Panayiota Charalambous

Teachers’ emerging stances and repertoires towards reconciliation: potential and challenges in Greek‐Cypriot education

In this paper we examine Greek‐Cypriot teachers’ positions towards the – largely unfamiliar – concept of reconciliation within the Greek‐Cypriot community. Looking at a set of 40 interviews conducted in spring 2009, this study is set against the broader historical context of the continuing Cyprus Problem and the development of ethnic rivalry between the two main ethnic groups (Greek‐Cypriots and Turkish‐Cypriots). The data analysis is informed by theories from the fields of reconciliation and peace studies, and the assumption that teachers are influential in dealing with the legacy of ethnic strife and encouraging reconciliatory attitudes. The results of our analysis pointed to a polyphonic landscape, encompassing a range of diverse positions and arguments towards reconciliation, each with its own distinct ‘logic’ and underlying assumptions. These findings construct the teacher community as a largely politicised and ethnicised professional group – a group which aligns with various and often contradicting positions around the unresolved ethnic conflict, employs the different culturally available ethnic ideologies and, thus, actively partakes in the political affairs of Greek‐Cypriot society. The implications for teacher education and educational policy are discussed.

Toward a critical hermeneutical approach of human rights education: universal ideals, contextual realities and teachers’ difficulties

Abstract The present paper takes the approach of critical hermeneutics in human rights education (HRE) that has been developed theoretically and tries to operationalize it in pedagogical practice. In particular, a group of Greek-Cypriot teachers were trained in a series of workshops on how critical hermeneutical approach (CHA) could be taught in the context of HRE. The paper explores teachers’ difficulties with and perspectives of CHA during the training designed and offered by the authors. The findings show how, in addition to epistemological issues involved concerning the meaning and implications of the CHA, the particularities of the local context (ethnic conflict, pedagogic traditions, educational structures) influenced the uptake of this approach. The implications are discussed in relation to the need to identify the difficulties teachers have with specific pedagogical approaches of HRE as they become manifest contextually, and the need to design teacher training in which teachers have opportunities to reflect upon and engage with these difficulties through a critical interpretive lens.

Doing ‘Leftist propaganda’ or working towards peace? Moving Greek-Cypriot peace education struggles beyond local political complexities

This paper investigates the interference of local politics with a peace education initiative in Greek-Cypriot education and the consequent impact on teachers’ perceptions and responses. Focusing on a recent educational attempt to promote ‘peaceful coexistence’, the authors explain how this attempt was seen by many teachers as being a part of a local leftist agenda and was therefore often rejected. When though the same initiative was positioned – through a series of teacher training seminars organised by the authors – within the global field of ‘peace education’, and was grounded in humanistic ideals, the teachers appeared much more comfortable to engage with it. Taking the local political complexities into consideration, the authors argue that despite the existing thorough critiques of the humanistic discourse of peace education, a seemingly ‘neutral’ humanistic discourse of peace education can be legitimised on the basis of two arguments: first, a humanistic discourse could serve as an entry point for talking about ‘peaceful coexistence’ in schools and second, it might offer a way to overcome the strong political connotations that these concepts appear to have locally.

Human rights and the ethno—nationalist problematic through the eyes of Greek-Cypriot teachers

The present article aims to examine the interplay between the transnational discourses of human rights and the particularities of local constructions and conceptualisations of human rights within the context of an ethnically divided society, Cyprus. Specifically, this interplay is examined through a qualitative study of Greek-Cypriot primary school teachers’ understandings of human rights and human rights teaching in Greek-Cypriot schools, focusing on the tensions that seem to arise between transnational and ethno-nationalist discourses of human rights. The findings show that Greek-Cypriot teachers seem to ‘reframe’ universalist perspectives of human rights in response to local demands that foreground conflict-related violations suffered by the Greek-Cypriot community, while backgrounding human rights violations experienced by ‘others’. A few teachers, though, realize how conflict may limit understandings of human rights and project a different interpretation that acknowledges the suffering of the ‘Other’. The implications for human rights teaching are discussed, especially in the context of conflict-affected societies.

Troubling translanguaging: language ideologies, superdiversity and interethnic conflict

Abstract This paper looks at how histories of conflict and ideologies of language as a bounded entity mapped onto a homogeneous nation impact on attempts of translanguaging in the classroom in the conflict-affected context of Greek-Cypriot education. Drawing on ethnographic data from a highly diverse primary school, this study examines how nationalist understandings of language and belonging affect the ways in which a group of Turkish-speaking students of Pontian and Turkish-Bulgarian backgrounds relate to their Turkish-speakerness in classroom interaction. The findings show that, despite the multilingual and hybrid realities of this particular school, in formal educational practices Turkish-speaking students kept a low profile as to their Turkish-speakerness. Even when the teacher encouraged translanguaging practices and a public display of students’ competence in the Turkish language, this was met with inarticulateness and emotional troubles, fuelled by a fear that ‘speaking Turkish’ could be taken as ‘being Turkish’. In discussing these findings, the paper points to the impact that different overlapping histories of ethnonationalist conflict have on translanguaging practices in education; in our case by associating Turkishness with the ‘enemy group’ and socializing children within essentialist assumptions about language and national belonging. The paper argues that in this case the discourses of conflict create unfavourable ecologies for hybrid linguistic practices, which ultimately suppress creative polylingual performances.

Teachers’ pedagogical perspectives and teaching practices on human rights in Cyprus: an empirical exploration and implications for human rights education

ABSTRACT This paper describes a qualitative study that explored the understandings of human rights, pedagogical perspectives and practices in human rights teaching of three Greek-Cypriot elementary teachers. The study revealed some significant challenges in human rights teaching that seemed to be common for all three participating teachers. First, all of the teachers experienced pedagogical difficulties in defining and talking about human rights. A second challenge was that these difficulties seemed to influence both their pedagogical perspectives about the teaching of human rights and their teaching practices. And the third challenge was that the difficulties that teachers faced in preparing their lessons were also reflected in their teaching practices in four ways: the dominance of a “declarational” approach; decontextualization; the trivialization of human rights; and the retreat to familiar discourses and activities. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for teachers, teacher educators, and theory in human rights education.

Toward a Critical Hermeneutical Approach in Human Rights Education: Transformative Possibilities and the Challenges of Implementation

The present paper examines the implementation of a particular human rights education approach—known as “critical hermeneutical” approach—in the context of two Greek-Cypriot classrooms. The study investigates whether and how an intervention grounded in this approach offers transformative possibilities to students and what kind of challenges it may pose for teachers who implement it. The implications for teacher training and teacher education are discussed.

Researching an Initiative on Peaceful Coexistence in Greek-Cypriot Schools

In this chapter we examine the perceptions and emotions of Greek-Cypriot teachers regarding a recent governmental initiative that defined the development of “a culture of peaceful coexistence” between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots as a central educational objective of the 2008-2009 school year (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2008a, p. 1).