Session Information
23 SES 10 B, Education Policy and Curriculum Formation
Paper Session
Contribution
In Greece, a transition of the educational system from absolute centralism to a pattern of decentralized management is being attempted, in which every school unit will have to modulate certain pedagogic aims and ways adapted to its conditions. In this framework we will study the relative viewpoints of collective educational councils of every school for the name of the school unit, its value, usefulness and importance, in the case of the city of Rhodes.
Current research (Anyon, 2005. Kodakos & Kiousi, 2009.Franklin, 2010) underlines the importance of the decentralized operation of the school unit and the modulation of a distinct face as factors of effectiveness of the educational work in many ways. This decentralized function, however, should be combined with the wider utilization of the social, geographical, cultural and other specific conditions in order to establish the educational process and the role of school in the system of values of the local society and the city life (McClafferty, Mitchell & Torres, 2000. Kopetz, Lease & Warren-Kring, 2005. Payzant, 2010).
In this direction, a method of naming was attempted to start in Greece in 2008 in order to replace the method of simple numbering of public schools (1st, 2nd … 30th) or, in certain circumstances, the choice of benefactors' names that is of important people who donated buildings or money for the building of the school unit.
The naming of school units comprises a clear indication of how the school understands its relation to the local community and vice versa, since its name is an identity element which is related, reflects or manifests its culture within the relationship of the school and its graduates with the town and vice versa (Kalabasis, 2009). As seen from the contemporary educational-legal framework, the naming of school units, which underlies in specific criteria, comprises a current target. As it is observed, the recent attempt in 2008 did not succeed. It seems that the negative in-school climate as well as certain out-school interventions during the procedure by local notables have played a role for this result, as it can be inferred by interviews with the headmasters of the schools. The emancipation failure of the school unit and the disengagement from the wider subjection of its philosophy of function within a grid of cliental relations with intense party intervention lead to its disconnection from its social orientation and its attachment to individual and self-interested expedience. The relation between the Greek school and the city where it is located, put in and functions seems to be a relation of “two strangers in the same city”, although it was supposed to be a relation characterized by terms of mutual collaboration (Johnson, Finn & Lewis, 2005). It is obvious that these terms can be modulated by the institutional framework, the aims of the local society, the viewpoints, the attitude and the behavior that are taken up by the members of the educational community, namely the students, the educators, the parents and the citizens with their representatives.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Anyon, Z. (2005). Radical Possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement. USA: Routledge. Franklin, B.M. (2010). Curriculum, community, and urban school reform. USA: Palgrave Macmillan. Johnson, L., Finn, M.E. & Lewis, R. (2005). Urban Education with an attitude. USA: State University of New York Press. Kalabasis, F. (2009). Two thoughts for the complexity in education. In A. Kontakos & F. Kalabasis (eds.), Issues in Educational Design 2, Athens: Atrapos (pp. 13-25). Kontakos, A. & Kiousi, S. (2009). School culture and legislation in Greek educational system. In A. Kontakos & F. Kalabasis (eds.), Issues in Educational Design 2, Athens: Atrapos (pp. 36-48). Kopetz, P. B., Lease, A. & Warren-Kring, B. (2005). Comprehensive urban education. USA: Allyn & Bacon. McClafferty, K.A., Mitchell, T.R. & Torres, C.A. (2000). Challenges of urban education: Sociological perspectives for the next century. USA: State University of New York Press. Payzant, T. (2010). Urban school leadership. USA: Jossey – Bass. Steinberg, S.R. (ed.). (2010). 19 Urban Questions. USA: Peter Lang. The MAC Phoundation (2010). Thoughts & Lamentations of Urban Education. USA: Lulu.com.
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