In this chapter, we trace the emergence of a particular type of teacher subject, the subject-area... more In this chapter, we trace the emergence of a particular type of teacher subject, the subject-area counsellor, who became a key player during different phases of the recent curriculum reform in the Republic of Cyprus (2004–2017).The understanding of teachers as subjects is theoretically informed by the Foucauldian notion of discursive power that helps understand how individuals are constituted (subjectivated) and governed (subjected) through language in power relations that permeate social institutions. This type of teacher was constitutedas a hybrid expert-subject by embodying academic expertise and teaching/practical experience in classrooms. We utilize data from individual, semi-structured interviews conductedwith subject-area counsellors and elementary schoolpractising teachers during the introduction and implementation of new curricula (2011-2014), to argue that this particular type of teacher subject emerged as a meaningful and dynamic meso-level. As counsellors moved in betwee...
First paragraph: As we write this editorial, we are struck by the apparent sweeping away, in the ... more First paragraph: As we write this editorial, we are struck by the apparent sweeping away, in the short to medium term at least, of old certainties about education. Amidst talk of the ‘new normal’, a shift to online learning and teaching and the financial black hole faced by educational providers, such certainties are hard to cling onto. The sense of instability has been further complicated by recent events following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the USA, which have once more surfaced serious concerns about the persistence of institutional racism and have sparked protest and debates around the world. Such events, while probably overhyped as apocalyptic challenges to the world order, certainly create the conditions for rethinking old certainties and challenging taken‐for‐granted thinking about education, within and beyond schooling
ABSTRACT The accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004 was anticipated to... more ABSTRACT The accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004 was anticipated to be a ‘catalytic’ factor in developments towards a solution of the Cyprus problem at the political level. Within education, it was also seen as an opportunity for addressing diversity in a historically ethnocentric educational system through the introduction of a European dimension. Against this background, this article explores Greek-Cypriot children’s discourses about national others by drawing upon two sets of data collected in two studies of roughly seven years apart. Despite the different theoretical and methodological approaches of the two studies, and despite the temporal distance between them (almost three and a half years before and after Cyprus’s EU accession respectively), the concept of ‘Europe’ was mobilised by children in highly similar ways to distinguish, evaluate and hierarchise various others and to re-produce ethnic, racial, and Eurocentric stereotypes against national outgroups and their immigrant classmates from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
For the past few years, the Republic of Cyprus has been pursuing a major educational reform acros... more For the past few years, the Republic of Cyprus has been pursuing a major educational reform across all levels of mandatory education, focusing especially on curriculum change, for the implementation of which in-service teachers have undergone a series of professional development seminars. Individual and focus group interviews with in-service elementary teachers, regarding their sense of professionalism within this curriculum change process, revealed that teachers positioned themselves largely onto different points on a continuum. These are conceptualized as positions veering between teachers’ sense of minimum and maximum autonomy over their participation in the development and introduction of the new official curriculum. Framed by a traditionally centralized context, these positions were discursively negotiated in contradictory ways which allowed multiple positionings by each teacher. The paper concludes with the implications of these findings for understanding teacher professionalism and positioning, as well as for considering how this might relate to curriculum change and implementation processes.
In this chapter, we trace the emergence of a particular type of teacher subject, the subject-area... more In this chapter, we trace the emergence of a particular type of teacher subject, the subject-area counsellor, who became a key player during different phases of the recent curriculum reform in the Republic of Cyprus (2004–2017).The understanding of teachers as subjects is theoretically informed by the Foucauldian notion of discursive power that helps understand how individuals are constituted (subjectivated) and governed (subjected) through language in power relations that permeate social institutions. This type of teacher was constitutedas a hybrid expert-subject by embodying academic expertise and teaching/practical experience in classrooms. We utilize data from individual, semi-structured interviews conductedwith subject-area counsellors and elementary schoolpractising teachers during the introduction and implementation of new curricula (2011-2014), to argue that this particular type of teacher subject emerged as a meaningful and dynamic meso-level. As counsellors moved in betwee...
First paragraph: As we write this editorial, we are struck by the apparent sweeping away, in the ... more First paragraph: As we write this editorial, we are struck by the apparent sweeping away, in the short to medium term at least, of old certainties about education. Amidst talk of the ‘new normal’, a shift to online learning and teaching and the financial black hole faced by educational providers, such certainties are hard to cling onto. The sense of instability has been further complicated by recent events following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the USA, which have once more surfaced serious concerns about the persistence of institutional racism and have sparked protest and debates around the world. Such events, while probably overhyped as apocalyptic challenges to the world order, certainly create the conditions for rethinking old certainties and challenging taken‐for‐granted thinking about education, within and beyond schooling
ABSTRACT The accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004 was anticipated to... more ABSTRACT The accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004 was anticipated to be a ‘catalytic’ factor in developments towards a solution of the Cyprus problem at the political level. Within education, it was also seen as an opportunity for addressing diversity in a historically ethnocentric educational system through the introduction of a European dimension. Against this background, this article explores Greek-Cypriot children’s discourses about national others by drawing upon two sets of data collected in two studies of roughly seven years apart. Despite the different theoretical and methodological approaches of the two studies, and despite the temporal distance between them (almost three and a half years before and after Cyprus’s EU accession respectively), the concept of ‘Europe’ was mobilised by children in highly similar ways to distinguish, evaluate and hierarchise various others and to re-produce ethnic, racial, and Eurocentric stereotypes against national outgroups and their immigrant classmates from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
For the past few years, the Republic of Cyprus has been pursuing a major educational reform acros... more For the past few years, the Republic of Cyprus has been pursuing a major educational reform across all levels of mandatory education, focusing especially on curriculum change, for the implementation of which in-service teachers have undergone a series of professional development seminars. Individual and focus group interviews with in-service elementary teachers, regarding their sense of professionalism within this curriculum change process, revealed that teachers positioned themselves largely onto different points on a continuum. These are conceptualized as positions veering between teachers’ sense of minimum and maximum autonomy over their participation in the development and introduction of the new official curriculum. Framed by a traditionally centralized context, these positions were discursively negotiated in contradictory ways which allowed multiple positionings by each teacher. The paper concludes with the implications of these findings for understanding teacher professionalism and positioning, as well as for considering how this might relate to curriculum change and implementation processes.
Uploads
Papers by Stavroula Philippou