Multicultural Initial Teacher Training in Greece

2022 ◽  
pp. 90-112
Author(s):  
Panagiota Sotiropoulou ◽  
Eva Polymenakou

Greece's demography has changed rapidly over the last 30 years. Migrants now form a sizable population but are still persistently excluded from mainstream conceptualizations and representations of the national ‘we'. Moreover, although multicultural classrooms have also become the norm, migrant students still face significant educational inequities. This chapter argues that a major stepping stone towards changing this adverse reality can come from the initial teacher training provided to future educators in Greece. Drawing upon teacher trainees' narratives, this chapter critically reflects upon the multicultural initial teacher training currently offered in Greece in an attempt to highlight how multicultural experiential learning contributes to the preparation of more multiculturally competent future educators. Illustrating good practice examples and areas in need of improvement in the training currently offered, this chapter also provides transferable guidelines for the creation of effective multicultural teacher training, based on equity and social justice principles.

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Paul Miller ◽  
Carmel G. Roofe

Social Justice themes have dominated education discourses over the decade of the 2000s with ideas ranging from equality in terms of gender, access to resources, teacher quality and the quality of students. These debates are not easily resolved and whereas concerns from policy makers and teacher-educators were often spotlighted, the opinions of teacher-trainees themselves were more or less absent from the discourse. This research sought to find out the views of teacher-trainees about their training experiences and how their interpretations of these experiences lead them to feel and act. This exploratory study therefore was conducted by collecting data from 41 third year teacher-trainees enrolled in a four year teacher training programme in Jamaica. Data was collected through two focus group interviews which were transcribed, sorted, coded and themes identified. The study was framed in the context of Rotter’s Locus of Control (1966) and Bourdieu’s (1977) Institutional Habitus. The main findings reveal that local students feel international students are treated more favourably; adequate learning resources are not always available (for labs especially) and some students are believed to be disadvantaged by lecturers because of how they speak and how they carry themselves (physical appearance). The researchers conclude that these are social justice issues that must be resolved to ensure a system that is built on the values of enabling rather than constraining. Key words: favouritism, exclusion, trainee-teachers, social justice, teaching quality.


2020 ◽  
pp. 225-251
Author(s):  
Ernest Ming-Tak Leung

This article explores a commonly ignored aspect of Japan–North Korean relations: the Japanese factor in the making of Korean socialism. Korea was indirectly influenced by the Japanese Jiyuminken Movement, in the 1910s–1920s serving as a stepping-stone for the creation of a Japanese Communist Party. Wartime mobilization policies under Japanese rule were continued and expanded beyond the colonial era. The Juche ideology built on tendencies first exhibited in the 1942 Overcoming Modernity Conference in Japan, and in the 1970s some Japanese leftists viewed Juche as a humanist Marxism. Trade between Japan and North Korea expanded from 1961 onwards, culminating in North Korea’s default in 1976, from which point on relations soured between the two countries. Yet leaders with direct experience of colonial rule governed North Korea through to the late 1990s.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 216495612198994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Evans ◽  
Gemma M Griffith ◽  
Rebecca S Crane ◽  
Sophie A Sansom

The Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC) is a useful framework for supporting teacher development in the context of mindfulness-based supervision (MBS). It offers a framework that enhances clarity, develops reflexive practice, gives a structure for feedback, and supports learning. MBS is a key component of Mindfulness-Based Program (MBP) teacher training and ongoing good practice. Integrating the MBI:TAC within the MBS process adds value in a number of ways including: offering a shared language around MBP teaching skills and processes; framing the core pedagogical features of MBP teaching; enabling assessment of developmental stage; and empowering supervisees to be proactive in their own development. The paper lays out principles for integrating the MBI:TAC framework into MBS. The supervisor needs awareness of the ways in which the tool can add value, and the ways it can inadvertently interrupt learning. The tool enables skills clarification, but the learning process needs to remain open to spontaneous experiential discovery; it can enable structured feedback but space is also needed for open reflective feedback; and it can enable conceptual engagement with the teaching process but space is needed for the supervisee to experientially sense the teaching process. The tool needs to be introduced in a carefully staged way to create optimal conditions for learning at the various stages of the MBP teacher-training journey. Practical guidance is presented to consolidate and develop current practice. The principles and processes discussed can be generalized to other forms of reflective dialogue such as mentoring, tutoring and peer reflection groups.


2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidija Novakovic

One of the effects of economic globalisation is that it strengthens the superiority of the developed and intensifies the dependency of the undeveloped nations. Christian ethicists typically address this problem by emphasising the need for social justice and the ethics of love expressed through sharing and generosity. This article offers another contribution to this discussion – an analysis of the subversive understanding of power and identity that underlies the story of Jesus in Matthew’s narrative. It concludes that Matthew’s Gospel offers a message of encouragement and accountability. It encourages the underprivileged to work for a change of conventional hierarchies that favour the privileged and calls them to actively participate in the creation of just relationships. At the same time, it reminds those who manage to improve their conditions that they should be transformed by the grace shown to them and strive for righteousness that exceeds the ethical standards of their former superiors.


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