Intercultural education set forward: Operational strategies and procedures in Cypriot classrooms

Christina Hajisoteriou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Teachers in Cyprus are being called upon for the first time to teach within culturally diverse educational settings. Given the substantial role, teachers play in the implementation of intercultural education, this paper explores the intercultural strategies and procedures adopted by primary school teachers in Cyprus. Interviews were carried out with 30 teachers, from four different schools. Findings show that participants held conflicting perceptions of intercultural education, while they lacked sufficient awareness of their immigrant students' cultural backgrounds. Participants adopted individualised and collaborative strategies, classroom discussions on intercultural issues and attempted to raise immigrant students' self-esteem in order to promote intercultural education. However, their own lack of intercultural preparation, along with lack of language proficiency of immigrant students, the inadequacy of the Cypriot national curriculum and time constraints, worked against efforts to promote greater inclusion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)133-146
Number of pages14
JournalIntercultural Education
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2012

Keywords

  • classroom procedures
  • Cyprus
  • intercultural education
  • teacher strategies

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