Multicultural education in Cyprus: A pot of multicultural assimilation?

Abstract

In this paper, we attempt to answer the question: "is the Cypriot educational system a melting pot of every alien civilization and a kettle of cultural assimilation that perpetuates biases, cliches, racist behaviours and cultivates the idea that the different have no place among us?" We closely examine the case of a girl from Iran in a Cypriot primary school, using naturalistic observation models of research. Through the analysis of two vignettes, we attempt to answer the question posed above. We simultaneously reflect critically on the situation of multicultural education in Cyprus, while presenting its prospects for the future.

Experiencing multiculturalism in Greek‐Cypriot primary schools

“…The Greek-Cypriot education system was unprepared for the recent demographic changes and appeared slow and reluctant to accommodate the needs of its diverse pupil body (Nicolaou, Nitsiou, and Charalambous 2007); attempts to offer multicultural education perspectives have been sporadic and isolated (Angelides, Stylianou, and Leigh 2004). The educational policies adopted by the Ministry, which include additional hours for language support, books and instructions for teaching Greek as a second language, and provision for teachers' in-service training, have been criticized as insufficient (Panayiotopoulos and Nicolaidou 2007;Partasi 2008).…”

At a crossroads of civilizations: multicultural educational provision in Cyprus through the lens of a case study

“…It is thus not so much a problem of hostility as an issue of ignorance. We have encountered a similar situation with Cypriot teacher-students (Angelides et al, 2004) who have no experience teaching multi-ethnic groups, although there are some schools where non-indigenous pupils tend to form the majority of the school population.…”

“…Although the Department of Education has introduced a series of measures that aim to promote educational and cultural awareness, existing studies (Oikonomidou, 2003;Angelides et al, 2004) claim that the Cypriot Ministry of Education 'does not seem to pay sufficient attention to teacher in-service training to adequately acquaint teachers with multicultural approaches' (Angelides et al, 2004). Fragoudaki & Dragona (1997) report that the Cypriot educational system contains many nationalistic elements.…”

“…The Cyprus educational system comes closest to the first two models, since the measures that have been put into practice by the MOEC (2004) can be categorized as 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 different cultural identities (Martidou-Forsier, 2003;Angelides et al, 2004). The paradox in this case is the fact that research around the issue of multicultural education in Cyprus is limited, and it has mainly covered attitudes of school teachers in primary and secondary schools with respect to multicultural education, despite the fact that Cyprus has been influenced by many cultures in the past.…”

“…Data were collected from teachers, pupils (indigenous and non-indigenous), as well as parents. All teachers were asked to fill in a structured questionnaire that was designed on the basis of extensive literature review and previous research that had taken place in Cyprus and Greece (Angelides et al, 2004;Paleologou & Evangelou, 2003;Martidou-Forsier, 2003) regarding the issue of multicultural education and its practical implementations. A random sample of 60 pupils (15% of the school population) across all grades were interviewed.…”