racism and xenophobia problems in learning environments, like in a school class, and how to invent practical ways of overpassing problems such as class conflicts and class organisation. After noticing some examples of good adaptation and integration of immigrant pupils in the class, they became more optimistic than before about the future of multicultural education and its results to the aim of helping different cultural backgrounds to coexist and to communicate with no prejudices and stereotypes.

The trainees recognised a number of problems arising from the coexistence of multiple ethnic groups but seemed to tolerate the cohabitation even in the case of members of distinct ethnic groups and different religions. In conclusion, the OE students were aware of their prejudices and ethnic stereotypes as transmitted through the educational system but hoped that the coming era of better human communication and multicultural contacts will enable them to overpass these standards. Also they were hopeful that education will change its views practically because of the unavoidable "evasion" of foreigners in the country. No one expressed a wish for separation or ghettoisation of the newcomers, on the contrary, all were hopeful that the dynamic hosmosis of native population with foreigners would be beneficial for both. This spirit of internationalisation highly promoted by the so-called "globalisation" as is propagated by the media, takes rather the dimensions of a cultural phenomenon in the minds of the students representing the younger generation and not of the financial consequences of such a cohabitation.

The Greek educational system ought to turn from its “introvert” orientation to a more “extravert” one. “The European dimension in education” insists on the availability of equal opportunities for all. However, the ideal aiming at equal chances for all the European citizens, is not applicable for the vast majority of immigrants coming to Greece from 104 different countries of the world. The European dimension, supported financially and politically by the EU, aims at the maintenance of cultural and linguistic polymorphous through the projection of a common cultural heritage (articles 126 and 128 of the Maastrich Convention). On the other hand, the intercultural dimension based on an indistputable multicultural reality of the last decade, aims at the creation and adaption of new models of co-existence through equal and liberal inter-influence of all cultures living and expressing themselves in a multicultural society.

In school curricula the amelioration of the general social mentality towards the problems of multiculturalism in education means modifications. The topics in priority in school curriculum are as follows:

Religion lessons. Religion is taught from the age of 8 to the age of 18. In religion lessons the need is for teaching the children tolerance towards the diverse religions of the other cultures. Comparative lessons of history of religion as a total human conditions should be taught on the upper grade when students can evaluate the importance and the interest of being different in religious terms.

History and Geography should be revised into the direction of being minimal in ethnocentric orientation. Especially History is passing a great amount of hidden curriculum through various examples of underlying of the national sentiment (national days, parades, etc.).

Humanities, literature and foreign languages should should be directed towards more concrete examples of foreign cultures. So far the whole content of the philological lessons has been oriented toward the learning of the structure of the language neglecting the important ideas of the authors. Even in foreign languages, the focus has been rarely oriented towards the approach of the cultural aspect in the school curricula. Humanities are crucial in teaching children to combine values and knowledge and to learn better to communicate with different people.

Social sciences should be enriched by more intense courses of sociology and civil education. Both these classes were annulled after the recent reform of 1999 from students in the final grade and were replaced by lessons of informatics and economics. Technology is and will be useful, but the way it is taught in the secondary school is not ideal because of the strict technocratic and professional model these lessons are promoted.

Arts and History of Art should be urgently introduced in the secondary education for enabling young children to better understand the achievements of different cultures.

A new conception concerning the social role of the school aiming not only to the acquirement of knowledge but also to the better communication and socialisation of pupils. is needed. Visits in museums, galleries, theatre and other cultural sites should be as systematic as in France, where Wednesdays are dedicated to these cultural visits. Cultural experiences in general help to approach to understand and appreciate different cultures. Modern technology e.g. internet also increases interest on multicultural issues.

The topic of multicultural education should be introduced in all university departments educating future teachers. The theoretical multicultural education need to be combined with visits to multicultural classes. At the moment the courses of multicultural education are optional in the pre-school and primary teacher departments, and most students of the secondary teacher departments have never heard of them. Specialisation on multiculturalism should be in programmes in order to prepare the future teachers to face the new realities and to be able to deal with it.

In conclusion, the OE students were rather sensibilised than educated during the four months of the OE course and the outcome of this sensibilisation process was that these students evaluated multiculturalism in classrooms in connection to their own experiences e.g. they judged that to understand better the problems of strangers, they have to take their social position and undertake their role in the dominant culture.

- The communication in an international programme such as the OE proved that various difficulties are a rule and their overpassing is an achievement of good will and collective effort and collaboration. Demystification of fixed ideas or stereotypes has the sense that only communication in coordination with learning can overcome eternal prejudices fixed in the so called collective conscience of entire ethnic populations.

- Concerning the questions related to the internet use, data show that Greek trainees do not know and use the new communication technologies very well. Male students are better informed than females in general.

- Self-confidence of students increased during the OE sub-project.

- Trainees learned how to evaluate racism and xenophobia problems in school class, and how to invent practical ways of overpassing problems such as class conflicts and class organisation.

- Trainees learned how to evaluate cultural diversity as a living reality by practical means and also how to organise their theoretical weapons of thought.

- Important differences in education systems of every country created difficulties in understanding of needs and requirements among the students.

- There were technical problems in computer mediated communication.

- There were difficulties of comparison and analogies in every national case due to the different conditions.

- There were language problems in some cases.