In this article, we present insights from an ethnographic research that investigated the concept of citizenship in primary schools in Greece. We explored children's experiences of citizenship in school approaching citizenship as a set of habits that prescribe what is considered 'legitimate' in the public sphere. We focused on structures and agents inside and outside the school classroom and the way they may interfere with pedagogical practices and relationships. This work reveals a vicious circle of asymmetrical relationships and hierarchical structures between the society and the school that entrap teachers in assessment oriented pedagogical practices. We argue that the emergent loyalty of the educational system to traditional pedagogical approaches premised on competition fosters pupils' incomprehension of the importance of social solidarity. It also contributes to their withdrawal from the public sphere, undermining the transformative potential of education. With the use of a diverse sample, we highlight the shortcomings of the integrated curriculum introduced in 2001, in successfully promoting critical thinking and participatory learner-centred pedagogy, and we discuss the implications for the transformative potential of education arising from the adherence to the implementation of European education policy that is discerned in the text of the newly introduced Curriculum of the 'σew School'.
This article reports on an ethnographic multiple case study in Greece. It explores teachers’ practices regarding the education of critically thinking citizens ten years into the implementation of an integrated curriculum reform. By means of classroom observations and semi-structured interviews this research explored the role of critical thinking in the classrooms. Findings suggest that teachers refrain from practices that advance critical thinking skills and pupils’ empowerment. Instead they tend to implement traditional practices, while their work is largely determined by the standards of achievement set by University Entrance Exams and parents’ aspirations. The article concludes that prevailing expectations in the Greek primary school interfere with the development of pedagogical relationships that would promote critical thinking obstructing the attainment of the aims of the integrated curriculum reform and compromising the project for democratic citizenship.
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