TY - JOUR
T1 - Intercultural education set forward
T2 - Operational strategies and procedures in Cypriot classrooms
AU - Hajisoteriou, Christina
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - classroom procedures
KW - Cyprus
KW - intercultural education
KW - teacher strategies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863426062&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14675986.2012.686022
DO - 10.1080/14675986.2012.686022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84863426062
SN - 1467-5986
VL - 23
SP - 133
EP - 146
JO - Intercultural Education
JF - Intercultural Education
IS - 2
ER -