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At a crossroads of civilizations:multicultural educational provision inCyprus through the lens of a case studyChristos Panayiotopoulos a & Maria Nicolaidou ba Intercollege , Cyprusb Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus ,Published online: 01 Mar 2007.
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Intercultural Education,Vol. 18, No. 1, March 2007, pp. 65–79
ISSN 1467-5986 (print)/ISSN 1469-8439 (online)/07/010065–15© 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14675980601143769
At a crossroads of civilizations: multicultural educational provision in Cyprus through the lens of a case study
Christos Panayiotopoulosa* and Maria NicolaidoubaIntercollege, Cyprus; bPedagogical Institute of CyprusTaylor and Francis LtdCEJI_A_214307.sgm10.1080/14675980601143769Intercultural Education1467-5986 (print)/1469-8439 (online)Original Article2007Taylor & Francis181000000March 2007ChristosPanayiotopouloschrispan_73@[email protected]
This paper aims to explore the issue of multicultural education in Cyprus and how it is treatedwithin school environments. It explores attitudes from and towards non-indigenous pupils andperceptions that exist within the indigenous population. A case study approach was used to achievethese goals. Teachers completed a semi-structured questionnaire, and pupils and parents wereinterviewed. The results revealed serious deficiencies in the system, with particular emphasis onthe lack of academic and psychological support for non-indigenous pupils. The results also pointto a lack of skills among teachers to function in multiethnic classrooms
Introduction
During the last few years, Cypriot society has become increasingly multicultural,owing to increasing numbers of non-Cypriots moving to Cyprus. This situation haschanged the social environment since the population of the ‘free part’ of the islandhas traditionally been primarily of Greek origin. The most recent census (StatisticalServices of the Republic of Cyprus (Cystat), 2001) has shown a considerable increasein the number of people who have migrated to Cyprus (from 4.2% of the populationin 1991 to 9.4% in 2001). Also, a considerable number of Turkish Cypriots havedecided to move to the Greek part of the island, looking for a better quality of lifeafter the opening of the border. Consequently, contemporary Cypriot society is nolonger a homogeneous entity consisting of two ethnic communities, Greek andTurkish. Increasingly, Cypriots are coming into contact with people from differentcultures. Multiple terms have been used to describe these communities: ‘migrants’,‘foreigners’, ‘repatriates’, ‘refugees’ or ‘minorities’ cultural or ethnic (Paleologou,
*Corresponding author. Intercollege, 46 Makedonitissas Av., 1700 Nicosia, Cyprus. Email:[email protected]
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2004). For the purpose of this paper, we shall use the term non-indigenous whenreferring to pupils who are of non-Greek Cypriot origin. Pupils who come fromGreece will not be treated as non-indigenous, since they speak the same language andshare the same religious and cultural background as the majority. However, TurkishCypriots, mainly Turkish speakers and Muslim, will be treated as non-indigenous.
Schools have also been deeply affected by demographic changes. According toofficial statistics (Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC), 2004), a growingnumber of pupils (5.5% of the total school population), coming mainly from theformer Soviet Union, have been enrolled in Cyprus schools in recent years. In fact,as Oikonomidou (2003) points out, there are now some Cypriot schools where non-indigenous pupils constitute the majority of the school population. Obviously, thishas implications for the functioning of the school as an institution of learning.
The issue of multicultural education is relatively new to Cypriot schools andsociety. The need for action is imperative if we are to prevent a further rise in racistattacks, serious discrimination and the marginalization of non-indigenous pupils bytheir peers. The purpose of this paper is to look more in-depth at the issue ofmulticultural education in Cyprus. In particular, this paper investigates how non-indigenous pupils in Cyprus are supported by the State, depending on their particu-lar needs, and whether Cypriot teachers feel confident that they have the skillsneeded to teach in multiethnic classrooms.
Cyprus and multicultural education: where does it fit?
To understand multicultural education in Cyprus better, it is useful to summarizebriefly the various models/approaches that exist regarding multiculturalism in societyand education. According to Ramsey et al. (2003), multicultural education aroseduring times of crisis and conflict on both sides of the Atlantic. For more than threedecades it has been a driving force for change in the educational arena and has devel-oped and expanded in many directions. Multicultural education’s primary goals,however, have remained fairly constant: to design systems of education that areculturally relevant and are inclusive, rather than exclusive; to secure that all pupilsleave school possess the skills for social, academic, political and economic success; toteach pupils to respect others, irrespective of their skin color, language, cultural andreligious identity, and to recognize, investigate and actively challenge injustices.
Within the context described by Ramsey et al. (2003), multicultural educationconsists of five models with different aims and objectives. The model of acculturationwhich adopts the view that political or cultural minority groups should be absorbedby the dominant/native population if such groups are to participate equally indominant society (Nikolaou, 2000). With respect to education, schools that operatein such a system aim to teach all children the dominant language and culture.According to the incorporation model (Georgogianis, 1997), the ethnic, cultural andreligious differences of minority groups are recognized and respected by the hostsociety. However, their differences are not seen as threatening society. The differ-ences from the acculturation model in the educational arena are not very clear
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At a crossroads of civilizations 67
(Schnapper, 1991). The multiculturalist model emphasizes the need for the creationof a framework, educational and societal, within which every civilization can existand develop without the risk of losing its unity and cohesion. At a school level,educational curricula have to take into consideration the language and culturaldifferences among non-indigenous children and foster an environment of respect,understanding and acceptance of cultural differences. The anti-racist model criticizesthe multicultural model for the emphasis it gives to individual rather than groupattitudes. This particular model focuses not only on individual attitudes, but oninstitutional processes and changes in the education system. Finally, the interculturalmodel (see Essinger, 1990) is based on four principal pillars. These are:
● Education for the development of an empathic attitude towards differences. Theprimary aim of the educational system is to encourage the majority groupmembers to be interested in the difficulties and differences that characterizeothers.
● Education for the development of solidarity so as to empower people to cultivate anotion that goes beyond race and nation state and create a universal family.
● Education for the development of intercultural respect through mutual learningamong indigenous and non-indigenous citizens.
● Development of self-awareness against the ‘creation’ of a ‘sovinistic’ way ofthinking.
The Cyprus educational system comes closest to the first two models, since themeasures that have been put into practice by the MOEC (2004) can be categorizedas measures for language support (the aim is to teach Greek as a second language)and measures for facilitating the smooth integration of groups that have differentcultural identities (Martidou-Forsier, 2003; Angelides et al., 2004). The paradox inthis case is the fact that research around the issue of multicultural education inCyprus is limited, and it has mainly covered attitudes of school teachers in primaryand secondary schools with respect to multicultural education, despite the fact thatCyprus has been influenced by many cultures in the past.
This paper focuses on the attitudes of teachers, parents and pupils, indigenousand non-indigenous, pertaining to issues of integration, acceptance of ethnic minor-ities at the school and community levels, and the implementation of multiculturalpractices in the Cypriot context.
Multicultural education in Cyprus1
A growing number of pupils are being enrolled in Cypriot schools, primarily fromthe former Soviet Union.2 This begs the need for an educational system thatsupports the language and distinctive cultural features of various ethnic groups.
In response to the above needs and a changing social environment, the MOEC inCyprus has been attempting to promote the implementation of new educationalmeasures and policies (MOEC, 2004), which facilitate the smooth integration ofgroups from different cultural identities in a creative environment, regardless of
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ethnic background. These measures can be categorized as measures for languagesupport, which refer to the teaching of Greek as a second language and measures forfacilitating the smooth integration of groups with different cultural identities.
The model that is currently being implemented is a mainstreaming program inwhich language learners attend classrooms with indigenous Greek-speaking pupils.According to the above principles, the Department of Primary Education has madeprovisions so that language learners are distributed evenly among the variousdistricts, schools and even classrooms, so that teachers can support their linguisticand cultural needs more effectively. This involves placing language learners in aseparate class for several hours a week, where they receive intensive Greek lessonsand specialized assistance according to their specific needs. In addition to theprovision of additional support for these pupils, the Department of Primary Educa-tion has provided all schools with ‘suitable’ materials. These include books for theteaching of Greek, activity and work books, as well as teachers’ books with method-ological instructions and a variety of suggestions for activities, of a mainly communi-cative character. With respect to secondary education, there are no details relating tothe phenomenon of multicultural education.
Other activities supported by the Ministry of Education include:
● The Pedagogical Institute organizes in-service training seminars for teacherspertaining to multicultural education. Although this is a three year seminar andpart of a wider European network focusing on multicultural education, thetraining is voluntary and there are no selection criteria.
● The Ministry tries to raise multicultural awareness by disseminating informationamong the student population about the way of life, patterns of thought andattitudes of people who differ from the majority population. Although the Depart-ment of Primary Education has promoted several cultural measures that promotemulticultural awareness, a considerable number of teachers at the school wediscuss below (which has a relatively large number of non-indigenous pupils) wereunaware of these measures.
Methodology
Although the Department of Education has introduced a series of measures that aimto promote educational and cultural awareness, existing studies (Oikonomidou,2003; Angelides et al., 2004) claim that the Cypriot Ministry of Education ‘does notseem to pay sufficient attention to teacher in-service training to adequately acquaintteachers with multicultural approaches’ (Angelides et al., 2004). Fragoudaki &Dragona (1997) report that the Cypriot educational system contains many national-istic elements. This is distinctively evident in teacher training programs, as well as inthe national curriculum and much of the written material used (Mina, 2000). Theneed for a closer examination of how multicultural education is provided for in theCypriot context is imperative. Additionally, it appears that it is only the Departmentof Primary Education that is addressing these issues with pupils. We are unaware of
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any initiatives at other levels of education. Therefore, the aim of our project was tofind answers to the following research questions:
● To what extent are teachers in Cyprus aware of multicultural education issues?● What kinds of problems have arisen due to the increasing number of non-
indigenous pupils in Cypriot schools?● How do children and parents view and respond to individuals who have a differ-
ent ethnic and cultural identity?● What recommendations have been made by teachers and pupils for developing a
more efficient and cohesive multicultural educational system?● What lessons can we draw from this experience with a view towards supporting
staff and pupils?
The need for the above-mentioned research emerged through a cry for help from aYouth and Family support centre associated with a Local Authority in the greaterarea of Limassol, which had been working closely with one particular school—whichwe elected to focus on for our case study (see Table 1). The specific area of Limassolhas experienced an increase in the number of foreign residents during recent years,and this has affected local schools. Many of these immigrants hail from the formerSoviet Union and the Middle East. They have come to Cyprus for either financial orpolitical reasons. Main concerns have related to the complexity of some of the issues(single-parent families, lack of parental control, adjustment problems) facing thesecommunities and their consequences for the children both within and outside of theeducational sphere.
For our case study, we selected a primary school with a relatively large percentageof pupils (43%) who were non-indigenous. This phenomenon caused concerns forthe head teacher and the social worker who worked closely with some of the families.For instance, the head teacher reported that the observed school used to be:
a high profile school and everyone in the area considered it to have high standardswhere children could acquire the necessary academic skills. More recently, due to theincreasing number of registrations from non-indigenous pupils, many Greek Cypriotparents have stopped sending their children to this school.
Table 1. Number of pupils, according to ethnic origin, attending this school during the 2005–2006 academic year
2005–2006 IndigenousaNon-
indigenousTotal school population
Boys 78 57 135Girls 80 45 125Total 158 102 260
aWe also include the Greek speaking pupils who are originally from Greece in the indigenous category.Source: District Office of the Ministry of Education in Limassol (MOEC) (2005).
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It is worth mentioning that, in terms of school registrations (Ministry of Educa-tion and Culture, 2005) in primary schools, the greater area of Limassol has thehighest percentage of registered non-indigenous pupils. In this area, there are 217registered non-indigenous pupils, and 127 of these pupils attend the schoolwhere our case study took place. For the above reasons, we aimed to explore theissue of multicultural education through listening to the voices of pupils andparents and analyzing collected data on how this phenomenon can affect thefunctioning of a school that is not familiar or prepared to face such an enor-mous task.
Owing to time and financial constraints, it was decided to carry out a single casestudy (Robson, 1993) that could serve as a pilot study for more extensive researchacross Cyprus. Data were collected from teachers, pupils (indigenous and non-indig-enous), as well as parents. All teachers were asked to fill in a structured questionnairethat was designed on the basis of extensive literature review and previous researchthat had taken place in Cyprus and Greece (Angelides et al., 2004; Paleologou &Evangelou, 2003; Martidou-Forsier, 2003) regarding the issue of multiculturaleducation and its practical implementations. A random sample of 60 pupils (15% ofthe school population) across all grades were interviewed. Out of the total sample ofpupils, two-thirds (40) belonged to the non-indigenous group. Interviews were semi-structured and covered issues relating to integration in the school and the broadercommunity, attitudes of fellow Greek-Cypriot pupils and teachers, as well ascomments regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the (multicultural) educationalsystem.
Although we knew from the beginning that some of the non-Cypriot pupils in oursample might not speak fluent Greek, we did not exclude them from our sample. Wetried to ensure the validity of the results, as we wanted to obtain a genuine samplethat could provide us a realistic picture of the phenomenon, regardless of the level ofspoken Greek.
The teacher questionnaire covered the following areas:
(1) Demographic data on non-indigenous pupils and information about the schooland pupil behavior.
(2) Multicultural infrastructure of the school and analysis of services offered withinthe school with respect to the needs of pupils: (a) teacher knowledge of existing official programmes in the area of multicul-
tural teaching(b) relationship between teachers and parents(c) level of services the school offered to overcome difficulties caused due to the
language barrier(d) suggestions for further development of the school to address the academic
and social needs of pupils who had a different ethnic, cultural backgroundand for whom Greek is not their mother tongue.
(3) Consequences for the academic and behavioral performance of non-indigenouspupils due to communication and learning challenges.
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Lessons learned
Based on the responses we received from the teachers, we discovered that thestudent population was not evenly divided. Non-indigenous pupils were concen-trated in certain classrooms (i.e. 21 out of 30 pupils or 14 out of 30). This shedsdoubt on the effectiveness of the Ministry of Education’s efforts to distribute ethnicminority pupils evenly. As Nikolaou (2000) has contended, large concentrations ofnon-indigenous pupils in a classroom have serious consequences for teaching,because schoolwork suffers and delays take place in delivering the curriculum. Also,indigenous pupils declare that they prefer to go to a different public or private schoolwithout non-indigenous pupils.
Non-indigenous pupils of a younger age appear to obtain better academic resultsthan older pupils, who appear to find it more difficult to adjust to a new life andadjust to the nature of the educational curriculum. However, the majority of schoolteachers (80%) believe that, although the language is a major factor in underperfor-mance, it is not the only contributing factor. Other factors, in their view, include:
● Pupils’ personality and academic skills that she/he already acquired from aprevious educational system. According to teacher responses, pupils from theformer Yugoslavia or Soviet Union achieve better than pupils from MiddleEastern countries. This finding was partly explained by the similarity between theGreek and Slavic alphabets.
● Adjustment to a new way of life and the pressure to assimilate. There are very fewif any measures in the current educational system to help a child maintain his/herethnic identity. This coincides with similar findings from Greece (Paleologou,1999, 2000), where it has been argued that the arrival of migrant children inGreek schools has been accompanied by adjustment difficulties, at least whenthey first arrive in their new place of residence. Cooper et al. (1994) argue thatnon-indigenous and ex-patriot pupils, owing to the lack of knowledge of the hostlanguage, usually face adjustment difficulties which take the form of introvert orextrovert behavior.
● Socio-economic status (SES) of the family. Many parents work full days and havelittle time to contact their child’s school or help children with their homework.They often do not speak the Greek language, which makes communication withthe school even more difficult.
What has been described above corresponds to the impression we received when weinterviewed children and parents (indigenous and non-indigenous). In particular,the latter group mentioned that, although Cyprus is a nice and safe country, theystill want to return to their country of origin, where their extended family resides.
A considerable percentage (35%) of teachers also judged the quality of multicul-tural education provided in this particular school to be mediocre. They believed thatonly offering extra support in the Greek language is not sufficient to improve pupils’academic performance and include them in the broader school community. In orderto acquire an overall picture of how much time is provided for teaching the Greek
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language, teachers said that 29 school periods of 40 minutes each are offered tonewcomers for whom Greek is not their first language. In the afternoon classes (from1 to 4 p.m.), pupils who already fluently speak Greek help their peers by translatinginto their mother tongue. Some of the teachers mentioned that even this program(after school classes) needs improvement and more ‘clear’ goals, as there are no‘clear’ guidelines from the Ministry on how to teach different ethnic minoritygroups. Lack of signs in other languages was obvious from what we could see fromthe classrooms we visited. Simple signs such as ‘toilets’ and ‘P. C. labs’ were writtenonly in the mother tongue.
Even though the Ministry of Education’s National Report (2004) mentions theprovision of in-service training to teachers who work in schools with pupils fromethnic minorities, our findings show this not to be present. A considerable percent-age (35%) of teachers were unaware of any support programs for teachers who workwith pupils for whom Greek is not their first language. This result coincides withresearch conducted by Martidou-Forsier (2003) regarding the situation in multicul-tural education in Cyprus. In that study, only 15.6% of the sample of teachers(n=173) from primary and secondary schools answered that such in-service traininghad been made available. Even in countries such as England, which are consideredto be more developed in terms of multicultural educational approaches, teachereducation has paid insufficient attention to the inclusion of elements closer to appro-priate pedagogical approaches for multiethnic classrooms. Teachers are often lessracist and hostile towards ‘strangers’ than are the institutions that educate them.Unless the latter introduce future teachers to more multicultural educational curric-ula, there is little hope for change.
We also examined attitudes towards reception classes. The majority (70%) ofteachers felt that pupils should be integrated immediately into schools after theyarrive in Cyprus. They opposed prior preparation in terms of language, despitepossible problems in school performance and social inclusion due to languageissues. The remaining 30% felt that inclusion should be made as smooth as possibleby first focusing on the learning of the Greek language and only then on socialinclusion. They expressed that attempts simultaneously to teach Greek and inte-grate these pupils into the school environment would cause problems in the learn-ing process for all pupils in the classroom. The following comment was indicative ofthis view:
If we take socialisation into consideration then I would agree that it is better for thesepupils to be placed with Greek-speaking pupils right after they arrive at the school. I dobelieve, however, that they would benefit if they first register in a reception class as well.(Teacher)
The following comment illustrates the confusion that exists in the Cypriot educa-tional system with respect to how multiethnic classrooms should be managed. Theofficial guidelines state that the main goal of multicultural education is to provideextra classes adjusted to the needs of the non-indigenous and repatriates. However,when we asked the question ‘How much does the presence of non-indigenous pupils
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At a crossroads of civilizations 73
influence the academic performance of indigenous pupils?’, 70% of teachers choseto answer either ‘no influence’ (30%) or ‘little influence’ on their learning (40%).However, their further comments revealed the opposite. Teachers, in particular,claimed that such students slow down their teaching pace, since they needed to waituntil the rest of the classroom had learned the Greek language.
As one teacher commented:
during the lesson we give less time to Greek Cypriots, as we need to spend more timewith the non-indigenous pupils and because we do not give any homework to the indig-enous pupils. In group work as well, we spend more time explaining unknown words tonon-Greek speaking pupils. (Teacher)
An important finding for those who plan and design curricula and methods forthe smooth transition of non-indigenous pupils to the Cypriot educational systemis the fact that, according to the majority (80%) of teachers, weak Greek languageskills severely influence academic performance, socialization within the schoolenvironment and self-esteem. In particular, teachers reported problems relating toantisocial behavior, disobedience and distractions, and they attribute this to thenon-indigenous pupils. This finding is in line with Nikolaou (2000) andPaleologou and Evangelou (2003), who claim that ethnic minority children faceenormous learning and psychosocial difficulties due to the fact that they do notspeak the host language. Introducing more cooperative learning methods may be asolution to this problem, since they have been shown to decrease the performancegap between immigrant and indigenous students (see e.g. Batelaan & Van Hoof,1996)
Pupil voices
We placed high value on the pupils’ opinions. Their views were what one could haveexpected, given previous research. This section is divided into the views of indige-nous and non-indigenous pupils.
The majority of Greek-Cypriot pupils noticed that their peers were having difficul-ties with the language and consequently faced both adjustment and communicationproblems. The greatest obstacle to the development of a close social relationship wasseen as a common language. The following quotes illustrate the magnitude of theproblem:
Initially, some Greek-Cypriot pupils made fun of them. (Indigenous pupils from the 3rdand 4th grade)
They (non Greek-Cypriot) are usually annoying and we do not want them in our schoolbecause they misbehave. (5th and 6th grade)
The semi-structured interviews also pointed to racist incidents. Non-indigenouspupils were targeted mostly because of the manner in which they dressed, the finan-cial difficulties of their families and skin color. Some non-indigenous pupilsindicated that the reason they had left their previous schools was the continuous
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bullying. It is worth mentioning that pupils who came from high SES backgroundswere treated differently by both their peers and their parents.
We also encountered Greek pupils (1st and 2nd grade) who had every intention ofdeveloping better relationships with their peers but found communication difficultbecause of the language barrier. Some indigenous pupils mentioned that theyattempted alternative ways of communication in order to make their non-indigenousclassmates feel more accepted, since some of the latter tended to withdraw from therest of the school community. However, most of the native-speaking pupils said thatthey had not developed any kind of relationship with the other pupils, either duringor after school.
Non-indigenous pupils mentioned some of these issues as well. They alsomentioned language barriers. Such barriers were reported as the most importantcause of low academic performance among non-indigenous pupils. Problems adjust-ing to school and those associated with the development of friendships have beenfound to lead to learning anxieties as well as communication problems andalienation from classmates. When indigenous pupils grow up in an environment(family) that is characterized by stereotypes and biases towards things considered‘strange’, they may struggle to form their own independent and less biased identitiesand views. Such attitudes can be expressed through verbal and psychologicalbullying by indigenous group pupils as they affirm in-group solidarity by claimingsuperiority and excluding outsiders (Nikolaou, 2000, p. 235).
The following statements by non-indigenous pupils illustrate the above:
my indigenous classmates did not play with me during break time because I did notspeak Greek well; they made fun of me because I was confusing words. (3rd grade)
they made fun of me because I am Russian and I could not understand the reason. (4thgrade)
In particular, the following quote by a non-indigenous pupil sums up the situation inCyprus quite accurately:
In the beginning I was alone, I was eating on my own, had no friends. Then I startedopening a bit to my classmates … I was still embarrassed of who I was because I knewnobody in school … then I got used it.
These statements make it very clear that, even if we were to provide the appropriateeducational services to address the needs of ethnic minority pupils, we still have along way to go in terms of their psychosocial needs. Unfortunately, the presentcounseling and psychosocial support services in schools are insufficient. Educationalpsychologists are mainly occupied with special needs assessment or behavioralproblems in the limited time they spend at any given school, as they provide servicesto a number of schools at the same time.
Parent interviews
Interviewing the entire sample of non-indigenous parents was not realistic in theend, as some of them were unable to communicate, even in English, and others had
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a very irregular working schedule. Therefore, we only interviewed 17 out of the 40we initially selected. In contrast to the non-indigenous pupils, their parents seemedmore positive about their experiences in Cyprus. Parents felt that their cultural andreligious needs were being satisfied in Cyprus, a place that historically has beenfamiliar with other cultures (Turkish, British, Greeks and others). A considerablepercentage of interviewed parents (60%) felt accepted in their new environment,though some indicated that they had experienced racism.
Non-indigenous parents felt that they had integrated into Cypriot society. Withrespect to supporting their children with their school work, only 4 out of 17 parentsreported that they helped their children. This seems to point to the circumstancethat the children who face enormous difficulties following the classroom pace mightgrow to feel helpless and isolated by the whole situation, including their parents’incapacity to help them with their reading and writing. The last finding again bringsup the language issue as a serious barrier. It clearly had a negative impact on parent–teacher relations.
These findings highlight the need for the creation of an environment where ethnicminority parents become more involved in their child’s education. This would haveone immediate effect: school success. As Nikolaou (2000) has claimed, ‘if the childfeels that his/her parents value his/her progress at school and are able to estimate theimportance of schooling then their feedback can lead to school performance’(p. 280).
Greek-Cypriot parents had a different attitude towards the study and our researchsubject. First, we received consent from only 7 of the 20 parents in our sample. Themain reason given for their refusal was their busy schedule, although we offeredthem slots during both daytime and evening hours. However, those who we didinterview shed some light on the dominant perception of migrants and asylum seek-ers on the island. When parents were asked what they knew about multiculturalismin Cyprus, the first things that seemed to come to mind when they heard the word‘foreigner’ were negative, often reflecting xenophobic tendencies. They tended tocomment that the increasing numbers of migrants made them feel anxious about thefuture of the island and the effects it might have on the infrastructure of society. Tothe extent that these parents described migrants or asylum seekers, they commentedthat these people were different, with totally different cultures, attitudes, behaviorsand religious values. Most agreed that owing to their lack of knowledge about thesecommunities, they were cautious and hesitant to call some of them liars, owing toincreasing demands coming from these communities, both financial and social.
An issue that grows out of the above concepts and attitudes is the following one:‘what kind of attitude should we expect from children when they are brought up inan environment with such values and principles?’ Perhaps the answer is given byNikolaou (2000), who claims that ‘stereotypes relate to a disparaging view of specificgroups of “strangers” who, in Greek society, are usually identified as Albanians,Turks, “Arabs” and Roma’ (p. 186). He continues by stating that ‘the more andlonger a child has been exposed to the above attitudes, the more difficult is to fightand change these stereotypes which have usually been transformed into prejudice’.
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What next?
Although the problems stated by pupils and teachers regarding social inclusion andappropriate multicultural educational provision are serious ones, it would not beappropriate to claim that these exist in a similar way in all schools on the island. It isclear, however, that the views expressed by teachers and both groups of pupils showthat educational practice treats the diversity of non-indigenous pupils as a type ofdeficiency. The common belief seems to be that this deficiency needs to be treatedquickly so that children can be assimilated before they encounter even more difficul-ties with the curriculum.
It is important to ask ourselves whether we can take the risk of allowing the systemto operate in such a manner that it allows no support for these children apart fromteaching them the Greek language. Are we dealing with an ethnocentric educationalsystem as we might find in Greece (Damanakis, 1997; Paleologou, 2000)? Theanswer to this question could be ‘yes’, as many of the textbooks used in Greek-Cypriot primary schools are ethnocentric. Also, the Cypriot educational systemresembles the Greek system in many ways. The need to evaluate the current state ofmulticultural education in Cyprus is imperative in order to understand better theneeds of ethnic minorities and the majority population, and also to empower thefamilies of non-indigenous pupils to take a more active role in school matters. AsRamsey et al. (2003) claim, ‘to teach from a multicultural perspective, teachers mustsee children within their contexts. Where children have been raised; the objects,events and people that have shaped their lives’ (p. 262).
Through the findings, we also observed that these children are also in need ofpsychosocial support. Psychological support services need to be extended in order tohelp these students to overcome their emotional and social problems, caused by thevariables discussed in this paper. It is important to be proactive and educate citizenswho will be able to accept and even embrace diversity rather than create new sourcesof racism in our society. But how do we change these stereotypes in our society andhow do we raise awareness? As Cohen (1989) reported, teacher-students were nothostile to multiculturalism in their introductory year but were very ill-informedabout minority cultures and had very little exposure to minority groups. It is thus notso much a problem of hostility as an issue of ignorance. We have encountered a simi-lar situation with Cypriot teacher-students (Angelides et al., 2004) who have noexperience teaching multi-ethnic groups, although there are some schools wherenon-indigenous pupils tend to form the majority of the school population.
An important topic that was brought to our attention through this case study is theissue of bilingualism in Cypriot schools. We noticed that any kind of bilingual educa-tion is basically absent at the moment. As we discovered through the questionnaires,most teachers attempt to help non-indigenous pupils by speaking to them in English.At the time we were carrying out this case study, there were discussions of hiring ateacher who spoke both Russian and Greek. Gradually, mother tongue teachingwould decrease and would be replaced by the official language of the host country.The lack of a system that supports these pupils in their first steps in the Cypriot educa-
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tional system is damaging for society. Bilingual programs in schools such as the onewe studied here are needed for two reasons. First, because non-indigenous pupils willfeel less threatened and in fact more respected by the host country. Secondly, theimplementation of bilingual programs provides indigenous pupils with the opportu-nity to understand the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of their non-indigenous peersbetter and become more familiar with different cultures and ethnicities.
Conclusions
We can conclude from the foregoing that it is critical to listen to the views of bothteachers and pupils. Their suggestions will help improve pupil educational achieve-ment, the quality of teacher training courses, the safety of the school environmentas well as the home–school relationship. Our study leads to the following recom-mendations:
1. More reception and tutoring classes for pupils who have recently arrived inCyprus are needed. Such measures can lead to a smoother integration of non-indigenous pupils, as they can boost their confidence and better manage theirlearning. It also takes some of the burden off teachers who have to keep up withcurriculum demands.
2. Creation of multicultural ‘spaces’ within the school environment. Through suchactivities children from different cultural backgrounds will exchange informationabout their home countries. Schools will project a multicultural profile andpromote issues of equity. All pupils will be taught universal values and principlesregarding how to respect and understand different cultures, ethnic identities andreligions. Paleologou and Evangelou (2003) have argued for Greece that ‘immi-grant pupils who enter the Greek educational system at a later stage faceunequal opportunities in their studies, since their educational and culturalcapital is completely ignored or considered to be inferior’ (p. 324).
3. Teaching of the Greek language to parents as well. We came across situationswhere pupils received no support at all, while others had to translate schoolmaterials into their mother tongue in order to receive parental help because thelatter did not speak Greek. It is expected that such lessons will increase parentalinvolvement and positively influence the performance of their children. It willalso ameliorate the relationship between home and school.
4. In-service training in multicultural education. This is necessary for Cypriotteachers, so they can help pupils express their fears and concerns, increase thespeed of learning without disrupting ‘normal’ teaching routines, as well as raiseawareness among those in the teaching profession about issues of equality andsocial justice in educational practice. These seminars should have a compulsorycharacter and priority should be given to schools with high numbers of non-indigenous pupils.
Although our sample was limited in size, the findings support what Paleologou hassuggested with respect to educational and social exclusion:
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78 C. Panayiotopoulos & M. Nicolaidou
a bilingual intercultural ‘model’ in Greek schools is a matter of urgency. Such modelswill be more effective if they integrate cooperative learning as it has shown to decreasethe gap between immigrant pupils’ achievement and that of indigenous pupils. (Paleolo-gou, 2004, p.325)
In addition to the comments above, we should add the need for future researchthat would take into account all the variables currently obstructing the implicationof a true multicultural model in our education system. A useful future projectwould be to involve more schools that face similar difficulties, and explore thepossibility of a longitudinal study that would follow these pupils throughout theirschool career.
Finally, it seems necessary to evaluate carefully the Ministry’s guidelines regardingmulticultural education, since it appears that they lead towards the adaptation of anacculturation model, in which there is only concern for mother tongue teaching.There is too little emphasis on the conditions necessary for integration into the localcommunity, raising awareness and understanding different cultural, ethnic andreligious identities.
Notes
1. This section presents the official policy of the MOEC (www.cyprus.gov.cy).2. The majority of pupils come from Russia, the area of the Balkans and the wider area of
Middle East
Notes on contributors
Christos Panayiotopoulos is currently an Assistant Professor at Intercollege, Cyprusat the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law and program coordinatorfor the Social Work Program. His research interests mainly lie in the areas ofantisocial behavior in adolescents and young children, school and social exclu-sion and inclusive practices in the educational system.
Maria Nicolaidou is currently working at the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus, at theResearch Department. Her research activity is concentrated in the field ofeducational leadership and school improvement and effective teaching.
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