Abstracts

Πολιτισμική ετερότητα, διδακτική προσέγγιση και λογοτεχνία: στάσιες και δράσεις εκπαιδευτικών

by Vasiliki Resvani

Modern societies are now multicultural, and the school should be a place where foreign students feel accepted. A teacher in his class is constantly called upon to deal with phenomena of otherness. For this reason, research, and study of both ways of approaching and accepting otherness is required. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation was to study: a) teachers' views on cultural diversity, b) the teaching strategies they follow in order to approach and integrate the foreign student and c) their use of literature with references to diversity in their teaching. Teachers' views on diversity and their influence on the educational process have been studied in previous research (e.g., Byran & Atwater, 2002; Dedeoğlu et al., 2011; Garmon, 2004; Hachfeld et al., 2011; Kyles & Olafson, 2016).For the purposes of the study underlying this dissertation, an array of research scales was created on teachers' views on cultural diversity and the good practices they follow. The method used was mixed quantitative and qualitative with occasional simple random sampling for quantitative internet research. At the same time, their use of literature in the approach of cultural diversity was investigated. The research involved 399 primary school teachers who taught in public Greek schools. The results of the research showed high levels of multicultural beliefs and sensitivity on the part of teachers. Teachers also said they were willing to use literature with references to diversity to talk about cultural diversity in their classrooms. However, the results disclosed that the same teachers stated that they did not feel sufficiently equipped and did not know how to talk about cultural diversity in their classrooms.After analyzing the research part of the dissertation and drawing suggestions of good practices from the answers of the research teachers, teaching scenarios were proposed that included as their main methodological tool Contemporary Greek literature with references of and/or to otherness. These were simple didactic interventions, which were extensions (small projects of two to ten teaching hours) and could be combined with selected courses of the curriculum for the three levels (1st and 2nd grades, 3rd and 4th grades, 5th and 6th grades) of the primary school. The aforementioned the scenarios have a specific structure and can be used by the classroom teacher during hours of innovative activities. Finally, four experiential training seminars were held for 71teachers who served in 6 public Primary Schools of the Achaia Directorate of Primary Education and volunteered to participate. In addition, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, one seminar took place using ZOOM online conferencing and distant education technologies. The seminars presented the scenarios for otherness through literature. The teachers collaborated and created their own scripts from excerpts (which they chose at random) from the proposed literary texts of the children’s author, Mr. Manos Kontoleon. In conclusion, the findings of this dissertation highlight the need for…