Unit:
Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy and PsychologyLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Kalogerogianni Foteini
Dissertation committee:
Φουντοπούλου Μαρία- Ζωή, Καθηγήτρια, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Παρθένης Χρήστος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Μιχάλης Αθανάσιος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Μηλίγκου Ευανθία- Έλλη, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Αγγελάκος Κωνσταντίνος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας, Ιόνιο Πανεπιστήμιο
Φρυδάκη Ευαγγελία, Καθηγήτρια, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Βέρδης Αθανάσιος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Original Title:
Διερεύνηση των παραγόντων βελτίωσης των γλωσσικών ικανοτήτων σε Ρομά μαθητές Γυμνασίου
Translated title:
Exploring factors affecting the development of language capacity of Roma pupils
Summary:
This dissertation explores the effects of educational, cultural, and social factors on the development of the reading and writing skills of students with special linguistic, social, and cultural characteristics attending High School. More specifically, based on empirical data gathered from a particular teaching practice with Roma pupils in the area of Zefiri (Attica), the research explores whether factors related to teaching material production, such as curricula and textbooks, contribute positively or negatively to students’ performance in Primary School and the first grade of High School. These factors are also examined against the students’ cultural code reproduced through their families and the practices the families employ towards the educational course and development of the children.
The paradigm of intercultural education emphasizing the development of citizen awareness in modern culturally heterogeneous societies was used as theoretical background. The model was applied in a Modern Greek Language course the researcher taught in the framework of a teaching intervention within a tutoring program aimed at offering additional academic support to the students. The multi-factor approach of the issue of language skills acquisition by this group of students possessing special linguistic and cultural characteristics is an essential element of this research.
The research is based on a mixed methodological approach including various research tools such as participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and a language knowledge and skills test. This approach aims at revealing the dynamic interaction of those factors affecting positively or negatively language learning and, consequently, the acquisition of language proficiency as it is reflected in a diagnostic test given to both the group of students participating in the program (experimental group) and to a control group (random sample of students in the same class) at the beginning and at the end of the course.
The utilization of the intercultural approach theoretical background emphasizing the development of citizen identity in the framework of the teaching intervention, as well as the processing of the collected data question some of the traditional interpretations pertaining to the inability of students of Roma background to acquire linguistic proficiency. On the contrary, the results focus on the learning difficulties students face regardless of individual special needs and the ways these issues can be resolved through the enhancement of knowledge and abilities the students already possess.
As it was revealed in the study, student performance improvement in the language course depends on factors pertaining to the students’ conduct and attitude towards school, including their families’ attitude and the practices they employ to help students respond adequately to school requirements. However, the school environment itself contributes to the formation of these attitudes. This contribution takes place both at an institutional level through analytical programs and school teaching materials which avoid student marginalization by not attributing their lack of skills to their cultural background and identity, and at the school unit level – the reaction of the school principal and of the teachers to student behavior that is considered problematic from an institutional point of view.
Finally, a significant parameter in the formulation of students’ attitudes towards school as an institution is the students’ cultural code and the subsequent influence of their families through conventional or unconventional practices in reaction to school institutional practices.
The school and family supporting environment and the intercultural educational approach emphasizing citizen identity contribute to the development of a positive student attitude towards education. They also contribute to students’ improvement in their effort to acquire the necessary language skills to handle various communication situations as well as to obtain language proficiency at a level comparable to the one of their non-Roma schoolmates
Main subject category:
Education - Sport science
Keywords:
Roma, diversity, intercultural education, citizenship, language skills, language proficiency
Number of references:
247
