The Question of Minorities: Adaptation Strategies of the Greek National Education System and Inter-European Comparisons

Anna M. Koumandaraki¹, Dimitris G. Magriplis² 
(1.Greek Open University; 2. University of the Peloponnese)

Abstract: The paper aims to analyze the effects of teacher/pupil interaction in multicultural school settings. Its main presumption is that the teacher’s positive attitude towards cultural minorities has a positive impact and makes the children who belong to minorities more easily incorporated into their peers of the majority. The paper examines the attitudes of students in the University of the Aegean who are future nursery school instructors towards foreigners in schools. More specifically, the paper analyses the impact of a university course on “Education and Minorities” of which these students were members during the years 2002–2003. A survey was conducted concerning this group. The findings concerning the ethno-racial subsets’ better adaptation to the nursery school social environment will be presented. The paper’s additional aim is to discuss the different national policies towards national subcategories in three different European countries: France, Germany, and Greece. Here the different notions of the term “nation” and “national culture” are to be compared.

Key words: multiculturalism, education, national identity, minority rights